Joshua 1:9

We've been doing verses all year, but here's my first one for the 2017-2018 year. We're starting the year off with one of the most encouraging and comforting verses out there. What have we to fear when the one true God of the universe is with us? We can always obey God's Word no matter what giants we face in life because He is with us!

Joshua 1 ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Drumline

Matt is doing drumline again this year. He got promoted to bass drum!

This is only their second competition so it's still the basic performance. The theme is "Wanderers." They continually add to it throughout the year. By the end of the year, it's quite a bit longer with more elements to it.

How about Matt having a solo! Well, not really a solo. More like a featured wave? Or a featured part? Whatever it is, it's pretty cool. Nice job for the kid who hates having attention directed to him!

Happy 20th!

Sandy and I have been hoping and planning to get to Hawaii for our many years. I think we started to think about it for our 10th but all the kiddos made it hard. Then we planned on it for our 15th, but a certain spell of unemployment derailed our plans. Thankfully, our persistence and God's grace allowed us to go to Kauai for our 20th anniversary.

We stayed in a little house on a farm. It was very farmy. I was surprised at how agrarian Kauai is.

We were warned. And they were correct. There are lots of chickens.

We splurged on one really nice dinner.

I couldn't get the view and us to be in the photo with proper lighting. So the first pic is us. The second is the view!

They treated us to some free celebratory champagne and dessert too. It was a real treat!

It was actually kind of chilly there for a couple of days. But we managed to get in a little beach time.

We loved our time together. Kauai was beautiful and wonderful. But even better was spending time together with my beautiful wife and celebrating God's faithfulness, grace and goodness to us for 20 years. It's been an amazing journey through so many joys and tears, times of bliss and tumultuous times, and the most difficult things along with the most gratifying times too. I never expected our 20 years to go like this, but I am so happy to have gone through it with you hon. Love you forever.