Cape Lookout with Good Friends

Thomas Jefferson wrote his own epitaph.  It stated: Author of the Declaration of American Independence,  Author of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia. You might notice that there is no mention of the Presidency of the United States. When asked about this - those who knew him best were quick to tell that Jefferson loathed the presidency with a passion.  "The presidency is the loss of a friend a day," Jefferson was often heard to say.

This year has been the worst of my vocational life - there is no doubt.  I could agree with Thomas Jefferson about the loss of a friend a day - most days I would consider it a victory to loose but one friend - usually it is more than that.  My heart hurts when people that I have known for as much as 41 years turn and walk away.  They will not tell me why - through this entire process only one person has come to me with something that they heard about me and asked if it were true.  I am glad that he did - we remain friends today, but alas, most will not.

I say this to say that it really is true that when most people walk out - some walk in.  They are your real friends and they are more precious than silver and more valuable than gold.  The Clubb's and the Morelli's (seen in a previous post) are just such friends.  There are others - these are just the ones that we have taken a trip with and thus merit mention on our travel blog.

This was a short one day trip on the Clubb's boat to Cape Lookout.  It was just a time to get together and to be ourselves and it was a great time for both of our families.

Getting there was half the fun ...

You can't dock your boat at Cape Lookout so David Clubb let us off at the dock and had to anchor out and walk in.

Addison and Jonathan get ready for the big sand castle construction project

Just hanging out on the beach … no big whoop

Megan and Rebekah Clubb on the beach

After hanging out on the beach for a while, we decided to go and look at the lighthouse up close.

So off we went ...

I am so proud of these girls

Rebekah and Abby Clubb

Oh what fun to be at the beach

We nearly froze on the way in after getting wet getting back into the boat - but we sure did have fun.  We love family and friends … and we love to go places.

What a great day!

Addison's First Grade Trip to Fort Macon

Just last year I went on a field trip with my first grader, Olivia, on a class field trip to Fort Macon.  This year I have another first grader, Addison.  It is a pleasure to spend time with our children and is a very special privilege to have one-on-one time with them.  We began with a talk about the Fort and the Civil War.

The Bus Arrives and we get organized

Addison is ready to get started

Lecture about the Civil War and the Gun was loud!

After the lecture about the civil war there was a lecture about sea turtles. This is Jonathan sitting next to her. He is Addison's favorite person (except for her family of course - or maybe - we will hold on to that anyway.  You will see him a lot.

Exploring the Fort on our own

"Riding" a civil war canon.

After a time of looking around the fort and shopping in the gift shop for a souvenir, the class left and headed back to school.  Addison and I looked around the fort and the museum a little more on our own.

Next, we went home. I love Addison and I love spending time with her.  I would not trade it for anything.  These moments will never be forgotten.

The Old Country with Friends

It is indeed rare that we you will see anyone with us on our excusions.  This is because we consider all of our trips to be family time.  Yet, as we grow and we begin to experience authentic community we find that we do want to share some of these experiences with our friends.  Those who share life with us; they are our encouragement at times and we are theirs.  They are our strength and at times we are theirs.  We all have fun and love doing life together.  So, we embrace our friends.

This is the Morelli's and they also have three children.  Their life is crazy too and we love them with all of our heart.  We decided to go to Busch Gardens and Williamsburg together.  We had a blast!

So we began our evening in Williamsburg with a picnic right on the Governor's mansion lawn.  Six kids is a lot of work but it really was a lot of fun.

A Stab of Joy

I will keep an eye on this

The Love of My Life

Next we went for ice cream.  Always a good decision in the eyes of our children.

A great night with friends and back to the condo for a good nights sleep for tomorrow Busch Gardens awaits.

The kids rode a lot of rides

Jack Hanna was there and he had a lot of animals

Our own tribe of grape stompers - time to open a winery!

The next morning we took the scenic route home.  The girls love a ferry ride and they love to feed those seagulls.  They got my last donut.

We had a great time with our friends. We love them and we share our joys with our family and our friends.  Both are a blessing from God himself.