Good Friday

In New Zealand, Good Friday is a public holiday. What a beautiful thing! To celebrate, our friends Rob and Lindsay invited us over along with Johnny and Helina to partake in the tradition of hot cross buns. These were the first hot cross buns that I have ever had (which is unheard of), so I figured it required some documentation:

And I can see why they are an Easter tradition down here, they're delicious. After some great tea, buns, and company we had to head off because we needed to eat this:

Yum! Our team mate Sarah cooked an Easter dinner for us including the Indiana favorite, chicken and noodles. She and Ryan had been dreaming of this day for a long time, and it finally happened. And the whole team was there to participate as well :)

Daniel is enjoying the feast!

And Leigh was eating so fast he's a bit blurry.

Anyway, it was a fantastic day with delicious food. I'm so grateful to get to spend Easter with great friends when we aren't able to be with family.

2010 Highlights

What a year this has been! It has flown by, but before we move on to 2011, here's a toast to 2010 :)

New Years last year

Ryan and I went to Guatemala with our church to serve at a local Christian art school

The infamous small group twister party

We had our little get away to celebrate paying off student loans :)

We celebrated the Indy 500, and I actually went for my first time! Ryan was so proud...

Took a trip with the girls to Michigan...

The Raymonds were married in Nashville

We celebrated my birthday in Chicago at Wrigley

4th of July!

Trip to St Louie to see Katie L

And who could forget the farm? Tough guys.

And Milwaukee to see great friends

And the Sawrie family trip to NYC!

STINT Briefing...we are officially moving to New Zealand!

A visit to see the Boilermakers

We went to the Catalyst conference, so cool. We learned all about how tension is good...

And the Reds won their division!

We had great friends get married this fall...

And Ms Katie R's wedding up in Michigan!

A little mini get-away to the Michigan beaches

Our going away party

Packing up and saying goodbye to everyone we know :(

Thanksgiving with each of our families

And finally arriving in Wellington, NZ.

And our new home.

Wow, it's been a wild ride. Bring it on 2011. :)

Going away party

I can't believe I never posted about this...our going away party! Ha, it's a little silly now that we

are actually gone, but thank you to everyone that came out! We felt so loved! And thank you so

much to all of you that even drove a long way to come say bye, you are all wonderful.

And apparently I didn't take very many pictures. Thank you for packing the house. Thank you for bringing a million 2-liters (and thank you Dan and Quinn for the exploding bottle excitement). And most of all, thank you for showing so much love, we are very blessed.

Our last hoorah

A couple nights before we left we make one last stop at Nicky Blaine's. Our last Indy event before taking off for a new city. I'm really not very good at saying good-bye, and it's really hard to wrap my mind around not seeing people for 2 years. So here's a toast: to all of you in our lives that bless us every day. We know we are truly loved, and so thankful for each relationship that has been built over the past few years. To new adventures, and the encouragement of friends along the way :)

Thanksgiving Part II

Jackie had us over the week before we left for a little post-Thanksgiving shindig. We had each missed our annual bible study Thanksgiving, so we thought maybe we would cook one up ourselves (you have to take advantage of any Thanksgiving you can get!). Instead of the traditionally Turkey, we actually had a rotisserie chicken, which was yummy.

Afterwards we played a little super nintendo...super mario world and donkey kong. And almost beat the game in one night...

Nights like this make me sad to leave.

Wine and Cheese

Two of our citygroup members, Dan and Steph, had a wine and cheese party last weekend to raise funds for their trip to Guatemala this January (you can see details about our trip here!). I am so excited for them to get to go! We have been so blessed by their willingness to serve others, and I know the people of Magdalena will be blessed as well.

The Kresses also know how to throw a good party, we had a blast!