SWEET SURPRISE!

A little over 2 weeks ago, Natalie decided to plan a surprise trip home for some rest and fun. To accomplish this, she enlisted the help of her best friend (a.k.a. Amber). This would prove to be a little more difficult than anticipated, but turned out to be such a sweet surprise for both her daddy and me. The Reader's Digest version of the story is...Natalie worked into JFK on Sunday (from somewhere, I can't remember...) and hopped in a taxi to make her flight out of La Guardia hoping to be in Little Rock by early evening. With summer travelers, weather and mechanical difficulties, this proved to be a bit of a challenge. She got a flight through Cincinnati, but a cancelled flight this direction gave her a night in the Cincinnati airport. All of this time, Amber is trying to make herself scarce around us so that nothing will slip and she can get to the airport and back with Natalie. Monday morning, Natalie arrives, Amber gets her at the airport, then calls me to meet her at work. I could tell by her voice that it would do no good to ask questions, so I met her. I pull in and she comes bopping out of the office with someone following. A tree obstructed my view at first, but it was only seconds until I could see that it was Natalie. They had done it...a surprise! Well, one more day of secrets because Ron was out of town and wouldn't be home until the next morning. When he arrived home a little before 7 on Tuesday morning, we all three came out to meet him and he was equally surprised. What fun! So, a few days of play and some must do tasks...

...relaxation...

...and play...The dog enjoy the play time at least as much as we do. When someone is swimming laps, it is a race from one end to the other. They can see the race about to begin and can hardly stand it!
Mollee is a bit older, so she follows, but doesn't race! But Miles, on the other hand, takes the competition seriously!

We have enjoyed every phase of growth with our girls and now to see them as adults and the hearts of love and compassion that the Lord has developed within them, is such a blessing to us and hopefully to others as well!

This week is proving to be a busy week, with an album finished and submitted yesterday to make it through approval before the Kubota Klan leaves for their mission trip. You can read about it in Kevin's blog.

Tomorrow morning we get to meet the father of our July 4th bride for pictures with his wife. We are excited about this session, as always, because we have some super fun plans for these 2...

Then Friday is the big 4th of July wedding and celebration for Ashlie & Jonathan. It doesn't seem like it has been almost a full year since they contacted us about this exciting day! The 4th of July holds many special memories for these 2. That is the basis of their choice of days for this wonderful event! More to come from the events with this family in the coming blogs!