The Last Two Weekends

Two Saturdays ago T.J. and I went to Harbor Fest. It's an annual festival held at Waterside in Norfolk. Lots of ships of all sizes come from all over and dock up and down the waterfront. Some of the ships were huge. We were even able to go on board a few. They were pretty awesome to see. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post. Somehow the pictures got deleted off the camera before we downloaded them...oops! I was pretty disappointed when I couldn't find them. Now, I have to go next year to get some more pictures of those awesome ships. (So, stay tuned for next year's post about Harbor Fest so you can see some pictures, j/k ) :)
This past Saturday, TJ and I tried out an Italian restaurant called Carrabba's. The food was excellent! We would definitely recommend it. After dinner we drove out to the oceanfront. It was our first visit to the ocean this spring. It was a beautiful evening. We took some fun pictures and just enjoyed sitting on the beach and watching the waves come in. I feel like we take advantage of the ocean/beach being so close to us. It's so beautiful; we don't get out there and enjoy it nearly as much as we should. Overall, I had a wonderful evening with my best friend.
















Sunday afternoon TJ and I went canvassing with our church members for our VBS this week. A youth group from Lebanon, Pennsylvania has come to help our church put it on. They brought all the supplies with them (decor, verse sheets, the stories, games, ect.) The only thing our church had to provide was the snack. The youth group is even sleeping in the church. Since our church is small and doesn't have the means to put on a VBS by ourselves, it is a huge blessing that they have come to do this for us. I'm so excited to see what God is going to do this week.

(Here are some of the teens and leaders that came to help out)

(Eli Ickes and Matt Winks)

Recent Happenings

Well, I'm a little behind in posting so I'll just mention briefly what we've been up to. We spent Memorial day in Williamsburg with our pastor's family and a few other church members and friends. That morning T.J. woke up early to go fishing with the guys. The rest of us met up with them around lunch time at the park. After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon playing games, skiing, and tubing. Since it was a hot day, the water actually didn't feel too cold. It was so exciting to see some of our friends get up skiing for the first time. TJ had tried skiing in the past a couple times and he was able to get up briefly as well. (Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of him out of the water.) Overall, we had a great day enjoying God's creation and spending time with friends.
Two weekends ago, TJ and I attended a pirate party in celebration of the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie coming out. James and Jessica Frohlich were the hosts. TJ and I had a great time picking out our costumes and getting ready for the party. Everyone was so creative with their costumes. Jessica had decorated her balcony outside her house like a pirate ship. We enjoyed kababs and other great food. We also played a couple creative games, including the dice game Davy Jones' men played in the second movie. It was such a good time with lots of laughs and memories. Following the party we all went to see the new movie together-which was very good! No, we didn't wear our costumes to the moive... although I would have liked to. :)
PS. Just in case any one was wondering, in the pic of us below, TJ is holding a root beer.

SHANNON'S 25TH BIRTHDAY

Shannon just had her twenty-fifth birthday two weekends ago. While we weren’t able to get away for long (Shannon still had to work on Saturday), we still wanted to do something special. So, we planned to spend Sunday at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. A few days before, we learned that the new ride the Griffon opened that weekend instead of the following weekend as planned. Shannon was even more excited about going then. As it turns out, our good friends Don and Katrina were planning on camping only minutes from the Park. They invited us to go camping the night before and we invited them to join us for part of the day at the Gardens. Katrina and Don surprised Shannon with a wonderful birthday breakfast that morning, too. The Griffon was a sweet ride and God gave us beautiful weather to enjoy the day. To top it all off, Shannon and I went out for her birthday dinner. We had been planning to go to the Cheesecake Factory for months. Yet, on a whim, she decided to go to P. F. Chang’s Asian Restaurant instead. And a great choice it was. The food was…perfect. Chang is probably our “new, best friend,”—so long C. Factory.

Needless to say we had a blast the whole weekend (except for the fact that Shannon and I about died from frostbite camping—who would have thought we’d need more than two large blankets?) And I am thankful that I was able to spend it with friends…especially my wife.