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Posts Tagged ‘Vacation’

Day 13: Made It Home…and final vacation 2009 post.

Nothing but travel today…

We hit the Holiday Inn Express Breakfast hard like champions before dominating the highway. Early afternoon we landed at a Long John Silver’s just outside of Cleveland (don’t say anything…LJS isn’t anywhere near my favorite 100 places to eat, but there were other riders that wanted to stop). Still Northeast bound, we arrived in Erie, Pa and I couldn’t help but stop off at the Krispy Kreme for a late afternoon snack. The quick sugar rush was enough to propel us on through our trip to Castile, NY.

Nothing real exciting on the way home; like I said, we were intent on getting back and getting ready for the weekend. Laurie and I will be sharing the pulpit this weekend with a message from God’s word on the topic of marriage. I’m pretty excited about our “co-teaching” this weekend. It will be a first for us and hope there will be other opportunities like this in the future.

One other note of interest, we started an audio book authored by Andy Andrews called “The Lost Choice.” We didn’t get to finish it yet, but it is really good. Maybe I’ll review it when I’m done listening. Heard from the boys out in La-La Land for the X-games tonight and they’re doing well too. That’s all for the vacation posts. Back to our regular blog for awhile.

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Day 12: Homeward Bound and Answers in Genesis

Still making our way North to NY state…much of the drive today was without event. We listened to an audiobook along the way this time, Affabel, by John Bevere. It is an allegory about the Christian life. I thought it was good and could provide some excellent family discussion. It probably would have for us except for the fact that two of our boys are in California and Josh was asleep. Nonetheless, we (Laurie and I) enjoyed it.

We arrived at the intersection of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky and spent the late afternoon at the Creation Museum (Answers in Genesis). I think it was very well done and the quality of the displays and wax figures was excellent. I think, with regard to Creation, that many of the explanations and alternative viewpoints of intelligent design were very well presented and some of them highly plausible. In fact, many of them I do believe. Some, on the other hand, were quite a stretch (in my mind) and hard for me to accept; of course, I’m no scientist and have no basis for what is or is not other than what I can conceive in my own mind. I guess this is where I come to the point of saying at some place in the life of every person as they journey the path of their faith, they will have to come to a point of acceptance of God’s word. You either trust Him with what He has passed down to us or you don’t. Trusting Him does not mean that we have to understand all the details of how things are, or how they came to be… That’s my position. I don’t understand all the details of Creation. I know what God has given us and I just don’t get tripped up on things that I don’t understand.

We had a great time and I wish we’d arrived earlier because we missed some of the displays and the nature hike outside of the museum. Oh well, maybe there will be a next time.

Laurie and Josh are ready for the Holiday Inn Express breakfast buffet, so I better roll. We’re on the final leg of our homeward bound journey, so the next update will include our arrival at home and me typing at my familiar dining room table. Peace and Grace be yours this day!

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Day 11: On the Road Again…

We hit the road early today (well, yesterday now), as Stefan and Garrett had a flight they weren’t willing to miss. We dropped them off around 11:00am for the first leg of their West Coast adventure. I tried to chronicle what I could of this day with my best photojournalistic eye, but was shot down by my proof editor refusing to allow my posting of the images without extensive editing.

Did I mention it was/is Joshua’s birthday today…? I granted him executive privileges all through the day reminding him that the preferential treatment he was receiving was because of his birthday. Immediately following this declaration, I quickly reminded him that “today is your birthday; tomorrow is not.” (heheheheheh) – We treated him to a “Smorges”-borden at the Golden Corral for lunch and we dined at his favorite eatery (sigh) Arby’s for supper. (The things we do for love…)

Our journey took us mostly by highway today making for a very quiet and scenic drive…until we landed on the periphery of a tornado warning in Northwestern Alabama for around two hours of our drive. It was exciting if not taxing for that little piece of the drive anyway. About the time we crossed the Tennessee border, the boys called to let us know they arrived in Los Angeles safely and were proceeding to their hotel; we heard from them a little later once they got settled in to their hotel.

We settled in to a Holiday Inn Express in downtown Nashville for the night and plan to hit the Creation Museum in Kentucky tomorrow. I’ll try to do better with my photojournalism….maybe a good night’s rest will help.

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Day 10: Leaving “home” to go home…

Yesterday was a pretty mellow day…trying to get things ready for the journey back north, get the boys ready for their west coast adventure, and saying good-byes. More family pictures were on the agenda (I now have well over 300 “family” photos to edit), but the memories they will rekindle are worth it. I can’t say enough about the joy I have had spending the past week with my immediate and extended family; joy does not convey the delight of my heart. Really.

I’m not entirely sure what our journey home is going to entail, our route and itinerary has not been finalized just yet. I think our first priority is to get our oldest two (Stefan and Garrett) to the airport on time. Once we get that item completed, we’ll concern ourselves with where we’ll end up tonight. We’re trying to decide whether or not to shoot through Atlanta or Nashville (our site seeing choices will dictate that, but we plan to discuss this on our way to the Jackson airport).

I’ll try to update our trip along the way with photos and will share a brief synopsis of what we’re doing and what we decided when we land at a hotel for the evening. I better get running so I can pack up the Trailblazer now…I’m hearing the sounds of Willie Nelson and “On the Road Again” in my head, so I better be off. Ta Ta Till Latah!

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Days 8 & 9: Catching Up…

Sorry for the lack of updates the past couple of days. It has been a very busy and family-filled blur. The weekend was great…meeting all my expectations and then some. I so much enjoyed talking to my relatives and catching up on their lives. I didn’t mislead you with the promise of pictures either; I have well over 200 that I still have yet to go through. The pictures require cropping and editing to bring out the most in them, so it will probably be a little while before I can sit down to do all that. I promise to share them when the editing gets completed though; “cross my heart.”

I picked out a few pictures to include in this post to tie you over until I can put up more for a slideshow. Most of these are cousins, nephews, and a niece with an uncle thrown in for good measure. I look forward to sharing more in the coming days; I’m really pleased about what I was able to capture with my camera, lots of memories.

Well, I think it’s time to get cleaned up. I have been left behind by my family. My dad took the boys out to lunch and a movie; my mom took Laurie, my sister, and my sister-in-law out for a “girl’s afternoon out.” I’m not sure how I got abandoned, but I’m thinking I shouldn’t let this opportunity pass. I’ll go hit up Popeye’s Chicken or a BBQ buffet where no one will keep score on what I get to eat (wink).

We take Stefan and Garrett to Jackson, MS tomorrow for the next leg of their summer adventure (they’re heading out to LAX for the Summer X-Games). I don’t know if I’ll be able to update the blog before now and tomorrow night, but I’ll try to post up something. Until then, Peace!

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Day 7: Uh Oh…a no picture day (from July 24^th)

I was on my own for the most of today. I had planned to spend some time with my brother, Bradley, and that’s pretty much what the majority of this day was all about. I did have a couple of side projects lined up; one project was to replace the low beam headlight in our Chevy Trailblazer. Can you say “most stupid engineering design ever”? I cannot believe the ridiculous way they designed the headlight assembly, at least with regard to how the bulb would be changed. Thank goodness for the internet, I was able to figure out how to get to the bulb…can’t believe it was necessary to remove the entire front grill, but it was…necessary. Anyway, mission accomplished; bulb changed.

Met up with an old high school buddy too and enjoyed a brief visit with him. (Nice to see ya, Warren!)

Bradley and I enjoyed tracking (recording) a song I had written…although I have to say that I am not American Idol or America’s got Talent caliber. Nonetheless, the song got recorded. I will share it in a blog post when I get a copy from Brad.

For lunch we hit this really obscure little restaurant for Louisiana style PoBoys; mine was a massive shrimp PoBoy and it hit the spot in an equally massive way. After our belly-busting lunch, we headed over toward Calhoun, Louisiana to take a tour of my brother’s property. Bradley bought some land out in the country a couple of years ago with the plan to build a house some time later in the future. It is a very nice place with almost a hundred peach trees, blueberry bushes, fig trees and a pond stocked with fish. He recently acquired a nice little mobile home that he has been refinishing so he and his family can spend weekends there.

The evening ended with my sister, Tracy, and my cousin, Christina, arriving for our family reunion/mamaw’s 90^th birthday celebration gathering tomorrow-today (Saturday). Speaking of which, it’s time to get myself ready and wake up the rest of the family. I’ll have my camera with me for the reunion, so you can expect a photo slideshow with my next blog post.

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Day 6: ON THE RIVER

We spent the day with Mike and LaTonya Lewis today. Much of the day was spent just enjoying leisurely conversation. It was really good to catch up on life with one another and hear what God is doing in our lives. It is amazing to hear encouraging and challenging words that God speaks to us through the lives of other people.

We were able to visit Family Church and see where the Lewis’ worship and serve. We took a tour of the facilities and were able to check out Kimmy’s office too.

Later in the evening we went out to the river with Ryan, Mike’s newest addition to his family (son-in-law…husband to Kim Lewis, Mike’s oldest daughter). Ryan took us boat riding while the younger Borden and Lewis men attempted to learn about wake-boarding and knee-boarding. Suffice it to say while they didn’t master the art of “water gliding” they had a tremendous time giving their all to try. I enjoyed the joy of sharing the beauty of God’s creation and feeling at home on the river…and, I got some pretty nice pictures for the memory banks too.

Day Seven is planned to spend with Brother Bradley as we take a tour of his property and then take some time to work on my song and getting it recorded.

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Day 5:

[Started to post this last night, but it was just a little too late…my eyes were closing on me. Sorry for the delay, but here ya go! Now, I got to get started on our next day’s adventure!]

No rain yesterday…so we hit the road a vistin’ heading over to bro-in-law Mike’s house in West Monroe. It was a great time of talking, playing games, swimming, and other stuffs…but in general, just enjoying the time together. It is always a great visit with Mike’s beautiful and loving family and yesterday was no exception. It is hard to say what the highlight of the day spent with Mike and family was, so rather than attempt to narrow it down, we just figured to go back over to their house today for a reevaluation. I think we have a miniature golf tournament on tap for the day. I’ll probably have to hold back on my PGA level putt-putt skills so the rest of the players can have a good time…(said with tongue firmly in cheek).

After we left the Lewis’ we headed just down the road (literally less than a couple miles away) to my brother Bradley’s house. We hung out without much of an agenda and enjoyed local cultural cuisine and a specialty of North Louisiana, Johnny’s Pizza…home of the Sweep the Kitchen! Woooo Hooooo! It was great! The rest of the evening Bradley and I played guitar together and worked on a song I have written. I’m new at the song writing craft and trying to get help from those with more experience; Brad has been writing his own music and mixing his songs for over 20 years now. I think he has a thing or 500 to teach me.

So, anyway, that was pretty much yesterday…stay tuned for today’s update later this evening (if I can keep my eyes open when we get home)

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Day 4:

Today was a lazy, hang-out, and rest day. This is completely allowed when you’re on vacation, so although it was a little out of my element to be so…unpurposed, I was relatively guilt-free (It was a little easier cuz it rained most of the day and it wouldn’t have been fun to venture outside anyway). It was good to hang with dad, mom, and my brothers. Mom hooked me up with fresh peaches and lots of my favorite home cooked veggies (purple-hulled peas, cornbread, fried squash, and more). Later in the evening I charcoal grilled some awesome burgers and got to catch up over supper with my brother Bradley and his wife Marie. They introduced us to our newest nephew, Jacob and we also got reacquainted with our niece Jenna Marie. The last time I saw Jenna she was just 6 mos old (she’s now 3yrs old).

We plan to head out to Laurie’s brother (Mike) house tomorrow. In the evening we’ll head over to Bradley and Marie’s house and spend the evening with them. Hopefully with more activity tomorrow we’ll have more photo ops. Here is the slideshow for the day.

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Day 3: Home again, home again…jiggity jig

We hit the road yesterday morning around 08:30 tackling the morning rush of Charlotte and then the mid-morning madness of Hotlanta! Yikes! I’m glad I don’t have to do that every day. We pressed and pushed on through Georgia before stopping in Alabama for lunch at a 5-star RSR (for you uninitiated, that’s “road-side rest”). Our agenda was set to make it to Jackson, MS where we would pick-up our missing family unit (Stefan) at the airport. He had been participating in a summer exercise, part of his curriculum requirements for his upcoming graduation in 2010. I don’t have a picture, but he earned his “wings” for successful completion of air assault training. HOO-HAH!

Back to the day’s events…

We arrived in Jackson with around a couple of hours to spare; enough time to get some supper and relax a bit from the road warrior mentality we were all wearing pretty ferociously. Stefan’s flight arrived right on time, maybe even a few minutes early and we were right on time to pick him up. Small problem. Stefan arrived, but his luggage did not, so we had to go through the rigmarole to arrange for his bags to get sent to us at my parents. Not to worry, the airline peeps seemed in good spirits and assured us they would have his bags to us by noon the next day considering they had multiple flights to Monroe beginning as early as 06:00. Great! Hopefully they will come through. We loaded up again, sans baggage, and headed west for Monroe, Louisiana.

We arrived at mom and dad’s around 22:30 to a nice reception (Mom, Dad, and younger brother Jonathan). We hung out and visited till after midnight when I suddenly realized I was majorly tired…and retired to the bed.

We don’t have big plans for today, just to relax and kinda get rejuvenated from the roadtrip. I know I promised more pictures, but I didn’t have a lot of photo ops yesterday. I will definitely take more today and update the blog again before crashing out tonight. Here are few shots from yesterday’s  lunchtime dining experience.

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