On the Way Home

We left Las Vegas yesterday at 9:00 am. We had a great time with the Hirsch family. We did not want to leave, although I am sure that they were ready to get us out of there! An invasion of seven people is no small task, especially for five nights! Hey, we are just one "wild and crazy" family. Jake is very bummed and did not want to leave. He and Sam really reconnected well. Jake would leave the Springs and move to LV today if he could. All of the adults and kids got along just like old times. It was so much fun!

Yesterday we hit a wonderful snowstorm in New Mexico. Let me rephrase that...we hit a blizzard that made national news. This goes along with seeing a bright, vivid rainbow in Vegas, a brief hail shower in LV, and rain in the desert on the way home. The snow storm stretches all the way up past Denver. We hunkered down last night in a Holiday Inn halfway between Gallup and Albuquerque. It is supposed to snow sporadically throughout the day. We have about seven hours drive under normal conditions. We will see how long it actually takes. Maybe we will now see a meteor shower and a hurricane.

Baptism

We went with Jason and family to the church he pastors. Today was water baptism day at Epic Church. The whole service was very cool and I am so happy we chose this week to visit the Hirsch family. They used an inflatable pool to baptize 3 people in the first service and 5 in the second. Besides the 8 scheduled people, they also had 3 other individuals come up during an open invitation for baptism. It was fun and refreshing to watch an open, organic, free church in motion. The presence of the Holy Spirit was definitely in da House!

One of those that was baptized today was Sam. We got to watch Jason immerse his own son today. There is nothing like watching a father baptize his own child! It chokes me up. Here are some pics.

The baptism tank:


The water was cold:


The testimony:


The "old man":


The "new, cleansed man":

Off for some family/friend time.

I got home after supper last night and immediately went to join my family and friends to say goodbye to a buddy that is being restationed to Korea. He currently is a copter pilot, was a tank operator, and now is going fixed wing. He definitely has some stories! We got home late last night, I finally slept in my bed and I must admit...it felt so good. After a home office day today we pull out for Vegas. Everybody is so excited! The older kids really can't wait to see the Hirsch family!

Christie, Maci, and Melia went to the zoo here earlier in the week. The zoo is on the mountain side and they loved it. Here are a couple of pics from the zoo:

Update

Sorry to everyone! It has been several weeks since we last posted. Life has been crazy for me and work has demanded a lot of my time, as well as a lot of travel. We are all doing well and have adjusted quite well to Colorado Springs.

Christie is doing fine and talks quite often with the ladies in the cul-de-sac. She has also been making cakes. She just made a sweet 16 cake for our neighbor, and has been making smaller cakes for one of our other neighbors to take into her clients. She is enjoying the "cake time". I keep telling her she should pursue it as a job...but we will see.

The kids are doing very well. We got the teacher reviews (for 3rd quarter conferences) back on Caleigh and Josh. Caleigh's teacher would not stop raving about her. It was sort of obnoxious :). Josh's teacher called him "mature" and already set for 1st grade (ahead of where he should be). Our Josh...mature???? Jake earned straight A's for the 3rd quarter and is playing on an elite soccer team. He has finally come around to living in CS, but still misses his friends back in K-Town.

Next week is spring break for the kids. I have a dealer in Las Vegas, so we are going to join my business trip with family time and run down and see the Hirsch family in Las Vegas. The kids can't stop talking about it!

I will post some recent photos when I get back home.