August already?!

Greetings from sunny Florida! I can't believe summer is almost over! About three weeks ago, I chaperoned my church's middle school mission trip. We did the trip through YouthWorks, at their Raleigh-Durham site to give the kids an opportunity to do mission work in their own backyard. I think it was a really good experience for the middle-schoolers and a lot of them were asking if we could do YouthWorks again next year. There were three other church groups there that same week: one from Tennessee, one from New Jersey, and one from New York City. I was an adult leader in a work crew with four of our kids and four kids from the NY church (along with one of their adult leaders) and we spent the week working at the Boys and Girls Club in Durham. We also had some fun evening activities: Monday we went to a rodeo at a farm in Raleigh, Wednesday we went to a church service, and Thursday we had a cook-out at Beaver Dam State Park in Raleigh. I was really glad I went on the mission trip because I was able to get to know our middle schoolers a little better.  Now, I'm down in Florida visiting my family. I flew down with my grandma July 23 to visit my cousin Lili and stay the week at their timeshare at Ft. Myers Beach. My grandma kept Lili's mom company (they're cousins) and I hung out with Lili and Veronica (her sister) and Lili's friend Aurora. I also got to see some of my family in Miami who I haven't seen in a while. Saturday, Lili, Veronica and I went to my tio Pablito's house to see my baby cousins who I've never met, as well as my cousins Gabi and Julian. Andy turned two in April and Agustin was born in March. Last night Lili and I spent the night at their house so we could baby sit this morning because their dad was on a business trip and their mom works. The little kids are so cute! After the nanny came, Lili's mom picked up Lili, Gabi, and me. Lili had to work, but the rest of us went to drop my grandma off at my tia Ceres's house and we hung around there and drove around the farm in one of the golf carts, like old times. Tomorrow I fly back up to North Carolina around 4:15. Now, we're going out to dinner. Less than 2 weeks til move-in at Wesley! I can't wait for the year to start :)