Make new friends, but keep the old

Heidi and Libby visited Cary in Charlottesville today. They came all the way from Nebraska to see some of their old friends. We had a good time catching up and an embarassing time begging strangers in the parking lot to take our picture.

Cary and Libby discover they're friends after all!
Cary and Libby are just hanging out in the back of the Element.

It's a Circus

Our church has the bizarre tradition of having a Valentine's Dessert Auction and Talent Show (occuring simultaneously) in order to raise money for the youth group. It's a thoroughly unique experience and somehow we get roped into it most years. This year the College Class (the Sunday school class we teach) decided that we'd have a circus, complete with jugglers, hula-hooper, jump-roper and animal impersonator. Can you "impersonate" a non-person? Anyway, here are a few photos........

Vanessa, Jackie, Jason and Cary
We "mastered" the art of juggling as a team the day of the talent show. Not too shabby, eh?

Pictures with the Zugs (in January 2007)

We first met Laura Zug at the Belk's counter in Charlottesville. She was doing some last-minute work on her wedding registry and we were returning wedding gifts (not yours of course, dear reader). We exchanged phone numbers and got in touch after she and Chip returned from their honeymoon. We were in a Bible study with them for almost a year in Charlottesville and deepened our faith and our friendship. They moved to Raleigh and we were worried we wouldn't get to see them as frequently. But we'll be back in the same city soon and are excited about spending more time with them and their adorable son, Bennett.

Jason, Cary and Bennett slow down long enough to be in a picture.Bennett and Jason are quickly becoming buddies. Not only can they read and play Legos together, but Bennett's learning how to play soccer!

Ski trip to Snowshoe

When Jonathan visited us over Presidents' Day Weekend, we woke up at 5AM to be at Snowshoe, WV when the slopes opened. It was -6 degrees when we started skiing and we don't think the temperature ever made it into the double digits. However, it was a beautiful day and some of the best skiing we've had in awhile.

Motivational poster for Jonathan

We saw this on our most recent trip to Lowes and couldn't resist snapping a picture for Jonathan. Can this make it into a spirit video?

Jason's recent "ice fly-fishing" expedition

Jason took a trip to the Conway in honor of Presidents' Day. He caught an 11 inch brown trout (one of his biggest wild browns yet). Who knew there were fish swimming around in these little streams with so much snow on the ground?!?

Our first house!

Our adorable house is located in Raleigh, NC. Much to Jason's delight, we are on a 27 acre lake, so he'll be able to fish anytime he wants from our back yard (or his little pontoon boat). We have lots of bedrooms (4BR/3 bathrooms), so everyone will have to come visit us once we move in over the summer!

Here's the view of the lake and the back yard. Despite being in a neighborhood, our property feels very secluded. We hope to eventually put a deck off of the kitchen/sunroom and be able to enjoy lots of summer evenings with friends by the lake.

We'll send more pictures once we close, but here's one of our living room. The fireplace has natural gas so I bet we'll have fires a lot--yay!

This is our dining room (with one of our realtors signing something). So much natural sunlight!

Our kitchen opens up into a sunroom overlooking the lake.

Our kitchen is so white and clean. We hope to put in hardwood floors soon.

Here's one of the gigantic upstairs rooms.