Sweet Family Time

As you know, the boys were here over the summer helping with surveys & other ministry needs. Mikayla was able to arrive the end of July, just in time for our whole family to spend a couple of days at the beach together! It was such a sweet time, made sweeter by the fact that Ben's girlfriend as well as our team were able to join us as well. It was a big, fun group, and we enjoyed sunsets, our favorite pizza restaurant, spikeball, worship time together & swimming in both the ocean & the pool. So incredibly thankful for this time together!!

This time was a gift straight from the hands of our good Father.

 

Family Time

We are so blessed to have our boys here this summer (and Mikayla has tickets booked to come back the end of July, so we'll all be together a couple of days before they take off!). And we are loving getting to know Katye (we hadn't met her in person before this - she's jumping right in!). 

Because everyone's flights arrived as scheduled (thank you, Lord!), we had 1 day with just us before the crazy schedule started. We enjoyed some wakeboarding, hot spring soaking, and getting caught up. Then after a week of ministry, we got to enjoy a day off together with friends in Manila as well. We are so thankful for the moments that He is blessing us with this summer!

Giving Thanks!

In November, we got away for a few days with our team & had such a wonderful time relaxing and refreshing together on the beach that we forgot to get any pics! Here's some of the setting though - use your imagination :)

So very thankful for this team!
The pic below was when they traveled up to Manila to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and the rest of our coworkers.

After the Thanksgiving celebration, we went back to our house with Mikayla & Claire for 1 last dessert together. So thankful!

Summer Sojourns Pt 2

Claire's family headed their own way at that point, and we continued on with our 3 and my parents. We stayed in a airbnb Italian villa in a tiny village in Tuscany and thoroughly enjoyed exploring Orvieto (a highlight for sure!), Siena & Florence.

 

We even found a field of sunflowers so of course had to take some pics!

I can't even say how thankful we are for this blessed time together. While Italy has always been on my "bucket list", I NEVER would have expected that we'd be able to go, much less with the whole family. He is so very good to us.

After a fun food tour in Florence, we split ways again. My parents headed home, the fearless 3 headed to the Swiss Alps by train to crash with a friend, and Steve & headed trained to Cinque Terre, Italy to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary (ok, so a year late so our 26th because that was when we had meetings in Europe so tagged it on!).

Mikayla, Zach & Ben had a great time together in Switzerland, and I loved seeing their pics!

Steve & I stayed in a the tiny town of Corniglia - it's it adorable?!

We enjoyed the sunset from our tiny balcony (and lots of gelato!)

We also enjoyed the fact that our credit card points paid for our stay! :)  

Our hearts are overflowing with thankfulness for His many blessings! Never would have thought we'd have meetings in Europe, our family would get to join us, and that we would have this amazing opportunity.

Summer Sojourns Pt 1

We ended up with some meetings in Europe that our boys were invited to attend! When we said goodbye at Christmas, we didn't know when we'd see each other again (those are the hardest goodbyes!), so we were so incredibly thankful to see these young men again.

After our meetings, we flew to Rome ($34 tickets!) to meet up with my parents & Claire's parents (Claire's our teammate, & her parents are close friends & ministry partners) because our home church was doing a church launch in Rome with a Filipino congregation. So blessed to be able to be a part of it!

After the church launch, we spent a couple of days touring Rome together and had a wonderful time!

The Coliseum with a friend of Mikayla's

One of the cells where Paul was imprisoned.

The Roman Forum

The Spanish Steps

The Vatican - a highlight was a tour under the vatican in the catacombs, but no pics allowed there.

A train then ferry to Sorrento on the Amalfi coast - gorgeous!

Then a stop at Pompeii on the way back to Rome - exhausting day but wow.

We stayed in an airbnb together (fun but also cheaper :) ) and of course ate a ton of amazing food and enjoyed laughing over so many new experiences together - the 5 of us even rode scooters around Rome together! Can't say enough how thankful we are for this unexpected opportunity!