Hard to believe, right? The disclaimer (?) is that I counted both Josh's and my flights. We flew separately and on different days, so I didn't feel like that was unreasonable.
To give you the sketch of how we accumulated that many miles, I flew into Reagan on December 22nd (technically the 23rd, I guess) and then stayed with the lovely and hospitable Hogan family and Josh flew into Charlotte on Christmas Eve and then drove up to spend the night with good friends from our church in Christiansburg (you guys are the best!). On Christmas morning, we rendezvoused near Josh's family's home and then did a bunch of bouncing back and forth between Warrenton, Amissville, and Ruckersville over the next two weeks. We then visited friends in DC and flew out to Miami to spend time with my "uncle" - definitely the most restful part of the vacation for me since I got "sand 'n surf" time! We flew back to DC a few days later and drove straight up to NJ where we unexpectedly got to stay with one of my dear Chi Alpha girls. From there we went to Vermont to visit with part of Josh's family - more on that below - and then to Conway to stay with Josh's aunt and her partner and to go to Bill and Samantha Perry's beautiful wedding! After our New England adventures we headed back to DC where Josh dropped me off for my flight home and he traveled back to Roanoke and Blacksburg for a week and a half of work before heading south to fly home. If you think that was a mouthful, try living it!
Suffice it to say we traveled a LOT over the past month and a half. I think I can safely say more than we have together in the rest of our marriage combined. It was a blast and tough at times (I'm even more grateful than I've ever been that we have a semi-permanent home - meaning we don't have to live out of a suitcase on a weekly basis), but definitely a great growing phase for us. We are so thankful we were able to see so many excellent friends and family over the trip. You all were answers to prayer and such a blessing.
This post is really a tag on to
I'll Be Home for Christmas... so I'm going to pick up where I left off...
Our last stop in the last post was DC to drive north, so I'll pick up there.
When we were in Miami, I had touched base with a dear friend from Chi Alpha and she had very sweetly offered to let us stay with her and her family on our way north. That was such an incredible and unexpected blessing - not only not having to arrange a hotel, but also getting some excellent quality time with her! So thankful that in the Body of Christ "home" can be anywhere!
From there we trekked up to an adorable - and remote - town near the Green Mountains in Vermont to stay with Dick and Dorothy, Josh's great-aunt and -uncle. It was quite a shock to the system as only about 40 hours before we had been running on the beach in 70 degree weather and it was -4 Fahrenheit the first morning we woke up in Vermont! Staying with Dick and Dorothy was an incredible pleasure. We had so much fun swapping travel stories, talking about theatre, going to yoga, eating incredible homemade food, and seeing the local sights. Some of the highlights of this part of our trip were having maple flavored fudge, taking pictures in the snow, and cozying up around the woodstove in the evenings. We weren't quite as good about taking pictures on this part of our trip, but here are a few.
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| Pictures in the snow! |
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| We seemed to always forget to take our water bottles in at night.... |
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| Dick and Dorothy's beautiful home! |
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| And another view... |
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| Vermont's small town beauty |
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| Mountain views around every corner |
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| and so much snow! |
We stayed two nights with Dick and Dorothy and then headed east to Conway, New Hampshire to spend a little time with Josh's Aunt Virginia and Brad. They were also wonderful hosts and treated us to an excellent snowy ramble to take pictures of Mt. Washington (so beautiful! And it was good thing we went for a long walk because with all that sitting, I think we were getting a little stir crazy!) and a magnificent Mexican dinner - something I miss intensely in England. Like Dick and Dorothy, we enjoyed excellent conversation with Brad and Virginia and were so thankful that we got to spend time with them, even if it was short. I think this visit definitely cemented our desire to visit for longer sometime soon!
The day after we hung out with Brad and Virginia was the wedding of a dear friend of mine from college, who also happened to be the maid of honor in Josh and I's wedding.
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Us, four years ago, on another special day :)
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| My beautiful friend, headed down the aisle |
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| The incredibly happy bride and groom |
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| <3 love="" td=""> |
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| The kiss! |
The wedding was a truly lovely event, elegant and simple, perfectly fitting this dear one and her husband. Josh and I were so honored to be there for their special day! The wedding was in Littleton, NH and the reception was held at the Omni resort at the foot of Mt. Washington. It is an incredibly beautiful, Victorian location that was, again, very fitting. Josh and I agreed that it was in the top three of classiest weddings we've attended in our opinion (and, believe me, we've been to a few...) :)
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| Josh being all GQ at the Mt. Washington Omni Resort (where the reception was held) |
Like I said, we didn't do nearly as good a job taking pictures on this half of our trip, so unfortunately we didn't get a shot of us together (a terrible oversight on our part). Hopefully when the official photos come out, there will be a good one of the two of us...
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| Exquisitely happy |
The wedding was lovely, but unfortunately we had to leave early as the weather was dreadful (icing) and we had to get back south since I flew out for England the next day. To make a long night/story short, we ended up staying in a really adorable and very old inn in Connecticut where we arrived around midnight. And it all ended happily ever after... But seriously, we were really thankful for our guardian angels and God's amazing grace in driving back to DC; we saw several trucks, buses, cars, etc that had run off the road or wrecked that night. And the next day, even with all our crazy metropolis driving (including going through the Bronx!) we didn't hit traffic until we got to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
Speaking of which, getting back to England was a series of miracles in rapid succession and a great reminder that God is way bigger than any problem and more than able to take care of whatever is going on. Josh and I were sure I wasn't going to make it to my flight in time when we were sitting in stopped traffic on the BWP. Then we got there and he dropped me off and my flight had been delayed. Perfect! But when I got to the gate, it was apparent that there were a LOT more standby passengers than there had been at the last check. I ended up getting literally the last seat on the plane, even though there were other passengers ranked above me... Only God.... and then, after running through JFK, I made my connection and had an entire middle row (four seats! four!) to myself for the duration of the flight to London. God is so good! I couldn't believe it!
I also couldn't believe how up tight I got when things seemed very unlikely to go my way. What a great reminder that He can handle it and even if He hadn't gotten me on the first flight, or helped me catch the second, His plan is so much better and I would do well to receive it with thanks.
19,110 miles and life lessons worth remembering, that pretty much sums up our December and January.
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