Saying goodbye

My bestie and her family have moved 5 hours away. There, I said it. Over the years, there have been many times their family "might" have moved. With career changes and the ongoing desire to follow where God may lead, there was always the possibility of my very best friend in the whole entire world not being in my every day life. Now it has happened, and I feel a mixture of great sadness and also deep peace that they are headed straight to the place God has called them. You would have to know their story to full understand this, but since I do, I can say this with confidence. I'm praying that Medford would gratefully receive the immense gift that is the Bury family. And that the Bury family would be blown away with all the blessings that await them there. 

Friendship is a special thing, especially when the husbands are ALSO best friends, the kids are ALSO best friends, and we have literally raised all eight of our combined kids together during the last 10 years. 

I can't say goodbye, so I'll say "see you soon" (which is actually true since we have our annual camping trip planned for August). After that, well I'm just going to have to deal.

Thank you Lord for giving me a friend like no other.

Our favorite: whisky sours

Goodbye pool party at Meredith's

Biggest and Littlest in the crew of eight

The send off kids

The send off ladies

One last bonfire ;)

A last look captured by Beppe

One last tree climb

The adventurers, the two firsborns

U-Haul should really warn people that
their logo can produce tears

Packing up around the campfire

Marin clipped these from the front of their old farmhouse
("just to never forget" her favorite place on earth)

Our AMAZING prayer group, at our own little
"Farewell Sommer"retreat in the spring

Mountains moved in the hearts of these five

My gorgeous and winning friend in Vegas ;)

Broski besties

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the man who keeps the wheels of this family bus turning! We celebrated with his favorite food, Pho, after church... And then he BBQ'd a big meal for all of us that evening and opened all his treasures. Let me say you will probably NEVER see me cooking my people a delicious meal on Mother's Day, but see he is the best cook so it really is more fun for him to make his favorite things. Lucky us!

Siblings

A few random moments withe the siblings :)

Boys working in their overalls, on an ice cream break with Dad!

They have matching faces :)

Trying on sissy's glasses

My little blondes

And yes... he's still doing this (since January)

North Carolina

I love visiting new places! My cousin Mark got married in North Carolina this June, and so I traveled there and spent the weekend celebrating with my parents and our extended family. Sadly (so, so sadly) my sister had to cancel her trip due to some important things going on in their life. It was the right choice to stay home, but we were ALL so so bummed she was not there. I texted her pictures and videos the entire time so she wouldn't be totally left out. I need my sister to help me survive driving in the backseat while my parents drive/navigate with paper maps :) 

There wedding weekend was so amazing! There was a "welcome to town" Friday night dinner, wedding on Saturday at an amazing farm, and then "farewell" brunch on Sunday. A little river walk in between topped off by a dip in the hotel pool. Several hours of alone time on the airplane. Perfection for this busy momma.

Congratulations to my dear cousin and his new bride!

Bride came down "the aisle" on a tractor

The three amigos

Guests did a processional complete with parasols in the hot southern sun

Beautiful wildflowers used for the decor

Plantations and homes built in the 1700's!

River walk

Backseat driving (just use my smart phone, PUH-LEASE!)

B&B used for the Friday event... also built in the 1700's

Frisbee Golf

One day recently, we just had the girls with us for the evening... It had been a hard day, just everyone was feeling a little grouchy and tired of... well... EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Kyle being the fun Dad that he is, concluded how to fix this problem. We were taken to Plaid Pantry to stock up on soda and ice cream, taking this "dinner" of ours to the frisbee golf course. This was going to be our plan to get all the bees out of all the bonnets. It worked! The girls thought they had arrived straight into heaven, and we got out of the house, leaving the grouchies behind.

It would have been perfect... (((except)))... FUN DAD happened to hit both the momma and the blonde daughter with his frisbee. Hard. Of course by accident (right honey? right?)... oh my word, by the end I was all like "this was a good outing, but now I am done with this day and... let there be sleep".

I love my family :)

Daddy Daughter frisbee

Whip it good

"dinner"

Rooted

Kyle and I had the most amazing experience together at church over the last 12 weeks. I hate to even call it a "class" because it was so much more than that. We had previously been part of a super amazing marriage series called Reunion, which we started in January with five other couples. Straight from that series, the majority of us decided to stay together and continue into the Rooted series. The best way to describe this is part bible study, part doing stuff together, and all throughout learning to hear the voice of God in your life. The goal by the end is for each person to be "Rooted" deeply in their relationship with God, with a renewed confidence in knowing Him and being known by Him. It was so amazing. One of the experiences we shared was planning a community afternoon for the neighbor kids near the church. There are several apartment complexes nearby with kids who love gathering and having fun together. We did face painting, made slime, made bracelets, fed them pizza, played basketball (and my favorite, KICKBALL!), and in general just loved on some kids and were family together. What a beautiful group of people we have come to know and love. We have shared so much together, and I can honestly say my sense of purpose is greater now than when I began that journey several months ago. Thank you Lord.

You have to practice on hubbies before you get to the kids :)

The slime tables & kickball diamond

Also two year olds are good artists ;)

Our amazing group