Chicago!!!

Kyle and I took off on a wonderful weekend away to Chicago! We had a great time together without the kids for a few days! We stayed at the Hyatt hotel where "Simply Youth Ministry" had their annual conference. We joined this conference this year and were very pleased. There were 2500 youth pastors nation wide that came and it was very powerful to see everyone that serves Christ in the same ministry. Kyle and I really enjoyed the speakers, worship and Toby Mac concert! We also went to a track session on small groups and becomming more effective in building small groups in our youth ministry. We took back some great ideas!
When we weren't attending the conference we had the chance to go downtown Chicago for an afternoon. We went with our friends Jackie and Jason and had a great time touring, eating chocolate and doing a little shopping. We also enjoyed a couple amazing pizza nights as well. It was so refreshing to get away and spend time together. Kyle and I love the chance to get away together and enjoyed holding hands and laughing without the kids for a few moments:) Thank you Grandma and Grandpa who helped make this possible and who understand the importance in taking a break every once in awhile!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting better and getting ready to go home!

Image
Hey There! We thank all of you so much for all of your prayer support through this entire process. Go sure had His hand in this from the beginning. Anna and Micah are both doing just great. Yesterday was a hard day for Anna, She was very tired and had a hard time as the Doctors began to take her off of some of the pain meds she was not feeling good. She began to get a high temp,but that was all taken care of by early in the night and she slept great. She will be again trying to get of the IV pain meds and move to pills, if this goes well today we will be on our way home to see Drew tomorrow. Anna and I are both really loving the calm personality that God gave to little Micah as we know the high energy that Drew has waiting for us at home. We can't wait to see his little smile again and hear all of his animal noises and cars sounds. It will be so great to see the way that God grows these two boys only 17 months apart. It will be crazy and great all at the same time. Pray ...
Read more

Big Bro Twin Cities Champion/Little Sis Big Woods 1/2 Marathon Champion

Image
My brother and I are the crazy runners in our family! We took on the Twin Cities Marathon challenge on October 7th and trained like mad to get ready for the event. We began the morning feeling great and ready to take on the challenge before us, yet not knowing only one of us would finish. Ben was taking on his first marathon and was looking forward to finishing and enjoying this wild adventure! I however have done a few of these already and was aimed to kick some butt in the process. So, different goals, but the same idea in mind-lets run the race for Christ. The race did not go as planned for me. The weather was extremely hot and humid and it totally took over my body. All I can really remember is thinking, "Wow it is really hot and I am really sweating!" With little to drink I passed out at mile 10 of the marathon! My time at that point was 1 hour 7 minutes..... on track for an amazing marathon. Truly discouraged I attempted to get back in the race to pass out AGAIN at mil...
Read more

trails+goals🍃

Image
Lately  I have been asked by many- “Now that you’ve accomplished one of your biggest goals, what’s next??” and to be honest I have been really soaking up my 2:58:01 marathon accomplishment and feeling extremely grateful my body felt so strong and healthy for that race. I will never take for granted a healthy body… many of you know my journey has included some pretty tough injuries along the way. So first, I really haven’t hurried to find a “next goal” but have sat in awe and thankfulness. All that to say I am a goal kinda girl and love a good challenge. So on Jan 1, 2024 I signed up to race the Javelina Jundred with some of my greatest running buddies! It will be my 2nd 100miler and this time will be held in Arizona (not Iowa) where it will be very hot. My goal tho will be to have a blast with running friends and finish the race- different then a road race goal….  I really love a good challenge!!  easy trail runs have started….and at the perfect time when the wild flowers...
Read more