Alaska Preview

Well, Mom, Dad, and I will be arriving in Anchorage, Alaska, to visit the Zimmermans in just twelve days. It's hard to believe how quickly the time has flown! We (especially I) are so excited to finally see Alaska!

In an effort to see a small window of that other world, I've been doing some "googling" and wanted to share some of the completely awesome, amazing, and perfectly breathtaking sights and sites. : )

Please humor me and share my excitement here. ; )

The following are some of my favorite live Alaska webcams:

Anchorage - Looking East
Anchorage - Looking Southeast
The New Seward Highway

Many times, there are clouds covering the mountains, especially toward the beginning of the day. Normally, if you look after around 6:00pm (eastern time) you can see some absolutely amazing mountains!

And ya'll won't believe the pictures on this site. I wish I could post some of them up here, but don't want to end up getting myself sued for "borrowing" someone else's pictures.

Of course, when we get back from Alaska, I'll have plenty of frigid pictures to post. (Just kidding! Actually, the temperature should "only" be in the fifties, sixties, and seventies. Brrrrr!) : )

Meanwhile, here are some Zimmerman visit pictures to tide you over.

Sweet Mrs. Zimmerman

Shannon dancing with Ashley's dress hanging from the fan in my room (random, I know)

Alligators on our outing to Bull's Island

Alligators "quibbling" on our outing to Bull's Island

A baby alligator paying us a visit on Bull's Island

Tait on the way back from Bull's Island

Can you believe they made fun of the name of our grocery store, Piggly Wiggly? (That's where the hat's from, by the way.)

Me, Ashley, and Shannon downtown

One of the few pictures of our lovely photographer, Esther

Goofing off downtown

Awwwww!

Everyone now: "Awwwwwww!"

And now for my favorites....



Tait pretending to be a statue downtown
Isn't it great?

Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters!

Aren't porch swings the best? (That's what we're sitting on, by the way.)
: )

Um, that's me, if you must know

Shannon smearing cherries on her face at a beach-side cookout...

...Then sunscreen to cover up the red

Esther and me

Me, Esther, and Ashley at a cute little coffee shop around the corner

That's all folks!
Until next time,
Lauren

The Zimmermans' Visit & Our Trip to Asheville, NC

I know. What an uncreative title. But hey, at least it tells you exactly what this post's about! : )

Meeting Katelyn Grace for the first time

Leslie and Ashley meeting for the first time

Thank you to Esther and Phil (her camera) for most of these wonderful pictures! All the ones that look too good to be taken by my little point-and-shoot camera are from her. : )

The day after the Zimmermans arrived, Leslie and I went with them to American Vision's Worldview Superconference - the same conference that we met Tait at last year! There, we learned about everything from epistemological self-consciousness to the fallacies of the interdimentional hypothesis. ; )

Esther in the backseat

On our way up to Asheville, we took a slight detour on the Blue Ridge Parkway. And yes, I know that the Blue Ridge Mountains (they are not hills!) are slightly smaller than Alaskan mountains. Oh, but they're beautiful!

We were able to make a few scenic stops along the way. Here we are at Looking Glass Falls.


Lunch was at a beautifully picturesque little cafe by the side of the Parkway.


My favorite talk of the conference, by Dr. Voddie Baucham (a phenomenal, passionate speaker!), was called "Whoever Controls the Schools Rules the World." A few of his especially hard-hitting thoughts (according to my rather sporadic notes) were as follows:

He who teaches, disciples. The student will be like his teacher. The pupil is not above his teacher.

As any homeschooler has noticed, they are always getting asked the same three questions:

1. How do you get socialized?
2. Is homeschooling legal?
3. Where do you get your curriculum, and who oversees the job your parents are doing in homeschooling you?

The reason everyone asks the same questions is because they have all been discipled by the same teacher!

Answering objections to home education:

"Parents are not professional teachers."
"Having at least one parent who is a teacher makes no difference whatsoever, statistics show."

"Students miss out on socialization."
"Good!" (We want selective socialization!)

"But they're not being salt and light!"
"Matthew 5 is about being distinct, and set apart - not assimilating! Jesus goes on to say that whoever keeps children from obeying the Law is least in the Kingdom of God."

All of the talks were exceptional, and I am so thankful we were able to attend!

Tait and Me

Esther and Ashley

Mr. & Mrs. Zimmerman

Talking on a quaint little bridge

While everyone attending the conference had a name tag, mine was somewhat unique. The front had the usual setup of the name of the conference, the name of the company, the date of the conference, and the name of the attendee. But, if you turned my name tag over to look at the back, you saw a slightly unusual note in a young man's handwriting:


(To see where "The Pesky Alaskan" came from, you can click here.)


One day, we were able to take a nice little hike up "Rattlesnake Trail" in between sessions. 'Twas lovely, with a beautiful view at the top.

A good time was had by all!

At Cracker Barrel on the way back

Esther, Ashley, and Leslie at Atlanta Bread on the way back

Random interesting fact of the day:

My name is Lauren Ashley.
Ashley's name is Ashley Laura.

Have a wonderful day, all you lovely people, and thanks for reading our blog!
~Lauren

"Who Would've Thought...?"

"Who would've thought, before eating chicken was invented, that eating chicken skin would be so good with Montreal Chicken Seasoning?"

~Shannon

Sounds like it would make a good Montreal Chicken Seasoning commercial! : )

A Smattering of Updates

[Deep breath] So ...... the Zimmerman's visit went well. Leslie and I had the greatest time going to American Vision's Worldview Superconference with their lovely family. We also celebrated Leslie's, Shannon's, and Mom's birthdays and had a baby dedication. At the end of their visit, Leslie and I were off to Jamestown with the Shepherd family as "mother's helpers" for Vision Forum's Jamestown Quadricentennial celebration. During our time away, Mom went out to San Diego again for some treatments for Katelyn Grace. Then, us girls went out to Grandma & Pop's for a few days while Renee, our cousin from Seattle, was visiting there. Then ... well, we tried to get everything back together and under control after a very hectic - but absolutely extremely enjoyable and productive - three weeks.

Now for a few more details:

We had a lovely time getting to know all of the Zimmermans. Up until now, we only knew them through comments from Tait, e-mail, and phone calls. How wonderful to be able to spend 11 whole days with them! Mom, Dad, and I are scheduled to make a trip to their home in Alaska the end of July. I can hardly wait! : )

A month or two ago, I got a call from Mrs. Shepherd, a sweet lady we had met at Vision Forum's Film Festival, and mother to nine beautiful children.
"Are you planning on attending the Jamestown Quadricentennial?"
"No, but we would love to."
"Well, we're looking for one or two girls to go with us as 'mother's helpers.'"
It's hard to describe my excitement when I heard those words. Would we like to go?! We'd love to go! So, with Mom and Dad's encouragement and permission, we went!

Katelyn Grace is doing wonderfully. She's beginning to reach for things with her hands and hold on while she looks at whatever she's holding. During dinner tonight, we had her on a quilt on the floor, and she was just rolling all over the place and talkin' away. She's become quite an active little girl over the past week or so! Her favorite pastime today was pulling her dress up with both hands and putting it in her mouth. Slightly embarrassing, but extremely precious! : ) What could be more wonderful than to watch a baby develop and progress?

Over the next two or three days, I'm going to put up some pictures of the Zimmermans' visit, and also of our trip to Jamestown. Right now, here are some pictures of our precious, wonderful, adorable little blessing. (The pictures don't do her justice; she's ten times as beautiful and engaging in person!) <-- No, I'm not biased. ; )
She has an ever-ready smile, and laughs just a bit when she's tickled. She loves to "talk"!


It's hard to believe she'll be five months old on July 2nd!





She's just starting to try to put things in her mouth.


Notice the dress? : )







Katelyn Grace, you are so special to us. We sincerely thank the Lord for giving us such a tremendous gift.

Long Time No Post

I know ya'll are probably dying for an update (or maybe I'm just flattering myself), but things have been so busy! I promise that I'll do my best to possibly maybe get an update up tomorrow.

Ya'll have a good day now, y' hear?

~Lauren

Upcoming Famine

I won't have too much of a chance to get more pictures and updates on the blog over the next week or so. Leslie and I are off to Jamestown tomorrow to help a lovely family with their nine children during Vision Forum's Jamestown Quadricentennial.

Me and Esther

Me, Ashley, and Shannon

Fun at the Beach

Esther

Mrs. Zimmerman

Thanks so much to Esther for the pictures! They're beautiful!

Edit

For some reason, comments were disabled for the Courtship post. They should work now, so....

A Few of Us ... With a Few of Them

Lauren, Ashley, Mr. Zimmerman, Leslie, Tait, Mrs. Zimmerman
(Esther took the picture.)