London and Paris 2009 Recap

Our trip to London and Paris over the summer was AMAZING. Not onlt was Europe wonderful, but we loved having the opportunity to spend 16 days together 24/7! Since Michael is gone so much of the year for work, we needed this time to spend together. After waiting for our room for nearly 5 hours...after a long flight...we finally got showered and changed and headed out to our first pub!

Then we went to Covet Gardens did the first little bit of shopping. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by St. James' park before going to bed early. We were still on California time and so very tired!!

The next day we continued to explore London. Our hotel was right by The London Eye and Big Ben so we felt very lucky to see them both every day.

Gretchen showed us this cute little wine bar in an old cave cellar. The next day we headed to Bath and loved seeing the inspiration for Jane Austen's novel, Persuasion. I was enthralled the entire time.

Sally Lunn's had the best brioche buns with cinnamon butter ever! The river (avon) was beautiful and we never wanted to leave. Well...until the train broke down later that evening and we couldn't leave until hours later...hehe.

Jane Austen and I got along famously :) The gardens in the town are beautiful!

The Roman baths were even more spectacular than I had imagined them.

Michael at Tower Bridge and in front of Big Ben.

The "New Globe" and getting ready for Les Miserables!

Notre Dame

The Louvre and Le Tour Eiffel

Champs Elysses and Le Tour Eiffel... again :)

I love it when it sparkles...


Versailles!!

In memory of Bill and Margaret Smith.

I heart the Beatles and I heart London!!

What is True...

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things." -Philippians 4:6-9

Everything that we have is from God. He controls where we live, what we have, and what our jobs are. He is a loving God and he knows what we need. The world warps that perception. Sin causes us to want to control our own destiny rather than what God wants for us. I feel myself fight God daily on this issue. Instead of saying, "God I want your will in my life," I tell Him, the Creator of the universe, what I want Him to do for me all the while never really trusting that He can do it. One thing that God is teaching me is to look for His will and not my own. I don't want to live a life of my own creation because only God can give me joy. Yet, when I ask Him to help me to live His will for my life and to give me peace to get through it, I need to trust that He can do it. This is the thinking on what is true part.

What is true...
1. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband.
2. Through everything that is going on in education right now I have not 1, but 2 teaching jobs.
3. I have been saved from my sin through Christ.
4. Every day I wake up and choose to find joy in whatever comes my way...and to trust that God can give me peace. (I am not claiming that I am at 100% in this, but I do know that it gets better with each new trial).

We can't spend our lives thinking about what may happen tomorrow. That is not what is true. More importantly we will never be freed from our sin if we don't believe that God can accomplish a miracle in us.

Choose to believe and He will change your life. Praise God for so great a salvation!

Fourth of July 2009- Pinecrest Lake

For the first time in 4 years, we were able to make it up to Pinecrest for the 4th of July!! We had a great time relaxing at the cabin and spending time in nature. We decided to make the hike to Waterhouse Lake on the 4th since it had been over 15 years since we last made the trip. It is a beautiful hike through the immigrant wilderness down to a Lake at about 8,000 feet.

Michael had no idea what he was in for when we first started. The trail starts off fairly flat through some pretty meadows and streams. Then you climb down a cliff several hundred feet. It is hard enough to go down, but I tried not to think about the coming back up part of it all.

We had a great picnic lunch on the side of the lake and enjoyed being together. Hiking a trail like this makes we want to move to the mountains and do this every weekend. What could be better than spending time with family surrounded by the mountains that God created.

On Sunday we make our anual trek to Strawberry via the Pinecrest Lake trail. The best part of tis hike is the fact that there is no bridge and crossing the river can be a challenge. We had a pretty easy time of it and waited for the slower members for the party for over 30 minutes. Finally, we called and found out that they crossed earlier than we had and were almost ahead of us. The worst part was the snake that wanted to hang out while we were waiting. Thank goodness Heather saw it before I did!!

Disneyland 2009

In June we celebrated Father's Day at Disneyland. We were able to check out our brick for the first time since it was installed right outside of the gates of the park. It took us nearly 20 minutes to find the one that my family puchased several years ago before I met Michael and I am sure that we looked pretty silly. It was a beautiful day to be at Disneyland!! My parents hadn't been there since we got engaged over 5 years ago. I can't believe that it has been that long. We had dinner at The Napa Rose on Friday night and then spent Saturday and part of Sunday at the park. My dad is the only one who will go on the teacups with me so we enjoyed spinningn around like crazy people. My mom really enjoyed the Toy Story ride at California Adventure!! We traveled to the island formerly known as Tom Sawyer's Island and had some fun with the new Pirate's Lair. My parent's thought that it was cool, but we all miss thte old setup. It can be difficult to get used to the changes.

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day at Storytellers Cafe before heading back to the park. My mom and Michael made sure to eat as many churros on the trip as possible. We ended the trip with some mint juleps, which my parents had never had before. It was a great time together!!