This weeks travels

This week Shaun and I will be going our seperate ways as I head to Iowa for a much anticipated family reunion and he embarks on a mountain climbing adventure!

I leave on Wednesday with the girls to drive 12 hours to Orange City, Iowa to have a fun long weekend with my dad's side of the family.  One of my cousins lives in Ft. Collins, CO and she and her husband are going to take the long drive with us. I am so thankful for them because I don't think I could have made it out to Iowa all by myself with 15 month twins! I'm looking forward to seeing all of my relatives, most of whom I haven't seen since before we were married.

Which brings me to my next point....this Saturday marks our 5th Anniversary! It will be the first time Shaun and I have spent our anniversary apart, but such is life I guess. It will also be the first time we haven't celebrated by staying one night in the Glen Eyrie Castle. I think we are just going to postpone that until much later in the summer when things calm down a little bit. It has been a roller coaster ride for the past 5 years, but I have been blessed to ride that coaster with a wonderful Godly man. Life has thrown us things that we did not expect but I'm very happy to say that the trials and the pain, as well as the joy and beauty of marriage have only grown us closer. Here is a little blast from the past to remember that special day :-)

This week Shaun will be finishing up four weeks of Excursions staff training by going on what we call Staff-X. It's a time of reflection, bonding, and fun for the 14 college staff that will soon be leading groups of campers on wilderness adventures. They will be traveling a few hours west to camp at the base of a 14,000 ft mountain. Early on Wednesday morning they will wake up to summit the peak and then be put on a 24 hour SOLO in the wilderness  in order to have a time of rest and reflection. This will be the first summer I have not been able to go on Staff-X with the Excursions staff so I am sad to miss out, but I know they will have a wonderful time in God's magnificent creation. Starting next Sunday we look forward to welcoming the first group of Excursions campers to Eagle Lake for what we pray will be a summer when many lives are changed and molded after Christ.