Durango Mt. Resort

Yesterday we went to Durango Mt. Resort (the winter ski resort) to the Alpine Slide...similar to one at Ober Gatlinburg. It was fun but the fun was cut short by the rain and we had to get a rain check to come back another day.

We went with Cathy Wilkening and these are her grandchildren from California that have been fun to be around the last couple of weeks.....

The ski is resort is so beautiful.....even in the summer....

They also had a bungee trampoline...here is Landon in the middle of a flip....can you find him??

And here's Mason.....as fun as it looks, Mason was ALOT of pain and did not enjoy it one bit due to the harness.....

Mason on the rock climbing wall.....

Mike almost had this chipmunk eating out of his hand....they are all over the place here

Can you identify this animal??

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HAPPPY SWEET 16 COLTON!!

My nephew Colton turns 16 today!! Happy Birthday Colton!! He is the oldest child of by brother Robby and his wife Patti. Colton is very athletically talented as well as smart also. He is the one cousin that my boys idolize (because he is the only boy cousin that is older than them) and so far he has been a great example for them to follow! Hope your 16th birthday is awesome Colton!! Hope to see you next week!!

(Again, sorry for such a small picture...these are not on my laptop so I transfer them from snapfish and for some reason their tiny! Will get plenty of pictures of this family if they get to come down next week!!)

Congratulations Grace Family!!

I am excited to announce that Grace Community Church voted in Tim Lynch as their pastor yesterday!! He and his wife Christi and two children will be moving to Cullman from North Carolina. I am especially excited for her because she will be living closer to her family! It is so awesome to hear the excitement back in everyone's voices and writings on the computer and we are extremely happy and anxious to see what God is going to do in and thru GCC. I will confess that I am a tad jealous of Tim and Christi because of the awesome church family they just obtained. You guys are so incredibly special to us and I know you will be to them also. Tim and Christi....You are so Blessed!!!(I heard that they've checked out our blog but not sure if they are keeping up with it or not).
To our Grace family....you will ALWAYS be considered our family no matter who is pastor. We love you and ask that you never compare Mike and Tim to each other. They were both sent to Grace for a season....two separate seasons. Be open to change and the visions that God gives to Tim. Hold Tim in high regard for he is the man that will be bringing YOU a WORD from GOD every week....and even if you may not agree with him all the time, pray for him daily....that he will be STRONG IN THE LORD, JOYFUL, HUMBLE, ENCOURAGED, AND SUBMISSIVE to the HOLY SPIRIT. May GOD receive GLORY for ALL the things HE HAS DONE!
Be willing to let God use you to change Holly Pond, Cullman Co, Alabama, the US, and the world!!! We love you and are so excited for you!!

Summer Fun!

Little fun going on around here this week.....

Monday, Mike and the boys went horseback riding up to Dan's camp on top of the mountain that separates Lake Vallecito and Lemon Lake....here's a couple of shots from that trip.....

As you may notice, BIG improvement with Mike's hat on this horse ride!! For Father's Day, the kids gave him a new hat and ditched the other one! (Now we have to work on getting Landon a new one!!!) In this next picture you can see Lake Vallecito in the background....

Yesterday, we went tubing and had a blast. The people here are very generous with their stuff and Don Delamont told us we could use his pontoon boat any time we want to. So , I bought a tube last week and the boys loved it......

I thought this was a really neat picture....Landon tanning but look how it turned out......

Mike is playing golf today while the kids and I hang out...the boys are actually in the lake swimming behind the house (with their life jackets on Mom!)....and then movie night tonight! I have been blessed with lots of cabins/houses to clean this week also. Can't wait to come to Bama in two weeks!!

(VBS report=31 kids this week!)

I'm Back!

Hey everyone it has been a while since I wrote anything on the blog. It has been difficult sharing all the things that are going on in our lives. I have been dealing with the move and loss of our church back in Cullman and all our friends, and dealing with the unhappiness of my family out here and I just really haven't felt like writing anything. I have seen however things changing recently though here; Lori and the kids seem to be finally adjusting to this new life we have; the kids have friends now to play with and do things with and the church is really going great. God has lifted those burdens from me and we are starting to find joy here in our new assignment. I am also starting to be able to let go of the feeling of sorrow from having to leave Cullman and Grace Community Church. I am really excited about Grace finding a new pastor and moving forward into all that God has for them. I still miss everyone and still love that church but I am content that God has moved us here and He is doing a work in me, my family, our old church and our new church. That is good.

As you know when we came here there were a hand full of people and no children in our church. This week we have seen 27 children in bible school; 25 young people in our Friday night Youth night; 25 children in children's church this morning and a church packed with people. There were very few empty seats in our church this morning. God is good and He is accomplishing His will here (I am sure in spite of me most of the time). I love you all and ask you to keep praying for me and my family. See you soon.
Mike

God Bless America!!

Happy 4th of July and may God bless America...land that I love!! Hope your day was filled with an air of excitement as you ate good food and fellowshipped with good people. We started the day at the Bayfield 4th of July parade which was was different than any parade we had ever seen. I forgot my camera but there were many neat floats.....some political, some with people square dancing, some with live bands playing, some spraying water on all the kids that ran behind it to get wet and cool off, but my favorite was the one "celebrating the 21st amendment bearing the right to drink beer at the Billy Goat Saloon" with their saloon girls dancing! They then had arts and crafts and food and a band playing at the park. After leaving there, the Vallecito Service League had an Arts and Crafts area at the bottom of the dam but it was not quiet as good as Bayfield's. Later in the afternoon, We had a yard FULL of people as the Camp Kanakuk kids came, cooked out and played in our church yard as we waited for the firework show....







Look as this awesome display of God's promises that He blessed us with before dark.....it was the brightest rainbow we have ever seen!

It was a really neat day as their was an air of excitement all around being a holiday in a vacationing area. The fireworks were awesome as the boom from each one echoed off of the mountains. I forgot to mention that next door at the bar, they have a band playing on a stage outside REALLY LOUD now and for the greater part of the afternoon. I didn't like them until I heard them signing "Sweet Home Alabama"!!

(Teen Night Friday night= 25 kids there from 6 different states! May God bless the seed that was planted and may fruit be produced from these kids all over the US)

Baseball is Over

Mason played for the Bayfield Red Sox this season and they were a great team. They were a little different from Parkside in that they had a skills test and then were divided up through a draft. One team in Bayfield and one team in Durango were said to have drafted some A players after the draft and both of those teams dominated all season. We were the second best team in Bayfield and came in 2nd in the closing tournament. Mason ended the season with a batting average of .500 and 20 RBI's. He played first base and pitched also. Here are some shots from his season......

My disappointment in the season were the mouths of the coaches and the some of the kids he played with....oh, and also the parents. We were very embarrassed at several games and the way the coaches and parents screamed at the other team and the umpire. We finally had to separate ourselves from them as a way to let the opposing team know that it was not us using those words! Mason learned many new words this season! And I hate it because where we come from, the kids met at the pitchers mound and had prayer after the game. Huge change for us but we survived and pray that next season we are with different coaches. We have a month's break before football begins! Gotta love this ball loving kid!