Cara's and Lydia's Mission Trip 2015

In the Spring of 2015, Cara and Lydia went on a mission trip to help build houses for impoverished families living in a small community in the jungles of Jamaica.  They maxed out their checked baggage with clothing to be donated and had only a carry-on bag for their own supplies for a week of manual labor in the tropics.  Their labors included up-hill daisy-chaining of raw materials, stucco-plaster-mud application (I don't know what it is), more daisy-chaining, some digging, and more daisy-chaining.

They also visited the equivalent of a nursing home, had dinner with a local family, and Lydia helped at a school. The follow pictures capture monents of the week.

Lydia spent part of a day at a primary school.  This picture is wonderful.

As I mentioned in the intro, the girls had very few supplies to get them through the week.  So, as I understand it, Lydia and her friends had to borrow dresses from the thrift shop so they could be appropriately dressed for work in the school.

More uphill daisy-chaining...

Day 3 includes time spent at a nursing home.

Back to work.  Now the effort has moved to preparing the inside of the house.

Time for a little Cricket.

Finishing up the house. A family of 5, 6, ? will gratefully call this place home.

Mission accomplished.

Rhoades girls playing basketball.

Lydia's basketball season, although only halfway through, has been a lot of fun for Cara and I.  She's number 25.  Here's a little clip.











Eden is coming around.  She has fun when she plays.

It's Snowing!

We had a great snowstorm recently and realized that Eden hadn't even touched snow in her 1 year of life. So, we bundled her up for the 1st time in the snowsuit we used so many times with Braeden. (Some things I just couldn't get rid of!) She wasn't too thrilled to have the hood on and didn't quite love the snow, so her trip outside was short-lived. The big kids had a blast playing in it and always look forward to a great snowstorm. As always, I took pictures from the door and had hot cocoa waiting when they came in.

Oh, they start so young!

Look what I found when I came out of my closet. Eden had pulled my makeup bag out of the door and was knee deep in product. She was pretty proud of herself. I can already see a repeat of Lydia and her love for all things glittery.

HI

Eden's favorite word is Hi and she says it all day long. It's usually accompanied with a Hitler-style arm wave that probably isn't very PC, but so cute. Our niece, Maddy, couldn't resist getting Eden this hoodie for Christmas. We thought it was a great idea and really sweet.

The "New" Piano

We acquired a piano this summer and FINALLY got it into the house from the garage. Lydia has been begging to take lessons for a year now, but we just can't fit it into our busy schedule. We plan to let her start taking them this summer when things slow down. Until then, she and Travis are learning the basics together. Eden is loving the piano as well and is constantly crawling towards it to play.

Braeden's New Motorized Scooter

Braeden asked his family for money this year for his birthday because he wanted to buy a motorcycle. Well, he didn't quite get to buy a motorcycle and he was shocked when we told him there was no way he was getting one. He quickly got over the disappointment when he saw the motorized scooters. He loves it and thinks he's pretty darn cool when he's riding around the cul-de-sac.