Full Circle

Five years ago, I spent an amazing fall in Austria and met two wonderful friends. Friends whom I have grown with, traveled with, learned from and lived life together. Even though the last few years we have not spent countless hours together, like we did in Austria, they are still very precious to me.

Last weekend, they were married. The morning of the wedding, I thought back to our days in Austria. It is amazing that they are now married. I remember the first time that Lester told me he liked Katie. I also remember the talks that Katie and I had down by the creek, when no one else was listening...because it was a secret.... Well the cat is out of the bag and here's the proof!

A Weekend To Remember

This last weekend Kelly, Michael, David and I all attended a marriage conference.

http://www.familylife.com/site/c.dnJHKLNnFoG/b.3204559/k.F5B/Attend_a_conference.htm

I am normally very skeptical of conferences and find them a bit cheesy. But this was a great weekend! We were able to spend a lot of intentional time together. They had great resources and teaching that hit right on the money!

Spending time with Kelly and Michael was probably the best part. It's amazing to get to do things like that with your siblings, grow together in life. It's fun not to just be the baby sister anymore, but to be friends too who are waling through life together!

If you want to get to know your spouse better, or want to spend time figuring out the purpose of marriage, I strongly recommend this conference!

As for me...I am soooooooo happy to be married to this guy.

(The one on the right)

Africa

We just returned home last night. The safari was awesome. The highlight was watching a leopard stalk a gazelle for about 45 minutes (see the below picture). The gazelle barely got away. Another highlight was seeing the great wildebeest migration through the Serengeti Plains. No picture could possibly capture that amazing sight, with hundreds of thousands of wildebeest as far as the eye could see in every direction for an hour of driving. We had plenty of adventure along the way with a flash flood, five flat tires and crossing a couple of rivers.

It was unbelievable to see the conditions that many of the local people live in. I was certainly left feeling grateful for all that I have. A Maasai warrior gave us a tour of his village near the Serengeti. They live in extremely small huts and have very poor santitation. We were excited to give them two suitcases full of school supplies and toys.

Enjoy these pictures (taken by my bro-in-law Michael) and I can't wait to tell you more about it the next time I see you.
~ David





Beautiful Africa



matching shirts


ngorangora crater


Who knows when our road will lead back to my beautiful Africa...hopefully not long.

Life's Greatest Joy

I have come to the conclusion that being an Auntie is the very best thing that can happen in a person (preferably a woman's) life. If you do not have a niece or nephew, you should really go get one!

This is the amazingness that I am enjoying!
















And they all love Grammy...

Into Africa

"If I knew a song of Africa, of the giraffe and he African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me? " ~out of africa

Today my favorite husband woke me up at 5 am to wisk him off to the airport. Upon the arival of my brother at the ungodly hour of 5:30, off we went to LAX. It was then that the brothers realized that they were matching: Jeans, Crocs (yes i know) and Captain America T-Shirts. Oh, my.

It was not long ago that I was headed on the same trip that my husband, brother, 2 brother in laws and father are heading on. I learned many things while I was in Africa, but more than anything it was a reminder of the love I have for the people, smells and sounds of Africa. I am praying, and asking you to pray, that my husband loves it as much as I did!

Sudden name change....

Due to the many comments about our blog's name, "Time after Time" we have decided to change our name.

Time After Time
when you see that phrase, you may think of this

but what we really wanted you to think of is this....


which is the song my wonderful Courtney sang for our first dance at our wedding.

And so, we have changed our name...do to popular demand! You might say, "Why change for us?" well truth be told, one of us does not really like the name either (not mentioning any names).

Tomorrow begins very early.
Goodnight.

Happiest Place on Earth...

One of the beautiful perks of being an unemployed, part-time student is that when you get free Disneyland tickets-you can go whenever!

My mom and I got to spend a lovely few hours together at Disneyland. I am truly valuing each and everyday that I am "free." I know that "real life" is not like this and so I am soaking it all in. I count myself so blessed to have a mom that I really do want to spend time with. She is the most amazing woman I know. She gives me wisdom and insight into any area of my life, that I ask. She never pushes or denies my heart and ALWAYS values who I am and what I feel. Walt Disney said, " all dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." My mom always believes that for each one of us kids. And when we did not have enough courage in ourselves, she more than enough courage for us to press on and achieve our dreams. She is the ultimate fan. I pray that someday I can become at least a fraction of who she is.

So this is to you little Mom... You are really the greatest (and now all the blogging world knows!)