Christmas Bonus

Another nice surprise at Christmas was being in town (G Junx) the same time as two of my good girlfriends from college and being able to see them and their families. (As spread out as we are, how did we ever manage to have family in the same place! Oh yeah, maybe that's part of why we got to be friends...) Even though time was short, moments together are very special to me and it was very nice to hang out and catch up. Here is Emily with her adorable son Colby (not really a baby anymore, Em!) and Kacy and her precious 4 mo. old daughter Hayden--our first meeting. What a doll. I soooooo wish I could be closer to watch them grow up and to see the two of you be such wonderful moms. Thanks for taking time to see me and can't wait to see ya'll again!

Christmas in Colorado

Christmas in Colorado this year looked nothing like the cold, snowy days I remember loving as a teen. In fact, if it wasn't for the sweaters and Christmas ties we were wearing in these pix, one might think of an Easter Sunday afternoon. Matthew and I enjoyed our 5 days in Grand Junction with the Hays family very much. It WAS cold, but no real snow to speak of. I think we may have seen some on the mesa on the way to the airport, but that's it. We weren't able to come in until Christmas Eve due to school in FL going so late this year, but we did make a good decision by flying into Montrose, only an hour away from GJ. We missed seeing the snow over Vail pass, but not the 5-6 hour drive from DIA. Typical Christmas holiday for us, with good food, home videos, lots of games to be played and even a Hays Family special in church--HA! It was very good to be with family again.

Thanksgiving 2005

Thanksgiving 2005 was spent with our Hawkins family in South Carolina. It is nice to be on the same family holiday schedule as Jessica and Jonathon--sharing one holiday together and going to our "other" families for the 2nd. Leah and the Duranceaus (J and J) drove home from Nashville and we drove up from Florida to spend a nice weekend of relaxation, eating, golf, shopping, movies, eating, and making home improvement plans to the house. I think the girls enjoyed their movie choice--Pride and Prejudice--much more than the manly men's The Whole Nine Yards. The house above now looks quite different, I hear, with a new back porch and remodeled kitchen/dining/living room. We are looking forward to the big unveiling soon.

"A new car!"

Now if you didn't say that with your best The Price Is Right/Ed McMann imperson-ation, you just didn't do it justice. Here we are with our most expensive purchase ever, a black 2003 Saturn Vue. We've been needing a more reliable vehicle and have been looking into the Jeep/SUV style for quite some time. More room for the dog and the teens, we justified. We finally decided upon this car, since the Saturns have been good cars for us and much better on gas mileage. Matt did all the homework on it and we both had a hand in the bargaining, which was fun but intimidating and a bit crazy! After like 3 hours of paperwork and a couple of hamburgers/hotdogs (they were having a "customer appreciation" BBQ), we finally drove it off the lot. Matthew was a bit sad to part with his little white Saturn, which probably wasn't worth the gas it had left in it, but we are both very excited about our new ride! So is Peyton--she loves to go for a car ride.

SPLASH 2004-2005

Our third year here in Vero with the teens. Activities have transformed themselves into real ministries. The kids are getting older and becoming more involved in things outside of church, like music, drama, sports, and of course JOBS. The kids that were junior high and seemed so young when we first came are fully involved in high school now. We had our first real class of seniors this year and that was of course exciting but bittersweet. It has been great to watch these teens grow, but then watching them move on to college is hard. It's sad to not have them a part anymore and we miss their leadership, but we are excited for them in their new adventures.
Favorite activities of the year include: Christmas party with the marshmallow guns, seen here;


Encounter 2005 in Cocoa Beach--we cleaned and repainted the entire exterior of a food and clothing shelter in Rockledge, (don't forget our cool XL freebit t-shirts and trucker hats from some random radio station promotion.) Summer Camp was combined this year--Junior and Senior High the same week, and we had a GREAT group attend. And then the most amazing mission trip yet, Columbus, Ohio. We worked with Lower Lights Ministries and helped with the remodeling of two Rachel's House buildings, which provide housing for recently released female prisoners. We met some incredible people there and the group that we took was amazing. They worked so hard and grew a lot through the experience. We got to have a ton of fun somewhere in the middle of all the work, too! The pix in the beginning of this blog is of us playing broom hockey at the end of the trip with the local youth group. We also got to go hiking through a cool canyon and canoeing in the dark, ride the most thrilling roller coasters in the nation at Cedar Point, and nothing says mission trip but a 16 hour road trip (both ways) with a 3 vehicle caravan. Mission completed.

Just wanted to show more

More photos from Chicago vacation. photo #1: View of city lights from ferris wheel at Navy Pier. photo #2 from Gino's East Pizzeria. photo #3: ya know.

Go Cubs!

Summer of 2005 took us to the Nazarene General Assembly in Indianapolis. We got to see both of our families -together in the same location- and many Naz friends from around the nation. A quick 2 1/2 day vacation right after took us to Chicago, IL. What a great time we had together, reliving our very own Ferris Bueller's Day Off. On our first full day we enjoyed the Lincoln Park Zoo and the beautiful Centennial Park and fountain plaza area, where the famous Taste of Chicago was in full swing. After some tasty food and people watching, we walked the waterfront and took in the Windy City lights from atop the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. GORGEOUS! On our second day we conquered the Chicago Institute of Art, partook (is that the past tense?) in some shopping, had some Gino's East Chicago style pizza, and of course, attended an incredible game at Wrigley Field. (Mel's first time in attendance). Quite a full day, and of course, Cubs Win! We then jetted back after the game to catch our flight home the next morning, out of Indianapolis. I love traveling with my husband! Even on a mini-vacation, we have so much fun together.

Summer Reunion, V-5 Style

Finally, I have been trying to blog this post (picture) forever!

This June marked the first official, long awaited, reunion between my 4 close college girlfriends and I. We have all seen each other at different times, but we have not ALL been together in the same place since graduation. Actually, that's not quite true--it was Denise's wedding. Well, now that I think of it that's not true EITHER, it was Kacy's wedding. Whoops! So it's been...3 years. . . That's still a long time! We have been planning to get together for a while, and then we realized that next summer, as originally planned, may be too difficult since several of us (not me) are now into the family forming stage of our lives. What fun we had catching up, hanging out, and just relaxing...

The beeeautiful Lake Tahoe, NV/CA was the perfect destination for our first-of many- rendevous(es? vi?). Emily's family owns a cabin there that they were SO kind to let us borrow for the weekend. And what a cute little log cabin it is, complete with breakfast porch, firewood, spiders and pine needles. (by the way, we're coming back, Rogers!) Tahoe was also a central lo-cal for all but me, of course, but I enjoyed my little flight and drive down with Em and Neicer and Colby. Yes, it was V-5 plus 1, and a boy at that. Little 8 month old Colby was definitely the main event of the weekend, as you can see in this photo and probably most of my roll. (am I alone in this?!) What an adorable little man you are blessed with, Em. This was my first meeting, although I think everyone else had gotten to see Em and Colby at least once before Tahoe. I have to say, I've never really been a believer in love at first sight until now. My heart is now divided, Matthew. Sorry, but he is so stinkin' cute! His little laugh is hysterical. We would have been a bunch of old hags sitting around the t.v., if it wasn't for the entertainment Colby brought.

So as for what we did while we were there...what would you expect?...a little shopping, a little sight seeing, a lot of eating, laughing, and goofing around pretty much sums it up. We all ended up buying cheesy touristy sweatshirts that first evening because somebody from Idaho forgot to send me the reminder memo that it still SNOWS in Nevada in June. I'm embarrassed to say that this former Colorado girl--wears shorts in all weather--was fureezing. After dropping poor little Colby off at the baby-sitters' (relatives') we attempted to enjoy a true girl's night out: 5 orders of chicken quesadillas at an Irish Pub--("don't order the crab cakes?")--25 min. of nickle slots, throw in a wierd-looking rock fountain, yummy but overpriced Cold Stone icecream, and a few triple axles in there and you'd have our first day. It was silly, and simple, but fun.

Tahoe, Take Two

And the weekend continues...
Day two of our adventure began slowly with a yummy nutritious breakfast of fresh fruit, granola, and yogurt--thanks to Beth and...Kacy?--and terribly fattening Otis Spunkmeir muffins, thanks to me and ...Em? (I'll take the sole credit.) Leave it to me to talk about the food. Then Em and Colby then took us on a brisk (cool, not fast) morning hike a.k.a. walk down the road to the "beaver ponds"...the self timer photography officially began. Gorgeous scenery. After lunch we headed back into "town" for this fun afternoon at an old-fashion photo studio. I secretly have always wanted to do this with friends or family, but NO one has ever wanted to do it with me. Matt was soo glad when he heard I got this "out of my system" without him. The girls easily obliged me and I think we can all agree it was actually quite fun! Colby even saddled up for a photo with a cowboy hat, chaps and a gun. I won't incriminate the parents by posting the photo of the 8 mo. old with the gun in his hands, but it was a cute one. Sorry about the fuzziness of the photo--notice I'm not giving copyrights here--(digital cameras are amazing inventions...)

BTW--If you think these pictures are risk-ay, then you'd be shocked to see what they expected us to wear out of the dressing rooms, in front of any and all passerbyers, before the dresses and boas got put on. (The whole scenerio reminded me of freshman year at college...) It's not every day that you'll find 2 pastor's wives wearing fishnet stockings with shotguns and whiskey bottles in their hands--especially when one of them (not me) is 7 mo. knocked up!

Speaking of the pregnant saloon girl, when we got back to the cabin we had a nice little surprise shower for Kacy and her little baby girl to be. Nice homecooked (yeah right) dinner, and an evening of reminescing about college days, college classmates, soccer, Coach "Jim"--Big J and Little J-etc. We also FINALLY cleared the record on who all we kissed and DIDN'T kiss during college, and the official kissing whore was renamed. I'm glad that is finally out in the open!

Day 3, not much to be said. I hate goodbyes. It was hard to part our ways, but we'd had a good, well-needed weekend of reconnecting and sharing our new lives with each other. Let's just say I can't wait till Hawaii '07! I think the best part of the goodbye day was that I didn't have to say goodbye to Colby yet, and I didn't have to share him with all the rest of ya'll the next day, either.
Tahoe '05 goes down in the books with our first trip to Flyin' M and the parking meter night.

S.P.L.A.S.H. 2005

We took the youth to the beach for this year's annual photo. (This is our Wed. nite crowd--a little bit different group than comes on Sundays.) I could name everyone, but I won't. I'm in the front, left, and Matt's way in the back, center.