Fun summer pics

Yummy watermelon!!!!!!!

Patty heard running water up stairs and found shorty in the boys bathroom.


Dad's little helpers

Oops!! Matthew!!!

Patty and her helper


The 100 degree days called for water, so the country kids found a solution. They asked dad if they could use a water trough that wasn't being used. He agreed and they set off to haul it home. This is the first one they came home with. You see its pretty close quarters for 6-7 wanting to cool off. They used this for a day with Joy in control. She had scheduled times for each one to play in the trough while everyone else was playing with the scooters.

Dad suggested another trough. They liked this one much better. Still small but compared to the other one its much roomier.

Twins and twin horned toads:)

Joshua making a salad with his helper.
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Trek

Roy and I and another couple took 10 youth from House of Faith in Ballinger on Trek in the Pecos Wilderness, north of Sante Fe, New Mexico. We had a great group of guys and gals. Roy and Tony have taken our two families older children and a few others the last three years. This year Tony wanted to take a group from House of Faith and since we had guys and gals the men asked us ladies to go along as female chaperone's.
Everyone endured and pressed on even when the going got tough. We had to deviate from our plans several times along the way as there were fires in the area. Over all it was a great trip and the group of youth we took were great. They encouraged each other along the way, stood by each other when the going got tough, learned they had more in them than they thought they did, and saw some beautiful country!!!! God's amazing creation!!!!!


Getting ready to hit the trail.


And we're off.

One of our fearless leaders


Good lookin group of Trekers, everyone carries about 25% of their body weight

Filtering water in the cold Pecos river

First campsite. We met a group of 3 men who interestingly were from San Angelo. They were camped about a mile away from us and one evening they said they saw about a 400 lb. bear. Although it got everyone's attention and the boys really wanted to see it we never did.



Day hiking, we got off our trail and missed our peak, but had a great day.







Does anyone see a trail around here?????

Filtering water in this little stream. We were really glad we found it, as several of us were out of water.

Little buck we saw on our day hike.

On the trail again!!!


Pecos falls, spectacular!!!! Just as we arrived at Pecos Falls and were ready to get camp set up a park ranger came up and told us we needed to be out of the wilderness area by 8 the next morning. We were about 8 or 9 miles back and felt like there was no way. The guys looked at the map and after we filtered water and took some pictures we hit the trail again. We hiked another 4 miles that day and found a place to camp.



We saw these beautiful lillies along all the trails.


Our last nights camp site.



This is picture the last night we were there. You can see the smoke in the background.

Ensemble performers!!

Annie, Joshua, Joy, and Jimmie played on an ensemble team this summer. It is really quite amazing. Joy and Jimmie played with a group of 9 other children. They played a piece call The Spy. They were all decked out in black with sun glasses and colorful hats. Joshua played a piece with a group of about 12 other Jr. high students. Their piece was called Rhapsody Grandioso and it was grand. The all wore black and white with red accents. Annie played on a high school team and they had 9 on their team. Their piece was an arrangement from Carmen. Fabulous!!!!

Playing at the hotel.

Much concentration.

More pool time with a friend

Look mom we braided out hair together.:)

Concentrating in the practice lab.



J,J, and J really enjoyed having Annie around!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, everyone enjoyed having Annie around.

The pool had water shooting into the pool and everyone had fun with the water spouts as you see Jimmie appearing to drink the shooting water.:)