Omaha - part 2

I have to share this photo that Amy took. Don't her eyes look amazing? She's such a beautiful girly. Yes she's mine and I'm bragging on her but I think it's ok every once in a while don't you? :)

Back to the vacation....
We stayed in a small town called Ashland {it's about half way between Omaha and Lincoln}. My aunt and uncle live there. They own an art gallery and live above it in a really sweet apartment.

We were able to stay next door in a vacant apartment. The price was right (free) and it was close to family. It was really great. We called it the fun house because the floor in the Palmer bedroom {Jack slept in the closet and the rest of us on blow-up mattresses - the place had no furniture} was probably a foot lower by the door than the opposite wall. During the night we'd all slide down toward that corner of the room :) We were super thankful for it though because we probably couldn't have made the trip without a free place to stay. Very blessed indeed!
The back of the building had some really cool places to take pictures so Mark had fun. These are pictures of pictures but you get the idea.Don't they look like little models? Cracked me up!

Friday night we had dinner then went to one of their amazing state parks. My cousin Amy was able to fix Kate's hair. Isn't she adorable?
Thanks to Amy for the beautiful picture.In Colorado you can hike, camp or fish in most parks. And that's it. In Omaha you can go to parks, play mini-golf, ice-skate, go to a water park, ride ponies, stay in their cabins, and lots more that I forget off the top of my head. Needless to say they're pretty sweet.

They even have merry-go-rounds! I don't think there's a park in Durango that has one anymore. Sad isn't it? The kids went nuts for them.After the park we hiked a tall tower and took this picture.
Jack, Kate, Emilia, Emerson, Ethan and Kale.
(the other 3 cousins weren't there this night)After the tower we headed to the Dairy Cone for 25 cent kid ice cream cones! Awesome deal.The family that was there that night:
Bob the Great (my grandpa), my dad, Uncle Kim, Ethan, Mark, Jack and I
2nd row: Kate, Emerson, my mom, Kale, aunt Lynn and Emilia.
Amy took the picture.
That about wraps up part deux.

Omaha - part I

I have almost 172 pictures (give or take) from my trip to Omaha. I promise to whittle them down but really there are a bunch of cute ones, neat ones, fun ones and memorable ones to choose from. So you'll have to bear with me and skim if you must.

Since this is a diary (of sorts) of my/our life/lives I just have to include a bunch! That is if I can get blogger to upload them...grrr!

First off we left for Denver on Wednesday morning so we could split up the 14 hour trip to Omaha. You may ask why Omaha? Well because we have family there, it's a big(ger) city than Durango and my grandpa (dad's dad) gets tickets every year to the College World Series {college baseball in case you don't know what I'm talking about and I've been surprised at how many people don't know what I'm talking about}.

We stayed in Denver Wednesday night then traveled across the plains to Omaha on Thursday. Kale and Jack rode with us and Kate rode with my parents and my grandpa since Kale had gotten to have a special trip up to Denver earlier all by himself.

While in Denver I tried this fruit. Do you know what it is? It kinds looks like a strawberry except it doesn't feel like one and when you peel it it smells citrus-y and feels like a peeled grape. I had never heard of it. Ever.
It's called a Leeche. Jury is out on whether I'll down another 45 anytime soon...Not bad but not amazing either.
I got to hug and kiss on this little dumpling to my heart's delight since she and her mama came to Omaha a couple days later to join us. I've got some incredible pictures of her that my cousin took but I'll save those for another Lilah post. And Aunt Kelly is the mysterious head behind Lilah's...Kale is watching a movie under his blanket on the ride.Stopped for ice cream in Nebraska and boy does it melt faster in that humid heat!Arrived in Omaha and met the...2nd cousins? My cousins' kids? Are they 2nd? I think so. Anyway, 2 of my cousins have 3 kids each and they are all around my kids' ages. Kale is the oldest but he got along great with the boys Kate's age.
This is a picture of 2 of the girls (Lilah wasn't there yet). Emilia is my cousin Amy's little doll. I didn't take a great picture but Amy did. There will be more later and you can see this adorable pale skinned, blue-eyed, red-haired cutie.On Friday we {my mom, dad and grandpa, Mark, Kate, Jack and I} visited the new field that they just built for the CWS.This is the view from my grandpa's seat (and the back of my dad and grandpa's heads)Jack got bored and said 'no more baseball practice' and then helped himself to my purse.Here's one of the teams getting their picture taken outside the front of the stadiumAfter the ballpark we visited the trains across the street....Then we made a quick stop here - the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge. The foreground is Nebraska and the background is Iowa. The kids were done so we weren't able to walk all the way across. Right now the Missouri is up really, really high. Flooding. You could see it from the bridge. The bridge was really cool. Wish we coulda spent more time exploring.There's more to come. I feel like this is enough for one day :)

12 days!

It has been approximately 12 days since my last blog.

{Yes I am confessing.}

Since then, we've driven 1,650 miles.

Eaten too much fast food.

Went to several college world series baseball games.

Slept in a fun house.

Been without WiFi for most of those days (hence no blogging).

Experienced dark clouds and sirens.

Visited the Henry Doorly Zoo.

Had a blast with all of the family.

And in general had a fabulous, wonderful, restful vacation that I will blog more about and of course overload you all with pictures, as soon as I get the bags unpacked and laundry going.

Amen.

Hidden Truth

The following post is what I spoke on at the last women's breakfast. It may seem a tad long but there are pictures! :)

This month we dug a bit deeper into God's Truth and how to know the difference between a truth and a lie.

"Half of all spiritual growth is learning things you didn't know, the other half is unlearning what you do" from In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson

From the time we are born we are in a constant state of learning. Unfortunately not everything we learn is Truth. It can be so similar to truth, however, that we have a hard time even knowing that it isn't Truth. I (Jill) asked the Lord why it's so hard to see the difference between truths and lies and here's a word picture he gave me.

{I took pictures to help make it easier to understand}

This pin represents truth-God's Truth. Plain and simple. Easy to see when it's by itself.
This pin represents lies. Very similar to truth but obviously different.

When they're next to each other it's obvious which is which. Truth vs lie. Easy to see.

I believe what the enemy (the father of lies) does is come into our life and sprinkle some more lies near our truth making it harder and harder to see the truth clearly.

Frankly I think he comes in with a whole dump truck full of lies. It buries the truth. Can you see the truth in that pile? I promise I didn't move it. Just added lies to it.

I think that people in general - and then God said me specifically and other Christians - stop there. We just look at the pile and try our best to find the truth but we don't ever sort through the lies or remove them. We just keep looking for that one pin in the midst of all the rest. It's so hard to see!

The Bible says "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Luke 11:9 No where does it say, sit back, relax and the truth will come and smack you on the face! Ask, seek and knock are action verbs. We must actually do something. Like dig through that pile of lies in a desperate search for the truth! Don't just stare at it, sort it. Throw away the lies. Search for the truth. God promises that you will find it! It may take time but it's there. That's the truth!

Some of the lies that we have believed are about God and the Trinity. We've absorbed what we've been told or experienced and we've believed it to be true and we've never really known any different. Our ideas about Who God is and Who the Trinity is is so powerful in affecting our relationship with Him and with others. The enemy has clouded our understanding of God and therefore kept us from Him.

When you think of God the Father, how would you describe Him? Distant? Judgement? Holy?

Some words I have found are: Holy, Just, jealous, patient, loving, Almighty, Provider, Creator, Life-giver, Healer, Righteous, Peace, Master, Shepherd, Our Banner, Fortress, King, Shield, Refuge, Deliverer, Strong Tower, Rock, Seer, Savior, God of the covenant, I Am.

God the Father is Holy and we are to have a holy fear (awe and reverence) for Him. If He came into the room right now what would your posture be? I would be on my face in the presence of His holiness. God hates sin because He loves us so much. Sin is what keeps us from Him. How would we live differently if we understood the hatred for sin? If we hated sin like God does? It would change us!

Who is God the Son and what words would you use to describe Jesus?

A few names: God with us, Anointed One, Shepherd, King of Kings, Deliverer, Advocate, Ancient of Days, Cornerstone, Immanuel, Head of the Body, Great High Priest, Lamb of God, Savior, Healer, Coming King, Sinless, Grace, Mercy, Redeemer and Friend.

He's our friend! He conquered death for us! He's merciful. All true but we tend to end there - sticking with the "feel-goodness" of Jesus. There's so much more!

Who is the Holy Spirit and how would you describe Him?

A few names: Counselor, Comfortor, Baptizer, Advocate, Strengthener, Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Grace, Spirit of Mercy, Spirit of God, Spirit of Holiness, Spirit of Life, Breath, Wind, Fire, Water, Oil, Light, Dove, Wisdom, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness and Self-control.

The Holy Spirit is God IN us! When we ask for patience/love/wisdom etc...God sends us His Holy Spirit. But sometimes that's all we seek. We get stuck there.

The Trinity has 3 parts. There are seasons when we need and rely on each different part but we can't ever leave the others out. They have a purpose.

What is your favorite food? Chocolate? Imagine if you were on an island and your favorite food was all you had to eat...forever. How long would that sustain you?

We do that with God. We find our favorite part of Him and stay there. And then we wonder why we aren't growing, why we are literally starving our spirit. He is a balanced God and we are to know all of Him - not just our favorite parts.

To know all of God we must be knowers of the Word. And again, not just our favorite parts of the Word but all of it. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are throughout the entire Bible. To know the Word better is to know the Trinity better. Don't leave any one part of the God-head out. They all work together to grow us, mold us, save us, love us, change us.

In order to continue to learn and unlearn we must saturate ourselves in truth. Dig out and get rid of the yellow pins. Identify truth and cling to it! We MUST NOT quench the spirit. He is the giver of Truth and Wisdom. He is the reveal-er of lies. He will lead us to a deeper relationship with the Trinity.

Think about what you have learned about God and the Trinity. What was taught to you when you were growing up? What do you need to unlearn? What do you need to learn? How will this affect all of your relationships?

Weekend in pictures

Here are the rest of the pictures from the weekend that I promised you.

Little Lilah came down for her very first visit. The cousins were beside themselves to hold her, love her, play with her, talk to her, squeeze her and kiss her. She was a tad overwhelmed at times but was amazing with all the attention. The pictures didn't turn out so great but they're all I have.
And I have to throw this one in even though it wasn't at my house. Look at the huge smile!We planted our straw bale garden. It looked beautiful on Saturday. Sunday morning -- not so much. I'm praying that they are in shock and not dead. I'd be so very sad if they didn't live. The lettuce looked pathetic when we transferred them and now it looks amazing. The rest of them looked wonderful before transplant and then went downhill. Go figure!Kate had a weird little thing happen to her on Saturday. She'd been outside playing in the yard after lunch and then came in to go down for her nap. She looked completely fine. Then she went to say goodnight to Mark and within literally a matter of moments ended up looking like this.Insane! And it just kept swelling! We gave her some Benedryl and hoped it would go down. It eventually did but then her eye swelled up and turned red. It's still a little red today. All we can figure is that she touched the Juniper trees that she's allergic to and then rubbed her lip and her eye. We have no idea what else it could be. She didn't bump her lip or get stung by anything. It was so weird!

My parents brought down ladderball so we got that out and played for a bit. Kale and Kate had fun although Kale kept wanting to go to the other team if his team started losing.The spectatorsWe grilled steaks from our cow in the freezer for dinner. I had to take a picture of this steak. You never know what you're gonna get when you open up the package. This thing was huge! It easily fed 4 of us.They all left Sunday after church. They stayed to hear Mark preach (and do an awesome job!). Kale's been having a blast in Denver with the grandparents. Pretty sure he's not missing us one bit :) And that's ok. It's just so strange that he's old enough to do that now....

Anyway, it was a wonderful weekend. I'm so blessed by my family!

Fun on Friday - 8

I am very late in getting this post out but this weekend was a bit on the fun and insane side.

Kale had a baseball game Tuesday night and Wednesday night and then another one Saturday morning. The team even had one Sunday afternoon but Kale missed that one (more on that in a minute).

SO. Friday morning we got up and went and had family pictures taken by my dear friend and amazing photographer, Kristen Bleger. She's a fabulous photographer in the Fort Collins area (they were also on staff with us 2 years ago). We had a wonderful time with her. She's very relaxed and easy going which was perfect for our 3 littles who ran around, didn't always smile when she told them to and at other times totally hammed it up for the camera. I can not wait to see what she does with the pictures she took :). I will post some when she gets them done and I have her permission.

After modeling for a while we ran errands until our treat place opened up. We headed to Walmart. Yeah I know that's not really FUN on Friday but it's necessary.

And we made up for it by having Cold Stone ice cream at 10:45am. Before lunch!After ice cream we walked around downtown for a little bit and enjoyed our little town and stopped for breaks...Despite the craziness we had a good time.
My parents, my sister, my niece and my grandpa drove into town late Friday night (more pictures about that later) but while we were waiting, Mark and I got a last minute babysitter and joined some of our dear friends for dinner out.

Kristen (photographer), Tiffany, Jerome, Adam (Kristen's hubby), and of course Mark.
It was a nice time with some special people.

Saturday morning I taught at our women's breakfast, Kale had a game, we planted our straw bale garden, had fabulous fat steaks for dinner, played the ladder thingy game. On Sunday Mark preached, my family left with my oldest son (we'll get him on Wednesday), Kale's team had another game that Mark went to, both Mark and I crashed for our own little afternoon naps and we began the preparations for our upcoming vacation.

A bit nuts don't you think?
More pictures of the other events to come.