Carrie Goes to Mexico

Yesterday our Carrie said her goodbyes to us and girl cousins as she was heading out to fly to Mexico on a mission trip with my other brother Fain and family and a friend.

Here are our four girls and Gabriel's three.

 The two Carries. Gabriel has a Carrie, too! She's their third girl, age 14.

 Carrie has tried hard to take it easy on herself since her fall from the horse so that she could go on this trip without her crutch! Here she is about to catch one of the little boys!

 I got a picture of her and her luggage.

Little did Carrie know what a tough day lay ahead. Her plane in Denver was delayed, but she arrived okay in Houston, where Fain's family met her as soon as she debarked from the airplane. The next flight was delayed as well, then delayed and delayed and delayed some more.

 There was a storm somewhere and the airline captains who were to pilot the flight did not arrive.

In the end, the airlines put up for the night everyone who was on that flight to Mexico.

(Below Carrie is getting a hug from sweet Baby Aaron!)

 Then the next morning (this morning), Carrie and Fain's family missed their flight due to a combination of circumstances which Jonathan didn't quite understand over the phone. 

Thankfully, they were able to catch a second flight and arrived in Mexico--minus Carrie's suitcase!

So that is the last we have heard!

Here Bryn and Benjamin have successfully completed a floor puzzle while the rest of us did school.

 Snowball fight across the pasture during break time!

 I helped Benjamin with a sticker book while planning lessons and making a school schedule for my younger children for the days I am away next week.

(Jonathan and I are flying to South Caicos Island with a Mission Helps crew to roof an HIM mission church whose roof was destroyed last year in the hurricane.)

For science class, the boys set up a microscope our friends the Frenches gave us, and they figured out how to get it working, and looked at pollen, etc. on glass slides.

 The girls are such a help. I was sick all day with a cold, but managed through most of the day till I collapsed in the evening on a recliner. Andrea gave me a foot treatment.

I'm thankful to be better today, so I was able to shop for my brother's birthday this evening and shop for supplies for our trip to Caicos. 

This afternoon, I heard 3-yr-old Benjamin crying downstairs. He had been put down for a nap.

I knocked and went in to see what was the matter. He was bawling for his mommy.

So I showed him a book that I would read to him, and pretty soon, he stopped crying as if you had turned a switch off! He cuddled right up to me, and I decided it would be best if we both lay down while I read to him, so he could just close his eyes later and go to sleep!

 I read slowly and made the book last as long as I could. It was about a baby bear that kept thinking it was spring, and his mommy would tell him to just go back to sleep!

Finally, spring did arrive, and Mama Bear got up, but where was Baby Bear?
He was asleep out in the flowers!

 So I told Benjamin,"He was sleeping, just like we're going to do!"

And I closed the book, and got real quiet, and just like that, little Benjamin plopped his little head against my arm, and closed his eyes, and within minutes he was fast asleep!

That was really special!

 More pics coming later hopefully of Gabriel's birthday party which I am about to help the children get ready for.