On the road again

Yes we went on another trip. This past weekend, we headed to an EV Free Church Meeting. Our church took the entire elder team and some of the leadership to the meeting. It was an amazing weekend.
The meeting was great - we heard some great teaching, we had some much needed time for ASC (our church) to get together and pray, plan, and talk, and we got to catch up (and be encouraged by) a former boss of mine. I am always encouraged when I step back and look at what is going on at ASC. Sometimes I feel like we get so involved with the day to day, week to week part that we (or I) lose sight of what God is doing among us. I get so caught up in the logistics or the problems that I see, that I forget to see the AMAZING things God is doing through the church. So, as we stood on the stage Friday night and received a certificate that said we are an official church now (instead of a church plant), I smiled as Alex Mandes prayed about the way God has used the chaos at ASC. I smiled because it's so true. ASC is nothing like any church I've ever been involved with, and there's a lot of chaos, but there's also a lot of people's lives who are being changed daily. I am thankful to be at a church where the community is real, the members are diverse, and the body is a family - we don't look anything like each other, we have different backgrounds and we live in different neighborhoods - but we all love Jesus and want to see him glorified and that's what makes us family.
Our family stayed a little longer than the rest of the group to catch up with friends that live in the area. We saw my maid of honor and her husband and met their baby; some good friends that we did ministry with several years ago; my mentor from several years ago; and a group of friends that we used to be in Bible study with. The time was encouraging and refreshing. It's fun to share the joys and hardships of life with old friends.
I am so thankful for a great weekend; for an amazing church that is led by godly people; for the good friends that we interact with regularly and ones that we don't get to see very much; for people who have poured into our lives over the years, allowing us to pour into other's lives; for good talks with Steph; for fun playtime with the kids; and for some yummy food that we don't get to eat regularly.

Ski Trip

Last weekend, Dave's dad took us to Ruidoso for a ski trip. It was lots of fun. We were not sure how the kids were going to do with the whole skiing thing, but they did great and loved it.
I started skiing when I was 4 years old and it is one of the few sports that I really enjoy and am good at. So, seeing the kids learning how to do it and enjoying it was really neat for me.
We decided to give Elizabeth a private lesson the first day we were there. She did great and loved it - the next day she was ready to take another one. So, we set her up with the same teacher - West - and she did another hour with him. She was able to ski by herself and stay pretty much in control.
We wanted to at least let James try it out and get a feel for it. So, we let him ski between our legs. I thought we would do this a few times with him and that would be it. But, he loved it so much that we kept going. We would get to the top of the lift and he would say - "let's do it again." When I was growing up we would always say when we got to the top of the lift, "tips up" and I got James to say it. So, every time we would get close to getting of we would say "tips up" and he would lift his ski tips up to prepare to get off the lift.
I have some video of them skiing that I will try to get up soon, but here are a few pictures from the trip.
The two little ski bunnies.Dave and Page

Poppy, Page, Dave, James, & Elizabeth

Elizabeth and Dave

James and Page