Vacation Post Part 1 // ft. photo dump

Yay so here it is. A little post about our vacation a couple weeks ago. Now let me tell you, I was going to put this all in one post but I spared ya'll because there were tons of pictures that I thought you'd probably get tired of if it was crammed in one post. So here's the part 1 of our vacation,. *applause*

Saturday (June 8th) we all packed up and hit the road. There were LOADS of suitcases, beach stuff, backpacks, and traveling nescesities in our car so it was a little cramped but we managed (barely haha). During our five hours of driving that day, we drove through 5 states. Two were states we'd never seen before, so that was awesome!! (We got to add them to our list of states we've been too. lol does anybody still do that?).

We took a tourism break to explore the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid in Memphis, TN. (p.s. for those of you who watch dude perfect, they filmed a video there once. and we went there. haha cool moment :P) It had some really cool fish and also an alligator (the only alligator we saw on this trip. (My dad said he saw a dead alligator on the road somewhere but nobody else saw it.) It was a pretty cool place to stretch your legs out and take a break from driving at ;P lol.

The next day we drove through (a slightly boring state to drive through. but actually our state is too so don't feel bad) Mississippi. It was pretty exciting when after hours of driving through Mississippi we made it to a new state, Louisiana.

We visited some friends in Louisiana. We talked a lot and also got to ear red beans and rice which is a very popular dish in Louisiana. It was reaaaally good too. We also got to explore Baton Rouge where we saw the Mississippi River, LSU college, and the Capital. We experienced the Louisianan traffic which was busy even on a Sunday afternoon. Thanks to our awesome tour guide (our friend hehe :P) we got to learn lots of cool things about Louisiana. ;)

Monday, we left Baton Rouge to New Orleans. We spent the day at the World War II museum. After that we went to the French Quarter. While Louisiana was experiencing it's daily afternoon showers we walked around with our umbrellas exploring the French Quarter. We found a cool place to eat some Louisianan seafood. I got to taste alligator which has taken the place of the strangest food I've eaten. It used to be crab (don't judge I used to be a picky eater and I now I've came out of my shell. wait, is that a pun? haha). We also ate beignets.

After a couple of days of driving and touring we finally made it too our destination, Gulf Shores Alabama. yayyyyyy

So that's it for now hehe stay tuned for our adventures in Alabama.

Standing Firm in Love

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1st Corinthians 13:13

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1st Peter 4:8

Hailey from Now All I Know is Grace started a cool project called The Fruit of the Spirits and every month you focus on a particular fruit of the spirit. Last month the topic was love. Later this month we went to D3 youth conference and one of the speakers preached about love. He spoke about the two aspects of love that are important.

1) Love is superior (1st Corinthians 13:1-3)
Paul is not saying other gifts are totally useless but that love beats them all.

I can...
1) have faith that can move mountains (vs.2)
2) be a giver (vs.3)
3) be a martyr (vs.3)
BUT if I do not have love I am still nothing,

Love affects everything you do.

It is #1

2) Love is action - a verb

Love is easier said than done. (can I get an AMEN)

Love is...
1) Patient - slow to anger, slow to offend
2) Kind - gentle, not harsh
3) Not jealous - doesn't burn with envy
4) Does not brag - doesn't think the best of himself
5) Not arrogant - Is humble.
6) Not wrong - acts right
7) Doesn't seek its own - not selfish
8) Not irritable - not agitated
9) Not resentful - love is forgiving. it covers a multitude of sin.
10) Doesn't find pleasure in sin - it finds pleasure and rejoices in truth.

Love...
11) Believes all things
12) Bears all things
14) Hopes all things
15) Endures all things

The speaker told us to think of the areas we could work on in this list. I know I could work on EVERY single area in this list, but I have some I really need to work on. I encourage you to study this list and pray for love in your life.  Pray to God for strength to fight the temptation of hate we face daily. Remind yourself constantly of how you can love more.

Stand firm in love.

bouncing in to say bye,
                                   Bernie

My Once Again Super Late June Highlights // Hey July

JULY you're here. Well duh Ellie. YOU'RE LATE AGAIN. Ugh sorry guysss. My excuse this time is I just got back from camp and now we're planning a vacation and it's like AHHHH. Busy. Anywho, back into it being July not my stupid excuses about being late. Honestly, I'm a bit sad about June ending. June was great. SUPER busy, but a GREAT busy. A super awesome you-don't-do-this-everyday kind of month. I'm excited to share it with you. So let's gooooooo *yay I'm so excited right now. like literally streamers and confetti are flying out in my brain right now*

J U N E in review

Meeting Anya and Aiyanna - You know your month is going to be good when the first day is THE BEST DAY EVER. I met my long distance friends Anya and Aiyanna after 2 years of knowing each other and wanting to meet. They were traveling back home after a trip and they got to stop by for dinner (thank you so much for giving your time even though you probably wanted to get home).  It was funny because this year Anya sent me a birthday letter and one of the things she said was "I wish I could see you for your birthday but maybe I'll see you next year." And THIS year we met. Like less than a month after she said that. Awwwww I love our little story. haha We also took super cute photos (above is one of them^ but there's more that are sooo cute)

Cousins - Earlier this month we took a trip up to see our family. Mainly, our cousin who was about to leave for the military. So our family hosted a nice party. It was superrrr nice to see all our family we haven't seen in a while. We colored till our fingers dropped played a lot of hide and seek, and ate a lot of blueberries.

Gymnastics - This month my homeschool gymnastics class ended for the summer so we had to find another class for me to enroll in. My coach invited me to be in their gymnastics team. Basically, I'll train in the summer and then in the fall we'll compete. There are lot of differences in my homeschool gym class and my team class.

Gymnastics Homeschool Class vs. Gymnastics Team Class
Mainly just for fun                           To train for competition.
Practices are 45 minutes long.         Practices 3 to 4 hours long.
Less stressed. Not so pressured.      Very stressful. If you aren't doing very good, you will be pushed*
Only about 10 girls                           Probably 20-25 girls.

*Now this is in a totally good way. There are girls (we all do this sometimes) who talk a lot, don't try their best, and overall are kinda lazy in their work. So yes, they will be pushed to pay attention, do their best, and work hard. Gymnastics teaches you great character*

So yeah it's really fun. Actually right now I'm taking July off for gymnastics because vacations, VBS, baseball games, etc. are taking up a LOT of our nights. I'll be training in my backyard again for right now but that's totally okay. I'm excited to improve on my skills during July but also just take a little rest. It takes way more energy than you think.

Baseball games - my bro's lighting up that pitcher's mound ya kno #proudsister. It's sooooo fun to watch him and his teammates play. They're improving too. YAYYYYYY it's awesome to watch that happen :)

Jeppin  - one of my friend's got a jeep and we got to ride in it. IT WAS SO FUN. I'm dreaming about getting a jeep now lol. Anywho, the wind was blowing and the music was super loud. IT WAS THE BEST. And sang to We are never getting back together which I don't even like that song but you can't NOT sing to a song and have fun when you're in a jeep. it was so fun.

Lake day - For about a week I was begging my mom everyday to go swimming. Everyday felt inconvenient and she had to say, "Sorry Ellie. We'll do it tomorrow." haha and that went on for about a week. Until finally we found a free day to go with the whole family. It was sooo worth the wait. We spent the whole day hooping the tennis ball in a tube, doing front flips off the deck, and then we got pizza. I ate pizza in the water (it didn't get wet. I know, that'd be gross). It was loads of fun and I can't wait to do it again.

FCA camp - I've kinda already went into detail about this REALLY FUN HIGHLIGHT (that you should totally read about if you haven't) right here so check it out. A short summary though. FCA is a sports camp and I got to attend and be a huddle leader for my 2nd time in a row. It's always very tiring but loads of fun. but read more about it here hehe :P

Danny's Birthday - Over the time of FCA was also Danny's birthday! Although our day was super busy like a full day of camp and then he had a baseball game, I think he really enjoyed it. He also got some pretty rad birthday presents that I KNOW he really enjoyed getting.

D3 - D3 is a Christian summer camp that lasts for about a week. It's taken place on a BEAUTIFUL campus. (You can witness just some of the beauty when you see my photos of the campus^ there's much more beautifulness though haha.) I went to D3 last year and it was soooo fun, but I got a concussion. This year was wayyy more fun since I didn't get hurt. Anywho, I really enjoyed the sermons, the track sessions, (which is basically just lectures about three topics missions, worldview, and leadership which you have to choose between. I chose leadership) team games, and the fellowship I had with my youth group. I'm going do some posts with more details so be looking out for that ;)

   Some funny stories that happened were being in the talent show :P So our leadership teacher made a dance and taught it to us girls. She told us she wanted some girls to help her do it for the talent show so me and my friends agreed. Now let me tell you. We were in a good mood that day. Because I DID NOT want to do it the next day. I endured it though and it was actually kinda fun. We got to dance on the stage and then watch all the other kids dance with us. It was hilarious cause we all looked like total fools.

    It was the last night of D3 and I was getting ready to head to bed. There was one girl in my room who was sleeping so as I left the room to brush my teeth, I shut the door so she wouldn't wake up. Well after finally heading to bed, I tried to open the door to my room and it was locked. This is horrible. My pillow, bed, blankets, and everything I need to go to sleep is in there. What am I going to do? So I kinda talked to some of my friends hinting to them that I needed a place to sleep but they didn't really do anything lol. I was ready to sleep on the couch when I saw one of my friends and just kinda mentioned I'm locked into my room and she was like, "Oh we have to open it. We can help you. C'mon let's go." So we banged on the door trying to wake up my friend who was sleeping in there but she would NOT wake up. My friend said, "Okay, let's open my window, you climb outside, open your window, and climb inside your room." Which thank God we were on the 1st floor otherwise I'd probably be sleeping on the couch by myself. I climbed into my room though (barely). It was a funny experience in the end :P

   D3 was soooo awesome (as always) and I can't wait for next year!!


Thanks for reading guys!!
bouncing in to say bye,
                                    Bernie