POTLUCK DINNER

After the pool, we headed over to my sister, Vicki's place for a potluck dinner. Vicki had the WHOLE family over. It was fun!









We were sitting everywhere.











































Some even enjoyed feasting outside.

Then we just had fun visiting & catching up.

Dan, Ashley, Baby Nissi, & Robyn






Grace's son, Davis talking to his grandpa. Gene is talking to Spenser on the right.

Betty talking to Grace while she's feeding Nissi. Grace's daughter, Starling, is sitting with her. Her nieces are on the couch.















Craig & Ainsley are listening to the guys on the couch: Davis, Eugene, & my Dad.











This is Grace's brother, Gene, with his kids. The three younger ones are triplets who were born on 3.3.03!










The young ladies are Bethany, Mandy, Sarah, Jordan, & don't forget Miss Tavi too!











Pictured are Jacque, Ashley & Nissi on the couch, & Brianna, Bethany, & Dan posing for a picture.











This is a picture of me with my sisters Vicki, on the floor, & Jacque, behind me.

We all had a great time!
We so enjoyed visiting with each other!

Day 2

After leaving Dave & Carissa's, we headed on down to Atlantic Beach, NC. We so enjoyed our visit with Carissa, but she couldn't come with us because she had a paper due. :( Dave did come though. We took 2 vehicles on vacation because it was too hard to squeeze 8 people into our minivan, especially when 5 of us are around 6 ft! So Dave drove his Dad's car & we followed. By this point we were having transmission problems with the minivan, but it got us down & back home ok. I just had to go easy on it.

Since it has been 4 years since we have been to that beach it was nice to see the bridge & head over to the island again! We came up from the south end of the island this time.





You can tell you are getting close to the ocean when you see sights like these. :)










Yeah, Atlantic Beach here we come!

We are finally there when we see the Peppertree Resort sign.






It felt so good to finally get in our condo.
We are right above the offices, 2nd floor from the top

We had the peanut pool & the baby pool right below us.
This is a picture I took at night.
This is the sitting area at the offices which we pass each time we go up to our condo.



































Now this is what our condo looked like from the inside.



This is the living room/dining room area. It overlooked the pools. You could also see the beach in the distance. The guys slept out here.

This was our kitchen.

Sarah & Mandy stayed in this bedroom...

....and we had this room...

...with this bathroom! Yes, that's a jacuzzi!

Vicki & Jacque came to welcome us.
Many had come the day before.

2009 Vacation at Atlantic Beach, NC

Day 1 & 2



As we started out on our vacation,
we came upon patches of fog.











We stopped at the Casselman Inn in Grantsville, MD to pick up cinnamon rolls for breakfast, but they were all out.










So we headed down the road to an Amish community to a little grocery store that we knew of to see if they had any. And they did !







We decided to lay over at Dave & Carissa's place to break up the trip down to the beach.

These are the beautiful Virginia mountains! In a few months they will be alive with color.

We finally made it to their house.

They were such great hosts! Here are some pictures of our stay there.

This was the room we stayed in. I felt like I was staying at a very fine motel! Absolutely beautiful!





















David completely redid this kitchen including the cabinets. Are they beautiful?! He did such a good job!











The view of the kitchen from the living room.




































The boys enjoyed some time in the hot tub.

The next day Carissa put out a nice breakfast spread for us
before we headed down to the beach.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the place where most people trip on. They can't seem to get victory over it. And this is the tool that Satan uses to keep Christians defeated. In Matthew 18, Peter asks Jesus how many times should we forgive when someone sins against us. And Jesus responded with an astounding answer, not just 7 times, but 70 times 7. That's just for 1 day!

God calls us to even pray for our enemies - now there's a hard pill to swallow!!! In Matthew 5:43-47 Jesus says, " 'You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor & hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemy & pray for those who persecute you, ...' " But you say, "You don't know what he/she did to me..." But do you realize that we were ALL once enemies to God & yet He laid down His life for us. With that perspective how can we stay in our unforgiveness?!

Birds

I was sitting at our computer when I noticed a gold finch feasting on a sunflower outside my window. So I took pictures & I want to share them with you.

This shot tickled me. He looks like he has sunglasses on!

He guy flew over to the clothes line before he took off.

These below are out
my kitchen window.

I always enjoy it when humming birds come for a visit.

This one flew in when I was
taking pictures of the gold finch.