May in the West (To Denver and back in 8 days! May 16-23)

May was compromised of my working at Children's Hospital, time in Gainesville, Florida doing coffee and desserts with members from River Cross Church, and Memorial Day weekend at a lake house with some of our friends from Oak Mountain Presbyterian. Between these events, we drove from Birmingham to Denver and back....in 8 days.

After I got off work that morning, we set out from Birmingham to Memphis, getting stuck in a lot of traffic because they shut the highway down that day for President Obama's arrival to Memphis. (This was when the Mississippi had flooded.)

Here's a picture of the Mississippi a few miles into the land after we crossed the river.








We made it through Arkansas to arrive to Joplin, Missouri to stay with some of Marshall's friends from seminary, Ed and Diane Willoughby. Interestingly enough we got a tour of Joplin 6 days before the killer tornado came through and wiped out part of that town. Marshall purchased sunglasses at the Walmart there that was later leveled. Our hearts still ache for this town that is putting the pieces back together.

We left the next morning to drive through Kansas and east Colorado. We stopped for lunch to visit with one of my friends from my camp days, Erin Frost. We trudged through  Kansas and east Colorado and we DELIGHTED to make it to our friend's place in Denver. We stayed with Pete and Sarah Compton (Sarah is like a sister to me and was my matron of honor.)

The next day we took a short drive down to Colorado Springs. It was Marshall's first time in Colorado, and I wanted to take him to see the Garden of the Gods. We had a great time walking around looking at the beautiful rock formations.

We decided at the last minute to drive to the other side of the park to look at the balancing rock formation. We were walking up, and out of no where we both get attacked from behind in a friendly way, and I'm thinking "This guy actually thinks he knows us." Within a little bit we turned and realized it was Craig and Heather Gahagan from SAM, who Marshall has known for 10 years!!  We were randomly....or actually....sovereignly at the same place at the same time. About that time it began to rain, so we all went to a store and coffee house on the park grounds and spent the next few hours catching up. It was a fun surprise!

That night we ate dinner with some of Marshall's friends who served in Peru, Greg and Nicole Faeh.

The next day Marshall, Pete, and I drove up to Wyoming for lunch in Cheyenne....just for the heck of it. (Part of how we've been to 25 states in 10 months of marriage). We ate at a yummy burger joint downtown (where there was still some snow on the ground too), and then decided...."well, Nebraska is only 45 minutes away" ...so we drove there too!!

On Friday, Sarah was able to work from home a bit, and then we took off to hike outside of Denver in the Rockies. We had a nice hike (pictures below) and once we made our way to the other side of the mountain, we noticed some storms coming.... We booked it back down as fast as we could. At about 1/2 mile from the end it started sprinkling, and we were already witnessing lightning in the sky and hitting nearby peaks. At the moment we all hopped into the car, the bottom completely fell!!!! What graciousness of God!! We later spent that night hanging out with some of their friends from church at a group gathering.

The next day we visited a friend of Marshall's from UF, Heather Grover and her husband and kids.

After that visit we made our way to Invesco field to stand in line with Pete and Sarah to see U2 on their 360 tour! Marshall and I had already seen this show (me in Atlanta, him in Tampa) before we even met.....but this time we were going to be a few feet away from the outer ring of their stage! Here's a few pics of how great of a show that was and how close we were to them!!!

This one is one of my favorites as Bono is singing into the camera on the left and you can see it on the screen above him on the right!!

It was definetly our best concert experience we've ever had....and our first concert together!!

We left early the next morning with our ears still ringing to make our way back to Birmingham. We drove once again through eastern Colorado, Kansas....met up with Erin Frost and her husband Ryan again, as well as Marshall's friend from seminary Tory Pochert. From there we drove through part of Oklahoma to my Aunt Deb and Uncle Marty's place in Shawnee, avoiding a few tornados popping in the state and a few others (including the one hitting Joplin). It was a nice, but short visit with them, and once again we were on the road. We passed through Memphis again, grabbed some dinner with my friend Whitney Church for some good ol' Memphis BBQ!!!

We made it back to Birmingham safely.... it was a long trip on our rear ends, but so rich full of relationships and scenery!!

June adventures

This past June, like every other month this year, was busy. South America Mission had their 2 week orientation from June 20th-30th in Fort Mill, SC. During those two weeks, we stayed with our friends John and Sara McAllister and their little boy Kade. It was great to be with them again!!

Before we went there though, we visited some of my long-time friends, Art and Kay Williams. They have a beautiful home in the mountains of North Carolina. We played a game they call "marbles", which Marshall renamed "vicious" after playing it against me! (You'll have to ask him about it!)

After our time there we spent a few days in Brevard, NC camping. I worked at Ridge Haven Camp during my college days in this area. I wanted to share some of my favorite parts of this area with Marshall. So we camped and spent some time on the Blue Ridge Parkway, seeing waterfalls and some beautiful overlooks. It was a nice get-away after my working prior to our 2 week orientation.

Our campsite: (Marshall did a GREAT job starting our campfires here!)

Looking Glass Falls

The sign tells you! =)

Devil's Courthouse

Another Florida Trip (July 21-29)

We have been to Florida 4 times now since we've been married. Marshall and I both grew up in Florida....him in the Venice/North Port area, and me in Sebring. We've made several trips back that have primarily been to spend time with Marshall's home church in Gainesville, River Cross Church. We were there in May to share with several small groups in a "coffee and dessert" type setting, as well as on a few Sunday mornings this past spring.

This trip started with us going to Marshall's 20th high school reunion in Venice. It was a great weekend for him to catch up with old friends, he was able to share his faith with several people, and we were able to go to the beach some too. We stayed with his mom and her husband (who are now the caretakers of my dog Mico), and we had a good visit with them too. Here is a shot from a dinner at the reunion.

From there we went to Sebring where I grew up. My dad was a pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church for 12 years. I still keep up with several people there, and they have started supporting Marshall and I. We had a delightful time one evening when approximately 40 people crammed into Tom and Jo Nunnallee's home to hear about our ministry and ask questions. Most of those who came were at the church when I was still in the area. It was great to see so many again, and humbling that so many people came out! We were also able to speak on Wednesday night at the prayer service at church. 

We spent our days meeting up with different friends, some of Marshall's friends in Winter Haven, and various of mine that are still in Sebring. For whatever reason I didn't bring my camera along for any of this, but I did capture a picture with us and the Nunnallee's who graciously hosted us while we were there.

After we left Sebring we went up to Gainesville to stay the night. Marshall has always expressed to me that he wanted to take me to the Ichetucknee Springs nearby. We picked up some tubes to go tubing down the springs. It is a beautiful area, the water is crystal clear, you can see right to the bottom of the water and the green water plants that grow there. It was so peaceful and relaxing to float and swim down this spring, and the water was so refreshing in the heat!

Here are a few pictures I found online of the springs:

Our Mid-East to Mid-lands Tour (Aug 7-15)

Ok..... so not really in the middle east.......but what do you call the trip we took through Tennessee to Virginia, then through Delaware and Maryland to Pennsylvania, then through West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois to Missouri???? (and of course through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee back to Birmingham, Alabama!!)

Did we go north enough for it to be the Northeast???

So that was a quick snapshot of that trip, but let me share more....

I got off work on Sunday morning the 7th, and we hopped in the car, I crashed in the back and we made our way up to Virginia. We stopped on the way to visit Pete and Katie Reynolds, who went through SAM orientation with us. We continued that evening to Harrisonburg, VA to stay with Marshall's friends from his first term of service in Peru, Richard and Peggy Dunstan. The next day we were off to Charlottesville to visit with some of my former teammates from Lima, Michael and Laura Salvatierra and their boys Noah and Ethan.

The following day we made our way through Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, to Pennsylvania. On our way through Maryland and Delaware we were hit by a horrible thunderstorm. We pulled out of it for a little in Delaware, and as the interstate was about to bring us right through it again we came up on a hill and looking out, there appeared to be a funnel cloud. We dismissed it thinking it wasn't because we didn't see rotation. Then trees got in the way of our view, and when it came back into view it had mostly dissappated. We continued in our journey and drove into the storm again. Because of construction the 3 lanes went to 2, then we were in bumper to bumper traffic in this monsoon, not being able to see past 10 feet in front of us. At one point we stopped under an overpass, I faintly heard a sound and asked Marshall to roll his window down. Sure enough, when he did, we could hear a tornado siren. I quickly pulled up the Wunderground weather website on my phone, and there was a tornado warning right where we were....in traffic....in such hard rain that we wouldn't have been able to see a thing or where it was!! I was admittedly afraid, not at all thinking about trusting the Lord at this time! Further up the road the traffic went down to 1 lane.....not because of traffic.....but because the tornado had already passed through there leaving ripped trees in the lanes for us to manuever through!  (as shown below...yes, that's a tree on the interstate!)

We made it safely to Philadelphia to eat lunch with my sweet friend Mesha, who served in Peru with Food for the Hungry, and was also one of my bridesmaids. After lunch we made our way to Lancaster, PA.

On the way we had a little time to spare and did a little storm chasing with another thunderstorm we saw building....it was beautiful up against the amish farmland.






We spent the next few days in Lancaster visiting members of the a church there. A group from this church came down last summer on a mission trip to Peru the week before Marshall proposed to me. Since then they've encouraged us in many ways, and we were blessed to be able to visit and cultivate that relationship more.

After a few days there we made our way to St Louis for my niece's 5th birthday. We passed through the rest of Pennsylvania, part of West Virginia, and stayed in Ohio with one of Marshall's childhood friends, Loryn Bowen and her husband Perry. The next day plowing ground through Indiana, and Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri.

That was a fun weekend. Marshall and I went to St Louis last year for him to meet my brother and his family, but this time we were able to work in a few fun activities like going to the top of the arch, hanging out some in Forest Park, and catching a Cardinals game. We really enjoyed our time with them, especially celebrating Ella's birthday!

Ella with her dirt cake.....mmmmmmm.....wish I had some now!!!

My brother and his family paddleboating at Forest Park.

Yes.... there is a weight limit that we weren't informed of!!! The back half began to sink when Marshall and I got in!! Ella was the first to hop off onto the ground when that happened, then Stone didn't want to get back on and spent time with Marshall and I at the park!! =)

Before we went to the top. Beautiful view!!

At the Cardinals game versus the Colorado Rockies (Cardinals won!)

My brother's friend gave us all some great tickets right behind the Colorado dugout. It was a great place to watch the game!!

Monday morning Aug 15th we made our way back to Birmingham, meeting up with Tom and Valerie Jopling (who were also in SAM orientation with us) for lunch in Kentucky. We continued back to Birmingham, and ended where we started....me going to work that night! =)  

(I'm now on part-time which helps these long trips out!!!)

The Beautiful Northwest (Sept 2-12)

There are way too many beautiful pictures we have from this journey to the Northwest. It was new and refreshing to see the evergreens, eat blackberries from the side of the road when we went for a morning run, and visit downtown Seattle. We had a great trip! Even though we're going non-stop in our support ventures, it is good for me to take time and enjoy where we've been able to go. Here are some pictures to share with you:

The view from the ferry coming into Seattle.

The famous Pike Place Market.

I had to get a drink from the ORIGINAL Starbucks!! (Featured below is the Pumpkin Spice Frappacchino).

From the bottom of the space needle....we didn't go up....needed the gas money! =)

We took a tour at the Boeing factory. AMAZING place!! (we couldn't take pictures on the inside). The factory has 1,000,000 light bulbs in use, they work 24/7 with 10,000 employees, 75 football fields could fit inside, there are several cafes, and their own medical clinic!

One day we took a hike on Mount Pilchuck. It was so beautiful!!! Because we had a speaking engagement that night, we weren't able to make it to the very top, but we made it 85% of the way. Here are some views of what we saw. God's handiwork is so evident and its soooo much different hiking here than in the Appalachians (which is what I (Becca) am used to).

**I had to make these extra-large on this blog so you could see the beauty!!!**

We also took advantage of our location and hopped on an Amtrak train and went up to Vancouver, BC for a day......that day there was also an earthquake on Vancouver Island which we didn't feel at all. Here are a few pictures from our day there.

This is a view of Mt Baker from the train ride back.