Friends forever!

Hi....so as well as continuing to do some MAF talks, we've had a fantastic time meeting with a lot of friends.  When we first arrived in Houston in 1998, we met friends at our church in a class called 'Inside Out' that was 'Married/No Kids'.  We made strong friends there, and have maintanied our friendships ever since. On this trip, we have had chance to re-connect with many of these friends. Here are some pictures of these folks as well as some others that we've caught up with.

MAF talks to kids

Laurie and I were invited to a VBS (vacation Bible school) at a local church to talk about MAF. Laurie talked to them about what MAF do, and we showed the video that Laurie made about our girls explaining to a puppet (called Tizzy) what their Dad does.  After the talk, we had some great questions.  The funniest, and most bizarre was "Do you know any words in Irish?"  MAF US had also given us a fantastic idea about making a plane out of sweeties/candy. It has Lifesavers (like British Polos) for the wheels, a couple of sticks of gum for the wings, and a pack of mini refreshers for the body of the plane - all tied together with an elastic band.  It's really cute, and the kids LOVED making them.  Laurie and I helped the kids put their planes together.

 Here's a kid that was proud of his candy plane! 

Visiting Alabama

Hi again.  Part of our time in the USA has been to spend time with our MAF supporters and family. So, on the way back from Georgia we visited some friends in Alabama that we haven't seen since about 2001! We've never visited Alabama before, and we were stunned by its beauty.  This picture was taken from our friends community swimming pool. What a view!!! Gorgeous!

Visiting Georgia Aquarium

While spending time with family we went to the Georgia Aquarium.  This was absolutely fantastic, and has some of the largest tanks in the world. I like this picture of the girls with a massive ray. We have really been making memories on this trip!

Family time!

So......school has finished for the year (woohoo), and we are in the USA doing support raising for MAF, meeting family and friends from way back when we lived in Houston.  We landed in Houston, but went on our first family road trip by driving over to Georgia...some 860 miles...to see Laurie's brother and family.  Laurie's other brother and family came down from Canada and Laurie's Mum came over from UK. So it was a real family get together. The first in 5 years! See the photo of Laurie's Mum and her boys all together. Aahhh.