Kids Team

The team coming to serve at our organization's conference arrived yesterday!!  Four of them arrived Thursday morning and the other three arrived late on Thursday night after several difficulties.  Their luggage didn't arrive! :-(  But we made the best of things and drug them all around the city.

We started with the first group showing them the city walls and a beautiful church with really well preserved mosaics.

Jennie exploring the old city walls

Meg was brave enough to walk all along the wall.

This little guy was so happy to ham it up for the camera.

 The next day, once the whole group had arrived, we let them sleep in and then took them sightseeing.

at Hagia Sofia

Blus Mosque babes!

 We shopped it up at the Spice Market and then headed back to my house to begin making calls about the lost luggage.  Finally, after midnight we found out that the luggage would be arriving in the middle of the night.  We didn't trust the airport folks to deliver the bags before we had to fly out to the southern coast for the conference.  So Josh and I got up at the crack of dawn and went to the airport to retrieve them ourselves.  I was so nervous that the bags weren't really going to be there or there would be a glitch.  PTL all six bags were there and they even let me claim them for Nate and Kate.  Josh was so happy!

After we got the bags home we set to work getting things prepared and rearranging all the bags.  There was a lot of work to be done before our afternoon flight!

Jet-Setter

I guess I'm a bit of a jet-setter these days!  I drove back to my parents from Mindy's wedding in St. Simons yesterday.  And I'm flying out today!  My sweet Daddy got up super early to take me to the airport.  I've got to hurry up and get home... I'm getting 7 guests day after tomorrow!!

Mindy's BIG Day

Mindy's wedding is finally here!!!  Praise the Lord the weather was absolutely perfect and the wedding was absolutely beautiful!  Mindy was a radiant bride!

the bridesmaid bouquets

the reception was held in a nice open-air building just behind the wedding site

the wedding site and "Mindy's tree"

Bridesmaid's Brunch

I had been dying to do something special for Mindy since I had to miss all of her showers and other fun wedding stuff.  So, I convinced Mindy to let me do a low-key little brunch for the ladies on the morning of the wedding.  I am so glad we did it!  It was such a great way to start the day.  We had yummy food, fun and laughter, and special time to pray for and bless Mindy.  We had ladies from ages 12 to 90+ there loving on Mindy and giving her a bit of marriage advice!  It was so special!!

The Day Before the Wedding

All of the ladies in the wedding party headed out this morning to get our nails done.

The beautiful bride getting her not so beautiful feet worked on!

Weddings call for a french manicure- no doubt!

BFFs!!

Then some of the ladies went shopping, but I made Mindy give me her list of everything that needed to be done and headed out to run errands.  Then Mindy and I went to the beach for an hour.  Finally we headed back to the beach house to get ready for the rehearsal.

Pastor Brody told us, "No matter what happens just go with it!"

Bridesmaid selfie!

You couldn't wipe the smiles off Mindy and Travis's faces!

The rehearsal went really well and it made us all so much more excited for the big day!  Afterwards, Travis's family had everyone back to their beach house for a big 'ole BBQ dinner.  It was such a fun evening.

17 Years!!

(We were married in the stone age so this is just a crappy scan of our wedding picture.  I promise the actual pictures are beautiful!)

Happy Anniversary, Love!  

Here's to 50 more years of wedded bliss!!

Beachin' It

All work and no play makes Elizabeth a dull girl!  After several days of wedding tasks, it was time to take a break!  This afternoon we finally made it to the beach!

As is typical of summer along the coast, a storm blew through and dumped rain in the mid-afternoon.  But, it passed quickly and we hightailed it to the beach.  The sun came  out and it was a beautiful evening!  I am so glad that we took a break to enjoy ourselves.  There is something so peaceful and stress-relieving about watching the waves crash onto the shore!  I just love it!

Me and my bestie!

The happy couple!

Weddin' Work

I arrived in St. Simons on Tuesday and it has been all wedding all the time!  I am a girl that loves tasks, so we are having a good time getting things done.

Making final decisions on cupcakes

Working on address lists

making wedding favors

making wedding programs

Here's our beautiful bride!

It has been such a special time down here with Mindy.  I am so blessed to get this opportunity to share this time with her and help out.  Plus, we haven't stopped laughing the entire time!  I love this girl so much and am so happy for her (even though I don't want to share her!)!

My Cam

How many selfies with Cam do you have to take before you get a good one?

I LOVE this little turkey!

Yil Sonu Gosteri

Lucy had an end of the year program with her class today.  So, SuperDad Justin took her up to a hairdresser to get her hair done- Justin can't do fancy hair!  Ha!   I had gotten the dress and everything else she needed before I left.  I had my fingers crossed that it wouldn't be too much trouble for Justin.  As usual, he did an amazing job and handled the hell joys and pitfalls of a performance at the local elementary school!

Lucy and her fancy hair!

I was sorry to miss her performance, but Justin took tons of video and Lucy gave me the play by play.  

You can barely see Lucy in the back and with all the parents' cell phones!

Lucy, on the left, did a great job!
She memorized a poem and recited it in front of all the parents.

Dasher Cookout

One of the best things about Mindy's wedding is that she is getting married on an island off the Georgia coast.  So I got to fly into Atlanta and spend the weekend with my family before I went down for wedding mania!  It was such a fun blessing to get to do it all in one quick week!

Paul, Melissa, and Cam came up for the weekend to stay with my parents.  Alan and Michelle had us all over for a cookout on Saturday afternoon.  They have just finished this fun party house out behind their house so we all got to hang out there.

Hanging in the party house

Alan grilled burgers and hot dogs

Aydin tried to get us to join in a game of Twister.
Nobody was up for it.

Gamma and Tayne

My precious niece and nephews

We were all teasing sweet Melissa because she was hitting the cookies pretty hard.
She's 4 months pregnant and enjoying every second of it!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to see my precious family!

Justin's B-Day

Justin turned 38 today.  Callie was so sweet and surprised him with a special birthday dessert.  She had some time at home alone on Friday before Justin's birthday.   So she secretly made this beautiful layered pudding to surprise her Daddy!!  It was such a sweet surprise!

After all the kids got home from school the kids took Justin out for dinner.  I had slipped Noah money and given him instructions to make sure Daddy gets to pick his favorite restaurant and Noah pays.  The kids did their best to make Justin's day special.  I had also slipped Callie a little bit of money so she could run to the store and buy Justin's favorite treats.  I think Justin had a great day!

The girls got all dressed up to take their Daddy out for his birthday.