Pictures.... finally!

Hi friends!  Sorry it has taken me so long to finally post some pics. from these past couple of weeks!  Boy, have we been having some great times!  So great, that I TOTALLY forgot I start school this Friday.... oops!  I should probably start thinking about that stuff, huh?  :)

 

Halle and Jayce got to come stay with Nate and I this past weekend while Rach and Cody went to Atlanta with their church staff.  Here are some pics. of us playing "parents" for a few days! We got some good practice!!!!  We had SO MUCH FUN!  What great kiddos!

 

Here we are at Sonny's with the Hansen's.  Ella and Jayce were pretty good buds that night. 

 

Of course I had to be a cool aunt and take Halle & Jayce to McDonalds!!!

It was a HIT!  :)

We also discovered a super-fun playground just a few minutes from our house!  Jayce is FEARLESS, I tell ya!

Two weekends ago (before heading to Colorado) Nate and I got to stop by Morris, Illiniois for a family get-together on Nate's side.  It was so much fun to see everyone!  It had been about 3 years since we'd all been together like this!  

Melissa, one of Nate's cousins, has 3 boys and they are done having kids, so she was generous and passed along a TON of stuff for our little guy!  I couldn't get it all in the picture, but she gave us a car seat, strollers, bouncy seats, clothes, bibs, diapers--you name it, we got it!  Thank you so much, Melissa and Chuck!  You can also see in this picture that our baby furniture came in!  We haven't put it together yet, but we did manage to get the gigantic boxes inside the house with the help of our neighbor!  

This is Nick, Melissa's youngest.  He LOVES John Deer!  :)

Here are the ladies in the fam!  

Bottom row, left to right: Jill, Aunt Janice, and Nikki (Tim's girlfriend--who is AWESOME!)

Top row, left to right: Melissa & Michelle, Nate's cousins, and me

Here's Ashton, who also loves tractors!  She belongs to Michelle and Mark!  She's adorable!

So, after leaving Illinois, Nate and drove to Indianapolis, where we flew out to head to Denver for NYR.  As my previous post mentioned, we had a BLAST in Colorado, and I am super sad that it's over!  Here's to (hopefully) going back next year!   

I thought this picture was AMAZING.  I went on a hike with a group of friends on Wednesday (while Nate prepared for his sermon that night) and this is Mark, one of my college professors, standing in the middle of the rocks we had to hike through to get to the top.  Talk about perspective!  I love how God reminded us all that afternoon how BIG He is and how SMALL we are--yet how much He cares so intimately for each and every one of us still!  What a wonderful God!

This is the valley where we go each morning and evening to worship together with others who are attending the camp.  Let's just say this: it's breathtaking to stand in the midst of God's creation like this and sing and listen to His Word being taught.  AWESOME.  

Here's a view from the top of the "mountain" we hiked on Wednesday.  Now, before you get too impressed with my hiking skills, please know that this 15 -minute hike actually took me more like an hour because I was so winded.  But, boy was it worth it once we got to the top!  

Here's Nate speaking on Wednesday night.  He taught about the simplicity of sharing our stories with those around us.  So often, we try and make Christ's message so complicated, when really the Gospel is about Jesus making things NEW--which includes us!   

 He did a GREAT job-I was SO PROUD of him (as usual)!  

Here I am at the top of the mountain.  Whew.  Don't let this smile deceive you-- I was about to die at this point.  :)

Here's our drive up the mountain . . . no words, really, just enjoy the view.  :)

Here's Nate teaching the high school class.  They would meet each morning after the main session for about an hour, and Nate would do a lot of group discussion stuff with the students to kind of help apply what was just taught on the main stage to their own lives.  He did a great job with this, too!

And, finally, this was the night that Nate taught--right before the session began.  WOW.

So, as you can see... we had a GREAT TIME!  So sad it's over, but so thankful for a chance to get away and refocus.  We are so blessed to get to go to NYR for 4 years now.... it is always to refreshing to our souls!

Hope your summers are ending well!  And, friends, please remind me (when I start to get the school-grouchies) how much fun I got to have this summer, k?  :)

Love you all!