*Warning*
Most of you know my tendency to babble.
This post is full of me seriously rambling.
And I'm not the greatest writer.
If you don't like so many words...
Well, skip the reading and just enjoy the pictures.
..........
NORTH CAROLINA.
May 10 started bright and early for my mother and I.
We hit the road by 6:45 am.
I won't tell you what time we were SUPPOSED to leave.
6:45 was good enough.
We didn't really know what lay ahead of us on this journey.
We were both pretty excited.
North Carolina.
I'd never been.
Well, I mean, I've driven through...
Okay, wait... I've never driven through.. I've been through, with other people driving.
Ok, getting this story right.
Coffee was our first stop..
That was not even an hour into our trip.
It's really hard to know where to begin here.
I want to tell you like every detail.
But there's so much to tell, I don't want to bore you!
It's better to be partaking in the fun, then reading about the fun.
Anyway, I will do my best not be too in detail.
Just close your eyes and imagine yourself being there.....
....
Wait, eyes.must.stay.open.to.read.
Duh.
....
We arrived at the Daley's home around 2:30 pm.
We actually didn't "know" the Daleys. ( I knew Tzadde, but not very well.)
All we knew is that there was going to be a girls sleep over and this was the house we were staying at!
Sis. Bridgenet greeted us ever so warmly at the door.
INSTANTLY felt welcomed into their home.
Girls began arriving at different times that afternoon.
Remembering all the names was fun!
....
Our mother's- Sis Bridgenet (Tzadde's mom)
Sis Kimberly ( Stephanie's mom)
And my favorite mom Sis Katherine ( cause she's MY mumsie!)
....
Now ALL the girls
Tzadde, Priscilla, Dorcas, Akos, Stephanie, Destiny, Mariah, Grace, Emily, Elita, Zoe, Mandy, Rebecah, Sarah, Allison, Kristen and Rosemary.
A lot of girls right?
It was fantastic!
So loved every single one of those girls.
....
Friday night, MOST of that night, the girls were COOKING.
My mom and I both noticed how well they all pitch in and help each other.
They worked together. As a team. As friends and sisters.
All their hard work and effort was not in vain.
The food was excellent.
They made cooking look SO easy.
We talked, laughed, I got to know the girls better.
We played games.
Laughed some more.
Turned off all the lights, and tried to scare people.
Girls sleepovers are always exhausting.
We for sure were up till past 3.
Some were up till 5 I heard.
^.^
I'm not too much of a night owl.
Saturday morning came way too quick.
Like.... we were out of bed by 9.
yikes.
Sis Bridgenet was working through the night, so when we were starting to stir, she was already in the kitchen making breakfast.
FIRST time having corned beef, cabbage and dumplings for breakfast!
IT was SO yummy!
Those dumplings.. My word, I ate 3 of them.
Had to stop, cause I had to share. =(
......
Before our crazy party left the house, we took a couple of minutes for morning devotions.
God should always be first thing in our day.
Well, it turned out to be more then a couple of minutes.
We took turns reading a verse.
Then we began to pray.
And it happened.
The Holy Spirit just fell in the room.
Praying and crying out.
Some were shouting.
It was beautiful.
It proves, you don't HAVE to be in a church to be in the presence of God.
He's every where.
Once the praying out loud stopped, we sang a couple of songs and slowly began to move towards the rest of our day.
......
^Destiny and Allison^
^Dorcas and I^
^Mariah, Dorcas and myself
......
Our first stop was a BEAUTIFUL park in Charlotte.
We took what felt like hundreds of pictures.
Rosemary and Destiny!
Stephanie totally has the "I'm eating a banana" face here.
Didn't know there was a face like that didja?
Love you girls.
(BTW, ttwo of the girls had gone home the night before. Rebeca and Sarah. Unfortunately I have no pictures of them...)
^Elita and Allison^
This picture is totally one of my favorites. So girl like.
Left to right
Destiny, Stephanie, Allison, Kristen, Tzadde, Dorcas, Elita, Grace, Zoe, me and Mariah
These lovely ladies!!
Sis Bridgenet, mumsie and Sis Kimberly
Aren't they awesome? =)
^Destiny and Stephanie^
My Dorcas<3
Zoe picking flowers ^
mmm This beautiful Zoe =)
Sweet-sweet Elita :)
Allison, Stephanie and Destiny ^
daughter and mother!
I love you Dorcas Dear.
Happy girl! Miss Allison!
<3 <3 <3
Tzadde!!!
Love my mommmmm!
...........
Once we had walked around, stopped 500 times to take pictures, we moved on!
Tooooo Starbucks! =)
For some it was a first trip! So cute.
Destiny, Kristen and Grace.
Mariah's first! ^
.......
We then took a trip downtown Charlotte!
I LOVE city.
I love big buildings and all the hustle and bustle!
I know I Want to go back and explore further sometime.
Woah, sweet and TIRED mommas!
I mentioned earlier that Sis. Bridgenet had to work through the night.
So by this time in the afternoon, (It was like 5 pm) you would expect she'd start dragging, be quiet and tired.
NOT Sis. Bridgenet.
She had more energy than all of us I think!
.......
I love these next shots! ( I take full credit for them because I took them!)
Dorcas be talkin on the phone. oh gurl.
I should mention.
Tzadde was pretty sick during this whole weekend. God did heal her and she believed for her healing.
But you know, sometimes symptoms get worse before they get better?
She couldn't even eat...
This girl had a great attitude through everything!
Cute, cute Kristen
^Photo bomber!^
This is a fab picture! Wouldn't you agree?
I think the lack of sleep was starting to get to us...
Hanging at the Ritz!
.........
We finally made it home.
It was a smaller group.
I MADE dinner.
And man was it GOOD.
hahahaha.
Easiest thing in the book.
Pancakes.
Yup.
That's about as good as I get.
It's not hard to follow a recipe on a box.
Didn't burn anything either.
.
.
Sunday was mother's day!
And a great way to celebrate that was being in church!
Our first time to Bro Tim Humes church.
Beautiful building, wonderful people, awesome spirit.
Seriously awesome, awesome day!
Some of you may remember the Watson family...
Years ago they were going to the Stemen's church.
They are now moved to Bro humes church.
It was REALLY nice seeing them again. The kids SHOCKED me.
They are so.... SO GROWN up!
Joel is 17 now.
He reminded me of when we rode around my yard on the "hardly"\
Good times.. Good times..
.....
Many of you remember the good ole Hardly.
May he rest in peace.
.....
^Akos!^ (She makes me laugh.. Super cool!)
Akos, Elita, Tzadde and Mariah
Elita, me and Dorcas
Me and this pretty princess, Priscilla
....
After church and a mother's day meal, we went HIKING! Eeee! It was so much fun!!
Crowders mountain! It was gorgeous, the exercise was great and the people were cool. haha
Stephanie looks kind of scared.
I think Andrew was breathing down her neck haha.
....
.
These photos below are all credited to Marcus (Tzadde's brother) He had control of my camera for the afternoon)
Amber and Andrew! They just got married!
After hiking we went over to their ADORABLE house. So cute and we had a great time!
Thank you for the welcome in your home! =)
^I won't repeat what my mom said about this picture... But it made me laugh.. I'll just let her share if she feels.. hahah^
Sis Bridgenet is AWESOME.
Allison and her boyfriend Patrick <3
Christian, Andrew, Amber and Joseph
*Woot Woot!* We got this ma!
This one is cool Marcus! ^.^
Andrew and Luke
*cheesin*
We FINALLY made it to the top.
mumsie, Elita and me
Dorcas was glad.
She may have been huffing and puffing half way up.
=P
A heart!
Amber!
^Cell phone picture. That's Luke, Maurice and Joseph.
It's me and Benjamin!
LOVE her!!!
.....
I guess on our journey UP the mountain, on that nice paved pathway, I had complained about the fact that is wasn't really a "hike". More of a pleasure stroll.
Right, well.
Once we had reached the top and were done enjoying the view these crazy kids took us all on an adventure!
We were no longer on a nice, paved path.
We were actually hiking and crawling and CLINGING on to rocks for dear life...
I mean what... ? I was definitely NOT crying and sucking my fingers in a corner somewhere.....
...
Hey, for a chick that isn't crazy about heights, I think I did pretty good!
It was actually a lot of fun. I can see doing it again sometime for sure.
........
Here's sweet Elita
^This picture is from my cell phone.
This is Benjamin just being a boy.
His big stick FELL down the side of the cliff...
Kay...
Did he leave it?
-or-
Did he jump down on the TEENY, TINY ledge, that if he had missed when he jumped down, would have meant.... Bye bye Benjamin....
Yeah. That was the option he chose!
It was funny and scary all at the same time.
Thumbs up for still bein' alive!
Dorcas little brother, David. Cutie!
Oh yes.
Rosemary, Dorcas, Maurice, me and Mariah!
Hey! There's Marcus!
Sis Kimberly. Beautiful inside and out!
Sis Bridgenet and Akos. Both have big hearts.
Bro Marco and Stevan did some stretching after our wild hike.
....
Like I mentioned earlier, our journey took us to Amber and Andrews sweet abode.
The boys-
...errrrrr...
excuse me, the MEN,
made us a little camp fire.
It had actually gotten pretty chilly outside, so the fire was really nice...
*Cough... Dorcas...*
soda and chips. A great healthy snack.
Benjamin, Andrew and uhh Andrew! =)
.......
........
Monday morning was NOT a welcoming morning.
Twas the day we HAD to come home.
(Well, I missed my daddy, so it's a good thing we came home.)
We didn't actually get out of the house and on our way home till after 1.
Finally, such a bitter-sweet parting with all my girls.
LOVE them all SO much.
Now came the hugging and crying.
*No actual tears were shed in the process of these pictures*
LOVE these two pictures.
It was really hard to say farewell.
I've met friends that are friends for ETERNITY.
Thank you one and ALL for the wonderful welcome.
For being so friendly, godly and awesome.
I thank God for the opportunity to be with you and I SOOOO look forward to the next time!
.....
......
*Oreos*
(Dorcassss!)
