Us.02.15.13
We wanted to document this special time in our lives as we wait patiently for the arrival of our first baby. Jonas Paul, we can’t wait to meet you … we love you so much already.
off to Mexico we go!11.28.11
We are taking a vacation!!! woohoo!!!! After 6 months of some of the hardest work in our career, we are taking a much needed vacation to Cabo! We can’t wait to disconnect (as much as we are able to!) and just relax and be together and do nothing! ahhh! We’ll be out of the office starting November 28th until December 6th. During this time we will have limited email access so please understand if we are a little delayed in getting back to you! Cheers!
happy thanksgiving11.23.11
Happy Thanksgiving! We love the Holiday’s around here … time off from work, lots of laughing with our families, and some killer food. We can’t wait to take a few days off and be away from the craziness of life and just chill and be thankful for the blessings that we have!
our time in greece05.19.11
After spending a week or so in Turkey, we flew over to Greece! Our time was a bit short in Greece, but we LOVED the few days were did spend in this beautiful country! The people were so friendly, the food was amazing, and we created some amazing memories here!
First stop was the Acropolis! 
The largest and most prominent building in Athens is the Stoa of Attalus (which was restored in the 1950′s). This would have been the marketplace of the city. 
We then hiked up to the Acropolis and on our way up we stopped at the Areopagus, otherwise known as Mars Hill, it is likely that this is the location Paul was invited to talk about Christianity to the group of philosophers that met there. Below is the original staircase from the time of Paul as well an inscription of the sermon that was given from Paul. 
Us … enjoying and soaking it all up on top of Mars Hill. 
our immediate family. 
We then kept hiking up to the top of the Acropolis to see the Parthenon and a temple to Athena. 
Our final stop in this amazing journey was to the town of Corinth. Corinth was a prominent trade center because of its strategic location on the isthmus connecting northern and southern Greece. Paul visited Corinth on his 2nd journey and ministered here for 18 months. I & II Corinthians was written to those people living in this town. 
just outside of Corinth is this mountain … and we hiked it 
the group of us that hiked up this hill in 25 minutes! 
the views from the top were pretty incredible. 
our final nights in Athens were spent together as a family … doing what we do best … eating amazing food and drinking great wine! 
This was an amazing trip … one that we will never forget! We learned so much from this experience and the memories we came away with will be with us forever. We are so grateful and thankful to have gotten to share this experience with those that mean the most to us … our family.
Our time in Turkey05.16.11
We recently traveled to Turkey & Greece to study the life and journey of the Apostle Paul. We spent 10 days on a giant bus with 5o members of our family traveling throughout this amazing part of the world. We started our trip in Turkey and ended in Greece (which will be another blog post). It was an amazing trip and we thought it might be fun to show a few of the images we captured!
Our journey first started in Istanbul, a city of over 18 million people! We could have easily spent a week alone in Istanbul! A city full of incredible architecture & wonderful food (baklava & apple tea were two of our favorites!) … such a beautiful culture. 
after our time in Instanbul, we headed to the southern part of turkey to a coastal town called Antalya – it was such a charming city with amazing views of the mountains & Mediterranean. Paul sailed with Barnabas from this port city (Acts 14:24-27)
our next stop was Perge which is one of the stops Paul made on his first missionary journey (Acts 13:13, II Cor. 11:23-28)
the theater in Aspendos is the most well preserved theater in Turkey – it was AMAZING! 
We then drove about 150 miles (through the mountains) to Pisidian Antioch – Anticoh was important both commercially and militarily as its location was at a major intersection for the Romans. Paul visited here on his 1st journey as well. His lengthy sermon recorded in Acts 13:14-49 is a representative of the type of message he would have delivered in a synagogue.
Laodicea was our next location on our travels throughout Turkey. This particular city is one of the 7 churches of Asia Minor that is mentioned in the book of Revelation (3:14-22). It is located in the fertile Lycus River Valley along the main commercial route which ran from Ephesus on the Aegean cost to Syria.
The town of Hieraplois was next up on our journey – this was probably one of our favorite locations that we visited. This town also has one of the best preserved theaters of the ancient world. Paul mentions Hierapolis in Ephesians 1:3-8, 13 
Right outside of the city of Hierapolis are the calcified white cliffs (also called the cotton castle). This was one of the most amazing sites we have ever seen.
Aphrodisias (named after the goddness Aphrodite) this city contained one of the leading sculpture schools in all of the Mediterranean world! The statidum is one of the best preserved and had seating for over 30,000 spectators. Ephesians 2: 1-10
The Apollon Temple in Didyma – the pillars behind us were over 60 feet tall and when this temple was built there would have been over 122 columns like this surrounding the temple.
The view from our hotel room overlooking the Aegean Sea. 
One of our last stops in Turkey was the town of Ephesus, which is considered to be one of the most excavated sites in Turkey. On Paul’s 3rd journey, he spent over 2 years in Ephesus, the longest time he devoted to any city. It is believed that Paul wrote I & II Corinthians here. 
