Jamestown and Yorktown

The week before Christmas we spent a couple of days in the Williamsburg area with Doc and Nana, who flew in to do some sight seeing and spend Christmas with us.  We had a great time over there and we tried to do as much as we could in the short time we were there.  We didn't take the boys to colonial Williamsburg  because we thought they would not get to much out of it.  But we walked around the downtown area and looked in some of the shops.  We also spent an evening at The Busch Gardens Christmas Town and went to Jamestown Island and the Yorktown battlefield.  This post will just have pictures of Jamestown and Yorktown and there will be a second post with pictures of Busch Gardens and Williamsburg. There was so much history and the adults tried to absorb as much as we could with the little boys urging us on our way. 

Walking into the fort area.  There was a big monument there.

Simon took a little rest on the monument. 

At the beginning of our day the boys were willing to stop and pose for a little while. 

Nana and I with Pocahontas.

Daddy and his boys by the palisade-style fence.

Old Church with burial ground. 

Replica of barracks in the fort.

The boys can never resist playing with the cannons.

Doc and Troy posing with Captain John Smith.

This street is named Back Street.  We said they were the Back Street boys.  

This is the road we took to get to where the residential area was.

This was the Ambler house built by the Ambler family in 1750.  It was burned in two wars and then after a fire in 1895 it was abandoned.  It was the structure with the most still standing but it was probably the newest structure too.

An interesting tree. 

The boys liked to climb on the ruins...probably shouldn't have let them but it gave them something to do.

When Simon got tired of walking he got to ride "up top" and boss Dad around.

After walking around there we drove up to the Glass House to watch them do the old fashion glass blowing.  It was very interesting to watch and they made a lot of beautiful things.

A glass blower working on his piece. 

Starting on a new piece.

All the pretty glass.  Beautiful colors and some fun and functional pieces.

After the Glass House we drove over to Yorktown and visited the museum there and the battlefield.  

 There was a children's area that looked like part of a ship and it had a interactive exhibit there that talked about the battle.

 The canon on board the ship was "fired" repeatedly at the enemy.

More cannons on the battlefield.

"Over the ramparts we watched..."

The highlight of their time at Jamestown and Yorktown was getting to play with the cannons.

Josh's Baptism

At the end of May, Joshua made the decision to ask God to be the Lord of his life.  It was such a precious experience.  To be able to lead your child through the best decision of his life.  Since we were going to be back in Texas we thought it would be so awesome to see if we could do Josh's baptism at our home church.  We really miss our church family and they have been such a big part of our lives and in the spiritual seed planting in our boys hearts.  So we arranged everything with Pastor Chris and had a laid back baptism on Sunday, July 17th.  We had it in the evening and lots of family came to celebrate with us.  I'm so proud of my Joshie.

 Here we are with Pastor Chris before the baptism.

He was so calm and ready.  Sweet boy.

Coming out and being helped by Dad.

Happy boy.

Celebrating at Ben and Jerry's.

Issac and Melinda.

Troy and Nana.

PawPaw and Simon

County Fair VBS

Joshua and Caleb attended Vacation Bible School (VBS) at a Baptist church here in town and the theme was the county fair and learning about the fruits of the spirit.  We were given a c.d. of the music to listen to and we had ours on in the van whenever we were in it.  The music is fun and upbeat and the kids liked to sing along with it.  Which is the point of course.  They had a fun week and I am glad that they were able to go.

There were three different dress up nights but we only participated on one night. Animal night. We used something we already had...bunny ears. 

This is the last night of VBS and the children sang the songs that they had learned for all the parents.  Josh is right in the middle in the picture but later he moved to the right.  Right if you are looking at the stage.

The incoming Kindergartners were able to join in for the 1st 3 songs.  Caleb was very enthusiastic through the whole program.  

They did sign language to some of the songs and it was fun to watch Josh participate.

 After the program we had ice cream with everyone.  It was so cool to hear how excited Josh was to tell us about the bible stories that he had learned each night.  I love how new and fresh it all is to him and I pray that God would give me a fresh and new look everyday.