Kenya Diggit?

Over the New Year, Ryan and some of his friends in Boulder,
invited friends to visit them from around the country for a reunion ...
a reunion of the team that spent summer 2007 in Kenya ministering
in the slum of Kibera for a month and the rural area of Eburu for a second month
(if you'd like to take a trip there yourself, click on the link "MT - Africa" at the end of this post
and you'll see a few wonderful posts on Ryan's adventure) ...
(and you'll recall that Ryan, Ben, Christiana & Sara went together to
India in the summer of 2008 with pix at "MT - India" on the link to right)

But anyway, back to the reunion ...
I was very excited to meet Ryan's visitors as several of them are my friends on Facebook
while several live in Boulder with or by Ryan and have become friends of mine over the past few years.
So, I offered to host an afternoon and evening and here are the pix from January 3rd,
we had such a spectaclar time!

The Girls in the Reunion Chair
f: Christiana, Chelsea, Rachel
b: Karli, Sara, Anne, Becca ... Sara, Anne, Becca, and Rachel ...Sherrie, Rachel, and Chelsea ...
Rock Band Special Edition ...
Anne, Sara, and Becca ... Anne, Karli, and Becca ... Karli, Rachel, Chelsea & Sara ~ with Anne on drums ... Ryan, Chandler, Karli, and Becca ... Ryan, Niko, Rachel, Ben, Sarah, Chandler, and Becca ...
Cooking chicken florentine and such ...
Chelsea, Niko, Sara, Anne, Christiana, Sherrie & Becca ...
A white elephant exchange with some extra gifts from Christmas ...
Ryan, Anne, Sarah, Chelsea, Becca, Karli, Christian, Niko, Chandler, Taylor & Ben ...
Faces ...
Ryan ...Niko...Anne ...Chandler ... Christiana and Sara ...Taylor ... Rachel & Sara ~ part of the family with Sherrie, Ryan, Drew, Dave, Sean & Trey!Niko & Ben ... must be an inside story with the hands!Ben ... Sara & Anne ... Hmmmm ... Taylor ...
Dinner time ...
Ben, Taylor, Becca, Niko ...
Ryan & Chandler giving Rachel an awkward moment ...
Off to Laser Quest for tag ... Ryan the big winner (of course!) ...
It was such a delight to be with these great people ~
and as a treat to all of you who have read this far, here's one last picture.
Ryan and Christiana have recently discussed that the Lord has revealed to them
through dreams and visions that they are ... to be married!

This discussion took place after the Kenya Diggit Reunion so it's really fresh news --
no words yet as to time but it seems farther away than very soon ...
it's as much news to them as us, so I anticipate it might take awhile in their own
hearts and minds to adjust from being friends to this new revelation.

We love Christi and are very excited to see what the Lord
has in store for these two in the years ahead.
They've served and traveled together for quite some time so they
have many shared bonds of prayer, adventure, & trusting Him
(Kenya 2007, Resident Assts at Annex House 07-08, India 2008)

This is a picture of Christiana that I took last month in December after she graduated
first in her class from the College of Architecture & Planning at CU Boulder
with a degree in sustainable design ... such a great day!With expanding love, Sherrie
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

A Great Time in New Mexico!

On our way home from Tucson to visit my Moms,

we went to Alamogordo to visit Aunt Crissy, Uncle Charlie, and Grandpa-pa ...

And we were treated like absolute royalty!
Man, if anyone knows how to role out the red carpet and serve up a storm,
it's my aunt and we had our socks blessed off!

Welcome to the weary road warriors!
On our arrival, Lisa & Kent visited dressed for their togo New Year's Eve party,
which we understand was a very festive and delightful evening.
We felt fulfilled getting to wish them well & see them on their way,
as it was one of the first 10pm to bed new year's we've had in ages!
Snoozy woozy Sean & Trey ...

The meals and tables were spectacular, as is Crissy's custom,
her cooking is over the top, delightful, and delectable!
Our grand hostess never sat down to really enjoy this 3-course extraordinaire!
(complete with fresh made grapefruit sorbet ~ amazing :)And we were able to see Crissy's wildlife Christmas tree ~ so unique!
She does a different theme every year ...We also ran around the golf course for 9 holes which was very fun for my boys
I golfed a 36 on nine ... 2 drives, pick up ball, walk to green, drop on edge and 2 putts.
I'm not sure that results in a "legal" score but for me it's a lot of fun.
Dave on the other hand was more into using his golf balls to beat
a couple of the beautiful homes along the 8 & 9 ~ youchers!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day ...Mamma with her two baby bears ...
(I can tell that's not going to last much longer,
my guess is that Sean will be taller than me by Valentine's Day)Daddy & his swingers ...
We also played a game of Tripoley which has been a favorite
of our families when we get together. Grandpa remembers the poker hands
as if 70 years ago were yesterday!

Our 36 hours in Alamo came and went far to fast ~ here's a picture of
our 95 year old grandfather enjoying whole wheat fresh pancakes at our departure!
Trey taught him to play wii golf while we were there and on one hole,
Trey told Grandpa the yardage and he said, "give me my 7-iron" ~ quite adorable!!

And WHERE was my camera when we stopped in Albuquerque and had lunch
with the fabulous Keri, Tom, Kaly & Aubrey family??
It was such a special treat on our drive home!!

Thank you Cris & Charlie, Grandpa, Keri, Tom, Kaly & Aubrey
for the most wonderful wonderful loves!!