Fun with Friends:)

Ok, round 2!! I had a nice typed out post and somehow deleted it. How annoying!!

Sarah, one of my best friends from Nebraska was out to visit this past weekend. We had an awesome time and crammed lots into 4 days. We visited a few of the mansions--Astor's Beechwood (where Kelly used to work), the Marble House, and the Chateau Su Mer. If you ever get another chance to come visit, I would recommend the Chateau. I enjoyed it's unique style. Many of the mansions start looking alike after a while. I enjoy the ornate mansions, but loved the "livable" feel of the Chateau with it's beautiful carved wood and many fire places. As you can see, I took advantage of a picture opportunity under one of the huge weeping willow type trees. It just makes me want to pull up a blanket and a good book to relax in the cool shade of one of these story book trees. We lucked out with touring the Beechwood, because we ran into Patrick. He used to work with Kelly and let us go in for free!!

Every 3 years in Newport they have a Coach Festival. Coach as in carriage, not a purse of sporting official:) I loved going back in time and seeing these beautiful horses pulling carriages full of ladies and gentlemen all decked out in their 19th century garb.

Saturday evening we hit up a Polo match between the USA and Jamaica. Jamaica won in the end, but it was a close game all the way. My prior knowledge of Polo consisted only of what I knew from watching Pretty Woman, so we had fun trying to figure out how the game was played. Molly and I even joined with the crowd to turn over divits at half-time.

I took a ton of pictures, so I may have to do another blog in a few days on my experiences as a tourist in Newport. It was great to be able to do and see all these things that I usually don't take the time to.

Happy Trails until the next blog . . .

What a Wild Week!!!

I survived a five day trip with our youth group to Darien Lake, NY (near buffalo) for a Christian music festival that was held at Six Flags. It is about an 8 hour drive. We loaded up 3 vans Sunday morning at 6 AM and returned Thursday evening. As you can see, my vanload of junior high girls was quit packed. I don't think we could have fit any more in that van:) We camped at six flags (air conditioned campers--can I get an AMEN:) All week we rode rides and listened to great Christian music at many of the concerts (everything from praise and worship, rap, to rock and roll!). It was an awesome time with the kids. I teach the junior high/high school Sunday school, so this was a great opportunity to get to know all of the kids much better. They are such a riot. I am pretty sure that my abs got the best workout of my life, because I was laughing so hard this week at the many random comments that the kids came up with.

The other pictures that I posted are just some of the highlights from the week. I thoroughly enjoyed the Superman, which has a very intense drop (a 60°, 200-foot drop!!). The next picture is of my friend Molly and I hanging out with a couple of the girls in one of many pictures taken in line as we waited for rides. We got very creative with games to play while standing in line:) The following two pictures capture my 2nd annual Skycoaster experience with the graduated seniors (200 ft drop and I had to pull the cord from the top--it was awesome:). The last picture shows how some of the boys got creative with their hair for the concerts. Too bad that we discovered after the fact that it's "hair glue" that works best, not "elmer's". It was an adventure alone getting the glue out of their hair!

We had an amazing time, but I am glad to be back in my own bed!

Amy, Stacy, and Sarah--Just wanted to let you guys know that I will begin praying for you and the adventures to come when all of your kids are teenagers!!!