Journey of Faith: February

Eli practiced with his camera he got for Christmas quite a bit. Here I captured him with his Daddy at work. Not bad for a little camera :)

Just a bit over exposed....

Grammalot's birthday was Feb 17, so Eli got her card all ready. What a great job he did- all by himself!!

I got a pic of it,and then decided I needed to capture him with the card, too!

Eli, holding Grammalot's card.

It was a cold and snowy Feb. Thanks again Jim, for trading Saturdays with me- the 15 inches of snow we got overnight made travel impossible to go to work that weekend. Eli was a great help, too, helping to push the snow blower.

Beautiful- thou hard to hit the playset :)

We left all the snow behind and headed out to St Croix. What a time- we celebrated our 10th anniversary, and had friends that wanted to come with us. Our friend Kristen, a professional photographer, did some beach shots for us to commemorate the occasion. Little did she know what was in store for her that week :)

Here she is catching our photos as the sun was sinking down into the horizon.

Eli has started doing this with his camera, too. He takes a pic and then comes over and shows the pic to us.

Notice anything on that hand??? The surprise was amazing as John sang Kristen a beautiful song, declared his love and they agreed to be married. What a day!! and it wasn't ruined at all when Eli ran up, in the middle of the declaration of love, asking loudly if they wanted any hand sanitizer :)

Here Eli is, ready to head out to the pool with the pool toys we brought. He loved the water this year- the pool water. The ocean was still a bit to "big" for him.

I was so impressed with his snorkeling ablility!! He swam around for a few minutes with Tim,talking to us through the snorkel the whole time :)

This is one of my favorite pics from this year. Tim and Eli holding hands, walking along the beach.

Wednesday morning, we had plans to go to Christianstead with everyone to see the sites and while we went to the fort,they were going to look for souvenirs to take home. We had very spotty internet service at the room. That morning, however, Tim was able to get an email from our pastor.

He had been scheduled to go to Haiti on a mission trip on Jan 16. That trip, of course, was canceled due to the massive earthquake that all but destroyed much of Haiti on the 11th. Our crew was so disappointed to not be able to get there and help. We "knew"they wouldn't be able to get us back there very soon, since the airport was in such shambles.

Imagine Tim's surprise, regret, dismay, disbelief and overwhelmingly sad disappointment to find that our missionary had called the night before and wanted our team there that weekend- before we were scheduled to return. Ah- my heart was breaking for him, I knew how much he longed to go and help. But, he put on a happy face and we finished getting ready to go and met up with our friends and headed out.

Surprisingly enough, our phones have service on the South side of the island. So, once we got over the mountain to the other side of the island, Tim's phone starts dinging like mad as it received all his voice messages from the last few days. One was from his brother, Jeff, saying only call me as soon as you receive this message.

So, as we were driving down the road in the tropical lushness of St Croix, Tim learned that his Aunt had gone out looking for his uncle after he had been gone too long plowing snow, only to find he had passed away. At only 56 years old, it came as a shock to everyone. We were sitting there reeling with the news, not knowing what to do.

We went through our day, kinda numb, wanting to enjoy our beautiful surroundings, trying to figure out how to deal with these conflicting emotions.

Over the next 2 days we tried to find a way to get home early for the funeral on Monday. Tim wanted to be there with his family in such a bad way!!! Unfortunately, it would have cost $750 per ticket for us to fly home 1 day early. We spent a while on the phone with family, who assured us they understood we couldn't be there for the funeral. We finally concluded we could be there for afterwards- when the numbness starts to wear off.

The weather was beautiful!! Hot, sunny and wonderful- what a break from the feet of snow and no electricity we left behind!!

We toured around the fort in Ft Christianstead. Amazing to see the places people lived.

Eli liked the cannon!

The town Gazebo was dubbed the Merry-go-round without horses by Eli.

We all went out to dinner at Cheeseburgers in Paradise, enjoying food and getting to know new friends. Along with Kristen and John, John's 2 sisters, Beth and Faith were with us. What a fun time we had. Our server, after taking our pic, found out that we wanted to find the tide pools a few miles from our resort. He offered to take us the next day. So, on our 10th anniversary,we were able to do something we'd never done-and what an amazing day it was!!

Tim had just completed the P90X program. We sure were glad!!

He carried Eli almost the whole way on his shoulders!!

We all had fun on the hike. It was so beautiful, and a part of St Croix we have never seen before!

The tide pools are down at the far right end of the photo- just before the outcropping of the hill.

It was B E A utiful!! I could have spent a whole day there!

Some more pics from Eli's camera.

Mommy and Daddy :)

Kristen, John and Faith through the eyes of Eli....

Our four friends!!

The happy Newly engaged couple!

Every morning, Eli would wake with the sun (around 6:30!!) yelling- it's light out, waking up time, Mommy and Daddy, and then launch himself into bed with us. Ahhh, the excitement of youth- if only we could capture it and retain it always!~

The last morning we were there, Tim and Eli played in the sand by the beach (love the palm trees on the beach) while we went snorkeling. It was fun to be able to get out and explore underwater a little bit. Kinda completed the vacation for me :)

We did our formal pics then- here I captured the boys dressing. I'll have more pics to post soon- just waiting on the final disc of pics from the week.

Eli captured Kristen as she was shooting our photos.

Then he came and got us between shots :)

He learned to say bouganvillia- the name of the flower- while we were down there- here he is saying that on the plane on the way home:)

We arrived home in Columbus to several inches of freshly fallen snow. I am amazed the plane was able to land!! We had to get a taxi to get back to our hotel.

Eli fell asleep as we were taxiing into the airport. I carried him out of the plane, where we saw a wheelchair waiting, and no one that needed it- so we put him in the chair, and used it to push over to the baggage claim. We had our sweatshirts only- thinking we'd be stepping right into the van from the hotel. We ended up waiting outside in line for about 1/2 hour for a taxi- there were so many others lined up.

I had Eli under my sweatshirt, his head sticking out, hood over his head. We finally got a cab and arrived at the hotel. What an experience that ride was!! We arrived at the hotel about 11:30. We got up to our room and I laid Eli down on the bed. That is when he woke up.... :)

We ended up staying overnight due to the road conditions.

Notice anything amiss?

Eli kept running out the door after he woke up- he wanted to go swimming- not realizing that the pool wasn't open. Our door lock wasn't very effective, eh?

We got home the next morning- but couldn't make it up the drive way- so much more snow had fallen.

So, from one paradise to the next- we went from sand to snow. After a few hours, we were able to get up to the garage :)

This is the view out our front door. WOW!!

A friend of mine had given Eli and me a Gingerbread house kit. We decided to make a valentines house. Chey and Wes came up and we made it all together. We had some icing left over, so we decorated the kids,too :)

Chey

Eli

Wes

Valentine's house front view

Valentines house back view.

Then we all went to Papa's work, sharing our gingerbread house with the guys and eating pizza with them. Sat is pizza day at work- they make it from scratch- yum!!

Then, of course, the kids went down the pole- well,the boys did:)