2012: An Epic Year

~Posted by Ben

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I was going to post today. At the very last minute--with my sister needing the post--I still couldn’t think of what I wanted to do. So I started looking through pictures, particularly pictures from 2012. I’ve always called 2012 the “twelve month rollercoaster.” For some odd reason, more events and more change in our family took place in 2012 than in any other years of our lives. I could tell you all about it, but instead I will take you through that year chronologically and show you just what took place in our lives during that busy year.



Ironically, the most busy year of our lives started off very uneventfully. Almost nothing major happened for the first 4 months. In mid-April our extended family went on a week-long Royal Caribbean Cruise.

Although we don’t have many pictures from after the cruise until July, several things happened. In May our Pastor announced that he was moving to Houston, Texas; I attended a week long leadership summit (National Youth Leadership Training or NYLT); our church did VBS; and we attended the funeral of my late great-uncle R. The above picture is our Haiti mission team. We were in Haiti from July 22-29. This was perhaps the most significant thing that happened during that summer. Our lives and perspectives of global poverty were absolutely transformed during the week we got to serve in Haiti.

I might also add that before our Haiti trip our family gathered in the living room for a very serious discussion. My dad announced that he was prayerfully considering leaving his 18 year career and pursuing an engineering job at a smaller company. At that time he was in job negotiations with companies in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas. But he was still undecided whether or not to leave his current job.



My Dad and I at the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado.

In late August, my Dad and I attended Vision Forum’s annual Father/Son retreat in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Many great memories were made during this special time with my Dad. I’m so grateful we had the opportunity to do this together!

In September my Dad officially accepted the job in Texas and resigned from his current job. He moved down here in mid October while the rest of us stayed in Michigan waiting for the house to sell.



Our home sold in 40 days! We were so grateful that it did not take too long.

Our stuff leading the way!

During our last days in Michigan, we got to see A LOT of people to say our last goodbyes. Here are some pictures:

Our “Framily” (Friends/family) the B’s.



Some more “Framily,” the M’s.

The Bright Lights group.

And so many more great friends…..

Our dear friends and fellow homeschoolers, the R’s.



Our friends from church, Mr. C and Mr. R.

Our wonderful youth director from church, Mr. K.



Our assistant youth director, Mr. J.

Our Worship Pastor, S.

And then early one morning……

All aboard!!!

And we’re off!

And so we embarked on a journey, and that journey would lead us….



Home.

Christmas 2012.

 

And so our journey came to an end, as 2012 was gone and 2013 had come. Not everything in 2012 was good; our grandparents' health continued to deteriorate until their deaths in January and February of the following year. Our church in Michigan went through some difficult times in the summer and spring. And as often happens in the course of life, we had to say goodbye to some friends and family who had been ushered into eternity. Overall, 2012 was a big year of change. But through it all, God was with us. The year 2012 is no doubt a year that will be remembered by our family forever. God taught us so many things, and we made so many long-lasting friendships. I wouldn’t ever take back one moment lived during that epic year of our lives!

Flashback Memories

~Posted by Roma~

I was surprised when Bianca told me recently that I had run out of room on the computer to store the rest of my Puerto Rico pictures and videos into my folder. I decided that now was the time to get into my folder and delete unnecessary pictures!! I bought my camera in the spring of 2011. It was amazing to go through all the pictures I’ve taken since then and see all that we’ve done! (And yes—I deleted quite a few…3 pictures of the same object, blurry photos…you know, those kind of things-.)J I wanted to share today some of the precious memories we have saved—many of which you may recognize from older blog posts—plus squeeze in some old Michigan nature photos. I never realized how much I love Michigan until I left it. J And we miss it.

Oh, those days in 2011, when our house flooded from 2^nd to 1^st floor and we had to stay in hotels all the time!

Making Violet and Dandelion jelly is something we miss. I miss this pink shirted girl, as well!

I’m never going to let y’all forget this blog post! J (More than one blog post, to be more exact.)

This mountain, and my Haitian brothers and sisters I will Never. Forget.

Worship Dance…

Michigan fall time and babysitting this girl…

Sittin’ round Grandma and Grandpa’s house…

Back of our old house.

Birthday fun…J

A special gathering. These friends are precious to us!

I had. to put this adorable picture. The shirt Bianca is wearing is a shirt Ruby and I have now. It’s amazing how much you change in a few short years. (My teeth…so different!) J

I could seriously post so much more, but should probably stop for now. Enjoy every moment, of every day, and rejoice in the LORD every day for the day He has given! I will have to do a whole other post on nature pictures some other time—I have lots of those too! Until then….God Bless!

Michigan Trip, Part 6

August 20^th dawned our first full day with our friends at their cottage in northern Michigan. We wanted to make the most of our time together!

In the morning, the adults ran into town to do a little more shopping and run a few errands. We kids buddied up and headed over to camp.

We were headed for the archery range! We spent some time there shooting, and then split up. The boys wanted to play Gaga ball (also known as Octoball) and the girls wanted to play on the piano in the assembly hall.

We walked back to the cottage to grab our music. While we were there, one of them suggested we walk back to camp via the beach. Then someone else suggested that we just change into our swim suits in case we felt like getting wet. So we changed, grabbed our music and cameras, and headed over to camp.

I played through the pieces from my Senior Piano recital, and then our friend K played a few of her piano pieces. We all share a love of music!

Photo Credit: Roma.

After awhile, we met the boys back up at the cottage. The parents still hadn’t gotten back yet, so we made ourselves some lunch. Lunch time with 6 teenagers and 1 kid who eats like a teenager can be a bit scary. J Especially when we’ve been outdoors most of the morning, and have an afternoon of swimming ahead of us!

Right about the time we were finished eating, the adults arrived back. We all headed down to the lake! We had fun playing on the tubes. We would drag them way out, pile everyone on, and then float back towards the beach.

Photo Credit: Betsy.

We swam most of the afternoon and thoroughly wore ourselves out. But we were not too tired to cook a good dinner! Everyone pitched in and we enjoyed a feast of burgers, brats (including cherry brats), corn on the cop, tossed salad, and limeade.

The sunset over the lake that night.

For dessert, we had cherry pie with ice cream! Mr. M had quite the balancing act going on while he served us. J

That evening we had a sunset swim right after dinner. We swam until it got dark, and then came in. Some folks hit the showers, while others just dried off and put their pj’s on.

Then we indulged in a “midnight snack.” Yes, another double-dessert night. J Mr. M made us s’mores!

Again, we went to bed around midnight that night. It takes awhile for 11 people to cycle through 1 shower and only 2 bathrooms!

The next morning, all the runners in our family got up early to go for a run. I was having troubles with my shins, so I mostly walked. But it was nice to have cool running weather again! I’ve missed that!

We got back home and everyone showered up and ate their breakfast when they were ready. After that, people went in a couple of different directions. Dad and Mr. M went out on an errand, the boys went down to camp, and the girls dragged out a few bicycles to explore the little town.

Pumping up the tires for their ride.

Photo Credit: Roma.

Mom and I stayed back at the cottage. I had actually gone upstairs after breakfast and fallen asleep on my bed again! I napped for about an hour before getting up and fixing myself some hot chocolate. Yes, in August. J

Everyone came back around lunch time. During our down time, Dad and K talked a lot about good places to fly in Michigan. K is working on getting her private pilot’s license, and Dad has been a pilot for the past decade or so. He’s flown to quite a few of the small airports in Michigan, and pointed K to some good ones.

Photo Credit: Roma.

After lunch, we packed up our things, hooked the jet-ski up to the SUV and headed out to an inland lake. Lake Michigan was really choppy because of the winds, and we had really hoped to jet-ski. Actually, we had hoped to bring the boat and do some water-skiing and tubing, but even the inland lake was too brisk for that. It was nice to have some calmer water, and a nice beach to relax on!

Photo Credit: Roma.

Everyone took a turn with Mr. M on the jet-ski. In all my years of living in Michigan, I had never done it before! It was exhilarating! Only two nameless members of the family managed to flip the jet-ski. J It was hilarious for the rest of us to watch, especially since they were out of earshot! J (Don’t worry, they hadn’t gotten far from shore!)

Photo Credit: Roma.

After several hours at the lake, we packed up and headed back, as everyone was getting hungry. Above you can see the picnic table on the screened-in porch where we ate every night. Between the 11 of us and all the food, the table was quite full!

We didn’t eat until close to 8 o’clock! But it was worth the wait! We enjoyed T-bone steaks hot off the grill, sweet corn, tossed salad, chips with our favorite salsa, and limeade. It was *so* good!

We kids couldn’t let the last night go by without one last trip to the trading post. J The adults stayed at the cottage and cleaned up dinner while we went out for ice cream. It was fun going on an all-kids date!

Daddy came part-way through our time to keep us company. We ended up over in the game room where the boys shot a few rounds of pool.

Dad had taken a few of the kids back to the cottage while the rest of us waited for the older boys to finish their pool game. A few minutes later, Dad and Mr. M. came marching in and told us we needed to leave NOW. A huge thunderstorm was rolling in over the lake, and we needed to get back to the cottage before the rain started.

As we stepped outside, you could feel the wind picking up. Thankfully, the cottage, is only about a block away, so the walk took a matter of minutes.

Since it wasn’t raining yet, we did go in the back yard and watch the storm for awhile. This picture definitely doesn’t do it justice. The lightning would literally light up the sky! It truly takes my breath away to stand in a storm and literally feel the power of our God!

Photo Credit: Roma.

All of a sudden, the wind REALLY picked up, and windows and doors in the cottage started to slam shut. As big fat drops started falling from the sky, we ran inside. Everyone decided to forgo the shower that night J (it’s located outside.) We admired the storm for awhile and then folks got ready for bed.

What I did begin to notice was how warm it was getting inside. The cottage was built in the 1920’s and is therefore not equipped with air conditioning (other than the breezes off the lake.) Thankfully, the rain stopped around bedtime so we could open up some of the windows again.

A few of us had a small slice of cherry pie and ice cream before bed. It’s hard to say no when you know that you can’t find that at home in Texas! J We could hardly believe that our time in Michigan was quickly drawing to a close.

To be continued . . .

Michigan Trip, Part 5

On August 18^th, we had the privilege of attending our old church in Michigan. It was so good to be amongst our church family there! We sat in our usual second row seats, I made my Sunday-morning-hug-rounds, and we were able to attend our Sunday school classes.

We—of course—stayed late afterwards catching up with friends and taking some group pictures. Mr. C came to be a very dear friend of ours following our trip to Haiti.

Photo Credit: Mark.

We are so grateful to Pastor D for all he did to help our family with the graduation party. He is a big blessing to our family!

Photo Credit: Mark.

We went back to our hotel to eat lunch and relax a little bit. Mid-afternoon, we headed over to our friends the M’s house (you might remember when we visited their house to do some shooting last fall.) They had invited us over for an early dinner!

We girls had been talking before we left the hotel, and said “I hope Mr. M lets us do some shooting while we’re there.” Well, Mr. M made our day and pulled out the pistol. J We had fun blowing up a few tin cans while we waited for dinner to be ready.

Photo Credit: Ben.

The dinner was delicious! We ate burgers hot off the grill with Swiss cheese and cooked onions on top, chips, cucumber salad, baked beans, iced tea, and lemonade.

Enjoying our meal and catching up with each other.

For dessert, we enjoyed several different types of ice cream. The M’s know our family well. J Our time with them felt too short, but we had another commitment that evening . . .

. . . Uncle Paul, Aunt Noelle, and the boys came over to our hotel to visit for a few hours! We talked, the boys played, and we all enjoyed a few rounds of “Heads Up.”

Photo Credit: Roma.

Trying to fit everyone on the same couch. J I miss this family so much. They have truly become family to us.

Photo Credit: Betsy.

We stayed up late that night packing. On Monday (August 19^th) we got up bright and early to load up the car and eat breakfast before leaving our hotel. Uncle Paul and the family came over to say goodbye to us. That was hard. L Especially not knowing when exactly we’ll get to see them again. Everyone gave about 5 hugs each!

Finally, we had to break away and leave town. But our compass was pointed northwest; we were headed to a friend’s cottage on the lake for a few days! Many of you might remember a few blog posts I did about our first visit up there for my birthday a couple years ago. We were so excited to spend a couple more days of quality time with the M family as we have *really* missed them since we moved!

We stopped for a brief lunch and arrived at the cottage in the early afternoon. We unloaded our things and settled in. Then we had a quick pow-wow to discuss our loose schedule for the week, and important logistics such as grocery shopping. While the younger kids went down to the camp to explore, the adults made a shopping list. Then Dad, Mr. M., Roma, and I set out for the grocery store in the next town.

Group shopping is always more fun that shopping alone. J But boy, do 11 people need a lot of food for a few days!

On our way back to the cottage, we stopped at an overlook. That pier you see jutting out is where we walked two years ago! I love the Great Lakes.

We arrived back to the cottage and unloaded all our groceries. Then we loaded up the people and drove back into the neighboring town to go out for dinner. The place we were headed has everything cherry (northern Michigan is known for its cherries.) This restaurant bakes the only cherry pie I like, and makes the only cherry preserves I like. So needless to say, I was excited about eating there!

We had a cherry smorgasbord for dinner! I had cherry-ade to drink, a house salad with cherry vinaigrette, and a roll with butter to start out.

For dinner I ate cherry pulled pork, green beans, and mashed potatoes. It was all delicious!

For dessert, I of course had cherry pie a la mode. It was just as good as I remembered it! We bought several pies and jars of jam to take back to the cottage as well.

We got back to the cottage in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the lake.

That evening, they had square dancing at the camp. One of the counselors, K, came over and taught us how to do the Virginia Reel. It was pretty comical, but we definitely had fun!

Photo Credit: Ben.

The parents arrived just as we finished dancing. Then we all headed over to the trading post, which was just about to open (around 9:00 p.m.)

It was time for some ice cream! Yes, we did double-desserts in one night. J But you *have* to go to the trading post when you’re at camp!

Photo Credit: Roma.

While we enjoyed our ice cream, Mr. M mentioned his routine of going for a dip in the lake right before bed. Something about the sugar kick from the ice cream and the exhilaration of being on vacation with friends messed with our minds just a bit. J Despite the fact that it was only about 68 degrees out, we kids thought it’d be a great idea if we went with him. So we thin-blooded-Texans donned our swim suits and went swimming in Lake Michigan at 10:30 p.m.! We shrieked, moaned, and almost cried for the 5 minutes we were in the freezing cold water. But it was a memorable experience, and we really did have fun, despite what the neighbors thought. J

We dried off, warmed up, and went to bed around midnight. We were excited for another fun day with friends!

To be continued . . .