Our vacation "out east" ;)

Brad put together a mix of songs (he entitled "Old School") that made me feel oh so old! He had songs like Jesus Freak, Big House, Shine, Flood... oh yeah. All these "hip" songs that SEEM like they're only about 5 years old in my mind!! uh...try 12-15 years! YIKES! We were listening to our blast from our past music while traveling to Detroit this past weekend and I heard the song Life Together by (any one know?!!) Ding ding-- Geoff Moore and the Distance! (man they had some great songs!) IF you don't know the song (that always takes me back to 1995!) it's just talks about him and his friends who swore to be friends forever and made a promise to DO life together. (something that our church talks a lot about acutally)

I don't know if any of you have "friend forever till the end on this my friend you can depend..." type of friendships but we are blessed to say we DO! No shocker to anyone who knows us but our "life" friends are Shawn and Becky Gurk.

We have an odd history with Shawn and Becky. Shawn and Brad knew each other back in high school days! They met at music camp at Cornerstone- only to be followed by going to Cornerstone together and being on a brass team together. Becky and I met at Cornerstone too - we lived in the same dorm only we didn't "hang out" together. I just knew who she was and remember thinking how beautiful she was (is!). So a few months after Brad and I were married we decided to get together with them for some food and games. That first get together we ate the food- and nixed the games- we ended up just TALKING for hours (like 5 ?!?!).


Their friendship to me as a person and to us as a couple has been and continues to be one of the greatest blessings in our life. Brad and Shawn have a great connection and accountability friendship. Becky and I can spend hours together over some latte- just talking- and when it's time to leave- we feel like it's only been a few minutes.


I say all this not to be prideful but I am just so thankful for this God- centered, life-together friendship we enjoy so much!


Our families have done a lot together and we decided, hmm... let's try a vacation together!!! We planned a trip to Detroit over this past weekend with them and had a great time! Here's the goods...Day one:


We went to IKEA (while the kids were fresh and Dad's were not worn out! :) for a few hours...yes, hours. They have a kid play place (for Jaedon and Adrianna) - so they were entertained for an hour while we shopped.


Then we caravaned over to our hotel. We decided we wanted a hotel with a "suite" so that we could have some living space. It turned out to be the best decision we made all weekend! =) It was beautiful and the perfect amount of living space (for a 2 day stay at least). So we got to the hotel around 2:30 and stayed there until the next morning. Of course, you HAVE to get a hotel with a pool- which we used a LOT. We ordered some pizza and picniced in our room. And again, we were GOING to play cards after the kids were asleep...but we just talked instead (I see a trend... ;)



pictures:

top left- Brad and Seth in the pool, our Hungry Howies picnic, Owen - enjoying neither the pool or the picnic ;)

middle-Jaedon zonked out, (my favorite picture of the weekend) Jaedon jumping in the pool, Seth and Eliza playing together behind the curtain =)

bottom row- hot tub time, the mamas (I'm never in the pictures ;), Seth drying off with the towel while wetting his whistle?! ;)