Summer Travels

We had the opportunity to spend several weeks out of the city this summer.  Here is a run down on our travels.

Week 1-Camp with Freddy T

Freddy T. spoke at a youth camp in Florida and we joined him.  We pulled the kids of of school for the last week of June (their last week of school) and went to camp with him.  The camp was set up great for a family with all ages to attend.  We stayed in a house on the camp property.  The kids had a great time playing basketball, ping pong, and having room to run around.  The camp property was a lot of fun. They had a zoo, go carts, a water park, and archery.  They also had horseback riding and a zip line for the older kids.

Parker was wiped out of a day of flying and driving.

Jack had fun playing basketball in the driveway

Parker rode in a grocery cart for the first time.

Kids at the zoo

This is the van they gave our family to use for the week... so funny.

Kids riding around with one of the staff members, Mikey.  They loved doing this and he drove crazy.

 Lillie and I challenging the boys to a race

 Elliott and Freddy T.

 Jack and Cody (one of the students at camp)

Freddy T. was the speaker for the middle and high school kids, but the churches children's ministers was there as well and I took our kids to that service each night.  Lillie was singing along with her favorite song "Our God is Greater."

 Archery

 More pictures from the zoo

Week 2- Panama City Beach, FL

After camp we headed to Panama City Beach, FL with my side of the family.  We’ve been looking forward to this trip for many months.  The kids were so excited to be at the beach and swim as much as they wanted every single day.  Unfortunately it didn’t turn out quite like that.  It rained most of the time we were down there and 11 of the 15 people on the trip came down with a stomach bug that was spread around throughout the week.  It was disappointing.  It was good to be with family, but wasn’t what anyone had planned or had hoped for.  I don’t even have many pictures to document it.

Week 3- Cannon Beach, OR

Our kids rode home with our family to TN for week 3 and Freddy T. and I flew to Portland, OR and drove east to Cannon Beach and spent a week.  It was such a great week.  We felt bad leaving our family after a crazy week at the beach, but this week was just what we needed to rest and relax from life.  A friend of ours has a beach house in Cannon Beach and offered it to us.  A few days into the trip our friends Jonathan and Rachel joined us from TN.  We had a great time exploring, eating, and laughing.  A fun fact about the area is that it’s where the movie Goonies was shot.  It’s one of Freddy T.’s favorite movies!

Before we headed out to Cannon Beach we spent a day in Portland with Paul and Meredith Ramey.  Freddy T. has known the Ramey’s for many years, but they are the family that came to NYC the same time as we did and served as the Worship Pastor at Gallery.  We miss them being here and it’s always good to spend some time together, so refreshing!

 Flower stand in Portland

 We were a long way from home!

 One morning while Freddy T. had coffee with Paul I went to a walk up waffle place we drove by and got myself breakfast.  SO good!

 Paul and Meredith took us to the Rose Garden in Portland.  So many roses and so beautiful.

 Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach

 The beach there was so wide, biggest beach I've ever been on.

 Every night we built a fire on the beach and watched the sun set.  This particular night there were no clouds in the sky and we watched it completely set.  It was amazing.  

 Flying kites

 When the tide was low we could go to Haystack Rock and find all kids of starfish and other sea "things." 

One last sunset

Week 4- Tennessee

After our time in OR we flew back to spend several more days in TN.  Freddy T. spent a lot of time studying these days and we hung out with family.  We went swimming a few times to try to make up for lost time at the beach.

 Elliott

 Lillie

 Jack

One big thing that happened while we were in TN was this... we got a van! We've been praying for a while that God would provide our family with a van and a church in OH wanted to partner with us by helping us get this. We love having a vehicle now and are so grateful to God for his provision.