blazing sun, no air conditioning, loud music, amazing high school students = CIY

Well Ella and I had our first little adventure last week! We traveled 5 hours up to Holland Michigan to go with the high schoolers to CIY. For those of you that don't know what that is, CIY, or Christ in Youth is a week long church conference where students have the chance to be a part of amazing worship, go to classes and listen to very powerful speakers.

This year CIY focused a lot on the persecuted church and we got to watch a video called Love Costs Everything. This was such an eye opening film for both sponsors and students. It gave us an up close look at what our Brothers and Sisters all over the world go through in order to worship Jesus. The students were immediately impacted by the scenes on the movie which consisted of eye witness testimonies and real live footage of people being beaten and killed. The true depth of what they had seen didn't sink in until a few days later when they were able to process what they had watched. It was so amazing to watch them react to the information they had been given. To watch them get angry at what is going on in the world and to want to change it. That is what I love about working with High School students!

I was also afraid of how Ella would act this week. It was her first road trip and I was afraid she would cry the whole way or poop in the middle of it and we would have to pull over to change her. My fears were wrong!!! Ella was the perfect baby last week. She slept the entire time we were driving. She stayed quiet while the speakers were preaching, she slept during the loud parts of worship, she went to bed when i needed her to go to bed! I couldn't have asked for a better baby! Below are a few pictures from one day when some of the girls baby sat her for a while! They laid out a blanket and played outside in the shade with her and I have to say she is quite bored with her mommy now that all the girls aren't here to entertain her!

First Time at the Zoo!

I'm sure you might be calculating in your head... wasn't Ella born in February? Isn't she only like 4 1/2 months old... They took her to the zoo? The answer to all of those questions is yes! I got a zoo pass for my birthday and have been itching to go ever since! I will be the first to admit that this trip was probably more about the 3 of us spending quality time together than Ella really getting any sort of education out of it :) I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

The weather was supposed to be rainy and cloudy all day long, however it turned out to be overcast and not very hot. I wasn't sure if Ella would even be able to focus on the animals or be interested at all and it turns out she LOVES the zoo! I think her favorite part was the underwater exhibits. The stingrays particularly because they get SO close to the glass. She kept watching them swim all over the tank and smiling really big when they got close! I can't wait to take her when she gets older and can talk and interact with the exhibits, but it was fun watching her get excited about the animals and seeing things for the first time!