FALL TEXAS TRIP: Day 5

We picked up the children this morning and headed on over to Sunshine Community Church to meet Jesse and to worship together. This is the clear BLUE sky of our morning ... see the mountains? Aren't they beautiful?

We forced the kiddos to gather by Jesse for a photo op ... I usually hate posed pictures because they look so ... fake! But this didn't turn out too badly I guess. To the right of Jesse (behind the boys) is the sound board that Jesse controls during the singing and praising part of the worship service. He really enjoys being there. We met a lot of other folk who think highly of Jesse, who work alongside of him ~ it's nice to put faces with the names that Jesse talks about.

The children are dismissed from the worship service to their separate classes after the first two songs. Matthew and Christopher got to be in a classroom together this morning. I took Emma down to the second grade room and when we entered it, there were three other students ~ ALL of them boys ... and a very nice teacher. But Emma hadn't ever met any of them before and looked a lot less than happy about being left there. So I stayed too. And a little bit later, another small girl joined us with a name I have never heard in my life. I had to have her write it down for me because I could NOT figure out what she was saying. Her name was Monserey. We had a real nice time in class together. Our first "project" was to write a HAPPY sentence and then draw a picture to go with it ... we were supposed to think of something we were thankful about. So I wrote: "I'm happy I got to go to Texas!" and then I drew some mountains, a long winding road, and a blue van (which was pathetic looking in my picture). Emma's sentence was: "I got to play with my grandma!" She drew a picture of her and me playing checkers. We got to share our pictures with the others in the class and talk about being thankful for the good things God gives us. I was very thankful to be at church with my grandchildren!

This afternoon we did a lot of repeat stuff together. It was a pretty HOT day and we decided to just relax and enjoy being together. Here are a few more pictures ...

We got out a bunch of drawing supplies from my art crate and made beautiful pictures!

Christopher takes such delight in drawing dragons, dinosaurs and sharks ... here if a very good dragon he drew while looking at a picture in one of my art books.

I love this picture of Matthew. He fully participates in whatever we are doing. I used to kind of wonder WHERE Matthew was sometimes ... he seemed a little bit in a world of his own ~ but not so much anymore. He is an active force to be reckoned with sometimes. He really enjoys games, puzzles, drawing ... and puts everything he has into a project.

Well ... the day went by too quickly (again), but we still have quite a few left in El Paso. Tomorrow is Labor Day. We are going to try to take advantage of the water park over at Biggs Airfield in the afternoon. I'll try to put up more pictures tomorrow evening.