Vacation Bible School

Last week was Vacation Bible School at my church. I am now the director of Christian Education which means that I am responsible for VBS. Luckily Laurie has been in charge of it for the past million years and was able to help me out! It was a super long week but Clara was a trooper.

She loves her tia

Each year we have a band from Youth Encounter that does all of the music and games for VBS. This year New Vision (http://www.youthencounter.org/Default.aspx?tabid=976) was there and they were awesome! Two of the girls, Hannah and Katie stayed with us and Jacob and Fredrick stayed with Laurie and Russell. The girls absolutely loved Clara and there was no shortage of hands to hold her during their stay!

Katie and Hannah with Clarita

 We started the week out with a bang by taking the band to Kings Canyon National Park after VBS. We do this each year as many of them have never seen Giant Sequoia trees before and usually enjoy the trip. This year was no exception and the band members had a great time and enjoyed the much cooler weather. We then went to a dinner hosted by a couple from our church who live in the mountains. We had a great time and even got to do some wine tasting as they make their own wine! Clara and I were gone for 14 hours but she was so good. She slept in the car and was happy the entire day. It may have helped that we were surrounded by people (one of her favorite things) and they all held her and played with her.

New Vision

Lion King picture at Abby's request

Panoramic Point

Clara enjoyed her first VBS experience. She got passed from person to person (including La Abuelita and Tia Laurie) and I strapped her on for a nap each day. She liked the music and even "sang" along! She made a new friend, Grace, who is a year older than her and was sad when the fun had to end. I, on the other hand, was a little relieved when VBS ended and we could relax a bit. I found out that planning and running VBS is exhausting and I'm not sure how Laurie did it on her own for so many years... It was also a lot of fun and I am glad that I was able to be there the entire week, something I haven't been able to do since college! I think it also helped to prepare me for my return to work. I think work is more relaxing than VBS!

Singing with Tia Laurie