Road Trip

Bryon and I decided to pack up and head to W.V this past weekend. A trip that used to only require a duffle bag and book bag now requires us to bring half our home. On top of that, a trip that used to take about 6 hours now takes about 8 hours. Hopefully we'll learn to tweak that a little the more we travel but having a baby sure does change things!

The trip was really refreshing. Our purpose in going was to spend some time praying and working on some different projects for raising support. Overall it was very productive and helped give us some more momentum in this whole process. It has been difficult to know how to balance our day to day responsibilities and raising support at the same time. It was nice to get away from home (no laundry, cleaning, phone calls, etc) and focus. When we are up there we don't have cell phone reception, television or internet. The pace of life is so much slower. It is so nice and quiet!

I am always surprised when I go up there by how much I love the area. It is just confirmation that the Lord has put W.V on our hearts for a reason. There is so much beauty in the area and so many people that need to meet the One who created the beauty around them. I am anxious to move there.

Here are a few photos I took while there:

The picture below shows some homes above the basketball court. It's not uncommon to see a bunch of boys playing basketball here in the afternoons. I'm sure Bryon will be spending a lot of time in this area with the young boys when we move here.

Happenings

I feel like the past few weeks have flown by! My family has been pretty under the weather the past couple weeks. It started with me getting a flu of some sort two weeks ago and ever since then one of us has had a cough/sore throat/runny nose. Capri was the first to get the cold when I had the flu but I attributed it to teething. I'm pretty sure it's a full out virus now though. I hate hearing my baby coughing and sniffly. It wasn't long before I got the cold and now Bryon has it as well. It seems to want to hang on to our family for dear life. Thankfully after the first few days it's just an annoyance but not bad enough to hinder us from most of our daily activities. I'm sure all this pollen in the air isn't helping matters. I dusted my home the other day and my dusting rag was yellow from pollen by the time I was done (and I haven't even had my windows open!). My sister, Amanda helped me put all this sneezing into perspective when she wrote in her blog about all the beauty that comes as a result of the pollen. I am looking forward to my family being healthy enough to spend some time enjoying the beauty outside!

My grandparents have been in town for a while. It has been so great being able to see them more often. They have lived in Minnesota my whole life so visits have been few and far between. I have loved being able to head over to my parents anytime I want and spend time with my grandparents. We have created a lot of great memories while they've been in town. We spent a morning at my sisters and had my grandma teach us how to make donuts. Last week we had a girls night with me, my sisters, mom and grandma getting together for dinner and doing our nails (a tradition we've always had with my grandma). We also had a family breakfast at Cracker Barrel with my entire family and my grandparents, it is not an easy task getting all of our schedules to mesh! I envy people whose grandparents have lived close enough to create memories like those on a consistent basis. I treasure these times knowing they can't happen as often as I would like them to. I am thankful I have had these past few weeks with them so close. It has been so special to be able to introduce them to Capri and to see her with her great grandparents.