God is WILD about you!

"He's Wild! He's Wild! God is Wiilllddd about YOU!" Trav has come to find it normal that I dance around the house singing this song with my hands in the air doing the hand motions. No, it's not a new release on the Fish. It's even cooler than that.....it's from Vacation Bible School last week!

Due to school or work I haven't been able to help with VBS since I was in high school. When I realized that this summer my schedule is a little too free, I jumped at the chance to spend a week with these kiddos and teach them about how God really is wild for each one of them. My good friend put the whole week long event together and did an incredible job. I mean, incredible. Even the smallest details were planned with perfection. What amazed me even more was that throughout the week she never showed signs of stress or being frazzled. There was always a smile on her face. It was contagious.

The theme this year was Panda Mania, God is WILD about you! The kids loved it! From visits from Kung Fuey every morning to movie mania, tasty snacks, bible adventures, water games, and cool crafts we had busy fun filled mornings. I had a class of 11, all mixed ages, that was named "Komodo Dragons". One girl in my crew made up our cheer that went like this, " Komodo Dragons one by one. We shine God's light because we are having fun!" So cute! 

One of my favorite parts of the week was having Vander, my nephew, in my crew. I didn't think they would let him because he is only 4 but they did! It was so fun watching him get excited about everything, learn the memory verses, wanting to help the Living Water fund and walk away talking about the Bible stories along with everything he learned. It was a fun week from our car rides to and from VBS, watching his little faith grow, hiding from the water gun shooting panda, and getting to spend so much time together! For being only 4 I was amazed at how he kept up with the big kids and how smart he is! On the last day he volunteered to go up front and recite a memory verse in front of everyone! Way to go Van!

Van going into the belly of the big fish for bible time!

At the end of the week there was a wrap up BBQ held at the school with bounce houses, hot dogs, ice cream, and.....the real Jana Alyra. :) We took Van and Huddy as our dates. I have to say, it was one of the best nights we have had. We grabbed our hot dogs and hamburgers, spread out our blanket, and before you knew t we were having a picnic with some of the other kids from our crew. Vander and Huddy ran off with Brandon, another Komodo Dragon, and disappeared into the land of the bounce houses! During the concert they sat up towards the front and danced the whole time. Both were called up on stage to sing with Jana. They loved it! After dropping them off I looked at Trav and said," Nights like this make me..." and before I could complete my sentence he finished it for me by saying, "...excited to have kids one day!" 

It was a special week, both with Van and being able to lead a group of fantastic kids into being on fire for the Lord. At a time where I have been missing Kenya I was thankful and blessed for the opportunity to serve His children right here. The book, Heaven is for Real, stresses how much Jesus loves the children. I can truly see how He works through them to reach all of us. There is nothing like a child's faith!

The City of....

...I want to say pot but that probably won't look to good as a header. Yet sadly, that is what I remember most about Amsterdam.


The last time I went to Kenya I had an 8 hour layover coming home but I opted out of taking the city tour and I am so thankful now because I probably would have feared my life walking alone in this city! This trip, our 8 hour layover was on the way to Kenya. 6 of us decided to fight our sleepy, slightly Ambien/Tylenol PM drugged selves and sight see for a bit.

We decided to take the canal tour. Mostly because it was cheapest and partially I think because we were all so out of it we really didn't know what to do ;) It was a gloomy day in Amsterdam. We had a fun tour guide who kept things lively and filled us in on all the history we could get in a short time. I was pretty excited when driving to the canals we passed by a windmill. Most of the authentic ones are outside the city so I wasn't expecting to see one. Marrying into a Dutch family means I now love tulips and windmills.

It was gorgeous riding through the canals. The buildings have a ton of character and I am sure even more history to them! Passing by Anne Frank's hideaway apartment was a little surreal. I grew up reading book after book about her. I have always been fascinated by her story and than all of a sudden I was in front of where she hid out. 

Anne Frank Museum

Anne Frank's place is on the right!

In this city instead of having big parking garages they have HUGE parking garages solely for bikes! Crazy, huh? There are bikes everywhere. I mean, everywhere! There are also marijuana "coffee" houses everywhere too. Although it is a pretty city, there are some weirdo people and not a whole lot of morals. 

Our boat had quite a slew of people on it. Katelyn and I were both wearing glasses and were mistaken as sisters to some Chinese tourists. One plopped right down next to Katelyn to take his picture with her. Later, the guys in our group told us they were video taping us the whole time. For all we know we are on some weird, home video out in China somewhere!

It was nice to get out of a plane and airport for a bit to see a new city, a new country. Plus, we got stamps in our passports which is always fun! After returning to the airport we found the meditation lounge where we all settled down to read or snooze. Katelyn and I were passed out and our group ended up leaving us, drooling in our chairs, to go take HOT showers in the Delta Sky Lounge. I'm not bitter or anything ;)

Celebrating the Bachelorette

With the wedding less than a month away, the final celebrations are taking place! Teri's bachelorette night was one to remember. And yes, we remember it all unlike the ever great movie The Hangover. 

A group of her close friends and us sister in laws headed out to Sgt. Peppers Dualing Piano bar in Long Beach. Heaping pile of nachos, loaded quesadillas, a blue moon or two, and some fun in store for the bride to be led to a great night out! The pianists had some fun embarrassing our Teri....but so did her friends! :-) Hey, that's what bachelorette parties are all about!

While what happens at the bachelorette party stays at the bachelorette party exists, here are some photos from the evening!

 Being sung to ...kinda... by some very awkward men

 Lovely group of gals

 Crazy face

 Hardeman ladies

 Her friends got her good

 Present time!

Lazy Day

Since we had been going hard on the tourism our first few days, we decided to relax some on Saturday. And by relax I mean, sleep, eat, eat some more, sleep, eat again, basketball games, and some more eating. Yes, we ate our way through Saturday and it was simply wonderful.

We were referred to Portage Bay Cafe, an organic restaurant that looked heavenly online. We mapped it out on the computer and saw it was just 2 miles away. Perfect for a morning walk! We set out with the intention of walking up an appetite so that we could truly indulge ourselves in the toppings bar. We followed our directions exactly but where it told us the cafe was, there was none. Just a traffic light and a dead end. Odd. We must have missed something. We back tracked a little. Than a little more. Finally we gave up and decided to ask a gas station where to go. They had no clue. Weird, right? If the restaurant was in this area you would think they would know. Well, of course they didn't because Portage Bay Cafe was by the actual Portage Bay. Where were were? The opposite side of town....4 miles away. Awesome.

So we turned around and set off back to where we came from. But along the way we saw some great scenery that we wouldn't have if we hadn't gotten lost.

As soon as we walked through the front doors of the cafe we knew it was going to be good. Walking for four miles was well worth it when my bananas foster french toast arrived and I sealed the deal with a trip to the toppings bar. Scrumptious.

As if we hadn't had enough to eat we hopped on the bus and headed uptown to find a cupcake place we were referred to. ( If you haven't notice we take our referrals pretty seriously. Especially when they are about cupcakes & french toast!) Trophy Cupcakes was quiant, cute, and oh so delicious! While Trav stuck with plain vanilla that he claims is the best vanilla he ever had, I tried chocolate peanut butter and was amazed at how heavenly it was despite my lack of love for chocolate. We debated getting two more to eat but opted out of it.

To work off all the food we were indulging in we took off to go find Gasworks Park. (yes, another referral ) Although it looked as if the sky was going to open up on us, I am so glad we made the trek because the views of the city were breathtaking. And, well, they filmed a scene from 10 Things I Hate About You there which made it even cooler.

We headed back to the hotel for a nap, some reading, and yes, some more Cake Boss. Since the final four for March Madness were on that night we decided to go grab Subway and eat in to watch the games. It was a fun, lazy day filled with lots of delicious new foods, great scenery, and adventure ;)

If you watched American Idol last week you will remember this song by Bruno Mars. Basically it is fitting for my husband ( especially considering for Lent this year he gave up laziness ;). However, if you know the Hardeman pup, Nike, than it's even more fitting for this pair.

Our Sports Day

We woke up Friday to find it was going to be a rainy day. Not the mild drizzle we had seen so far, but some pretty decent rain. Can you guess what I forgot to pack on this trip? Yup, an umbrella. Who goes to Seattle without one? Apparently we do. So as we packed up and set out for a full day we had to borrow one from the hotel that was big with an even bigger SHERATON written across it. Hello tourists!

We tackled public transportation and rode to the University of Washington. I should get something straight. While we were finally getting the old "bus" thing, we never knew where we were supposed to get off. Just what number bus we needed. This led for some interested times of, " Do you think here? No, let's wait one more. Well, maybe one more stop. Eh, this one looks fine." As we trucked through the rain, huddled under one umbrella, we found the school. It's huge. HUGE. Small, private Christian Universities just don't compare to these campuses. I would without a doubt get lost going to class each day. We walked around checking out the old buildings. Because we are super mature we came up with this game to pretend we were checking out the school. For awhile Trav was there for grad school and was talking loudly ( in an accent I have never heard of) about his degree and the school. After that we decided to just look inconspicuous, as if this was our campus and we knew just where we were going. This was fun until we remembered the umbrella we were caring.

After finding their gym, Trav was determined to go inside. We started walking all around so he could try opening every door he saw. All locked. But finally, a door opened. A shady door. One that probably was not supposed to be left unlocked. It led us through some starch white halls, by the womens vball lockeroom, and through their hall of fame. The hall of fame was awesome! I was in just as much heaven in there as Trav was. However, as we passed each case lights would flick on all over there place. We were easy to spot!

I lost Trav for a minute and walked through another door to find him standing in the doorway leading into the gym, just speechless. He wanted to go down on the court so bad. But that seemed a little to risky and  while we were there one of the women's player came in to shoot around. 

Right next door was the football stadium. Trav again found an area in the gate we could walk through and than the one open tunnel leading out into the stadium. Now it was my turn for my jaw to drop. I was mesmerized. It opened up onto the lake which was gorgeous. Trav kept daring me to run down on the field but not a chance I would have!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat, found the right bus, and headed back to our hotel. From there we decided to journey on over to where the Seahawks and Mariners play. We have this thing where we want to see all baseball fields, football stadiums, and basketball arenas throughout the states. We love it! And, we have conquered some states already! Our first stop was Quest Field: Home of the Seahawks and Sounders. 

( from here we saw great views of the city with all the fog)

Around the corner was Safeco Field: Home of the Mariners! And tons of sports fan shops we strolled through.

A short walk away was China Town. We walked through some of it but there were some rough crowds and we stuck out majorly. We decided to head back to where are bus had dropped us off and Trav was pumped because it was right by....the Police Museum. Of course we went in. My husband was in heaven. There was a sweet lil' old lady working the front so we chatted with her for a bit. After taking the tour we found the kids area. The had dress up clothes. Police dress up clothes. The tops didn't fit Trav but I didn't hesitate to rock it! We spent a good chunk of time taking pictures and messing around with the call boards. Kids at heart I guess. As we left, we met a policeman from the city, the one who opened the museum. Trav talked with him for a good 20 minutes and he had some great advice for Trav!

As we were waiting for our bus we realized we were on the wrong side of the street. We stood in the rain as it passed us by. The only thing we could thing to do was take off running to the other side of the street and head to their next stop figuring we would make it in time. We were feet away waiting at a red light while the bus was loading up at it's next stop. As soon as the light turned green, the bus took off, leaving us running again behind it. This continued until we made it back to our hotel!

From all our walking that day we were famished by dinner. So hungry we couldn't make up our mind what to eat. We found ourselves walking around the city, indecisive and growing hungrier by the minute! There was this restaurant by our hotel, Tapas Grille, that Trav had been referred to from someone at work. We skipped it the first day because it looked too pricey but we were so hungry and couldn't walk another foot we stumbled inside. And what did we find? The most amazing happy hour ever! Literally. I don't know how we lucked out with the happy hours we found. At this one we ate popcorn shrimp, chicken skewers, sushi rolls, spinach artichoke dip, and Trav got a bacon burger all for cheaper than if we had eaten at someplace like Islands and the food was delicious! ( Little did we know we would find ourselves back here another time!)

It was a great day filled with sports for us! The rain sure didn't rain on our parade. We had such a great time and I am pretty sure we walked at least 10 miles....much needed considering how much we were eating!