The Spence Jouney, Part 3 (Finale)

The last part of our trip East included a week at the beach. For the past 8 years, my parents have provided a beach house for the Sauder family to enjoy a week at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Here are some of the many things we enjoy doing while we're together this year:
biking
walking around and gawking at all the amazing houses nearby
swimming in the community pool
building sand castles
digging sand pits
jumping in the waves
eating lots of good food
piling into my brother's Suburban
watching HGTV
playing the Wii
going on amusement park rides
taking family pictures
playing games

Here are some pictures to show some of the fun:

My 2 brothers are in the back row with Brad and me. My mom got the girls matching dresses. Aren't they cute?

Noelle and her cousin, Kalysta

The Spence Journey, Part 2

After attending my cousin's wedding, I got to spend some time with 2 college buddies and their families. We spent a great afternoon and evening boating on a nearby lake. Noelle made some good friends with my friends' kids.



After a week of being on my own with the girls, Brad drove out to VA to join us for the 2nd half of our adventure. He got to enjoy a morning hiking with his brother and dad.
I should know that any picture of the Spence brothers will involve them hanging, sitting or jumping from perilous heights. I'm always thankful when they return in one piece.

Back to Northern KY

We'll I've been out-of-town for over 2 weeks and I'm slowly getting the house and kids back to normal. I had several fun adventures while I was gone so rather then rambling for pages and pages, I'll make several small posts over the next few days.


The girls and I started the trip on our own with a flight to Virginia. We only spent 2 days visiting my family and Brad's family before heading to Pennsylvania for my cousin's wedding. It was an outdoor wedding next to a pond. Doesn't this look like an ideal place to get married?

Here is my cousin, Laura, with her new husband and my brother (far left) who married them. My brother is a youth pastor and did a marvolous job giving a thoughtful and personable message for the service.

The 'Journey of the Spence's' will pick up here at a later blog....

Noelle's Growing Up

Since Noelle's last day of preschool we got her a haircut. Instead of making her look like a little girl again, it made her look like a more sophisticated...I guess she really is growing up.

I made a bold move at a garage sale last weekend. Usually I keep my purchases to kid clothes and toys. On this particular Saturday I got bold and bought an adorable desk for Noelle. Here she is testing it out.

Here's a recent deep thought from Noelle (another indication that she's growing up). We were listening to the Veggie Tales sing called "God Made You Special" and chorus goes like this:
He thought it all over
He made me just right
I make Him happy
I am His delight...

Noelle asks "Mom, God didn't really have to "think it all over" did He?"
I was surprised by her insight and said "Well not really. God knows instantly what is best, so he didn't really have to think about how to make you "just right"."

All-American Kids

In general, I don't like to shop. That's probably why my kids have never been to the mall (I think I took Noelle once when she was about 1 1/2). Last week I decided to take the girls to the mall to look for a dress and purse for me.

I had Noelle bring a backpack of activities for Sadie so Noelle could "babysit" her in the stroller and then I had 2 treats planned out. Since they've never been to the mall, they didn't know there was a play area in the middle. After about 1 hour of shopping I took them down the glass elevator and let them each throw a penny into the fountain around the base of the elevator. Noelle and Sadie really got a kick out of that and Noelle asked if that was the surprise. I was pleased to announce that I wasn't that lame, and I walked them over to the play area. They were ecstatic! They happily played for a long time.

Then we moved on to some more shopping. After another 45 minutes I announced our second treat was next on the agenda. We went to the food court and stood in front of Dairy Queen. I bent down and asked Noelle "What do you think about having ice cream for lunch? Just ice cream?" She looked at me confused...like I was asking a trick question...and hesitantly said "I think we should have something else first." I delightfully answered "No, we're going to have just ice cream for lunch!" Noelle really was unsure about this (or maybe it was my sanity she wasn't sure about) because she said several time "I don't know mom, I think we need something else."

After Noelle came around we all indulged in a Chocolate Raspberry Blizzard for lunch. We went home happy. I didn't buy a thing...which won't surprise anyone whose ever shopped with me before. When we left we all had smiles on our faces and my kids are a little more Americanize having spent the morning at the mall with Mom, playing at a germ invested playland, and eating junk for lunch.