Freedom Festival

We took a semi-last minute roadtrip the weekend before the 4th to see Bailey's cousin Jonathan and his family (Uncle Mickey and Mamaw were there too). Jonathan works at a church in Albany, GA. (The church that put out the movies Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and Courageous). The church has a big celebration called Freedom Festival in honor of the 4th of July at their very large recreation park.

We left mid-afternoon on Saturday after Bailey got back from a class in Memphis. Sidney went to sleep as soon as we hit the road. She woke up about an hour and half down the road, as it was time for her to eat. We stopped to pick up something to eat and then got right back on the road. She was still a little fussy after eating but soon fell right back to sleep. I had to wake her later to eat again. We got to Jonathan and Tiffany's about 1:30 that morning. Of course, little miss was ready to play when we got there! We all got in bed, and Sidney talked us, and herself, to sleep.

Bailey, Sidney, and I slept in Sunday morning while everyone else was at church. We hung around the house until later that afternoon when it was time to go to Freedom Festival. The festival consisted of the big blow-up bouncy's, pony rides, a cake walk, food vendors, music, other activities, and,of course, fireworks!

 

 

We hung around for a bit before taking a break to go inside to Jonathan's office to cool off (it was HOT!) Then we walked around for a little while before the program started. Sidney napped on and off throughout the afternoon/evening. She even stayed up to watch the fireworks. As soon as the fireworks were over and the lights came on, we could all feel a rush of cool air. A storm was certainly on the way. We loaded up as quick as we could and got back to our car. The rain came before we made it back to their house. Unfortunately Jonathan and Uncle Mickey (and some other volunteers) got stuck at the park during the storm, but they finally made it home. Sidney slept about 8 hours that night!!!

After the fireworks...just a little hot and sweaty

  

Jonathan and Tiffany had to work on Monday so Bailey, Sidney and I spent some time shopping at the mall and driving around Albany. That afternoon we met them at the church to get a tour of it. Then Tuesday morning we got up and drove home. Sidney pretty much slept the whole way home except for when we woke her to feed and change her. It was a quick trip but we really enjoyed getting away for a couple of days and visiting with family.

Mamaw and her two great-granddaughters

A Little Overdue?!? (Part 2)

Here is a recap of the last few months in pictures..... (We bought a new camera as a Christmas/anniversary/new baby gift to ourselves so I'm hoping to get better at the whole picture taking thing. We shall see if that happens or not).

I have a couple pictures of the night we took the pregnancy tests but I seemed to have misplaced that memory card. (Those were on the dinosaur old camera).

I tried to upload the video of us announcing baby to his parents but I did not succeed. So sorry. It is absoultely priceless.

Kentucky Campus

Thanksgiving 2011

Revealing baby's gender to our families

Annual Girls Christmas Party

 Before our anniversary dinner

Christmas Eve 2011

And a few pregnancy pics....

World Changers

A few weeks ago, Bailey and I had the opportunity to go with the youth from our church to World Changers in East Chicago, IN. When we were youth, this was a weeklong trip we looked forward to each summer. World Changers is an organization/program through the North American Mission Board that is geared toward students. It is a missions experience that allows students to help meet other's physical needs by completing various construction-type projects and to meet their spiritual needs as they share the love of Christ through their service. Here's a recap of our week.....  (Warning: this is a long post, without pictures, but we had an amazing week where the Lord proved, once again, that He is with us each and every step of the way).

We (25 youth and 11 adults) drove ALL day Saturday (about 12 hours) to Gurnee, IL which is about 45 minutes north of Chicago and the home of Six Flags Great America. We spent most of Sunday (about 9 hours) at Six Flags. This Six Flags is fantastic! We rode nine different rollercoasters. A few of them several times. I must say that I loved Superman (which you ride like you are actually flying--face down/head first) and Viper (a good-ole wooden rollercoaster). We ended the day with Giordano's pizza (in my opinion, this was better than Gino's).

We got up Monday morning, and as most of us are getting ready, a big thunderstorm comes through and knocks out the power at our hotel. Luckily, the weather passed on through and we were able to pack up so we could go to Navy Pier before we had to check in at World Changers.

A typical week at World Changers: Monday: check-in, opening celebration, dinner, meet your crew, worship, youth group devotion, free time. Tuesday through Friday: breakfast, go to work site, lunch at work site, back to school to shower/clean-up, dinner, worship, youth group devo, free time. Saturday: head home.

Bailey and his crew (which included Mrs. Susan from our group) worked on a local church. They scraped and painted it. Bailey had the experience of working on the steeple of the church. This church and another local church will soon be merging.

    My crew (which included our youth minister, Alex) worked at a trailer park. Originally there were to be approximately 30 trailers that needed to be painted (to be completed by several crews). However, at the last minute, one of the financial supporters backed out. This left us with little paint. We started on our trailer the first day (after waiting about an hour for supplies) and completed a portion of it, knowing we probably wouldn't be back the next day.
    On Wednesday our crew went to a smaller town and worked with one of the town employees spreading mulch and then we picked weeds at a playground. The previous evening at worship, we had a special prayer time that the supplies (paint) would be provided. And that it was. Our crew chief received a call about the middle of the day, Wednesday, asking how much paint we needed, as there was a lady that heard about World Changers and offered to buy a certain amount of paint.
    Thursday--my crew goes back to our trailer and we finish painting it. At this point we're not sure what Friday is going to hold, if anything, but we just wait until the next morning to find out.
    Friday--our crew returns to the trailer park to help another crew finish painting their trailer (which had not been worked on since the first day as they were out of paint). We worked with that crew for the morning and then after lunch completed a few smaller projects helping different residents in the trailer park. I had a really great crew that was willing to do whatever they were asked. The students worked very hard and helped one another to complete whatever job they were working on.

This was my 6th World Changers trip. I must say it was frustrating to me at what appeared to be a lack of organization/lack of work for us to do. Typically you have a project that you know is going to take you all week to complete and not a project that could be completed in a day (granted you have the supplies). However, the Lord provided us something to do each day, even though it may not have been our choice of work. He placed us where He needed us to be so that we could encounter different people and share His love with them. 

The lack of work, or rather, the extra time, really allowed for a lot of evangelism for most of the crews. It was so amazing to come back together as a youth group at the end of the day and hear several of our students tell a story about how they were able to personally share the love of Christ that day with someone else. I loved going on these trips as a student, but it is a completely different experience going as an "adult." It is such a beautiful, and encouraging, thing to see the love of Christ burning within our students.

Please keep the people of East Chicago in your prayers--for those we encountered throughout the week and do not know Christ and also for those that do and need a church home with fellow believers.

1,243 Miles Later--Finale

On Sunday, we got up and started the trek home. We wanted to go to the zoo, but the weather wasn't looking too good. We took a different route home so we could stop in Springfield, MO to see Lincoln's home.

After our stop in Springfield, we drove to just outside of St. Louis to stop for the night. We decided to go by the Arch the next morning.

We saw a good bit of flooding while traveling through MO. Here is just one example, a road flooded in front of the arch.  

Waiting to go inside. 

 One view from the top of the arch.

Another view--Busch Stadium 

After lots of fun, a few days and 1,243 miles later, we arrived back home in Tobie town. We had a really great time. Bailey and I are looking forward to being back in Chicago in a few weeks for World Changers with the youth from our church.

1,243 Miles Later--Part Two

Saturday morning we walked back down to Wrigley Field. This time to watch a game.

We got there early enough to see batting practice, walk around and get pictures, and of course, get some yummy, not-at-all-healthy food! This is what Bailey and I decided to go for first--jumbo nachos. We ate every.single.bite.

Enjoying suffering through sitting at the game. It was much cooler than we expected it to be. And it also misted/rained through most of the game. Luckily our seats were covered and we didn't get wet (yet). After the game we went back to the hotel for naps and then went to Gino's East for dinner. This was one of those "must-do" things while in Chicago--you have to go eat Chicago style pizza.

Our SMALL meaty legend pizza. I only ate one piece, along with some salad, and I think Bailey only ate two pieces. It was quite filling.

We debated on what to do next as it was still raining/misting. We decided to brave the rain and go to Navy Pier. We managed to take the "L" and a bus to get us there.

Waiting at the bus stop.

Chicago skyline and Navy Pier

Just in case you needed to know how far these places were from this spot at Navy Pier.

We got a little wet but it ended up being a pretty nice evening. We did a little shopping and, luckily, they started the Ferris wheel up right before we were going to leave.

A not-so-great picture from the top of the Ferris wheel.

One more post to follow about the remainder of our trip. Stay tuned.....

1,243 Miles Later--Part One

A few weeks ago Bailey and I took a road trip to Chicago with his parents. Here's a recap of some things we did.....

We started our drive on Thursday afternoon. Our first stop of the trip: Lambert's--where we ate a huge delicious meal.

Mrs. Connie and Mr. Jeff

After Lambert's, we drove a few more hours before stopping for the night. It took us a few stops before we actually found a hotel that had room. It just so happened that the Illinois state track meet was going on and most of the hotels were booked solid.

Friday morning we continued the drive to Chicago. We headed straight to Superdawg's because if you're in Chicago, you have to try a Chicago dog. Superdawg's is a drive-in similar to Sonic so we got to enjoy our meal outside.

The "superdawg." The superdawg comes on a poppy seed bun with mustard, piccalilli (tomato), dill pickle, onions, and hot peppers, and served with fries, of course. Mrs. Connie, Bailey, and I were all very brave and ate them fully dressed (well, I didn't eat the tomato, but I did eat everything else). And to be honest, it really wasn't too bad. I might could eat it again.

After Superdawg's, we headed to our hotel to check-in.

We stayed at the Inn at Lincoln Park. It was an older hotel but was pretty nice and had lots of character. We really liked the location and the fact that we could walk to Wrigley Field, which we did that afternoon. They had a continental breakfast with fresh pastries and bagels each morning which were fabulous!

We went down to Wrigleyville to see the stadium, do a little shopping, and take a few pictures.

Then we hopped on the "L" (Chicago's subway) at Addison (right behind the stadium, as you can see in the picture below) and headed downtown for the Magnificent Mile.

We walked around the Magnificent Mile for a while and then stopped in at Garrett's Gourmet Popcorn where Bailey and I got CaramelCrisp with pecans and his parents had the Chicago mix--CaramelCrisp mixed with CheeseCorn.

On one end of the Magnificent Mile was the Realtor building, which is the national headquarters. So we had to take a picture of it for Bailey. Then we went to dinner at the world famous Billy Goat Tavern. We went to the original one that is downtown, under the Magnificent Mile.   

The Billy Goat Tavern was made famous by an SNL skit that John Belushi was in years ago. You can see part of it here.

 

As we were on our way back to our hotel, we came across hundreds, maybe thousands, of bike riders. We asked a local what was going on and he said, "It's Happy Friday." On the last Friday of the month, people show up for a bike ride through the city to show that bike riders own just as much of the road as cars. We waited for the bikers to pass for 10-15 minutes, so that we could cross the street, and they had been going before we had even gotten there.

To be continued.....