June Update

The playstructure is finally finished - thank goodness!!! The pieces of this thing were hauled from our other place and sat under a tarp all winter. It's finally up thanks to help from my Dad, Wayne's hard work and our friend Dave. A big improvement from the backyard of weeds we moved into last summer.



The rest of these pictures are from our recent trip to New York state. We went for a pastors conference. It was our first trip since we've been home from China and included a 6 hour drive and 2 night stay in a hotel. It went well overall - Zanna managed a nap here and there in the car. She slept pretty well at night but getting her to sleep was tricky. The first night we sat there quietly in the dark while she stood in her crib and waved bye-bye to us for a half hour. The next night we waited in the hall until she fell asleep. Otherwise, it was nice to get together with the other called workers and their families and see some old friends again. It wasn't exactly relaxing, however and before we knew it we were heading home. About 30minutes into the trip we passed a beautiful hotel with indoor waterpart right off the interstate. Long story short we ended up checking into this place and had a great time! The waterpark was a blast and Will was able to go on all the rides. Zanna just wore her cute little bikini and looked adorable occasionally splashing in the water.
The picture with Will and his necklace has a story to it. He and Wayne found themselves in the game room and Will wanted to play the game where you try and control the claw to grab something in the pile of toys and cheap junk that sits there. Wayne thought it might be a teaching moment so warned Will that if he wanted to spend his money on this game it was up to him but in all the times he's played it, he's never won. Wouldn't you know he grabed that chain on the first try? It'll probably turn his skin green but he loves it.
In other exciting Will news - it's finally clicked - Will's starting to read! Very exciting! He'll call strange things out during the day and then we realize he read a sign or something. He yelled out "forgiveness" really loud in the church service at conference - I wondered what the heck got into him when I realized he read the screen up front. I just thought he was really getting into the service - haha!
And on a personal note, I've finally accomplished something I've been trying to do for years - bake a decent loaf of bread. I know, very Little House of me but it's been my quest for years. It finally happened with some freshly ground wheat from a local mill and yeast 2years past the expiry date (I noticed this too late). Didn't matter anyway - It worked!!!
Zanna's volcabulary continues to grow literally every day. It's incredible what a sponge she is. One of her favourites is "good girl" when she's done something really good like put something back where it belongs. Then we clap, of course.