Exploring Azerbaijan: Camping and Beaching

We had a long four-day weekend this past week and since we'd just gotten over jet lag (and were late in realizing it was a four-day weekend) staying somewhere in the country was the best option. Unfortunately all of the hotels were sold out because everyone else had the same idea! We own all the gear to go camping and decided to put it to good use over the weekend.

We hadn't been camping before with the girls and were able to find a campground that also had cabins and included breakfast. We decided to go ahead and rent one to have the fridge and toilet and also use the bedrooms worst case scenario depending how everyone did in the tent. We made the three hour drive up Friday afternoon and had plenty of time to setup before night fall.

When we pulled into Long Forest, Madi asked "Where is the playground?" We laughed gently and told her everywhere was the playground! Over the weekend the girls has so much fun playing with rocks and sticks. We spent hours exploring the area with the owners dog following us and enjoyed picking blackberries as a snack and being given apples by a local passing by.

Introducing the girls to banana boats and smores. Yum! 😋

The girls did great with the outdoors part, but questionable when it came to the actual tent part...they didn't want to stay in sleeping bags and weren't quite sure how to handle the freedom of not having a crib. We woke up multiple times to toddlers wandering the tent and attempting to locate the zippers to escape. 😳

However, overall it was a wonderful time and we are excited to try camping again with the girls. But this time with cots. 😂

We packed up and headed back to Baku Sunday night to shower and get a proper night's sleep!

Monday was still a holiday and we met our friends Tricia and Jason in Old City for the traditional Azeri breakfast, which is a favorite and Tricia's husband Jason hadn't gotten a chance to try yet.

Afterwards we headed to Dalga Aquapark. The girls had fun splashing and going down the slides before lunch and then playing on the beach and getting ice cream after lunch. It was a perfect way to end the long weekend and spend time with friends!

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America Trip 2017: League City

We finally arrived down in League City late Friday evening after our drive from Colorado and got to spend the next week with Jacob and Stephanie. The cousins got along SO amazing and had a blast playing together and having sleepovers. They literally disappeared together and we adults could just sit and visit. #winning.

Sydney and Jaiden started school that Monday unfortunately, but we got to pick them up for ice cream one afternoon and spend the evenings with them. It still wasn't enough time in anyone's opinion, but we are thankful for the time we had.

Trolls, because why pick a different movie.

Delicious dinner at Lupe's Tortillas followed by ice cream. 🍦

Our last night there we got to watch a show by Sydney, Jaiden, and Madi. Afterwards it was a free-for-all chasing the dads and being tickled.

It was so special to see how these cousins got along with one another and had so much fun together. The three oldest were not happy when it was time for us to leave and seeing their teary good-byes was awful. We love you guys and we can't wait to see you again for more fun!!

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Evelyn and Olivia's Baptism!

We weren't able to baptize the girls when they were under one year like we'd hoped since the only visit we had back to the US after the twins were born was around Christmas and not in Houston. We preferred the girls be baptized at our home church, CEPC, by the same pastor who did Madi's, Pastor Harris. We are so thankful that things aligned so that we were able to baptize them this August and blessed to have so many family members travel to Houston for the occasion.

We baptized the twins on Sunday, August 20th along with my dear friend Erin and their little one [insert name]. We had our family come down from Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas to join us for the service and lunch afterwards. Our friend Kevin was able to take some family pictures and I am so glad he captured these!

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