Out to ice cream with our good friends, the Gantts.

There was a fun children’s museum in a neighboring town that we spent an afternoon at:

Adam loves ANY steering wheel!

I love Samuel’s look of pure thrill:

Samuel and I enveloped in a bubble:

Checking out another huge bubble:

Silly poses in the photo room:

Heading up.

853 stairs later!

We even got to go to their house and go on their zipline.

The boys had so much fun wrestling, swimming, and getting their faces and bodies painted (who knew water color paints were so great for face painting?!).

We also went to a town festival where the boys got to ride a pony.  Judah wasn’t so impressed until he saw Samuel do it.  Then he had to do it too!

Make sure to click on a picture if you want to see it bigger.

Thank you for your prayers!  We arrived home Thursday night after 3 days on the road.  Adam was much better after the first day and our car brought us all those miles!  Yay God!

The days can be long for our boys in the car so each day we did a “fun thing” to break up the time.

DAY 1: This was my favorite!  We stopped in St. Augustine, FL to visit a historic fort, Castillo de San Marcos, and then that night we got to stay with a wonderful friend that I hadn’t seen in 2.5 years!  Thanks Miriam and Tim!

The fort was so cool!  And the boys couldn’t get enough of all the cannons.

Another fun thing – Ever heard of the Duggars?  We met their daughter-in-law’s parents on the streets of St. Augustine.  Crazy!

DAY 2: We were driving down the highway and saw a billboard for a railroad car “museum.”  So we stopped.  What little boy (and big boy) doesn’t like trains?  There were tons of cars and engines to climb up on and look in.

For meals on our trip, we mostly ate at Chick-fil-A, thanks to our friend, Jeannie!   That woman is amazing – she gathers Chick-fil-A coupons for free items and eats there for free every single day.  She gave us gobs of her free item certificates so we got to eat free too.  In 3 days of traveling we only had to pay for 2 meals!  Thank you, Jeannie!!

A huge added bonus that anyone who has traveled with small children will appreciate:  every Chick-fil-A had a play place!  Hallelujah!

DAY 3: This was Samuel’s favorite day for sure.  He was telling me about it again today!

We stopped in Memphis for the night so we went into downtown that next morning and rode the trolley (the “train”) around.  The boys are obsessed with trains so this was heaven for them!

Thank you again for praying for us!  We appreciate it!  Check back soon for a post about our time in Orlando.

That was what the students were saying about the classes Kristen was a part of teaching at another missionary training center in North Carolina for 2 weeks.

While there, she was asked to re-write the manual for the Phonetics class she was teaching.  It was two long weeks of working until 11pm in order to get the first draft completed.  It was all worth it, though, knowing that the trainees are now better equipped to reach people in South Sudan, Honduras, Northern Africa, France, South Korea and many other places!  And they asked her to come back and teach again in February!

Mr. Mom

Joel was a wonderful Mr. Mom during those weeks, taking care of Samuel, Judah and Adam in addition to taking care of the house and grading homework for Kristen.  He thoroughly enjoyed the time with the boys, getting to know them better as individuals and observing them together, but was glad to hand back responsibilities to the one God gifted for the job of motherhood – their mother!

Our friend, ALISON

In college, I, Kristen, was a secret friend to a little girl with brain cancer.  In time I introduced myself and we have corresponded for 16 years now but never had the chance to meet.  She lives in NC and I had never been there.  When I got asked to teach there, I checked out where Alison’s town was in relation to where I was teaching and it was only about 10 miles away!!

So we met!  The picture above is the first day we met.  Her dad turned out to be a pastor and we had the privilege of presenting what God is doing around the world in tribal missions.

The family was so fun and wonderful.  We loved meeting and getting to know Alison and her family!