I've Been Everywhere, Man!

I'm feeling like I should be singing the Johnny Cash song, "I've Been Everywhere, Man". for sure!

(Christmas Day - 2014...at Magic Kingdom in front of Cinderella's Castle)

 On Friday, December 19th, early, early in the morning, we loaded up our vehicle and began a journey to Kissimmee, Florida.  It rained for all but about 30 minutes of our trip that first day, where we spent the night in Pensacola.  The next day we thought would be an easy trip, but it turned out that EVERYONE on the entire east coast must have been traveling that day, as well!  The traffic was horrible, but we made it to our destination Saturday night....tired and ready to be out of the car.

(Cinderella's Castle from behind)

 Sunday we worshipped with the Main Gate church, which is a part of the Concord St. Church of Christ in Orlando. I've mentioned it before, but it's such a great work that I want to mention it again! The services are held in a hotel which is owned by a Christian couple. Every week, visitors to Disney World and perhaps other entertainment-type places around there, meet together for worship and class.  It's such a blessing to have worship just a few blocks from our rent home! It's a blessing to see so many Christians from all over the place come together to worship Him!  I love it!  And we're very thankful for the good work they do!

(Sorcerer's Hat icon at Disney's Hollywood Studios - Dec. 22, 2014. The hat will be removed from the park tomorrow, January 7, 2015.)

 We spent a week at the Disney World Resort, visiting the four main parks.  We took special time to get a picture in front of the icon hat at Hollywood Studios (HWS). It's coming down tomorrow :(.  It's sad to us, but many of the older days of HWS are glad to see it go.

(Breakfast at Chef Mickey's before heading towards home - December 27, 2014)

We got back home from Florida on Sunday, December 27th, after worshipping on Sunday at Opeloosa, LA, and in the Dallas area that evening. (Can't think of the congregation's name, but the singing was GREAT and so was the lesson!).  We got home at 11:45!

Monday, the 29th was a day at home. We were all excited to have that day at home!  But the unpacking and repacking for the next road trip took up a lot of that day.  The next day we headed to Denver, Colorado, where our niece was getting married on New Year's Day!

For the wedding, our oldest two boys served as parking attendants.  It was COLD, but they were glad to serve.  Wedding guests parked down the street in a school parking lot, and walked to the theater where the wedding was held.

 I love this picture, seeing so many family members working together to get the theater ready for the wedding!  We couldn't get into the theater until a few hours before the actual wedding, so it took lots of help from everyone to get it all done! (I'm not showing much of the wedding because my sister-in-law is blogging about it and leading up to the actual event! If you would like to keep up with her posts, it's at www.wawawaughs.blogspot.com. There's a link on the side of my blog, as well, if you're on a computer.)

Our youngest was in charge of handing out the wedding favors. Here he is stacking them.  They are pears!  I'll post more about that later, as well!

The drive home that New Year's Day was pretty. There was snow, heaving, blowing snow, then just pretty snow on the landscape.  We were expecting really bad roads the closer we got to home, but it turned out not to be too bad.  We arrived home at 12:45 a.m.!  And had another one day at home before the next trip!

(Beautiful iced trees somewhere between Paducah and Matador, TX.)

There were ice warnings all over our area and all around us, so we were thinking we might have some trouble getting to our next destination - Lubbock, Texas.  Thankfully in our area, it stayed a few degrees above freezing, so instead of the dreaded ice, we got the much-needed rain!  However, a few places along our route got the ice.  The roads were clear for most of the time, but eventually even the roads were slick. It wasn't too bad, just had to take it slow.

(Icicles hanging - on the Loop at Lubbock)

Taking the roads slower than usual gave me plenty of opportunities to take pictures!  Such a pretty site to see!

We stayed in Lubbock from lunch until that evening, leaving before the temps got too cold and the roads froze too much.  We got home around 9:30 p.m., and everyone went straight to bed!  

We really haven't been EVERYWHERE....but we sure feel like we have!  We're thankful to be home, for the most part, and in our own beds.

Thank you, God, for the world you've given us.  You created such beautiful things for us to see. Thank you for allowing our family to visit just a few of those places these past few weeks.  May we never forget that it was YOU would created everything. 

In Jesus' name,

Amen