Vacation Part 1

On Saturday, we left Kentucky and headed through West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina.

The capital building in Charleston, West Virginia

curvy roads in West Virginia

Virginia

Moutain Tunnel in VA

There was a huge trafic jam on the left sided of the road. It was backed up for probably 20 or more miles.

In one of the towns in Virginia, they had a lot of Mayberry/Andy Griffith stuff.

Pilot's mountian in North Carolina

traveling through NC

~Amber~

Camping in Kentucky

On Friday, we camped at a very hicktown campground. ;) Actually, I should say we parked the suburban at a campsite and slept in the vehicle. ;) Didn't really feel like setting up the tent at 1:30 a.m. especially since it takes about an hour to set up!

a sleepy little guy- everybody really didn't get much sleep that night

Packing up
our lovely, muddy campsite ;)


We're off!

~Amber~

Rest Stop

Here are some of the pictures that I promised. These are from the Farmland rest stop that we stopped at on Friday.

Our lovely vehicle with its trailor

Yours Truly, the blogger

eating a snack
The boys, especially Alec and Austin needed to get out and play for a few minutes.

eating supper

I have to say the trip seemed really long on Friday.

~Amber~

We are Off!

We left yesterday around 2:30 p.m and reached our campground in Walton, Kentucky around 1:30 a.m. On the way, we got delayed a couple of times. First, there was a bad accident on I-39 near Lasalle-Peru, and then we had to go through a construction area. The ride down wasn't too bad. Austin was good and Alec just cried a few times. For supper, we stopped at the Farmland rest stop outside of Champaign, and the boys played around on the playground. Since we reached the campground so early this morning, we did not set up the tent, but slept in the suburban. That was interesting! Between being squished, cramped, people snoring, and the seats creaking, we got about as much as you can expect from those conditions. ;) It is 8:00 a.m. here, and we will be leaving in a few minutes. When we reach our campground tonight, I will try to post some pictures. We are on the last leg of our trip, so hopefully it will go pretty quickly! ;)

~Amber~

Internship Pictures

For those of you who haven't seen Andrew's blog, here are some of the pictures they took the other day.

Andrew H., Micah, Scott Brown, Ryan, Andrew, and Joe

I like this pose.

Scott Brown and Peter Bradrick

Andrew and Joe

Joe, Andrew, Scott Brown, Andrew H., Peter Bradrick, Ryan, Micah, David Brown

~Amber~

Almost Time for Vacation

On Friday we will be leaving to go pick Andrew up and go on vacation. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!! This will be the first time in a long time that we have gone anywhere or out of state for vacation. It will be nice to see Andrew again too! ;)

We will be camping the whole time, so that should be fun although it is supposed to be rather hot. After we pick Andrew up, we are going to travel on the Blue Ridge Parkway and stop to look at sights and hike there. I think we are going to go to a couple of mountains too. The only bad thing is that the campgrounds along the parkway do not have any showers! :( Dad says we have to heat water up and wash off in a large tub! I guess we will see what it was like for the pioneers to take baths. ;) I'm just glad they at least have flush toilets and possibly electricity at the comfort stations. After the mountains, we are heading up to stay at a campground in Kentucky and to visit the Creation Museum. We are all looking forward to that because we were going to go there for vacation last year, but our plans fell through. We will be there through the fourth of July. On the fifth we will head home. We are getting excited about going. This week our house will probably be crazy with packing and getting ready.

I will probably have my laptop with me, so I will try to post pictures when I can get internet so you all can see what we are up to and be jealous (just kidding!!). ;) Pray that we will have safety traveling and that there wouldn't be any arguing or complaining as we are traveling.

~Amber~

Something to Ponder

"God is not obliged to let me do whatever I want to do lest He interfere with my free will...God's freedom is greater than man's. Man's freedom ends where God's begins. It is God Who works all things according to the counsel of His will." R. C. Sproul

"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.' So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.' Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens." Romans 9:14-18

"That out of the mass of fallen humanity God chooses some people to be saved and not others raises the objection that God is not fair. Somehow it is widely assumed that God owes all people either the gift of salvation or at least a chance of salvation. Grace, by definition, is something that God is not required to grant. He owes a fallen world no mercy. If we cried out for justice at His hands, we would all receive the just condemnation we deserve. Justice is what we deserve. Grace is always and ever and undeserved. The elect get the grace they do not deserve, while the reprobate get the justice they do deserve. If God decides to pardon one guilty person, that does not mean that those He does not pardeon are somehow any less guilty. Paul makes it unambiguously clear that God always reserves the right to exercise HIs mercy and grace according to His own good pleasure. It is this sovereign expression of love that redounds to the praise of His glory. It is this love that leaves us astonished and singing doxologies. It is this over whelming love that provoked Paul to cry out: 'Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and is shall be repaid to him?' (Romans 11:33-35) "

"Perhaps the greatests expression of God's love is His granting to HIs elect the very requirement He makes of men to avail the benefits of Christ. It is the granting of the gift of faith. 'And who He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of HIs grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:1-9).' The electing love of God is in view here with respect to HIs graciousness in quickening us from death to life, not after we responded to the gospel, but that we would in fact respond to the gospel." R.C. Sproul

(taken from Loved By God by R.C. Sproul- This is a great book that everyone should read. The author takes us to the Bible to see what the Scriptures say that God's love is.)

~Amber~

It's a Girl!

Rachel Elizabeth was born on June 2, 2009 to Dan and Emily Gillingham.

Isn't she so cute? I think she looks a lot like Aunt Emily.
Rachel and I
I am so excited they had a girl! For those of you who don't know, boys run on my dad's side of the family. Before Rachel was born, there were only three girls out of thirteen grandkids! Needless to say, we are pretty excited that it is a girl. It is way more fun to shop for girls too! ;)

Aunt Emily opening her gifts
Mom and Rachel
Aaron and Rachel- He was the only boy that would hold her. Anthony refused to. ;)

Congratulations Uncle Dan and Aunt Emily!!

~Amber~

Sarah's Senior Recital

Sarah Caswell had a senior piano and flute recital on May 28th. She asked me to play a duet with her.

Sarah and I
Sarah and Linnea

Thanks so much Sarah for having me play with you! It was a lot of fun and you did a great job! :)

~Amber~

Memorial Day

The Sunday before Memorial Day Anthony, Aaron, and I played special music for a Memorial service at Crane's Grove Cemetery. On Memorial Day, we went to the Henry Villas Zoo.

the monkeys

watching the tiger- Alec liked the tiger. Whenever he walked towards us, Alec smiled really big.

feeding the goats
the peacock
The zoo rebuilt the children's area, and it was really neat. There was a huge treehouse playground that Austin loved playing on. They also built a carousel and train.

Alec liked to go down the slide.

Alec loved crawling through the tunnel.

Mom and Alec

Austin the turtle
climbing the rock
the boys and the kangaroo


riding the carousel
watching the fishes

flamingos
Austin rode the train.

porcupine
chamelion

prairie dogs
buffalo
grizzly bear

birds



After the zoo, we went to the aboretum in Madison.

wild turkeys
Dad took a lot of pictures of the flowers.

It was a lot of fun and a nice time to spend with family.

~Amber~