Family Road Trip

We wanted to share our South East Sates family road trip with you!  We put on 2,500 miles and God protected us the whole way in our rusted out van.  We got home and a few days later the whole emergency brake in the tire rusted through and wasn't safe to drive.  Thank you God for being with us and keeping us!  We went to the Freedom in Christ office in Knoxville, TN, to our directors in SC, then made our way up through NC, DC, and Gettysburg.  We had a great time and made many memories!  We met so many wonderful people along the way and even got to pray with some of them.  We found all but one state on license plates!  One of our highlights was Sunday worship in NC in an African American church we felt at home at.  They hugged us from the moment we arrived, we enjoyed an hour long truth based message, and they lovingly prayed over us.  So blessed!  We are thankful for all the new places we got to see, exploring God's creation, and worshiping Him everywhere we went.

With some of our Freedom in Christ friends in the Smokey Mountains.

Our rainy morning in the Smokey's we went to the caverns which was awesome.  God is an amazing creator!

Enjoying the mountains!

Took a walk to a waterfall.

Josh did a lot of weight lifting on his walks

Luka and Josh just had to try to swimming in the cold creek!

We saw three bears in the Smokies!

This is our FIC African directors who now live back in NC.
We went and saw synchronized fireflies with their kids and grand-kids and ended up going to Charleston with them - where Howard is from so we got our own personal tour guide! 

Middleton Plantation - most things are too expensive for a family of 6 so we do drive bys and a lot of walking on our trips.

Lovely Charleston!

Having fun together!

We enjoyed our seafood! 
Luka and Emalai were so cute having their "date" together at the restaurant.

I loved the trees there!  They were big, full of moss, and had branches that touched the ground.

We were reading the sign about alligators and then saw him!  His name was See-Ya-Later alligator.

This is Angle Oak - and it is beyond awesome!

A fort we visited from the Civil War through World War II.  We love seeing History!

My favorite Southern resturant we went to.  The best bbq sauce and sweet potato pie ever!

Pretty plantation homes.

We had a family vacation on Myrtle Beach.
We loved playing in the waves everyday! 
We stayed at the Hampton Inn, it is owned by a Christian, and you can tell!  We were blessed with a discount, they have Christian decorations, the staff was great and they have a church there.  We enjoyed truth filled worship at their prayer service while we were there.  They know who they are in Christ!  After the service the pastors wife told Lydia she could see Jesus delighting over her as she worshiped Him.  I love God's family!

Lots of jellyfish we got to swim by but thankfully we were told they won't hurt us they are just shark snacks - oh great!

Sunrise

It is so fun to play together!

Yup, it was hot down there!

Stopped at a warship in NC

The outer banks of NC

William & Mary College in Williamsburg, VA.

We loved Williamsburg!  I hope we get to go back someday.  It was like walking through history.  We didn't even get to Jamestown settlement.  Next time!

Lots of time driving, riding and some sleeping.  This bag was Emalai's baby - what an imagination!

Washington DC

We found this part of our trip very meaningful.  Besides putting on miles, Josh would have us pray before the capital building, memorials, supreme court building and white house.  We not only saw everything but it meant something. 
It is still God's nation!

We saw bus load of vets at the memorials in DC.  It made it all real and we shed some tears.
Freedom isn't free.

Supreme Court

Senate

We got to tour the White House!

View from inside the White house

Our kids loved Arlington Cemetery

The 911 memorial at the Pentagon was very touching to our family.

Gettysburg

We thought Gettysburg was beautiful and the ranger talk was very helpful and informative.
So many unknown heroes.  So much death.  So much war in history.  Oh how I pray we would learn from history.