Trip to North Carolina - At the Beach

While we were staying with the Smith family, we spent a lot of time at the beach.  Another fun activity was spending an afternoon visiting historical sites around the area.  It was so amazing!  Thank you, Smith family for your kindness and hospitality to us.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time with y'all!

Shells...shells...shells...and more shells!  :)

The foam that washed up on the beach was beautiful!

Cordell and Brandon

Grandma Richter feeding the seagulls.

Iridescent bubbles - so pretty!

The dunes.

Just because it's pretty...

Miss Dawn, Brittany, and me.

Sweet Mrs. Smith 

I loved the "V" effect as the waves swept back over the shells.

Underneath the pier.

Great, rolling waves, proclaiming the glory of our Creator.  The water has such force and strength - it's really amazing!

Brandon, Cordell, and Brittany 

Cordell flying his kite.

Me and Brittany 

Body surfing the waves - SO fun!!! 

Grandma Richter 

Miss Dawn and Brittany. They're best buddies!

A beautiful flower blooming on Grandma Richter's hibiscus bush. 

De-veining the shrimp for dinner. THANK YOU for the incredible meal!

We visited Orton plantation one afternoon. 

I saw my first alligator in the wild! 

He looks like a dragon! 

The Spanish Moss on the trees was truly beautiful.

Remains of an old church.

Bullet holes in the wall of the church. 

The foundation of a home from the 1700s. 

Isn't the color contrast gorgeous!?! 

Waves dashing against the rocks is something that I could watch for hours!

This old, gnarled tree was incredible!  Read more about in on the plaque below... 

The lighthouse on Oak Island. 

A picture-perfect path to the beach.

My beautiful Mama.

Footprints in the sand. 

Mama and I love walking the beach together with the waves more than ankle deep.  It is so refreshing! 

Notice the sunken shrimp boat. 

I love my Mama!  XO 

Trip to North Carolina - On the Road

We were up "bright and early" Friday morning, ready to go.  We had a time of prayer and then headed out to the car.  The guys waved to us until we were out of sight. 

At the hotel Friday night, I got some shots of the traffic on a slow shutter speed.  This photo was at 15 seconds.

This was taken on a 30 second shutter speed.  It is so neat to see where vehicles changed lanes and exited the freeway.  Since I didn't have a tripod, I had to get a little bit creative.  :)  I turned the trash can up-side-down and stabilized the camera body against the window.  I was pretty happy with the way these shots turned out.

A glorious sunrise on Saturday morning as viewed through our hotel window. 

No editing whatsoever. :)

Notice the little transgressors of the law on the bottom board of the fence.  :)

The Charleston capitol building.

We passed some lovely homes on the way...

Mama and I both thought that this was the cutest little place!

This is what the back seat looked like.   I somehow managed to squeeze in.  :)  It really wasn't that bad.  :)

We came over the top of a hill, and I gasped when I saw this beautiful scene.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

We stopped briefly at a scenic overlook.  This was another of those "gasper" moments!

Me and Miss Dawn

What a gorgeous location!

Simply country.

Just for laughs!  There were a lot of weird "villes" in NC, one of them being Hicksville.  :)

These cheery little beauties were popping up all along the mountain highways.  They flashed past so quickly that this was the best picture I managed to get.

Trip to North Carolina - Overview

Hello Y'all!

As you may guess from my greeting, I've been down South for a while.  :)  :)  :)

A good friend of ours, Miss Dawn,  recently moved down to North Carolina and asked Mama and I to drive down with her.  We left Friday, the 18th of this month.  The trip was about 24 hours long and we went through the mountains on our second day (Saturday).  They were gorgeous!!!!!  We thought we would stop more often to take pictures, and then stay at another hotel, but instead, we went all of the way through Saturday night.  I can't tell you how good it was to arrive!  :)

We were kindly and hospitably received by Miss Dawn's sister and mother.  We stayed for three days, leaving Wednesday afternoon for the Renfro family's home.

Sunday through Tuesday were full days of going to the beach, visiting historical sites, going back to the beach, playing Frisbee, body surfing the waves, getting sunburned :), playing Risk, eating wonderful food, going to the beach again :), and much, much more.

Our dear friends, the Renfros live about three hours from where we were staying, so Miss Dawn drove us there.  It was a bittersweet goodbye with her.  She has really blessed me and been a large part of my life these past seven months.

We spent a sweet day of fellowship, fun and encouragement with the Renfro family on Wednesday.

My Grandpa had generously given us some money for our trip, so we planned an overnight trip to Mount Vernon and Washington DC for Thursday and Friday.  This part of our trip was packed with new and exciting experiences! 

We drove to George Washington's home, Mount Vernon, on Thursday and spent many, many hours walking the grounds there.  We were able to walk through his beautiful home as well.  Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed inside the mansion.  We saw the room in which he received the letter announcing his election to the presidency, the room where the Washingtons dined and entertained company, the bedroom where Lafayette slept during his visit to Mount Vernon, and the room in which Washington died.  Other interesting artifacts related to the Washingtons both at Mr Vernon and the Smithsonian included:
Washington's dentures, his mother's chair, much of the Washington family's china, the key from the Bastille, some scraps of letters in Washington's own handwriting, his uniform, many of his swords, his eyeglasses, Martha Washington's cookbook which was already 100 years old when she received it, and much, much more.

After Mount Vernon, we drove to DC and viewed some of the monuments by moonlight - the Washington monument, the WWII monument, and the Lincoln memorial.  What an experience!  I also got to ride on a sub way for the first time.

That was quite enough walking for one day, so we checked in at our hotel and crashed (or some of us did!).  :)  We were up bright and early the next morning, excited for what was in store.  First on our list was Arlington House and Cemetery.  It was sobering to walk through the cemetery and see so many headstones, a memorial to men who valiantly died in service of their country. 

Arlington House was beautiful, but due to the earthquake, all furniture and decor had been removed to repair the home.  It was still a neat experience to see the place where Robert E. Lee lived and was married, and the grounds which he walked. 

Next up - the Smithsonian museum of American History!  What an overwhelming store of information is contained there!  We viewed the actual Star-Spangled-Banner, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen our National Anthem!  It wasn't a small to medium-sized flag like I had thought - it was HUGE!  After spending a considerable amount of time in that section of the museum, we walked slowly through the area on American wars, trying to take everything in.  By WWI I was so overwhelmed that it was hard to take any more in!!!!! 

After this, our party split up.  Mrs. Renfro and Bri stayed at the American History Museum, Josh took Mama to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, while Jenna, Daniel, and I walked quickly down to the National Archives.  We were blessed with a spot in line just before a large group of school children got in line.  The wait was from 30-40 minutes, but well worth it once we were inside.  It was truly an incredible experience to see one of the four original Magna Charta documents remaining, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  The documents have aged so that it is hard to distinguish many of the signatures, but what an experience to see the papers that our founding fathers handled, signed their names to, and, in some cases, risked their life for the principles contained within.  We had to whiz through the rest of the museum due to a time constraint, but another highlight was hearing a recording of Teddy Roosevelt's voice.  Our visit to the National Archives was definitely a high point for me!

We arrived home that night, or rather, early Saturday morning.  The Brown family is having a Memorial celebration on their property, so Daniel went over mid-morning to help set up the huge tent.  Bri drove Jenna and I over later and we waded in the pond and played a super fun game of ultimate Frisbee. 

Sunday we went to church and then a study that night of the Second London Baptist Confession. 

On Monday, all of us girls went to the farmer's market in Raleigh.  It was a joy to see some of the Valentis and Katie Bradrick again.  What a sweet family they are!

Monday evening brought a fun and exhausting game of ultimate Frisbee on the Renfro's property.  We played 5 different games in the space of about 3 hours.  My legs are still sore from all of that running!!!!! :)  Ultimate Frisbee is definitely my favorite sport to play and I had a BLAST Monday night!

Tuesday was also very blessed with our last hours of fellowship with the Renfro family.  It was a bittersweet goodbye - the hardest one for me yet.  We flew from Raleigh to Charlotte, changed planes, and flew into Minneapolis airport in the late afternoon.  What a joy it was to see my precious family once again!  What a gracious Lord we serve to keep us safe through our many travels and adventures.  I am grateful to be back home again with my wonderful family.  Home is a beautiful and joyful place to be!

Mundy is me (Jeremiah's nickname for me), if anyone wants to know... :) 

Thank you to everyone who blessed us and made our trip a sweet and memorable experience.  We love you and thank God for you.

There should be lots and lots of photos in my next few posts.  :)

The Joys and Blessings of Little Brothers

Today, I was pleasantly and sweetly surprised by a bouquet of flowers from my two littlest brothers.  They also had my name written on the jar, two quarters :) and a carefully written note saying "I Love you".  Mama received the same. 

As I was doing some office work, the sweet aroma reminded me of my precious little blessings.  What a joy and gift from our gracious Lord little brothers are!!!  He is so good to me to give me brothers who love me so unconditionally.  I can't express in mere words how dear my brothers are to me or how much joy they bring to me each day.  Praise the Lord for brothers!  :)

Mama's bouquet. 

My bouquet. 

Me with my dear little gentlemen.  :)

Infinite

Here is a poem that a dear friend sent me during a difficult time in my life.  It blessed me more than she will ever know!  I hope that you are encouraged by it as well.

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase,
To added affliction He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half-done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father's full giving is only begun.
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men,
For our of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.
- Annie Johnson Flint