Harvest Durham Soft Launch

When Matt and his guy BFF, Ian Hales, came out to Master's Seminary, it was with the goal of somehow using what they would learn to come back to Canada to serve the people here in whatever capacity the Lord saw fit. Well, a dream come true is happening where Ian will head up a church plant as our senior pastor in the region where the boys grew up and where Matt will serve on a volunteer basis functioning in a few different roles. This is such an exciting event, one which they and many people in the area have been looking forward to - to start a church that exalts the Lord and His word above all else. The official launch date for Harvest Durham is Sept. 19th, with a couple soft launches before then. If you think of it, please pray for us, that the Lord will empower us to be faithful to love and obey Him as we seek to serve each other and the community by preaching and living out the Truth. We are so excited for what the Lord has done and will do in and through this church - to God be all the glory!

We will be meeting in this high school; we are so thankful for such a nice facility

The Next Generation.

There are already 6 born, with 3 more on the way!

Setting up - everything went so well and looked so nice, go team!

Ian throwing it down!

Our awesome launch team!

The BFFs - back together again and couldn't be any happier

And to finish off this post, some pics of Monkey's bath hairdos!

The 'Hawk

The Don King

The Uni

Sweet Potato Pumpkin Pie

Better than anything I could ever cook up...

Jet's first time eating sweet potato - "He likes it Mikey!"

My sister-in-law (thanks Tara!) got Jet this outfit before he was even born. Unfortunately I don't think it will fit him when it's actually Halloween time so needless to say, Jet's kicking off the Halloween festivities now.

I could barely get the beanie on, and I couldn't even leave it on for long since I think it was cutting off the circulation around his head. Our big little boy!

Our little Pumpkin

Two Years Ago...

I married the man of my dreams. I am constantly in awe of the fact that I get to spend the rest of my life with the most amazing and handsomest man I know and that he actually chose me, me!, to be his bride. What a privilege it is to live life side by side with you Baby, waking up next to you each morning is like waking up to Christmas. Thank you for all the ways you serve me and show me love, you model to me the love that Christ has for the Church and you motivate me to strive harder after Him. Thank you for being you and for bringing so much joy into my life - I respect and admire you most ardently and I love, love, love you with my entire heart. May we look forward to celebrating many, many more anniversaries to come!

Bracebridge

It was finally time to head back home today after an absolutely fabulous 2 day getaway. On our way back we stopped in Bracebridge, a cute little Muskoka town, and did some window shopping. I loved this area, so quaint and charming and I am looking forward to visiting again in the future.

I love old buildings, how cool would it be to have this as your public library?

A tribute to the Canadian soldiers who fought in WWII in Bracebridge's local park. It was funny, on the flight back to Toronto from Vancouver, I ended up meeting an actor who was one of the main soldiers in movies like "Saving Private Ryan" and "Flag of our Fathers," which was so cool since Matt and I love watching those kinds of movies. He was telling me about the importance of Canada's role in the war and how working in those films was so great since he had relatives who actually fought in it. The history surrounding WWII is so fascinating and I am definitely always wanting to learn more about it.

Strolling down the main street

I absolutely loved this store. They had the coolest antique items, everything from old authentic golf clubs to baking ware, I was so impressed with their vintage collection.

Sometimes I think it would be fun to be a millionaire just so I could buy cool decor stuff like this for a house.

This place is called "Marty's World Famous Cafe" and it's apparently their butter tarts that put them on the map. The place inside was so cute and of course we had to try one of their tarts!

I don't even want to know the calorie count for this

Deerhurst - Day 2

Today was another fun-filled day of enjoying ourselves at Deerhurst Resort in Muskoka. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had so much fun spending the day together as a family and enjoying God's rich blessings of life here on earth.

The view from our breakfast table

A good start to the day

Checking out some local artwork in the resort's gallery

Matt surprised me with a massage at the spa - we're here to celebrate our anniversary but I was telling Matt that I feel more like it's my birthday because he is spoiling me like crazy and doing everything he can to make sure this is a special trip for me. I can't believe that I have the privilege of being married to this man and am so thankful that he said "I Do" 2 years ago.

More swim time

We've got a fishy on our hands

Play hard, sleep hard

We had such a lovely dinner here tonight. This place is a historical staple in Muskoka.

Our server at dinner was the third person to think Jet was a girl today - three people, in one day! Maybe I'm a bit biased but I think he totally looks like a boy. No more neutral colors allowed - only bold, manly colors from here on out:)

The amuse-bouche was compliments of the chef, a tuna and beef tartare. The tuna was good but I couldn't bring myself to eat the raw beef, so Matt ate mine and said it was good too.

For a starter we decided on the mushroom ravioli - very tasty

Mattie ordered the seared tuna loin, which he really enjoyed

If there is beef on the menu, I'll probably order it. Especially if it comes with potatoes.

Post-dinner snuggles in the warm summer breeze, ahhh... the sweet moments in life!

For dessert, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have some more Kawartha Dairy icecream! We'll definitely have to kick up the exercise a couple notches when we get home:)

Deerhurst

This upcoming Sunday will be mine and Matt's 2 year wedding anniversary so as a surprise, Matt, being the amazing and sweet husband that he is, planned a little getaway to the Muskoka area and booked us a couple of nights at Deerhurst Resort. The name might sound familiar because they just hosted the G8 Summit here not too long ago. We had so much fun on our first day here already and we can't wait to enjoy tomorrow!

My handsome boys

True water baby

Getting his tan on

Fun in the sun!

We just happened to be walking by the putting greens after dinner when we ran into one of the golf employees. He was such a sweet older gentleman who ended up giving us free bottles of water, clubs, and balls to use for a couple of hours, what a blessing it was to us! I think it is important for us wives to be interested and involved in what our husbands enjoy. So I swung and putted my heart out today and ended up having a blast! Matt was such a patient and encouraging coach - definitely looking forward to doing more of this in the future.

Nice form;)

Starting him young

Tiger who?

Could your heart just break?

"Ah Grasshopper..."

Kawartha Dairy is nearby so of course we had to get some icecream - yummy!