Final day here in beautiful San Diego!

Wednesday March 18th,

On our last day here in San Diego we made sure to have a jam packed day for the girls. We woke up and headed to The Marquee to meet up with Ashlee to get more dog flyers and off we went. We split into 2 different groups. One group went downtown (and even to Petco Park with the San Diego Padres baseball team plays) and the other group went to a few different coffee shops and dog supply store in North and South Park of San Diego. After both groups had hit up the respected targets we met up all together to go the the dog beach! Just so you know it was VERY foggy down by the beach so most of the pictures were pretty tough to make out. The girls had a blast playing in the water and meeting a ton of new dogs and their owners that were out spending their morning at the beach. Wet, sandy, and all out of flyers we got back in the cars and headed to Mission Bay Park. Again it was pretty foggy so the only picture I put on here was a picture of them jumping with the bay behind them. At the bay we had a fun picnic where we let the girls make whatever kind of sandwich they could think of. Full and ready for our afternoon we headed back to the hotel for a short 30 minute swim and a devotional.

Later on, we went to South Park Dog Park. This dog park is on 6 acres of open land and is so open and gorgeous! No picture that I could take would have given it justice! We literally passed out the last of our 500 dog show cards! We even had some time to socialize and hang out in the park. This then included a short talent show which ended when I tried to move one way that my jeans wouldn't allow and I ripped a whole in them. Oops! We all had a good laugh, but then put an end to our talent show. We then headed to the amazing Covette Diner! This place was soooo much fun! They had a live DJ playing 50's style music, with the occassional request thrown in here and there, and even a magican that came to our table and literally amazed us all! I posted a picture of Ashlee being amazed by the magican :) We stuffed our faces full of amazing full and then topped it all off with some float and shakes that were heavenly!

Tonight we finished out last devotional with the girls and all went swimming for one last time. They are all in bed now and packed for our journey home tomorrow. We leave at 11:30 our time (1:30) your time and will be arriving in Dallas close to 7. I'm sure once the girls get home they will be sharing non-stop about this life changing trip. I also have combined all of the girls pictures from their cameras onto my computer so I can make all of them cd with all the pictures on them. Because I will not be coming back to Dallas with the girls I want to tell each of you what a great joy it was to get to know each one of your girls better on this trip. Each of them is such and blessing! I hope they had just as much fun as I did! Good night y'all!!

-Angela

One more day finished

Tuesday March 17th-
Today was a 'work' day for us here in San Diego. We woke up early to meet Ashlee at 'the Marquee' which is where Ethos Church has their offices. The first few pictures are a few views of where they call home to their offices. The building is very cool with paintings of all sorts all over the walls. The girls had a great time looking around at all of the different art. At the Marquee we got the posters that we would spend half of the day passing out. We went to San Diego City College and put posters on every bulletin board on campus (after getting permission of course). The posters were advertising an event in May called "Sleepless in San Diego" which benefits the homeless awareness going on in the city of San Diego. After passing out the posters there we went to a place called Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego. This was a 5 story all outdoor mall! It was huge and of course amazing and multi- colored like most buildings in San Diego. We went to different stores asking if they would put up the posters in their windows supporting the Sleepless in San Diego event. We had a lot of interested people which was a great encouragement to this event! After walking and passing out posters for hours the girls were exhausted and hungry. We allowed them to pick somewhere to eat in the food court before we continued on our way.

Next stop, Sea Port Village. Here we STARTED to pass out posters till we were approached by a cop saying that it was private property and weren't allowed to without permission from the manager. So all 11 of us marched on over to the managers office to get permission, but just by being unlucky the manager had just stepped out for the day. With some extra time before our dog flyers came in we did the last bit of the girls sovenier shopping. This place was filled with tons of really cute little places that the girls just loved. We were right next to the water so we played in the park and let the girls climb trees, look at some baby ducks in a pond, and hang out with each other until Ashlee showed up with our flyers. We had a blast hanging out in the sun and seeing the HUGE boats that were floating in the water next to us. Finally Ashlee showed up and we headed off to the dog park!

We went to the dog park at Balboa Park. This is a 24 hour leash free dog park. Dogs and their owners come to socialize and hang out. It was so fun to see all of the different breads of dogs running and chasing each other around like they are old friends. The girls probably saw every type of dog ever created. We passed out little cards that advertised a dog show that the Ethos Church will be putting on at their Easter Carnival. The dog show includes prizes for cutest, ugliest, and best costume on the dog. With the cards we passed out big and small dog bones. Funny enough no dog ever turned down our treat :) The girls could have stayed at the park forever playing with all the dogs.

After the park we can back to the hotel to grill out some chicken and to avoid the St. Patty's day crowds. The girls swam while the ladies cooked. Donna made some amazing grilled chicken for all of us to eat. After the food we squeezed in 2 devotionals and off to bed for the girls. They are getting nice and rest for our last full day of work. We are hitting up a few more dog parks, a dog beach, and possibly a playground.

Please continue to pray for the girls, the adult leaders, and the people being effect by these flyers. Our energy is being drained each day so pray that God continues to refreash us each morning for yet one more day of doing His work. Good night!

-Angela

Day 2

Today was zoo day!! We started off at the zoo at 9:00 this morning and didn't leave till 5:30 and STILL had not see everything! This zoo is huge! We went on a bus tour at the very beginning to get a good look at the zoo before we tried to find our way around. It was perfect weather outside! There wasn't a cloud in the sky and was in the mid 70's for most of the days. We got to see all sorts of animals including some we got to see perform in a show. The girls were snapping pictures left in right so I'm sure you will see every step along our journey in their hundreds of pictures. We even rode the SKYfari which were like ski lifts that went over the entire length of the zoo. One of my pictures is from the top of the SKYfari down at one of the exhibits. The girls never ran out of energy or their constant need to stop at every little shop along the way.

After the zoo we went to Old Town which has tons of cool shops and restaurants. We ate at a place called El Coyote which has to be the largest restaurant I have ever been too. Most of it was very open and outside. The even had a real mariachi band that was walking around! And by far the BEST tortillas I've ever had. We stuffed the girls to the brim with Mexican food before hitting a few more shops on the way back to our cars. Needless to say the girls are officially worn out. They all got to the hotel and took off their shoes and put on their pjs ready for bed. After devotionals and giggling and laughing a bit they are tuck in bed and crashed out for the night. Tomorrow we start our day passing out posters around San Diego and then passing out flyers. The girls are eager to get to work (we'll see how long that eagerness lasts tomorrow). From San Diego back to the Lone Star State, " Good night y'all!"

-Angela

Our first full day!!

Sunday March 15th-

Our day started off with a trip to Ethos Church here in San Diego. The girls seemed to be fascinated with San Diego in the day time considering last night there wasn't much to be seen at night. Their eyes were really big as we drove past all of the hills, palm trees, and multi-colored buildings (see picture below). We got to participate in the staff prayer time before the church service began. It was a great time for the leaders of the church to meet us and have them prayer for us as we are there. The church service was great and very unique compared to what we are used to at Lake Pointe (and a bit longer than we are used too). After church we went to In-N-Out Burger! It was very yummy and for most of the girls very messy :) They even gave us all hats to wear (see picture below). Later that afternoon we met with our Ethos staffer Ashlee and worked on some art projects for the churchs Easter services. The girls had fun painting and cutting and then chasing our art projects around after the huge gusts of wind that kept random would come. We also enjoyed some sun and swim time! We ate at our hotel and had some home favorites like PB & J, Mac & Cheese, and hot dogs. We wanted to give the girls a pretty chill day considering tomorrow they will have no time to rest. We also had our first devotional tonight. We talked with the girls about their dreams for the future and worked on some different activities to help them elaborate with us. All the girls are currently tucked into bed and slowly drifting off to sleep ready for our jam packed day at the zoo tomorrow!! I'm sure they will have lots of pictures and stories from that to tell you when they get home. Enjoy some of our pictures from our day!

We made it!

It is 2:30 Texas time and we are finally in the hotel and READY for bed. Our travels from Dallas started off with a 30 delay. Finally we got to Houston and rushed to our next flight. Our flight to San Diego was filled with crying babies and sleepy people. We did have a movie during the flight which helped the girls keep their mind off our 3 hour flight. Now we are in our hotel rooms and ready for some much needed sleep! In the morning we will be up early and going off to Ethos Church to help out with their services. I've posted some pictures from us at the airport and inside one of our hotel rooms taken just a few seconds ago. Enjoy!