Alive 08

Another fun filled week for the Mills. We attended the Alive Christian Music Festival in Canal Fulton for six out of the last seven years in some capacity. This year, like most, we camped (in a tent) for the entire week. It was a wonderful time with lots of stories and pictures. Nate worked security for the second year in a row, so the kids and I were alone much of the time, but we did get to have some great times with daddy as well.

I don't know proper Blogging procedures. Is it better to post one long post about an entire week of events, or make a separate post for each day, like I did for Kentucky? Anyone know? Well, I'm making this one long recap. Also all the bands/speakers have links to their websites if you'd like to check them out, just click on their names that are in yellow.

Nate went Tuesday night to set up our tent, and the kids and I joined him on Wednesday morning. Toby had not been camping before, so we were not sure what to expected. He was excited about the tent.
The kids also enjoyed Smores soon after we got there, no sense in waiting for the evening.
Once we got all situated, we headed up to the hill for the concerts. Wednesday night we were entertained by Red, Salvador, Jaci Valesquez and David Crowder Band to name a few. We always go with several families from church, and one family has a very large tarp that we take up and all sit on. It is really nice to have. the kids know they have "boundaries" and can't leave the tarp. The first night, Toby was real good about staying put, but he soon learned what his boundaries are. Here are the kids horsing around as we wait between concerts.
We did not get back to our campsite until around midnight, and Toby woke up around 12:30. It was cold the first night, and it didn't look like Toby was going to sleep any time soon, so I packed him up and brought him home. Nate and the others stayed the entire night. The next morning, they got the chance to hearing Brady Quinn, quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, share his testimony as one of the featured speakers. This year at Alive, they also had a SportsZone set up. The kids really enjoyed it. They had football drills, basket ball hoops, soccer goals, etc. set up for the kids to play, and people were at each station helping them, and timing them and keeping track of how well they did. I think throughout the week, Drew must have run this football drill at least 50 times. And he improved each time!Taylor got to play a little soccer.
Toby got in on the action posing with this Browns cut out thing. He had fun watching everyone as well.
Nate even got to have a little fun with this passing competition. He did pretty darn good, considering how long it's been since he did something like that. I believe he made about 33% or so!
We usually take food up with us to the hill for dinner. Toby enjoyed his oranges!
After all the playing around, two of my boys took a nap on the tarp while we waited for the show to begin.
We were going to be entertained by groups like Leeland, Hawk Nelson and Casting Crowns as well as a message from Tony Nolan

Toby took a liking to our friend Rob and his daughter Erika. He spent a lot of time hanging with Rob, giving him "the rock" handshake. He also spent a lot of time looking for hair on Rob's head. I think the bald look was new for Toby.
It is always amazing to me, to sit at these concerts, and just look out at all the people. It is hard to put into words, or pictures for that matter, but here is attempt at getting a shot of the crowd during the Casting Crowns show.
Thursday night, we stayed at the campsite, and Toby did great! He didn't get up until around 8 in the morning! It was a perfect night for sleeping in a tent!

On Friday, we made it out in time to see the family fun tent performers. They had a magician and balloon artist. The kids really enjoyed that (really they did, I know Drew doesn't look like it).
We also spent some time in the lake swimming. The kids had a lot of fun, especially when some of the high school kids came and played with them. Brandon had fun throwing the kids into the water.
Pete, Brandon and Jared had a lot of fun chasing Drew around in the water.
Adam helped Toby navigate the kiddie slide
And after a morning of swimming...After we left the swimming area to have some lunch, I got a call from Nate's cousin Sara asking if I took all the kids with me. I told her yes, they were all three with me, and she went on to explain that a child was missing, and believe to be in the water. They had evacuated the water and were doing a search of the water with people lined up holding hands walking slowly through the water. Jared is a lifeguard, so he was one helping. It was horrible to watch. The kids and I went up there and just prayed, along with others, that they would find the boy safely. After finding nothing in the water, they allowed people to swim, and we found out several hours later that the missing child was found, safely, and had just wondered away. It was so scary, but God was faithful. I can't imagine what those parents were going through watching all of that unfold.

We then headed up the hill for an AMAZING night of concerts. the groups to perform included Family Force 5, Thousand Foot Krutch (TFK) and TOBY MAC!!! We also got to hear an amazing message from Reggie Dabbs. Hundreds of people gave their lives to Christ following his message.

Family Force 5 was entertaining, as usual! Drew's favorite band is TFK. I had to take this little video of him dancing during their show.

Toby and I waiting for Toby Mac!I didn't get any photos of Toby Mac. I guess I was too busy enjoying the show! Let me just say it was INCREDIBLE. He may be over 40, but he's still got it! That man can dance. And I love the message of his music! That we are all God's people, Red, yellow, black or white!

Saturday we got to see Disciple, John Reuben, Sixpence None the Richer, Skillet and Chris Tomlin/Louie Giglio.

So the Disciple concert was great. John Reuben began to play and someone in our group announced, "There are tornado warnings to the West of us, heading our way". So we all began to watch the skies. During John Reuben's set (he was also the Alive Emcee, which was fun) the wind picked up and toward the end of his set, they asked us all to get under the huge tents they have set up. Here Taylor and Toby (and Lindsay in the background) try and make the most of being stuck in a tent with hundreds of other people

Here are Ken and Judy Gable and Rob Miller discussing what to do next... how long the storm would last, watching the storm on cell phones, etc. After about an hour or so, several of them decided to just head home. We had heavy rains and winds. I heard that the inflatable things for the kids blew into the lake. There was also a tree that fell on someones car (actually, this was before the storm even) We considered heading home, and even began walking back to our vehicles as Sixpence None The Richer played in the background. However, the skies began to clear and so we decided to turn around, and enjoy the rest of the festival. We stuck around for Skillet, which was an amazing show, and about half of Chris Tomlin. At that point, it was dark, and we were getting cold from being so wet from the rains, and the kids were falling asleep so we decided to call it a night. We left a little after 11 and were home, in our own beds around midnight!

Alive 09 tickets go on sale in less than a month!!! You all should consider going!

God is Good

Happy Father's Day

So the storm hasn't hit yet, so I had to throw in one last Father's Day post.

To my dad, Thank you for all your sacrifices over the years. I know that everything you have done, was done because of your love for us, and your desire for us to have everything you never had. I love you.

To Nate, I am not sure why the Lord looked on me with such favor to give me a husband like you, who would in turn be such an amazing father to my children. While as in any relationship, I may grumble, and there are things I wish you'd do differently (like help with laundry more often :) ) I can never complain about the example you are to our children and the love you have for them and the time you spend with them. I pray daily that they will see in you a Faith that is everlasting, and have a desire to serve our God with the same heart and passion that you do. I pray that Taylor will grow to seek God first in everything she does, I pray that Drew will have a desire to serve Him first, and to be a pillar for his family one day through his faith, I pray that Toby will come to know the Lord as you do, through your example and the life you live.

I thank you for putting God first, and us second, and showing our children what is important in life, that which is eternal, not temporal!

I love you dear!

God is Good!

Our JOURNEY Home...

So early Friday morning (not as early as we had hoped) we set out for home. Katy had school early Saturday morning, so our plan was to head out, grab some breakfast on the road, and then spend some time in Louisville at the Louisville Slugger factory, then be home by dinner. Well, plans changed! God was good to us, but we had some bumps along the way. Our trip started out fine, the kids were champs (that is true for the entire trip). We made it to Louisville around noon. It was easy to get to the factory and we enjoyed about an hour and a half there. Here are some photos.

This is how we knew we were at the right place! Main Street, Louisville, KY. Home of the worlds largest bat!
They had this nice bronze (I think) sculpture of a baseball mitt that was fun for the kids to climb on, and attempt, once again, to get a nice family photo.
I asked Nate to pick ONE of his MANY photos he took of the memorabilia inside the factory. This is what he chose to post on the Blog, Babe Ruth's bat!
The tour itself was a lot of fun. The kids got to see some neat things, and it is amazing how quickly they can make these bats. Taylor and Drew both got to get a personalized bat. They were so excited. Here is one last photo outside the factory, Drew has his bat ready for the pitch. Taylor tried to get hers out of the box, but she had put her little bat that we got as part of the tour down in the box and they were stuck. Toby held onto his little bat the entire drive home, and I believe Drew slept with his bat the first night home. I think they liked them!


Once we were done, we set out on the road again, stopping after a short while to grab some lunch at McDonalds. Of course, at this time, the weather was starting to get a little crazy, and we found out that the McDonald's had been hit by a power outage, and it took a little while to get our food. Once we did, we were on our way again. We drove through quite a bit of rain, but nothing too bad. As we began to near the Ohio border, excited to be so close to home, Nate noticed something fly off my dad's boat trailer, or so he thought. We called up and asked if things were driving okay, to which my dad assured us they were. We began to smell something, so we called again. After a third call to me dad, letting them know we were seeing smoke, he decided to pull of and check things out. We quickly discovered that the barings were shot on the trailer, and though my dad had an extra set, he was not going to be able to get them on. We had to park the boat at the gas station in the middle of nowhere Kentucky, and head for home without it. They have already contacted a towing company to bring it home on Monday.

So we finally have Ohio in our sites and begin to get excited... but not too fast! Traffic was a nightmare, it was rush hour on Friday, after all. We slowly got through Cincinnati and thought we were home free... not too fast! We head into Columbus thinking, do we by pass or do we drive through on 71. Heck, why not drive through, what more could happen to us... well, we didn't realize that Columbus had flooded and many roads were closed. After several detours, and about 3 car wrecks and about an hour later, we made it through Columbus.

We arrived home a little after 9:00 PM. Again, what should have been a 9 hour trip home, lasted 14 hours. We were all tired, and frazzled, but glad to be home, safely. While our trip had many detours, all were minor in the grand scheme. The Lord protected us in so many ways, and he allowed for us to enjoy our time, in between our trips home!

We also came home to some well loved pets, as our neighbor boy Derek (the one seen in several posts) was kind enough to come and take care of them while we were gone!

And now I must get off the computer, as a storm is heading our way!

God is Good!

Sightseeing

Okay, so I forgot to mention we went to Paris... Tennessee that is! We had to go see the Eiffel Tower and get a photo! How could you pass up such an opportunity? We spent the day Thursday sightseeing. As you can tell, the kids weren't very excited about this stop!Where we were staying was part of Kentucky Lake, which is actually like a river... well, really two rivers, with land in between. Confused? I was. But at the "Land Between The Lakes" or LBL as it is called down there, we went to Homestead 1850. It is a small farm that takes you back to the late 1800's. Nate is a history buff, so he was thrilled about this journey! It was really a good time, and the kids said it was their favorite stop. So I have lots of photos!

Here is a gentleman that was showing the kids how to spin tops.


I wouldn't be a true Smithville Smithie (my high school) if I didn't get a photo of my child with an Anvil now would I!So here is an attempt to get the entire family in a photo... and as usual... Taylor is looking at the Camera, Drew is being goofy for the camera and Toby is not looking at the camera! It NEVER fails. Anyway, we are standing right next to an Ox. That thing was HUGE! And he was just as hot as we were, so there was no way he was moving. We could have reached out and touched him. Trust me, the kids wanted to, but this momma said NO WAY!

Sightseeing part 2

Poor Toby hit his brick wall right as we were preparing to leave. The poor kid was HOT! He was tired of walking, he hadn't had a nap, and he was getting hungry and thirsty. Can you tell! But he was happy to be carried by mommy!
We also got to go to a Bison and Elk ranch. It was one where you drove through at your own leisure. Again, it was a very hot day, so we didn't see a whole lot of activity. About a half dozen Bison and about 3 or 4 Elk. But one of the Bison was literally right beside the road. We had the window down and had a nice little conversation with the fellow! I don't think he was too impressed by us!

After a quick bite to eat at a GREAT Barbecue place in Paris, Tennessee, we headed back over to the LBL to visit Fort Donelson, a Civil War battlefield. Again, Nate was so excited about this! Here is a photo of Taylor in a reconstructed sleeping log cabin. There were originally over 300 of these, but after the capture, they were all burned to the ground.And here is a shot of one of the many cannons they had on display. It was really a pretty awesome site. These cannons looked over the water and it's hard to believe that the Confederates actually surrendered. It would have appeared that they were heavily protected.

It was really a great day. The weather was beautiful and the places we visited were stunning. I wish I could share all of my photos with you, but let's just say between me, Nate and my sister, there were hundreds!

The following day we prepared to head home, and our journey continues!

God is Good!

Bon Fire

We had beautiful weather the entire time, but it was so hot, that we often spent the early afternoon hours in the A/C. Taylor took advantage of the time to make Friendship bracelets and necklaces. She even made a few for her brother, to our surprise and amazement! It was so nice of her!And Toby got some cuddle time with Paps as they watched a movie.
We also got the chance to have a bonfire one evening. I think it was Toby's first Smore experience! YUM!
Of course Drew had to shove the entire thing in his mouth at once!
And Taylor enjoyed her marshmallows flaming!

God is Good!

Another Day

Well, on Tuesday, mom and I had to drive the two hours back to where the van was, to sell it to a gentleman who has a scrap yard. We left at around 7:30 and didn't return until after 1:00, of course we had a Wal-Mart run in there as well. Here are some more photos from the week. First is one of Toby in his Chunei. He absolutely loves being "Carried" in this, and it is easy on mom, too. Whenever I put him in, he is instant smiles, and just lays his head on my back. It is precious, and one reason I'm glad he's so small and can be carried for a long time yet.
Here's a nice photo of Taylor on the boat.

Drew found a friend while we were there. I kept telling this cat to stay away from my children, but it just wouldn't listen. Of course my dad had to get a bag of cat food for the poor thing, so he hung around. Also notice the LOAD of rocks Drew is carrying in his "Rock" shirt. Yes, they all came home with us. Not sure why, other than it made him happy!
There's just something about fishing. I love watching my children and their daddy getting dirty, while trying to catch a fish. And they did catch several!
Here's part of the crew relaxing on the boat. It was just beautiful for relaxing on the boat, or trolling for Bass, which my dad caught a lot of... or so he says :)

God is Good!

A few days of fun

So once we arrived at our "cabin" (i.e. mobile home on LOTS of bricks) we quickly settled in and the kids headed for the swimming area. It was very nice. The temperature was in the mid to high 90's, but at the beach area, it was very pleasant.

I wish I could say this is how I spent my time, looking out over the beautiful lake and sky, watching my family enjoy the water as I soaked in the sun and read a good book, but I truthfully spent most of my time in the water with them... You WILL NOT be seeing a photo of that!
Drew was being silly as usual!My family I love so darn much. This is where we had the most time, just being together, having fun in the sun!
The kids had a great time fishing with "Pap". Taylor was pretty successful!And here is "Paps", Taylor and Aunt Katy coming in from their time fishing.

God is Good

Off to Kentucky Lake...we think...

We took off early Saturday morning for our vacation at Kentucky Lake! We were planning on about a 10 hour drive or so. God had other plans, which I will get to in a minute! So here is Toby, snug in his car seat, checking out the map, trying to plan our course. We were so worried about Toby on the trip, as he can only stand his car seat for a short while. By God's grace, he did extremely well. We only had a short bought of fussiness, and he did sleep some. Overall, a wonderful trip for him.Taylor and Drew got to ride in Grandma and Grandpa's conversion van for most of the trip. They liked having all the extra room.
Drew enjoyed the time we spent at pit stops. Here we just had lunch at Penn Station, a family favorite. The kids ran around a little and stretched their legs (and arms!).
We were on the road again, and at one point, Toby began to get fussy, and we needed gas, so we began to pull off at a Gas Station, about 2 hours from our destination. It was around 4:00 or so. As we pulled off, we noticed that my parents van in front of us was smoking. UH-OH! As we pulled into the gas station, it was apparent that there were problems. My dad quickly assessed the situation, and found that the transmission was shot. After over an hour of searching, we found the nearest car rental was about 1 1/2 hours away in Indiana. My mom and sister, along with my three kids quickly took off for a rental car, while my dad, Nate and I hung out at the gas station, for nearly 4 hours. My kids played in the parking lot at the rental station for a while as Grandma took care of things inside.
After lots of waiting, rearranging and simply killing time, we finally hit the road again at around 11 or so. We finally arrived at our destination around 1 AM (actually Midnight Central time). We quickly unloaded what we needed and got the kids situated in their beds. The adults spent some time around the table, just being thankful we had made it. I have some great photos, but I won't do that to my loved ones. How we look in the photos, says it all about our day. But morning came... and the kids were excited and quickly set out to check the place out. Our vacation was beginning!

(But the "fun" didn't end there, more stories later!)

God is Good!

Playing Around

Here are a few shots from the kids sporting events recently. This was Drew's first T-ball game for the season. He got to play First base and he did pretty darn good! He's serious about his baseball!Maybe not so serious about running the bases, but hey, it's T-ball, nobody gets out anyway, right?
And Taylor had her last soccer game for the 2007 - 2008 season. She scored the first goal, and it was a doozy. It may not have been a power kick into the corner, but she and a teammate stuck with it, and Taylor ended up booting it in!
Now there's a side of Taylor you don't see every day. Aggressive is not her middle name. Really, she did kick the ball, not this poor girls knee! And try-outs for next years team were earlier in the week. Soccer is not for the lazy mom, that is for sure. I can see why Soccer Mom's have that title!
And last night Taylor had a piano recital. She did wonderfully. And now Drew is asking to play. Shocker?!? Me, too! But he realized that to learn to play his electric guitar, he has to learn somewhere. I spoke with Heather, and we may fit him into a lesson with Taylor in the fall and see how he likes it. I'll put video of Taylor's recital out on YouTube, but it likely won't be before our return from vacation!

God is Good!

No Updates...

Well, I've been meaning to do an update... I have new books to talk about, Taylor's last soccer game (she scored another goal by the way!), Drew's first T-Ball game, etc. but my Mac is having problems. That is where all my stuff is! So, I hope to get things moving better in the next few days, but we leave Saturday for vacation, then we have ALIVE, then we have VBS... so if you don't hear from me in a while, you know why... But I don't know if I can stay away too long! I'm dying to share so much!

God is Good!

Blessings

For those of you that follow my blog, you may remember this post. My dear friends have been wanting to have a child join their family for many years. And thanks to the miracle of adoption, yesterday was the day! After a month of this and that for them, they got the call a few days ago that they had a baby! Their son joined their family "officially" late yesterday evening. He is a little over a month old, and while I have not had the honor of meeting him in person, I got a picture... and can I just say... absolutely adorable!

Words can not express the joy I have had in my heart these last 24 hours. Pure, Complete, God Honoring Joy!!!

To me, this is just an amazing example of how God works. These two people have followed the Lord whole heartedly, through some amazing trials, that I could not imagine. All while holding their heads high, and honoring the Lord! Words will never describe the gratitude I have for these friends, who time and time again have shown me that following God is not only the right thing to do, it's the only thing to do! And the blessing they are now holding, is proof that God answers prayers!!

God is Good!