Thank You God

I've had so many blog post ideas running around in my head lately, but no time to write them down. I want to do an update on Aspen, Journey and the pregnancy, not to mention, all the other things we have been doing lately.

But today, I just want to keep it simple. I have realized that what I love most about going to church is how I am reminded of how deeply, deeply thankful I am to God for his love and grace on my family and marriage. Honestly, as I worship, all I can think about is how thankful I am, and am brought to tears each week. Five years ago we were at a cross-road point in our marriage and things could have easily gone so much differently.

I am so thankful for God's faithfulness. At that point, I could never have imagined how happy I could be again. It has been a lot of work, but God has truly done a deep healing in our lives and marriage. God has given us our kids and so much joy in just parenting and watching them grow. Yes, they can be frustrating and there are bad, stressful days, but over all, what we keep coming back to is the joy they bring and how much fun we have spending time together as a family.

So, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you God.

Adrian & Rachel's Beautiful Wedding

Our whole family

Rachel wore the same dress her mom and grandmther wore at their weddings. Beautiful.




Journey, not the flower girl, but just as cute!

Justin, Charity and Peyton

This may be their last family picture before Lilly comes...

Tyler, Mark, Troy and Brett - looking good guys!

Troy & Kirstyn

Me: 28 weeks Charity: 39 weeks

Can you believe Charity is ready to give birth any day? She barely looks pregnant in this picture!

Happy 10 Years To Us!

Okay, so I'm a month and a half early on that. Our real 10 year anniversary is June 19th, but we celebrated our anniversary a little early since I won't be able to travel in June. We spent a week in Oahu, Hawaii just the two of us and had a blast. It came at the perfect time before I'm super huge, and it was a very needed brake for us to just relax and enjoy some free time together. Especially since it will be at least another 18 months before we can get away again :)

We stayed in the heart of downtown Waikiki at the Sheraton Princess. It was nice and right across the street from the beach. We walked pretty much everywhere since we didn't rent a car. A totally different kind of vacation for us, but it was fun. And when we didn't walk, we rode the super crowded city bus system. It was an adventure!

One of our most memorable lunches was when we took the bus to Chinatown and walked through their supermarkets to try the craziest things we could find. I don't think there was one thing we tried that we didn't like. We tried everything from fish balls wrapped in tofu to fried rice donuts to 'to die' for tuna sushi (yes, I know, bad me!). And lots of other stuff I wouldn't even know how to describe.

24 weeks pregnant! I got so many stares on the beach with my big belly...

This was so much fun. I'm not sure what they call it, but it was basically a big surf board that you paddled around. I couldn't believe I could actually balance :)

Riding the paddle surf board. Next time Mark will take it in the surf, but he didn't have enough time to do so since he had to share it with me, ha ha.

Relaxing on the beautiful, white sand beach. But, being the whities that we are, we didn't spend too much time laying on the beach. We spent more time laying around our hotel pool. Two reasons - poolside Mai Ties for Mark, shade and comfy lounge chairs :)

We rented this dune buggy for a day and took it all over the island. It was so much fun to drive and see the rest of the island.


First stop, Hanuma Bay. Our plan was to do some snorkeling, but we ended up just relaxing on the beach. From there we drove around the perimeter of the island, stopping to get coconut shrimp from a roadside shrimp cart (popular on the North side of the island). They were amazing. We drove to North Shore with the big waves and explored the tiny town's shops. After hours in the sun and driving in the bumpy dune buggy, I was totally exhausted.

Hanuma Bay - a beautiful, sheltered bay, but let me tell you, we weren't the only ones who went there that day. There were hoards of people! (On a side note: see my burned belly?)

On a dinner sunset cruise.

On our last day we toured Pearl Harbor and a submarine that served in WWII. The pic was taken inside the sub. Mark found all that much more interesting than I did, but the site where the USS Arizona is still underwater was pretty fascinating. It is still leaking oil and they think it will for the next 100 years!