The Trip in Review

     Ok, so I just finished organizing and going through my pictures from the trip. There were not nearly as many this trip as past trips but that definitely helped my post-trip sanity.

      On my last post about the trip I think I left off as we were getting ready for the conference. I did. So I will start there.

      The conference was great. We heard alot of good talks and met alot of beautiful people and became reacquainted with old conference friends. 

      It was also very cold there and I mean VERY cold. Walking to the breakfast room one morning on the day it snowed I was the coldest I ever remember being in my life. But it was awesome to see snow again. 

      The very first day of the conference was a men only meeting so Mom took Han and I and the littles to the Ashville farmers market. It was huge! We had alot of fun there.

 

      The conference center is very nice and very accomidating for lots of fellowship. There were some lovely rocking chairs next to the vendor's hall.

 As I said, we heard lots of great talks in this room.

       There were two breakout sessions. Mr. Houston spoke in one of them. His talk was on evangelism and it was really good. It was probably my favorite of the entire conference. R.C. Sproul's on Justification was second.

 The meal times were great times for fellowship. And of course food lines are always fun ;):)

      Daddy flew home after the conference and the rest of us went back to Grandpa and Grandma's house.

      My cousin Madden was baptized while we were there. It was really neat. It is wonderful to see someone so young profess faith in Christ at such a young age.

 We are a big happy family plus some ;);)

Clay is awesome!!! He is my buddy no matter what Hannah says! So there ;)

 It was so great to see Nora again. She got big while we were gone!! Why do babies do that??

      

It was really too cold to go to the beach while we were there but one day we went to collect shells and fly kites.

     Han and I spent several days with Aunt Alana and Uncle Spencer. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Han and I even wrote a song about it :) We played Uno Stacko, watch Chopped and the Paradise, made wedding plans with Uncle Spencer, made meals together, prepped for birthday parties, listened to music really loud and talked alot. It was awesome.

Their heater wasn't working so we all had to huddle under blankets ;)

      On Memorial Day Grandpa and Grandma took us to the USS North Carolina. It was an important battleship during WWII and now is a museum. It was really cool. It was also neat to tour it with Grandpa who knows all about WWII history and ships :):)

 Those guns in the background (the things with the white tops) were huge. When they would fire the whole ship would shake!

 Hannah is looking forward to graduating so that she doesn't have to do the student worksheets at museums ;) I enjoyed myself greatly not having to do those things!! :) Oh the joys of graduated life ;)

      Blake celebrated his 5th birthday while we were there. (At Grandma's house not at the ship) Hannah made his cake and I think it is one of her best to date. And that is saying something because she has made some lovely cakes.

 

I have an awesome extended family. We are very loud and very active and we laugh alot. We argue over really weird things such as the color of baby Nora's outfit (I am pretty sure half of my family is color blind) and how to say "roof". But we all love eachother dearly.

One of the biggest highlights of the trip for me and Hannah was the Celtic Thunder concert on the 18th. Celtic Thunder is pretty much mine and Han's favorite singing group and they were coming to Charlotte for their Christmas Symphony tour. We bought tickets in September and walked dogs everyday to pay for them :):) Grandma, Mom. Han and I drove to Charlotte and Han and I were hyper to say the least ;)

Unfortunately Grandma got sick on the way there and so she wasn't able to go :(:'(. The concert was amazing though!!! It was sooo cool hearing them live!!! Han and I had an absolute blast. That is all I will say about it though because otherwise  this post will be WAY to long. (I wrote a 3600 word description about it)

The next day Elianna celebrated her 2nd birthday. I can't believe she is 2!!! I mean, I vividly remember the day she was born!! She had a very fun birthday celebrating with all of her cousins and she got a Pooh cake ;)

 Grandpa loves his grandaughters :)

 The little boys had such a fun time playing together and Paige is never to be left out of the fun :)

 Elianna got a tut tut for her birthday from Paige.

It was awesome to have so much family time together!!

Sadly we had to go home because Daddy missed us :( We pretty much drove straight home with a person getting sick each day. Thankfully the sickness was only a one day flu. But still flu and crowded hotel rooms can make for some sleepless nights : /  We did visit the Hermitage while we were in Tennessee.

I don't really get homesick when I am on trips since I am with my family which is what makes my house home. But I do miss people back home alot and wish they could share my experiences with me. And on Sundays I always miss my home church very badly.

I found this Peanuts comic that sums up my thoughts on homesickness and missing someone.

All in all it was an awesome trip. We made many memories, learned new things and explored new places. But as always it was nice to be home.

 We came home just in time for Thanksgiving and were able to spend it quietly at home together.