Seen in the Light

"You look hot!"  That's what Tony said to me as my parent's were riding in our van with us.  "You can't say that with my parent's in the car" I said as my face turned red.  "But with the light shining in the window, you look hot."  So even though I wasn't expecting it and even though I got a little embarrassed, it still made me feel special and loved to hear him say that (normally he says stuff like that privately).  The next day I was thinking about what Tony said and God put a thought in my head.  God is light.  In Him there is no darkness.  Like Tony saw the light shining on me through the window, God sees us through his light.  God knows we have flaws, yet we are beautiful in his sight...in his light.  Just as I felt special and loved by Tony, God wants us to know that we are special and loved by him.    

Summer fun

The boys with Noah that I take care of.

Caleb's new pet, wormy.

Joshua chillin'

The boys' new haircuts (they're trying to look tough)

anniversary continued...

Ha, ha...yes Sarah, we were very young when we got married.  It rained for a little while on our drive up to Minnesota, but the weather was beautiful once we got there.  We spent Friday at the Mall of America, but we had a chance to eat lunch out on the patio you can see from our hotel room on Saturday.  The book I was reading was a Passionate Life.  I liked it because I need visuals to help me remember things, and this book puts visual shapes to help remember the principles it talks about.  On to the pictures...

We're just eating breakfast here, but wanted to try out the new camera.  

The amusement park in the Mall of America is no longer Camp Snoopy.  I don't think a lot of kids even know who Snoopy is.  It just changed to Nickelodeon.  Dora and Sponge Bob are definitely something that will draw those kiddos in.

This is the restaurant that we ate supper at in the Mall of America.  It's called Kokomo's.

The next pictures are all from Underwater World at the Mall.

This is one of my favorite stores...this chair is great!

This was the wedding that we went to.  The bride is the one who was in the Jr. High small group and Sr. High youth ministry that we helped at while we were in college.

Our anniversary

Tony and I celebrated our 10th anniversary this weekend.  

 One of the girls that was in the youth ministry that we helped at in Minnesota was getting married, so we took a few extra days and celebrated our anniversary while we were there.  My parents were super wonderful and paid for our hotel while we were there.  What a blessing!  Our hotel was really nice.  There was a door between the living room and bedroom which was nice because I could come out and shut the doors while Tony was still sleeping in the mornings.

This is what I did in the mornings...it was nice to get up and have nothing to do...just sit and relax and read.  Tony got me a new camera for our anniversary, so I'm actually figuring out how to use it here.  I used the timer.  He also donated clothing, fruit trees, food and supplies through World Vision as a gift.  He wanted to buy me a necklace, but knows that I'm not a big fan of spending money on jewelry, so he got me this-the perfect gift, instead.  

The hotel room also had a full kitchen.  That was nice because I could put some of my food that needs to be refrigerated in it.  We had some leftovers and could reheat them in the microwave.  They had dishes, silverware, bowls, and containers too.

Here's the view out of our window.  They have grills so people can cook out if they want to.  

They also had a great hot breakfast in the morning (They even had a few things I could eat and Tony had a big variety to choose from).  We weren't there long enough to use it, but they also have free washers and dryers.  We thought it was cool anyway.  It was such a relaxing weekend. It was fun to spend time in the place where we spent the first 3 1/2 years of our marriage together.  (I'll post a few more pictures of what we did when I have more time.)