Film Festival Day 1

After visiting the Alamo it was time to head on over to the film festival.  It was a short and fairly pleasant walk from there over to the convention center.

We waited in line to register and then headed down for the first showings.

 

  We enjoyed a documentary on bugs  and then one of the favorites of the festival (for Mr. R) Awesome Science: The Grand Canyon.

The kids were excited to get their picture taken with the makers of Awesome Science!

Miss E noticed one of the advertisements indicated that there would be free popcorn in the vendors hall.  Our kids wasted no time in spotting that vendor!

John Moore from The Widows Might was spotted in the vendor hall, and the kids were excited to get their picture taken with him.  The Widows Might is one of our favorite movies, and we were excited to find out that they had previously made another movie -Heart Strings- that we are looking forward to watching and that the family is also working on another movie!

Part of the reason we were at the film festival was to encourage our friends The Wintons who entered their documentary Rescued in the festival.

After watching a couple of movies we went out for dinner on the River Walk.  We all had a great time eating outside and enjoying some fairly quite time as a family.

 

One of the vendors was giving out these squishy toy cameras, Miss J spent the entire festival "taking pictures" with it!

We attended the opening ceremony for the film festival.  It was great to hear the vision for the festival and a bit of its history.  It was also wonderful to hear some very God honoring music and talks.

 

Despite it being way too late we decided to attend a concert in the River Walk Amphitheater by Charlie Zahm.  While I did enjoy his music I did not get to soak in much of the concert.  The music was like wonderful background music as I bounced, walked, patted and soothed my two VERY tired little ones.  I was also able to make a new friend, and enjoyed meeting up with her and her daughters several times in the coming days.

Miss J enjoyed the treat of getting to sit with Mr. Winton during the concert.

As we walked back to the car Miss J was thrilled to see that the "princess carriages" that she had seen earlier in the day were lit up for the evening.  Yes, it was tempting to take her for a ride.

Remember the Alamo!

Mr. M is our soldier/outdoorsman.  He has been interested in Davy Crockett and the Alamo for quite some time, so you can imagine his excitement when we told him we would be going to visit the Alamo!

After studying the Alamo and general Texas history for the past month or so it was nice to see the actual place, to be where so many men fought and died.  There was no photography or video allowed inside the Alamo buildings.

 

Mr. M posing in the spot that Davy Crockett is believed to have died.

At the well in the court yard.

One of the cannons.

 

It was a beautiful warm day; we took advantage of the day and had a picnic on the grounds.

Fellowship

While going to a film festival sounded like fun, getting to watch a bunch of movies was not the big draw of the SAICFF.  Fellowship was.  We were excited at the prospect of making new friends, and enjoying some fellowship with them.  We were excited to be able to encourage and support our friends The Wintons, who entered their documentary Rescued in the film festival.  And most exciting for me....Getting to see my friend Miss K and her family.  We've been stationed together several times, but it has been several years since we've seen each other.  The fellowship with her family was truly a blessing!

Our kids had a great time playing together.  Her oldest (Mr. N) and Miss J are just a few months apart in age, and her little one (Mr. Z) and Miss C are also close in age.  It was such a blessing to see our little ones playing together.

Miss J and Mr. Z clicked right away and stuck close together.  It was so much fun to watch them.

 

We were so blessed by the T family's fellowship and hospitality.  We stayed with them during our entire visit in San Antonio.  They graciously put up with our early mornings and late nights, and our general invasion of their home.   Thank you T family, it was such a blessing to see you again!

On the road

The drive down to Texas went smoothly.  On one of our stops to feed Mr. K we stopped along a burnt out school building.  It looked so interesting that Rob took the kids walking around it to explore and stretch their legs.

We needed to stop for lunch and were looking for a suitable place to picnic.  A church was right off of the exit with quite a bit of grass in the front, it was the perfect place for lunch!  Miss C looked so sweet sitting on her little seat looking at a flower that Miss E and Miss J had brought her.

Our first stop when we got to San Antonio was Vision Forum.  The kids had a GREAT time looking through all of the clearance items.  We also enjoyed meeting some of the wonderful employees there.  I snapped a quick picture of the kids waiting on the couch in the office while daddy was in the customer service area paying for all the loot.

 

Sitting up for a tea party

Miss J and Miss C recently acquired a new tea set.  They have been setting up tea parties and serving everyone tea so very sweetly.

Mr. K just figured out how to sit up all by himself so he joined in the tea party fun.  He is so proud of himself being able to sit up just like the big kids!

Yee haw! Texas here we come!

We're so excited to be going to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival this week.  More than watching some fun new movies; we're excited about getting to see some very dear friends, and hope to meet new friends as well.  It's all about the fellowship!

Of course we couldn't head out to Texas without studying Texas, the Alamo, and Davy Crockett.  To end our studies the kids pulled out our Davy Crockett DVD to watch last week.  Mr. M quickly set himself up in front.  I think he looks ready for a trip to the Alamo. Maybe we should take him?

Sewing and listening

I've been working on some skirts for the summer this week.  I was given the fabric a couple of years ago and Miss E was so excited to see it, all of the girls were.  It took me a while, but I finally got around to using the fabric.  I did skirts for all three girls and there was plenty of fabric left over for one for me too!

While cutting, pinning, sewing, and hand stitching I enjoy listening to sermons.  This week I enjoyed listening to a couple of Paul Washer sermons.

Here is the short version....

 

The long version is even better, take a listen!