Trinidad

In April, Mike and I went on a mission's trip to Trinidad with our high school youth group. To say it was an amazing trip is quite an understatement. God is so amazing and can work through weak vessels like us in such powerful ways, especially when we keep our hearts soft to His leading. 

Our White Lake group consisted of five adults and nine students. The Commerce group had six students and three leaders. We did so much throughout the week and I kept a journal every day to remember all the details. This will just be a "quick" summary of our week. Well, maybe not so quick! But I didn't add the 200 + pictures I took, just a few!

We left on Easter Sunday, April 5th, had an overnight layover in Miami, and arrived in Trinidad Monday afternoon. We had a brief orientation about our week and Trinidadian culture, then settled into our rooms. It's an amazing compound that we're staying on! There's an inground pool and our rooms have a bathroom and air conditioning. It's pretty awesome! There's also a huge concert going on here at the end of the week that we'll be able to see. So we were pretty excited about our upcoming week!

This is the majority of our group!

Our mission for the week was to put on a Bible camp for kids in the local area. This is the group of kids who came throughout the four days of camp. It was such a great four days. The kids learned new songs, did crafts, played games, and heard a lesson about God. The weather was perfect for us all week and we had about 30 to 40 kids. 

I don't know how these pictures got so mixed up, but that one above was on our last night. And this one below was at the Detroit airport, getting ready to depart!

The reason I took this picture was to remember how awesome the food was. We had a woman named Diane cooking for us daily and all the food was SO good! 

The second day we were there, Tuesday, the ladies took off to go to an elderly home, while the guys went to a youth prison. Both experiences were great and we were able to share about God with the people we met. 

The VBS was out in a field so we set up a tent and had most of our singing and lessons under there.  

On Wednesday, or maybe Tuesday (I'm getting my days mixed up), we went to an orphanage in a town about an hour away. This was probably the hardest thing for me the whole week. The place was very dirty and it didn't look like the workers were extremely compassionate towards the children. This one little girl in my arms below, is named Nevaeh, and she pretty much stayed in my arms the whole time I was there. It was very difficult to leave. We ended up going back there at the end of the week and she wasn't there that day. Apparently, family members can pick kids up for a day if they're in the area. But that second day we went, I met a young boy named Jordan that was just as hard to leave!

We had some down time almost every afternoon and took advantage of the sweet pool! The weather was hot but it was also breezy. It's a beautiful island!

This was the sound check for the three day concert. We were able to go check everything out! The students (and leaders) loved being able to be a part of this amazing concert. It was mostly Christian rap and R&B artists.

We went to two more orphanages through the week that were a little bit easier to visit because they were clean and it seemed the kids were well taken care of.

Then during the weekend, we drove up into the mountains to visit an adult rehabilitation center. The students performed the Redeemer skit which is always very powerful.

This was an amazing old tree we passed on the way back from the rehab center.

On Monday, the day before we left, we drove to Port of Spain, the capital, and did some shopping. Then from there, we drove through the mountains to the Caribbean Sea for a day of swimming. It was such a beautiful beach. We also had shark and bake for lunch, which were the best fish sandwiches I've ever had.

Cindy, next to me, was basically our guide the whole week. She's amazing. Whizz, in the yellow, was our bus driver. He's also amazing! And then Marcus, in the green, was another guide that did a lot of stuff with us. These people are so awesome and friendly!

We had such a blast swimming and enjoying the sunshine. That evening, back at the compound, we had a nice time together taking communion, encouraging each other, and washing feet. In the morning, we had to be to the airport at 4:15 AM and then had a day of travel. It was great to be back home and see the girls after being away for a week. But Trinidad was an unbelievable experience and I'm forever grateful that I had the opportunity to go, especially to experience it with Mike. 

February and March

Sadly, I lost a memory card. That card had about 500 pictures on it. They're just pictures right!? Seriously though, I hope it turns up cause there are a lot of great pictures on that stinking card!

 

February and March have been very busy, as usual. We went on a family vacation to Florida, which was amazing, and during a time when we were having single digit weather in Michigan. Perfect time to go down to the 80's!

 

We've had some beautiful sunsets in this cold winter.

 

We have also been reading like crazy at the Epley home.

 

With all the snow, it was fun to go sledding.

 

 

Mike and I have been remodeling our bedroom. We found some simple instructions for an upholstered headboard. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

 

And this isn't the final product. I'll post before and after pictures when we're finished!

 

We flew to Florida at the end of February for a week. I'll post more pictures from my good camera but here's some from my phone.

 

The girls were excited to get on an airplane!

 

The first three days, we stayed at Mike's brother's house in Umatilla. This was in Mt. Dora, a cute little town near Joe's house. The first day was chilly, in the 50's, but the rest of the week was gorgeous: Sunny and 85!

 

 

After three days, we drove down to Naples to stay for three more days. On the way, we stopped at LEGOLAND and spent the day there. The girls had a blast. They could go on every ride in the park, including the four roller coasters!

 

This was the first roller coaster that Hannah went on and this was on the way up the first big hill. This was the only time that she was scared, the rest of the ride, and the rest of the day, she was having so much fun!

LEGOLAND had an entire section of Lego cities. It was pretty amazing!

 

 

Flying school was a lot like the Raptor at Cedar Point. You ride underneath the track with your feet swinging. Ava and Allie really loved this one!

 

 

We made it to our condo in Naples Sunday evening after a fun day at the amusement park. The next three days were incredible. We spent all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the beach. Had some great dinners with our hosts (Mike's parents' friends) in the evening. 

The first beach day, we went to a public beach that was super crowded. But who cares right!? You're on the ocean. But the second day, we went to our friend Lisa's private beach. It was amazing. We rented paddle boards and basically had the whole beach to ourselves. We say dolphins about ten feet away from our paddle boards. And you couldn't have asked for better weather.

 

Mike's cousin lives in Florida, outside Venice Beach, which we were going to on our way back to Joe's, so we swung by his house on the way up. He has a gorgeous house right on a canal that leads out to the ocean! It was so beautiful. 

 This is the view from his backyard!

 

Venice Beach is the best place in the world to find sharks teeth. Mike's family would come down here often when he was growing up and he wanted our girls to experience it! We collected over 20 shark teeth! And it was another beautiful day!

 

We had dinner right on the beach and then took off back up to Joe's for one more night, before flying out the next day!

 The girls did fantastic on the plane. We finally figured out that there are free movies and so they watched Maleficent the whole way home. I sat across the aisle and watched X Men! Mike and Joseph drove up in Mike's new truck that he had bought off his brother.

 

It was such a great vacation and I feel so blessed that we were able to go as a whole family! I'll post my good pictures later!

 

 

The rest of March has been great too. Mike and I have been preparing to go to Trinidad with the church for Spring Break. I'll post about that when we get back!

 

Allie was invited to a birthday party for a little boy in her class. Turns out, he invited the entire class which was super cool. Allie had a blast! It was at Pump It Up.

Here's the new color going up in our room. We're almost finished!! I just need to add a few finishing touches and I'll post pictures!

 

 

Emilia is crawling and getting so big! She is such a sweet little baby!

Hannah wanted her hair short so we cut off about 6 inches! Later on in the month, we chopped Allie's hair too!

 

I got my hair cut and colored as well. I'm not one for selfies but it's fun to document new cuts!

 

Mike bought some new stilts for dry walling ceilings and we had a lot of fun playing with them!

 

So that's been our last two months! I'm praying my memory card turns up! Happy Spring!