Weekend Warriors

So, in case you haven't noticed we have been out of pocket lately. No joke, the past 4 weekends we have been out of town. It's been crazy, but we've had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories. So, I guess it makes it worth it. Now, we actually get two weekends at home together before we go again. Here is an update of our latest adventures:

September 29-30
We traveled to Murphy, NC for Chris's 10 year high school reunion. Can you believe that he's that old? Ha, just kidding. Anyway, we left late Friday night after Jill got off work and drove to Murphy. The actual reunion wasn't until Saturday night, so that morning we woke up and decided that we would take a day trip to Helen, GA. In case you have never heard of Helen, GA (Jill had never been there and had only heard of it once), it's a tourist town that is all based around the idea of Germany. The town looks German, the shops have over priced German stuff in them, and the restaurants all serve German food. We bought a few Christmas presents and ate a great meal and walked around and then drove right back to Murphy. It was actually really fun! We would recommend going there sometime. I think it's a place we would visit again. The day was absolutely beautiful so that made our time there more fun. That night we had dinner with Chris's classmates from high school at one of the only fancy restaurants in Murphy. The meal was great and so was the company. It was interesting to meet the people Chris went to high school with. Most of them were great! We drove back late that night to Athens so we could be here for church Sunday morning.

October 6-8
This weekend our church had it's very first family retreat at Henry Horton State Park in TN. The whole weekend was absolutely wonderful. The highlight of the weekend was the talent show on Saturday night where Chris and our friend Derek played and sang the song, "If I had a Million Dollars..." Derek played guitar while Chris played his bongo drum that he got in Africa. The best thing about it was that they WON the talent show which meant sharing a $100 prize.

October 13-15
We made the long trek this weekend to Greensboro, NC for a family reunion with the Kirby side of the family. It was a good weekend. All of the Kirby's were there from the oldest to the youngest. Grandaddy (Chris's dad's dad) lives in Greensboro. He is the one in the picture. He gave our baby it's first baby present.......a bible. He actually gave one to all of his great grandchildren. It was a very moving moment to think about the spiritual heritage that has been passed down for many generations. We can only hope and pray that one day we will have great grandchildren who all follow and serve our awesome God. On the trip we also got to meet our nephew, Luke. He is already 4 months old, so it was good to finally meet the little guy. We think he likes his soon to be cousin who is still inside of Jill.

October 20-22
This weekend was a junior high retreat with our church at Camp Ney-a-ti in Guntersville, AL right on the lake. This weekend was also great, but very tiring. It actually takes quite a bit of energy to be with junior high kids all weekend and not get a ton of sleep. Somehow we survived. It was awesome and encouraging to see how these teenagers have grown in the past few years.

Now that we are home for a few weeks, Murphy is getting to know us again. This picture is him asking us, "are you going to leave me AGAIN?" Fortunately, we get a few weeks at home. We will post again one of these days! Love to all!