summer moments

Finally i'm all caught up on our major events from the summer! Here are just a few random pictures from our summer that haven't made it to the blog yet.  We had a wonderful summer full of fun, trips, food, friends, swimming, and family! Blogging has caused me to slow down a little each time I sit down to write a new post and realize just how good life really is.  God is so overwhelmingly gracious by allowing us to enjoy all of life's little pleasures. Blessed is such an understatement. My heart is full of thankfulness.   

^^^celebrated Coen's 1st birthday!^^^

^^^also celebrated Carson's birthday! Can't believe he's 6!^^^

^^^Birthday lunch with C since Jeremy was out of town for his party^^^

^^^Spent the weekend with Taylor and Jennifer in Arkansas^^^

^^^Fair date with Jeremy and our sweet friends, Esther and Kyle^^^

^^^Love me some Coen! He's such a sweet, funny boy^^^

"Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing." 

Puerto Rico!

This past August (ouch, that makes me very aware of how behind I am with this blog. Hoping to be caught up before the end of the year.) Jeremy and I went to Puerto Rico with some of our good friends! We planned this trip back in May on a totally spontaneous decision to go on a summer trip together.  Our friends had been to Puerto Rico before, but it was mine and Jeremy's first time and we were so excited to see the island and the beautiful water! We had such a great time! We visited the United State's only rain forest, shopped at the largest mall in the Caribbean, ate a lot of really weird food, and laid out by the beach or by the pool for several hours each day.  It was so relaxing, and just what we needed before starting the school year! Here are a few pictures from our trip that I wanted to share...

 ^^^this was the coolest part of the whole trip... okay, that's a little exaggerated, but it was so cool. A bar and grill in the pool you could swim up to and order/eat at... one day my house will have one of those.^^^

I have plenty more to share later! Check back! 

Send North America Conference

Jeremy and I were beyond thrilled to be heading to Dallas, Tx for the Send North America Conference.  This conference is put on by the North American Mission Board, and its main focus is church planting.  They emphasize mobilizing church planters, as well as, encouraging established churches to get on board with supporting church planters. We were invited to go by Sean Pierce, who has been our main source of contact from Albany, NY.  We were so excited to get to meet him, and some church planters from the North Eastern United States! God lined up everything for this weekend to happen, and we were so blessed by all that we learned and gathered from the conference. 

^^^Our first stop was In-N-Out Burgers... first time there and it was delicious!^^^

^^^This event was held at Prestonwood Baptist Church. Much more like a mall than a church... it was huge!^^^

 ^^^This was the booth dedicated to North East church planting. It was so neat to meet so many people passionate about this part of the United States!^^^

 ^^^Jeremy finally getting to meet Sean Pierce! He is the Director of Missions for the Hudson Valley Association and has been our main source of information and contact throughout this process.^^^

Throughout the conference there were different breakout sessions you could choose from to attend based on the different topics.  We followed the church planters track, and attended some great sessions! Jeremy and I went to most of them together, but we did split up a few times so I could go to some of the sessions geared towards women.  The picture above was from the breakout for church planting wives put on by Shauna Pilgreen and Christine Hoover.  It was so amazing! They shared several things that they had learned from their journeys as church planting wives.  It was so neat hearing their stories, and learning from women who have walked down the path that I will be walking down one day.  The other breakouts we attended were great too, and we both left with so much information! 

^^^lunch the next day was Chick-Fil-A... totally hit the spot!^^^

^^^such a good reminder as we left the conference that day. Please join us in praying for the Lord to raise up more workers that will be passionate about seeing the gospel go forth to a lost world.^^^ 

^^^dinner that night... so good!^^^

^^^a little shopping at The Galleria never hurt anyone :) ^^^

^^^And of course, we had to end with lunch at Corner Bakery.^^^

#throwbackthursday

Found this amazing video yesterday while going through very old photos on my parent's computer. Perfect timing for a throwback post! Hope you enjoy a laugh at the expense of me and my best friend.

Don't worry... there's another one coming soon!