Scott Leaves for Egypt

Scott left this afternoon for his 2nd mission trip to Egypt. They are traveling to a youth sports camp just outside Cairo to work as counselors with Muslim kids. He went last year and, as most of you know, made the decision to follow Christ and was baptized in the Red Sea. It was a life changing trip not just for him, but for our whole family.

They left the church today at 1:30 to head to DFW. Their flight left from Dallas at 4:20 and lands in Frankfurt, Germany at 9:15 a.m---or 2:15 a.m. our time! They will have about an hour and 15 minutes to make their connection. After that it's just a quick 4 hour flight to Cairo! They will land in Cairo about 7:30 a.m. our time on Thursday morning....3:30 in the afternoon in Cairo.

I will try to keep you updated each day, but Scott is going to try to blog again as well. His blog address is: http://scottmilderegypt.blogspot.com

Internet connections are kinda sporadic, but his goal is to update us each day.

His leaving today was hard on all of us. Fourteen days is a long time! The kids (and I!) had a few tears. We went to lunch before we took him to the church. We let him pick since his food choices will be limited over the next 2 weeks....he chose Ihop!

He and the kids practiced dancing like an Egyptian....

After the team left we went swimming with some friends to take our minds off Daddy being gone. The girls have had a few more tears tonight at bedtime.

On the way home from the church Mandy said she "wished there was no Egypt". I tried to explain to her Matthew 23:19 and how it's our duty to share God's word with other nations and that Daddy was going to Egypt to work for Jesus. Thomas and Grace told her that Daddy had to go because it's what Jesus wants us to do. I LOVE it when they explain things like that to her. We told her that it was an important "job" that Daddy and the team had to go do. She then replies very seriously, "So is cleaning." We all cracked up! Thomas and Grace then tried to explain that while "cleanliness IS next to godliness" it's not quite the same as mission work!!

Please keep Scott and the mission team and their families in your prayers.

Blessings,

Leslie

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Matthew 28:19

Happy Birthday Thomas!!

Thomas turned 11 years old today!! We started his day by opening the wrapped birthday present we've carried all over creation all week long. I wrapped it at home and brought it with us so he'd have something to open on his birthday.

We then enjoyed our last day at the beach.....

Scott and the kids built their annual turtle...

Thomas chose Pier 19 for his birthday dinner.

Having been there last week with the Bassett's, he knew exactly what he wanted...crab claws, crawfish and shrimp!

We then had ice cream cake and a few more presents back at the condo...

I seriously can't believe he's 11 years old. He's such a good kid. I know I'm prejudiced, but he is really turning into a great young man!

We've had a great, if unusual week here at the beach. We are planning to head out in the morning after packing up our stuff and hauling it out to the cars one last time!

Birthday blessings,

Leslie

Back at Padre!

Yesterday morning, after talking to Celia, who manages Marisol, we decided to pack up and head back to the island. I know I planned to show you pictures of the aftermath of Hurricane Alex, but there really aren't any. Lots of palm frons (?) blown around and I saw one shingle as we moved back in, but other than that not a lot of damage here. Certainly not enough to live up the hype that those crazy weather reporters on the Weather Channel made it sound like! The first (& only!) casualty of Hurricane Alex were Scott's Krispy Kreme donuts that the wind blew out of the car when we opened the back to unload in the Marisol parking lot!! He was crushed. The biggest changes were on the beach. After moving all our stuff up the three flights of stairs a second time, Scott and the kids headed down to check out the beach. Tons of washed up seaweed. Looks like the water came in almost to the gate that leads from the condos to the beach. This morning they had big bulldozers and maintainers clearing all the seaweed off the beach. As the mayor said, they don't really like to do that because the seaweed is good for preventing erosion, but it's not very tourist friendly!

The kids read the last blog and couldn't believe I didn't mention the hotel pool. When Scott realized we were going to have to go inland for a day or two he found a Hampton Inn with an indoor pool so that the kids could still swim. I have to say....it was the fanciest Hampton Inn hotel pool I've ever seen. It had fountains all the way around the pool and some Greek/Roman fountain/scupture monstrosity that the kids found just fabulous for jumping off of! It was like they wanted a Hearst Castle pool right there in the Corpus Christi Hampton Inn.Needless to say the kids thought it was great and we spent a good deal of time swimming in it both nights we were there.

I am so glad things worked out and we were able to come back to Marisol. After 8 years coming to the same place, it's begun to feel like home in a way. More so than Christmas or birthdays, I find this trip every year is a milestone, or a marker if you will. I think the holidays and birthdays are so busy that I don't have much time to reflect on the past year, but here there is nothing but time and the relaxing sound of the ocean to lull me in to talking a look back a the year since our last visit. My cousin Patty posted a picture on Facebook this week of our second summer here....

Thomas was 5 and Grace was 3!! Tomorrow Thomas will be 11 years old. Wow. Our kids have grown up coming here and even though I'm sure there are better, fancier places to stay or go on a week's vacation to the beach, this place will forever hold fond memories for them. They don't care about fancy accomodations and amenities, but that we spent a week every year playing with them in the sand, splashing in the waves, hunting crabs and sea shells. And, I'm sure when they are grown that Scott and I will remember the same things...minus hauling up all our stuff 3 flights of stairs and greasing everyone from head to toe in sunscreen over and over and over again!

Kendall...The first time I put on the bathing suit Mandy is wearing in the above picture I mentioned that it was yours that you had outgrown. Now she wants to wear it every day and tells all of us over and over again that it was yours!

This is the first year we've been here for Thomas' birthday and he has a list of things he'd like to do tomorrow! First on his list is to check out the parasailing! They weren't out today, probably because it is still too windy, but he has his fingers crossed for tomorrow. Then, he'd like crab claws at Pier 19 for dinner. And, of course, as always there will be fireworks on his birthday!

Beach blessings,

Leslie

Hurricane Alex

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've blogged! I used to blog almost everyday in the summer. We left Sunday for our 8th year at the condo on South Padre Island. Mom and Dad came with us this year. On the way down we stopped in San Antonio to eat at Lulu's. We enjoyed chicken fried steak and one of their 3 pound, yes 3 POUND cinnamon rolls! If you watch Man vs. Food...Adam has been there and eaten the whole thing.

We spent Monday playing on the beach and enjoying the beautiful sunny weather. Well, all of us except Scott who had to fly to Houston and back for a work meeting.

And it was a good thing, because Tuesday we evacuated inland because of the threat of Hurricane Alex. We have now spent two nights in Corpus. If you are going to leave the island, you have to leave before the wind gusts get to 45 mph, because they close the Queen Isabella Causeway when that happens. I suppose so cars don't go flying off. Everyone was boarding up their windows and sandbagging their doors. The condo throws all the pool chairs in the pool to keep them from blowing away.

Yesterday we went to the Texas State Aquarium and to see Toy Story 3. The kids love the aquarium that's here. Since it was raining the regular outdoor dolphin show couldn't be done, so they did it indoor in the underwater viewing area. It was even better! It was almost like the dolphins were in the room with us.

Thomas got picked to come assist the trainer! Apparently the dolphins know their shapes. She would tell them to pick the circle or the triangle and they got it right every time.

We are checking out of the hotel around noon and heading back to the island. The Causeway is open and the emergency management website says that the flooding has receded and things are fine and back to normal. We kept up with what was happening on their Facebook page! The whole thing is unbelieveably efficient. We've seen the island in "Hurricane mode" twice now. Four(?) years ago we were there for tropical storm Emily. Spent the night in Harlingen then.

Better get to packing us up.....again. I will post "aftermath" pictures when we get back to the condo.

Hurricane Blessings,

Leslie