Weekend of Winterfest Fun & Challenge

We are now in North Carolina until tomorrow, then we will be heading to D.C. Praise God that we have had safe travels so far and I pray that we can continue to have safe travels. I thought that I would give a brief update on our Winterfest weekend. It was AWESOME! The pressence of God was felt so strongly.

Jonah and Courtney with the beauty of God in the background,

taken on the balcony of our chalet. It's tradition to get a picture of our Winterfest group on Sunday morning prior to leaving.

If you have never been to Winterfest, you are missing out on a great weekend. This weekend between both sessions (which were sold out) there were a total of over 13,000 attendees. It was amazing and probably the best one yet. The theme this year was "The Mission", it was awesome!!! There were several different guest speakers and as always the singing was great. Each session showed us how to take the following steps.......


step 1: KNOW CHRIST


step 2: BE CHRIST


step 3: SEE CHRIST

step 4: SHARE CHRIST

Mr. Mumps, was Harrison's name for the weekend. Yes, with a possiblity of having the mumps, I think that Harrison stilled enjoyed himself, even though he never made it out of the chalet. I wished I had gotten a picture of him with his mask on, but by Sunday, he was able to take it off and would not put it back on for a simple picture. Oh well! I tried to suggest that a cute picture of the group to recap the weekend would be a group picture of everyone with a mask and Harrison not wearing a mask. But no one would give in. It would have been cute!!!

The love of my life, the most wonderful man there could be.

Another fun tradition that we share each year, is to have our last meal before everyone heads home at the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge. The kids always have a table to themselves and so do the adults. It just our way of having one final time together.

Kerry flipping Courtney upside down. I was so afraid that she was going to hurl up her lunch and she let him do it several times.

Courtney and Jonah are always up to something. Here, Jonah had his legs wrapped around Courtney and was not holding on to her, neither was she holding on to him. He is so his daddy's boy.

Only miles away from home can you let your inner child free and act SILLY!! After waiting for our food for an hour, we (the adults) learned a little more about each other, especially some of our unique middle names, like Steve's is Hargiss. So after we ate, I was standing in the parking lot with Sara, Courtney and Jonah when Steve came out. Well I told the girls what Steve's
middle name was so they took off running across the parking lot towards Steve and was yelling Hargiss. Well, none of us had never seen Steve move so fast. In fact for a moment, I thought that we may need to call 911 for Steve.

Then it was time for goodbyes........... I hated leaving and was teary eyed as we pulled away from some very close friends. But
I know that we will see them again very soon. During our goodbyes though I was able to capture some very funny shots of Kerry. Which is a nut close to home but even more of a nut miles away from home. Here he went to hug Phillip and Phillip picked him up. Then he went to hug Steve, don't ask me why, because they were heading back to Ky together and he wrapped his legs around Steve like he was a monkey. I know that everyone was looking at us pretty oddly
and wondering where that strange group of people came from.

CHALLENGE TO YOU.....
This was our challenge this weekend, well one of them, and I would like to pass this challenge onto my fellow bloggers. John 3:16 states "for God so loved the world....." Yes, I know, the majority of us know this scripture by heart, but the challenge that I am passing on, is to set your cell phone alarm to go off everyday at 3:16 in the afternoon. When your alarm goes off, then this is your time to pray for the world. You can specific or not, but use this time to pray for the well being of our world.