August in Pictures

Just wanted to catch up on a month's worth of what's been happening in the Carter family...  it always seems easiest just to do that with pictures.  It was funny when I started downloading them off my camera...  it's kinda like the carbon copies in my checkbook -- since I'm obviously not very good at recording things as I go along, it's a good way to go back and actually remember what happened!  :) 

 

 

Mackenzie made it back home after 'conquering' Australia.  ha.  Actually, she got home at the end of July, but her pictures were still on my camera so this one made the cut.  That was definitely a life-changing trip for her and an experience she will never forget.

 

About the time she came home, all of the Townsley family descended upon Huntsville.  We were lucky to get a beautiful half of a day down at the lake before the rains came.  Of course, I had to work the part of the day that was beautiful...  when I arrived later, so did the rain.  They all probably wish I had stayed home and kept the rain with me.  ;-)   Nevertheless, my sister apparently got some good pictures of the aunts and uncles and cousins...  I'm thinking she either took all the pictures or cleverly managed to avoid getting in  any of them... at least, this is what I tend to do.  :)

So this first picture is Mark, Adeline and Zoe - and it looks like Zoe is wondering if her life jacket is really going to keep her afloat. :)

 

And this picture?  How cute is she?  Just gotta love the sunglasses and turtle life jacket - a true French diva right there!  :)

 

Shelby - looks like she's ready for some tubing.

 

And he will probably kill me for this - but here's Nathan in his studly pose.  :)

 

Tom and Shelby - a nice father/daughter moment.

 

This is Lena with her mom....  I'm not quite sure if' she's laughing or screaming her head off!

 

When I saw this picture, the first thing I thought was, "Bond, James Bond..."  ;-)

 

 

Back at mom and dad's house, this is Lena in the puppy pile.  This was one of those moments that really made me miss childhood.  I don't know why we don't do things like this as adults (maybe because it's not so comfortable as it used to be before all of our aches and pains) but I remember making what we called 'pallets' out of every pillow, blanket, and stuffed animal we could find and laying around on them watching TV.

 

 

I just liked this picture - upside-down texting - probably with the boyfriend.  :)

 

In the middle of family visiting, we took a weekend out to move Mackenzie back up to Lipscomb.  She had to go back a couple of weeks early to get ready for her RA job. (The nice perk of that is getting a room to herself this year!)   Becca is in Nashville this fall doing a co-op job so we met up with her there.  And Jessica went along with us for fun.  This is them being silly in the room with Mackenzie's other friend Jessica. 

 A couple more shots of her room...

 

 

This is the obligatory picture that had to be taken before saying good-bye.  :)  Jessica (on the left) was laughing because we just named this picture the "Jessica Sandwich".

 

That same weekend, Jack and I went from there up to Louisville, KY to the National Street Rod Association car show. (I should probably mention that, meanwhile, Anna was in Auburn at a gymnastics camp.  We were kinda scattered everywhere...)  Anyways, while we were at the show, we saw this ridiculous SUV and took a picture to show Anna because she's been telling us for a while that she really wanted an SUV whenever she gets a car.  We thought she might like this one.  :)

 

And then last but not least, thanks to Jeff Burgess and his amazing  bargain-finding ways, we were fortunate to get this nice Honda CRV for Anna and she's very happy about it!   Of course, it will make her birthday in January a little anti-climatic, but I think she'll get over it.  ;-)

And that's August in pictures.

Besides all that, I've been doing a lot of thinking, and thinking, and thinking...  and this quote is one that keeps tossing around in my head and I hope will transform my heart:

"Through His transcendent love, our Jesus Christ became what we are so that He might make us what He is."    -  St. Ireneaus

I heard that in a sermon by Patrick Mead called "Pure Love."  You can listen to it here:
http://eastsidechurch.us/listen-online/

And that's all I have for tonight...  caught up again for a little while.  :)