Monday at the Zoo

Last week Vince and I spent our day off at the San Diego Zoo, and the next day my legs were incredibly tired from all the walking....up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill. The zoo, though, was a lot of fun. We saw some incredible animals, watched a bird show, saw hippos kissing, took a guided zoo tour, rode the overhead gondolas and walked through the zoo's new Elephant Odyssey exhibit.

Among the cutest animals we saw that day were definitely the hippos (my camera died before we got to them) and then these guys - the koalas and the panda bears, both of which were napping! The San Diego Zoo just had a new baby boy panda born this summer, he isn't out in the panda habitat yet until he grows a little more, I can't wait to go back and see him - who doesn't love a baby panda?

Homes of Hope

Jesus brought us to Ensenada early Friday morning.... no, really, Jesus brought us on his bus.

Once we arrived we unpacked at the YWAM compound and found our rooms - we girls got a great view of the ocean from our bedroom window.

Our church brought down 21 people, ranging from 8 years old to....well, we'll just say grandparent age! Men, women, youth and children all of us with the objective to build a home for a family in Ensenada. Some of us were mechanically inclined, several were construction experts, but most of us were amateurs, or worse!

Then, it was off to the job sight where we met the family that we would be building a home for. They were wonderful, I fell in love with the girls and their cousins by the end of the weekend!

Unfortunately, the first day I did not take many pictures of the construction process because I was busy with a hammer most of the day. I was able to help build the framing, put up the siding and install the drywall - oh, and did I mention I got to operate the gun/hammer that shot nails into the cement foundation? It was pretty fun, I had to install at .22 cartridge and then BANG shoot it off into the foundation... Hopefully I will get some pictures of the house going up from Dick Johnson who was our official photographer for the trip.

The second day, 5 of us from the team put on a toned down version of a VBS on the side of the road next to the job sight. We had crafts, face painting, games, food, puppet shows and best of all, a pinata!

We weren't sure how many kids would show up, but within minutes of setting up we had dozens and dozens of children racing over to us. Final count was upwards of 50 kids!

By the end of the second day, we had a completed house. This is the 42nd home that our church has had the opportunity to build with Homes of Hope in Ensenada - the first for Vince and I, and we can't wait to go back again.

Back from Mexico

2 days later, one house built, 50 children fed and played with - and we are back home in San Diego. We had an amazing trip down in Ensendada. The first day I helped frame the house, put on the siding and the drywall and the second day I played with all the neighborhood children while the rest of the team finished the roof and the finishing touches. I was amazed at how fast a team of people can accomplish an entire house when we are all working together. It was a blessing to be able to partner with our Father as he provided for his children! 

Now, I'm off to bed, hopefully to sleep off whatever little bug I picked up while we were gone (nothing serious - just a bad cold/sour throat/cough thing). Tomorrow I'll see about loading all my photos and writing a new blog posting to show you all - I got tons of fun pictures with all the beautiful and hilarious children, oh, and pictures of the house! See you all tomorrow then. Goodnight. 

Off to Mexico for the weekend. We are building a house with our church - this will be our 42nd house! I'll update you all first thing next week - hopefully with some pictures if the family and their new home.

The Girls... and Joel

Living in California I don't get to see my family as much as I would like - so I was very excited when my little sisters, Anna and April, let me know that they were going to be in the LA area for a girls conference.

So, friday morning I drove up from San Diego to meet them at Huntington Beach.

From the beach we headed over to a shopping mall to meet up with Joel and Emily for an afternoon of goofing off... we ate, we laughed, we ate some more and even rode a carousel... if only we all lived a bit closer!

Gift Card Giver

Card Me. The Story. from Gift Card Giver on Vimeo.