Rachel's 14th Birthday

Wow, Rachel's 14, time goes so fast. We were not able to do much on her actual birthday so last week she had three friends over to stay and to go to a ball game. She has such wonderful friends. Megan took these great photos which I have borrowed. Rachel has become a lovely young women. We love you Rachel!

Fun in the Sun

In May and June in Kentucky we have beautiful weather, a lot like summer in New Zealand. It gets so hot here in July and August that we have been trying to be outside as much as possible. We have been playing cricket, soccer, tennis, going hiking and swimming. Tonight we took a bush walk and a drive and saw 52 deer, 4 groundhogs, a turtle and a raccoon.


Mark is still busy at work preparing to preach this Sunday, counselling and preparing a new members class. Next week we head to Toronto, Canada to renew the girl's visas before they head to Mexico on a missions trip in July. Mark is preaching at a church up in Fergus, Ontario where a friend of his from seminary is the pastor. We are thankful for the opportunity and are looking forward to our time up there. On the way we are going to visit Niagara Falls which I'm very excited about.

I hope the photos of us swimming as the cold weather hits New Zealand don't make you all too jealous. This photo of Rachel and Joel swimming in the creek which runs behind our church. It looks different now than it did in the photos of the flood.

Joel's summer hobby, reading. I paid for them all to swim at the local pools. I could have left Joel at home to read and saved some money!

Matthew with his friend, Connor.

Summer Vacation

Friday was Anna-Marie's, Rachel's and Joel's last day at Dorothy Sayers. Matthew still has a little bit of school to finish up at home but not much so we are now on summer break. It feels good to be at the end of another school year. Dorothy Sayers was a great blessing to us, I'm not sure about how I'm feeling going back to home schooling in August now with two high schoolers.

We have been trying to get outside as much as we can lately as the weather is beautiful, a lot like a Hawkes Bay summer, but it will get very hot soon so we are enjoying it while we can.

Mark took Rachel and Joel kayaking this morning. Their youth pastor at Buck Run Baptist Church helped Mark get some kayaks together. They had a great time. Here are a few photos of the kayaking and some other random photos.

A few days before school ended Anna-Marie needed to visit several historical sites. This is a photo of her at Camp Nelson.

Ben's Graduation

I was wonderful to attend the graduation of our good friend, Ben Saunders, we know how hard he worked. Ben and Chelsea are the couple who lived with us for a year and were an incredible blessing in our lives. We will miss them! Rachel with Ben and Chelsea's little boy, Noah. He is so cute!

Ben taught Joel to grill while he lived with us so Joel spent all night grilling about 50 burgers.

Matthew helping with the little ones, his favourite thing to do.

Ben, Nicola and Amy's Visit

Last week my sister Nicola, her husband Ben and their daughter Amy came to visit. We had not seen them for two years so Amy had changed so much. It was great to see them. We only had a few days to show them a few of the sights around here. This is us in front of the governor's mansion here in Frankfort. We spent a little while playing at the park. Matthew and Amy had fun on their scooters.

I gave Matthew the camera and he took some pretty good photos, this is one.

Spring in Frankfort

Spring in Frankfort is really pretty. Here are a few photos that Anna-Marie took.

Frankfort Flood

A few weeks ago we had a lot of rain and the little creek that runs behind the church flooded. It came into the church entrance and up a couple of steps but thankfully the damage was minimal.

Anna-Marie's Spring Break

Anna-Marie went with a friend and her family to the mountains in Tennessee for a few days over Spring Break. Her friend, Bobbie, took these great photos so I thought I would post a few.