Greg and I spent last week on the Sophomore mission trip to Ruidoso, New Mexico. We set out around 7:30 am on Friday June 20th and returned on Friday June 27th. It was an amazing trip with almost 70 people (mostly sophomores) we go to church with. I’m not sure what is sweeter…..watching the teenagers teach the kids about Daniel or getting to spend a week with so many wonderful people we go to church with every week!! This is an amazing class that Greg and I have the privilege of following all the way through high school!

It took us about a day and a half to get there and that included a stop by the alien museum AND RESEARCH CENTER in Roswell, New Mexico. You haven’t lived until you’ve spent your $2.00 to walk through that bad boy!!!!!!

When we arrived we immediately started preparing for VBS that took place Monday-Thursday. The teens prepared the lessons ahead of time, decorated every classroom and taught the lessons all four days! I have to say I was proud of all of them and especially proud of Brock, Matt, Trisha and Jordan!

We stayed with families from the church and that was a real treat! I stayed with Alan and Kim McGhee and was treated like royalty! Every morning we had a gourmet breakfast waiting on us. The view from their deck overlooked the mountain range and it was breathtaking! Lori and Shirley (two mom’s of girls on our trip) also stayed at the same house. It was a ton of fun and I enjoyed getting to spend time with Kim and Carolyn most of the week.

Greg was privileged to stay with a wonderful family from church also. He stayed with Jace and Jan and from what I understand had a wonderful time. The difference in his house and mine was in addition to him staying there he also had six boys from the youth group and our youth intern!!!!!! Greg affectionetly became known as “dad” to the boys when he showed up to church Sunday morning with a button down shirt on. The name stuck and even this past Sunday when we showed up to church (at Richland Hills) I could hear people shouting dad and running up to Greg! I can’t think of a better way to spend your first mission trip with a church than being stuck in a house with 6 sixteen year old boys! Greg has many, many, many stories if you would like to hear more!

In the evenings we got to do lots of fun things with my favorite being a trip to White Sands! It amazed me to be driving through this desolate land and all of the sudden you come over the hill and see white as far as you can see! It is actually a national park and we spend a few hours there last Tuesday night. It was so fun but so strange at the same time! If you are ever in that area I recommend stopping by just to walk through part of it.

After a week of not thinking about wedding stuff it was nice to get home and settle back in for the FINAL TWO MONTHS of our engagement!!!!!!! I got the phone call that my dress had arrived while we were in Ruidoso so I left work early today and drove to Dallas to have it fitted.  I was thrilled to see it and can hardly wait to pick it up in a few weeks.

We are moving right along with making all the final plans for our wedding. It has been nice to enjoy the planning phase of our wedding but we also realize we are planning for more than just a wedding. We have had time to really think about and pray about the life we are building together. We realize this will last much much much longer than the ceremony that takes place on August 30th and we are both focused on that more than the actual wedding ceremony. I am thankful for this and am thankful that we see the bigger picture in the midst of planning a wedding.

Happy July 4th!!!!