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Monday, February 16, 2015

Family Life Cruise

Another trip in the books! Levi and I traveled with the band last week as they played worship every night for a marriage cruise! The wives were invited along and we had all been looking forward to traveling together again! Most of us had never been on a cruise before, so it was nice to try it out this way. We left out of Miami and made stops in Key West and Cozumel. Levi and the guys were the worship band and played two services every evening. The other bands on the ship were 10th Avenue North, Steven Curtis Chapman, Andrew Peterson, Guy Penrod and Jaci Velasquez and Nick Gonzalez. It was crazy to be among so many other amazing artists! The speakers for the trip included Dennis Rainey, Kirk Cameron, Voddie Baucham and Dave and Ann Wilson. They were all so good and really spoke a lot of truth about marriage! I especially enjoyed Ann Wilson, she did a women's breakout that had everyone crying and laughing. Anyways, we were all so thankful to be asked along and had a lot of fun!



This is the room where all of the sessions were held, as well as the concerts.



So proud of this group! They are incredible musicians AND leaders of worship. I cannot tell you the number of people that stopped us during the week to thank them for the way they led.


First stop: Key West! We walked to this little beach first thing in the morning and it was awesome! We decided not to take along our pro camera this week, so these images are all taken with iphone or our little Sony RX100.



Highlight #1 of the trip: Micah found a coconut floating in the ocean and spent the next hour trying to get it open. Once he finally did, we all shared it together and it was my favorite memory :) Drinking fresh coconut water and then eating the inside!




I love this group! 3 years and going strong :)








I'm OBSESSED with this bathing suit of mine! It came in the day before we left for the cruise from Target and I'm so glad it worked out!



Our day in Cozumel! Relaxation was the key word to this trip, for the wives at least ;)




I'm very proud of the fact that neither Levi or I and our alabaster skin got burned.





One last memory that I don't have any pictures of but want to write about anyways is the night that we all played mini golf on the top deck of the ship :) Emily beat us all and I'm pretty sure Lauren and I scored in the hundreds! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, and I wouldn't want to do it with any other band :) #bandfamilyforever


The last night of the cruise, they had their concert and then later that night in the atrium of the ship there was a huge send off concert that extended 5 stories above! The guy at the bottom of the picture is Steven Curtis Chapman leading us all in worship! He was INCREDIBLE!



Until next time (hopefully)!

- Bethany



Saturday, January 24, 2015

To Remember: Holiday Wrap Up!

Here are a few random winter happenings that I wanted to catalog here! We had SUCH a good holiday season this year, it probably helped that I didn't have a job, was accepted to grad school, and had nothing to do but Christmas shop and wait it out. This post starts around Thanksgiving and wraps up just after NYE!


Thanksgiving in Conroe was a success, as always!



We attended Wassailfest for the first time this year! It felt like we were in Stars Hollow, just with a lot more people.



Our attempt at an Oscars selfie, is that still a thing in 2015?


My only picture from Sights and Sounds this year. Seems fitting.


We recorded a podcast with our best friends and then ate Pie Society afterwards, and then threw a rotten pumpkin off the top of a parking garage. The things you find to do when you are 25 and bored.



Attended the Austin Stone Staff Christmas Party for the third year in a row. It's hard to believe it's already been 3 years that we've been there! Doesn't Levi look so cute in that Christmas tie?! I know.


Shameless brunch selfie at Magnolias.


NYE celebration was a little more low key in 2014. Of course we still blew things up, but overall it was a calm night.





The President still insists on sharing Mosely's bed with her.


The weekend after New Years, we set out on a mini road trip weekend with the bffs! Plus two dogs. One of which had fish breath, and the other had gas -__- The back was loaded with luggage and food and so the pups + Ashley and Brandon all squeezed into the backseat....it was laughable :) And memorable :)


Then...we got to my grandparents cabin. Which really, cabin might not be the best term. It's a tiny house and so cute, but doesn't quite fit 4 people and 2 dogs. We pulled the couch bed mattress upstairs and all slept in the loft together with both dogs. A huge thunderstorm hit that night which resulted in little sleep for any of us except Brandon (#rude). Lalo ended up on Levi's lap for many hours panting her glorious fish breath on both of us. Haha. It was a night to be remembered :)


This is the Thornton cabin! Situated on my great Aunt Sis's land. We had a blast getting out of town for the weekend. 



The dogs had to be carried to and from the car because it was sooo muddy from all the rain!


Walking around town.


It's not a getaway with photographers until you get a group picture ;)


Evening walks, feeding horses along the way, sipping whiskey from a styrofoam cup to stay warm.


Grilling hotdogs and marshmallows for dinner was just the perfect ending to a relaxing, rejuvenating, FUN weekend away :)




The morning we had to leave- Ashley and I decided it was not the time to care about hair or makeup.


Sidenote- I'm pretty sure it was 30 degrees when we left that morning, yet you can see Brandon was still wearing flip flops. A true Texan.


A selfie of my glorious hair that I learned how to curl finally and realized it looks best parted on the side. And on the right- Levi sported a decent amount of scruff for about 2 weeks!


Lots of bff time! Lunch with Ashley and then I volunteered in Cattie's kindergarten classroom and we literally wore identical outfits accidentally!


Our missional community is pictured below. This is from last Tuesday when we had NINETEEN people come! When we first started this group, we didn't know if ANYONE would come, and now, 6 months in we have almost 20 people attending, with many more emailing us with interest. It's needless to say- San Marcos adults need community. There is a lacking of something for those who aren't in college, but don't have families yet. Our hope for 2015 is that we would split into two groups in the San Marcos area as God continues to bring new people in!



- Bethany