Our Grand Adventure!

 Last Friday, the last day we spent in Alaska, we went on an adventure! Ok, so the two hour bus ride wasn't really adventurous but everything else was fun!

Here are the only two scenic pictures I took this year... from inside the moving bus no less. We were in the city the whole two weeks so I didn't have a whole lot of opportunity to take "pretty" pictures.

 Anyway... Adventure!

So there is this bridge that is right before you get to Denali. Under said bridge is a cat walk-type bridge. These people think its fun to walk across that two foot wide plank with only a hand rail on one side. NOT THIS CHICK! I stayed firmly planted on the solid rock, my friends.

 These are the *crazies* making their way to the catwalk.

 This is the view *DOWN*! Umm.... No Thank You!

 My Nut of a Husband.... ("Dear Lord, PLEASE let our children have my common sense!")

 Again. These people are NUTS!

Do you see those specks on the other side? Whew, everyone made it. Talk about extreme youth activity.

After we left the bridge we went on in to the city of Denali, we ate lunch and then went and got suited up for our white water rafting trip!!!!

We had to wear this incredibly flattering 'dry suit'. (Could you feel my sarcasm?) Although I felt really awkward in that thing I was so thankful for it! It kept me moderately warm and best of all... DRY! That was really important considering the temperature was in the 60's and the water was in the 30's!

The raft Michael and I were in contained 10 people including our guide whose name was Fragle. I have no earthly idea if I spelled his name correctly. :) He was a great guide, even though he kept using his ores to splash us with water.

We rafted down the Nenana River for about 2 hours! I LOVED every single minute! Alright, I didn't love the exact moment when the dude behind me grabbed me to keep himself from falling overboard. He almost put me in but other than that I LOVED it! The scenery was BEA-U-TI-FUL!

The rapids were class three and four. Our guide was awesome at maneuvering the boat so everyone ended up being beaten up and drowned splashed by the rapids. They had names like The Hammer, The Knife, and The Coffee Grinder.

I think what made it even more fun was that everyone in the boat knew each other. We laughed at each other and made fun of each other the whole time.

Everyone was worn out on the bus ride back to Fairbanks. Michael and I had just a couple hours to shower and finish packing before catching our plane ride home. Totally worth the long day.

I hope we get to raft again someday. :)

Teen VBT

A few pics from Teen VBT...

 "Gangster Soccer"

 Indoor games

 "Find the gummie bear in the bowl of flour" game... hilarious!

I'm sorry... but that is funny! He is COVERED in flour!

 They did "The Chicken Dance" while the flour was being cleaned up off the floor.

 Bro. Luke Bishop from Arkansas did the preaching this week. I didn't get any pictures of the preaching time but the messages I was able to listen to were soul-stirring.

 We got to help a couple nights with counting the pennies from the penny offering. I enjoyed helping until they all started making fun of the way I was lining up my pennies. Sheesh! Try to help and I get made fun of. :)

 "The Faithful Four" who were there every night counting and rolling a ton of pennies.(AKA the ones who made fun of me!)

The Church also feeds the Teens after the message and invitation. I think I would be correct in saying there was well over one hundred teens there each night. One boy brought over 20 visitors throughout the week and won an iPad! It was definitely a great week!

Tomorrow, Michael and I are heading to go white water rafting with a group of people! Grandma Case and Cousin Amy are keeping Josiah and Joanna for us. Once we get back, we are zipping up our suitcases and hopping on an airplane headed South! 

We have had a great trip but I am looking forward to being HOME! :)

Weekend Fun

We have been busy enjoying family and friends this past weekend. Here are a "few" pictures to give you an idea of what we've been up to.

[Insert pictures of Ailey, Josiah, and Joanna having fun Friday night]

Oh, wait, I left my SD card in my computer that night. :( What good is a camera with no card? Phooey!

Fast Forward to Saturday...

Michael and Paul hard at work

 Josiah falling in love with Uncle Paul...

 Josiah in a tree

 Jasmine in a tree

 Josiah and Jasmine in a tree

 Aunt Tina and Joanna

 The boys playing soccer

 Josiah was reading a book to Joanna

Sunday...

 J and Jo ready for church

 The kids with Uncle Daniel

 Eating a yummy lunch @ Aunt Tina's house

 Group photo

 Gma and Gpa with the kiddos

 Amy and Joanna

 Our little princess!

Tonight is night #2 of Teen VBT! I heard they had a great service last night and I am looking forward to being there tonight and getting a blessing from the preaching.

Vacation Bible Time!

Vacation Bible Time had a great turn out of kids!

 Penny March! There is some serious competition with the penny offering.

 Michael and Fritz McSpeedy. The kids loved it when McSpeedy came out for a visit.

 My wonderful Sister in law came and grabbed my camera from me so she could get some pictures of Josiah in his class for me.

 He LOVED going to VBT except the last night and that was because he was overly tired and not feeling the greatest.

 The final night of vbt, they brought the kids all together to get a group picture.

 There were somewhere around 600 kids!

 It was organized chaos. :)

 Michael gave away some balloons for people who brought visitors. Here is one of the cars that when home with this little boy.

 Joanna got to go with me last night so I threw her in her back pack. She did really well with all the noise.

We praise the Lord for a fun and exciting week, and most of all for the Souls who accepted Christ as their Saviour!

B.F.F.

I wish everyone could have a Best Friend Forever. When you're young you throw that phrase around rather flippantly. You don't realize that TRUE friendships are precious and extremely rare anymore.

 It's the kind of friendship that lasts through the test of time, distance, engagements, marriages, births of babies. It lasts through the good, bad, and ugly in your lives and doesn't leave you high and dry no matter the circumstance.

 The kind of friendship where you can call and say "Praise the Lord, listen to what just happened" as well as "Pray for me. I can't tell you why. I just need you to pray." And sometimes its the freedom to rant and talk it out without being judged a horrible person because you're struggling with something.

 The kind of friendship that gives you freedom to have other friends without jealousy, because you know where you stand with each other.

 The kind of friendship that doesn't take offense when you say something stupid to each other. You take it in stride knowing that they are having a rough day and later on you just say "I was stupid" and you move on with life.

 It is the kind of friendship when getting together means Ben & Jerry's, a movie, and pajamas. You never have to entertain each other or continuously talk. Silence is golden especially in the middle of a movie!

 True friendship is saying "I'm thirsty and I'm raiding your fridge."

And probably one of my favorite parts of it all is after not having seen my BFF in several months- there is no awkward silence. She still makes fun of me, and I still can't make a good come back on the spur of the moment.

I am extremely blessed to have a handful of true friends, but there is nothing so sweet as a friendship that has been tested and tried over a period of several years. I am blessed beyond measure to call Sami my BFF!

I am also thankful that our girls are so close in age! I see slumber parties in our future and that makes me happy! :D

Sami, when our girls have their 13th birthday party and they start being silly and having fun by dancing around and thinking no one is watching... Wanna hide and video tape it all just like your mom did???? lol