CAVEALIOUS camp

mark has been super busy this month with work and attending summer camps with our church. we love that he can go and minister to the kids and teenagers in our church and make amazing videos to remember the week, but we (his family) really miss him while he is gone. he misses us too, so about 2 weeks ago we made a short trip (45 minutes south of dallas) to children's camp in cedar hill, tx for an evening. olivia LOVED every minute of seeing her daddy, riding the golf cart, singing, dancing, and watching daddy lead the kids in worship. so when daddy left this time for youth camp, she started asking when she would get to go to camp again. youth camp is a bit farther away in brownwood, tx (about 3.5 hours away in west texas) so we opted for an overnight trip this time. on wednesday afternoon we headed west and made it to howard payne university in brownwood around 4:00. i was thinking olivia might nap in the car, but she was too excited and just talked the entire way!! as we turned onto the campus olivia spotted mark, who was outside waiting for us, and started screaming "daddy! daddy! we are here! we are here!" i don't know who was happier mark or olivia. (i was happy too, but i was missing jack already. he was at home with nana.) we unloaded and took a short look around camp before heading to dinner.

olivia and i at dinner. both so happy to sharing a meal with daddy!

after dinner we went to worship, square dance, and then finally to bed around 10:30 pm.

olivia and daddy at the square dance. o was having tons of fun, but as you can see she is VERY tired and ready for bed.

the next morning we went to meet mark's family group, team pre-historic, i.e. cavepeople. (every family group was named after ancient civilizations- random i know). they had bible study and then headed out to the rec fields for games. to show their team spirit the family group wore costumes, fred flinstone shirts for the guys and animal print for the girls. sweet nicole, mark's co-leader, made an outfit for olivia. it was the cutest thing and nicole amazed me by putting it together in about 2.3 minutes. olivia had so much fun during rec. she followed her daddy around, rode on his shoulders, and cheered his team on!! her favorite cheer was "C to the A to the V-E-M-A-N, we're CAVEMAN, we're CAVEALIOUS!" so funny to hear her sing/chat it.

o and dady at rec. daddy in his flinstone shirt and o in her animal print. the pic doesn't really show how cute o's outfit was.

this picture shows just how much fun o was having.

sadly our time was up, we had to say bye to daddy, get back in the car, and head to dallas to pick up jack! olivia talked about camp the entire way home (no nap again!).

as i am writing and reflecting on this experience, i am realizing how blessed i am. i have a husband who uses his gifts to serve the lord, a little girl who gets to witness this and who ADORES her daddy, a sweet mom who will gladly watch jack so we can make fun trips like this one, and a flexible 9 week old who loves being anywhere he is loved. god is so good to me.