Jersey Shore Summer Mission: Week with Mimi

 Praise the Lord for this woman! She offered to fly out to NJ to help watch the boys so I could be in our staff meetings! Thankfully the boys did really well for her. She served our family for 8 days, helping with the boys, meals, around the house, and even letting Tim and I sneak in a date or two. We were so sad when she had to leave:(  

 Tim had a lot more meetings than I did, so I was able to join Mimi and the boys at the beach for lots of fun!  

 With Mimi around, I got to be in a picture or two!!

 Fun in the sand. 

 Even though it was chilly, we spent so much of our time on the beach. The boys didn't mind the cold water one bit! It felt like an ice bath to me. Brrrr!!

 Craft time with Mimi! So creative! 

 Mimes took us out for ice cream on the Boardwalk and a couple games in the arcade! 

 We discovered an old park with some machinery parked nearby. Maybe not the safest to play on but wow did it hold the boy's attention:) 

 One day when I was in meetings, Bev took to the boys to the beach. They struck up a conversation with a fisherman and when he got a fish on his line he let the boys help reel it in!

Thank you Mimi!! We love you!

Jersey Shore Summer Mission: 1st Days

 Our home for the summer! Not bad! We are about 6 houses away from the ocean to the right and 2 blocks from the bay to the left.

 Our first week or two had some very cold days!

 For dinner the first night we stopped at a restaurant on the boardwalk and the boys got pizza. It's SO BIG!! 

 Although we are at the ocean we still made time for Legos and a little school:)

 It is so beautiful here! It is so refreshing to stand in front of the ocean and be reminded of how BIG God is and how small I am. 

 Hunting for shells. Notice that we have acres of beach all to ourselves! That didn't last long but it sure was fun for a while:)

 We live on G street and cross this boardwalk to get to the ocean. It goes about a mile to the south and a mile and a half to the north. I've had some fun runs up and down the boardwalk! 

 Exploring and making friends:) 

Tim had lots of meeting the first couple of days so the boys and I just spent our days exploring the beach and boardwalk. So much room to roam and run and play!

Jersey Shore Summer Mission: Road Trip

Packing for 7 weeks. Ugh! I was so relieved when we were all packed in the van:)

1600 miles to go! These boys are ROCK STARS on the road!

 One of my friends made these super cute velcro guys for the boys. They could put tons of different outfits and uniforms on their guy. This took up hours of our trip! 

 Just a classic Cooper day. Snowing out and shirt is off:) 

 The rested once in a while. But mostly they played, colored, listened to audio books and playing on their kindles.

Lot of time to sing-a-long to our faves. You can tell from this video who was tired. (Or maybe just tired of mom's phone/camera/videos)

 What is a road trip without coffee and TONS OF SNACKS??!! 

We left on a Friday and went 5 hours to Stillwater, MN. Then on Saturday we got up early and drove until about 11pm through WI, IL, IN and almost all the way through OH. Sunday we just had PA (which is a beast) and then into NJ!

Mother's Day

These boys! I just LOVE being their mom. What a privilege and joy! They made my day so special with all sort of pictures and gifts. Of course I credit Tim and their teachers for helping them! We had a nice day...went to church, relaxed, visited the unborn child memorial site and spent time praying as a family and remembering Nehemiah, then got Qdoba take out and played football at the park! 

 One of my favorite gifts was this assortment of pencils from Cooper. Half of them were used and had teeth marks but how sweet that he gave them all to me:):)?!

And how sweet is this?? My brother sent me, my sister and mom flowers??!! He is such a thoughtful guy!