Jeffery's 8th Birthday

Jeffery's birthday was on Friday of the first week of school, so he as soon as he got home from school, he was ready to open his presents. We also let him choose where to eat that night: Pizza Hut and then choose what we were going to do afterwards: Amarillo High football game. We all had a fun night celebrating his birthday!

He was pretty excited about this set of baseball cards from his Mama Betty.

He was pretty sure he knew what was in this big, long box, but he was still super excited to open it. We made him save it for last too.

Sure enough, it was a new set of golf clubs!

On Saturday morning, James took the boys to a driving range for Jeffery to test out his new set of clubs.

William took in a little golf action too, but mostly he was just happy to be along for the ride!

James says he hopes Jeffery is a good enough golfer to support his parents some day! LOL!

Saturday afternoon was Jeffery's birthday party at the Family Life Center (FLC) at our church. He was fired up about playing a game of knock-out with his buddies. I think they played knock-out on each of the six goals in the gym, followed by a game of two on two. Such an easy party. All I had to do was serve cake and write down presents. They just played the rest of the time.

William and some more buds playing in the tunnel room (a huge indoor playground in the FLC)

Jeffery blowing out his candles on his cupcakes

Jeffery certainly had fun opening his presents, in case you couldn't tell.

He got two of these foam swords which he and William have really enjoyed.

Eight years have come and gone quickly. In eight more years, he will be getting his driver's license and dating. I'm not going to think much about that, but instead try to enjoy each day and be thankful for the joy that Jeffery brings to our lives!

Jeffery's First Day of School

We were all a little nervous about Jeffery's first day of school at a new school in a new town. We all prayed together about his first day many times before the day came, and James and I prayed all day throughout the first day. We knew ahead of time that there would be a few kids from church at the same school, but when he came home the first day, he said he saw lots of kids he knew from church and even two in his class. We were all very thankful that God answered our prayers and made this a good experience for our big boy.

He's on his way to a great third grade year!

Last Days of Summer

While James took a church group to Glorieta for a Golf Retreat, the boys and I played our own round of golf-miniature golf that is at Wonderland Golf.

We enjoyed all of the obstacles on the course even though they made it a little more challenging. This wheel catches your ball and then dumps it out on the other side.

William is about to hit the ball underneath this dinosaur.

Jeffery is trying to hit the ball into the windmill to get to the hole.

After our round of miniature golf, we took a walk along this creek through Thompson Memorial Park.

We are enjoying our last week together before school starts, having lazy mornings, playing games, and riding bikes. It has been a great summer!

Family Birthday Celebration

My parents and my sister came for the weekend to celebrate the boys' birthdays. We enjoyed a family game of horseshoes in our front yard and then a yummy supper at Blue Sky.

When we got back from supper, we let the boys open their presents from Mimi, Granddad, and Angela. William got this cool Blast Off Baseball set from Angela.

Jeffery was very excited to get Sorry Sliders which we have played every day since he opened it! I think he likes it. William got Uno Spin game which we have also played every day!

On Saturday, Mimi and Granddad treated the boys to a trip to Wonderland, a fun amusement park here in Amarillo. We had been to Wonderland for our first time earlier this summer, but we were glad for the rest of our family to experience the fun.

Our first thing to ride was the gondola.

The boys had so much fun! Granddad and Angela rode with them on the log ride.

They rode everything they wanted and then rode some several more times!
It was a great day of family fun!

Boys' Trip to Fort Worth

My family was planning to come in the middle of August to celebrate both of the boys' birthdays, and then my mom offered to have the boys for the week before, so we met my parents halfway on Saturday to send the boys to have fun with their grandparents!

Granddad was only home on the weekend so they spent lots of fun time with him, taking a tractor ride and swimming at our community pool.

On Sunday, the boys went to church at Wedgwood with Mimi and Granddad and got to see lots of their Fort Worth friends.

Mimi and the boys had lots of fun together the rest of the week!

On Monday, Mimi took the boys to meet their friends Ben and Brittin to swim and then later at the movies to see G-Force.

Swimming at the pool was nearly a daily activity! Cannonball!
(I'm just glad they are getting our money's worth since we are still paying HOA dues until our house sells.)

On Wednesday, Mimi took the boys to Main Event for bowling and arcade fun!

I think Thursday was the highlight of the week for the boys. They got to spend the afternoon playing at the pool with their big bud Nathan. Then Thursday evening, Mimi and the boys met Angela at the Ringling Bros. Circus which was William's first time at the circus! They loved every minute!

William is 5!

William celebrated his 5th birthday at Jump 'N Jive, an indoor bounce house place. He had so much fun running around and bouncing with his new Amarillo friends!

Blowing out his candles on his chocolate birthday cake!

He had lots of fun opening his presents and gave this one a thumbs up!

Birthday party friends!

Glorieta Vacation

Since our summer has been a little hectic with moving and getting settled in Amarillo, we decided to take an easy, relaxing vacation to somewhere pretty close so we headed to Glorieta, NM, just a little east of Santa Fe, in the beautiful NM mountains. James and I had both been to the Glorieta Conference Center before, but this was the first trip there for the boys. FBC Amarillo has an incredible lodge that we were able to stay in for the week and we had it all to ourselves. (The lodge can sleep 100!) The boys were immediately enamoured with the lodge itself, complete with ping-pong tables and an upstairs loft area.

On our first day after we unloaded our stuff, we drove in to Santa Fe to get groceries and just show the boys a little of the town. Once we got into town, we realized neither one of us really knew where we were going, but we managed alright and were glad to get back to Glorieta.

Here are the Booth boys standing in front of the FBC Amarillo lodge.

On our second day, the boys were ready to play and explore. The boys chose baseball for our first activity. We had a great time playing baseball as a family-James pitched, I fielded, and the boys took turns batting and running the bases. After our game of baseball, we set off to play a round of miniature golf .

We brought the boys bikes from home, so after lunch and a little down time, the boys took a bike ride while we walked to the game room at New Mexico Hall. They enjoyed a game of air hockey before we were off on what William liked to call "Our Next Adventure."

We took turns taking the boys out in paddle boats. James paddled William around the little lake, and then Jeffery and I had our turn. Fun time!

On our third day, we started the day shooting some hoops, but then decided to go for a hike before it warmed up too much. We hiked up to Glorieta point. I was so impressed with the boys on their first ever hiked. They never complained, and William was a great little encourager, just like his daddy. We made it to the top and enjoyed the views before we headed back down.

The boys wanted to try their hands at tennis, so we headed to the tennis courts for our next adventure. Afterwards, we decided to play our daily round of miniature golf.

(I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip!)

Our last full day we went on another hike on a different trail that wound up lasting a lot longer than we had hoped but we made it back down four very hungry hikers. We played another round of miniature golf, just me and the boys. After supper that evening, we took some bread to the lake to field the ducks, but the fish liked it as well as the ducks!

Here James and the boys are on the dock with a great view of the worship center across the lake.

After feeding the ducks, we joined the first part of the Centrifuge camp's worship service. Singing along with Mighty to Save and How Great is our God, we enjoyed some great worship!

We completed our night, as we had every night, with a trip to the Chuckwagon (Snack Bar). The boys enjoyed riding their bikes around while James and I sat and enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere.

Our last day we packed up and cleaned the lodge before heading out. We took this picture on our way out. We had a great week relaxing and playing together.

Fourth of July Weekend

I think William caught the spirit of this weekend of celebrating the birth of our nation!

We were very excited to be able to relax and enjoy this weekend. Let me take you back since the previous post so you can understand why. The Tuesday after Father's Day, our packers (6 of them) came and packed all of our stuff in about 4 hours. (What a treat!) Then Wednesday, our loaders (6 of them) came and loaded all of our stuff into the big moving truck in about 4 hours. (So amazing!) Once they finished I got busy cleaning and staging the little bits of furniture we left there since our house in Burleson is still for sale. I was so worn out by the time I finished, but we wanted to enjoy our community pool one last time, so I took the boys to the pool which I did enjoy.

On Thursday, I drove the boys and my mom to Amarillo. We were able to spend the evening resting up for the coming days. On Friday, our moving truck arrived at our rental townhouse, right on time! They unloaded all of our stuff, also in about 4 hours, and even had our beds set up. We were able to get right to work unpacking right after lunch. The most difficult part of the unpacking is that we are temporarily downsizing by 500 sq ft which includes the boys sharing a room, so we had to decide what to keep out, what to pack up for later, and what to get rid of now. Not a bad problem, just mentally draining. Mom and I were able to get the boys' bedroom all set up which was probably one of the toughest tasks as we combined their two rooms plus the play room into one room and one closet. They were quite excited and wanted to spend the night there, so we went back to the missionary house (see previous post) to get our suitcases. We all rested well that night!

The next several days involved much of the same: Saturday-unpacked the kitchen; Sunday-master bedroom; Monday-living room and bathrooms; Tuesday-worked to organize garage boxes; Wednesday-hung pictures. Needless to say, we were very exhausted by Thursday and took it easy. During all of this, we were so thankful for the church staff families who stopped by to check on us and brought us food and also thankful for my wonderful mom who worked tirelessly alongside me. What blessings!

On Friday, my dad drove up to Amarillo for the weekend. The boys were so excited to see their Granddad and immediately had plans for him. We were all glad for some fun and relaxation. All of the guys really got into playing horseshoes in the front yard. Our townhouse literally is between the guys on each side; a quaint 2 bedroom, 1 LR, 1 eating area, but we really do like it.

The master horseshoe thrower in our bunch with his protege!

Friday evening, we ate supper at one of our local favorites: Blue Sky. They have great burgers, onion rings, and William's favorite: milkshakes! Then we headed out to Palo Duro Canyon for the TEXAS show. We stopped at a lookout point to take in the beautiful sites of the 2nd largest canyon in the country.




We got to the theater a bit early since we decided we were too tired from the week for a hike, but we enjoyed the live music they have in the courtyard area.

Here are some cheesy boys waiting for the show to begin with the incredible backdrop of the canyon behind them.






The TEXAS show was truly a wonderful experience for all of us. They even performed a couple of extra numbers at the end to celebrate the 4th of July and had extra fireworks as well.

On Saturday, we took it pretty easy since we got home very late from the TEXAS show. We all slept in and did not do much until after lunch. My dad helped us out with a few projects around the house, but also got involved in a watergun war with the boys. We all enjoyed an evening game of baseball in the front yard before heading to watch some fireworks.

Jeffery, Granddad, Mimi, and William waiting for the fireworks.

Jeffery, James, Me, and William

I just love this one: James holding the little fella watching the fireworks.

(Ear protection works wonders for the little ones!)

On Sunday, we all headed to church for a wonderful patriotic worship service. Then we enjoyed a great lunch at Abuelo's before my parents headed back to Fort Worth. The weekend was nearly perfect, but we all missed having my sister with us for the 4th. We will hopefully see her next month.

This week, James and Jeffery are busy with basketball camp in the mornings, and we are working on getting our stuff in our garage moved to storage so we can use our garage for our cars especially when the weather turns bad. We are also enjoying settling in and finding our new sense of normalcy. Sure, there are people and things we miss about Fort Worth/Burleson, but we know that God has amazing plans for us here. We are trusting in Him and His perfect will.