Dallas Date Day 8/13

We had a great time last week on our Dallas Date Day. We visited some very interesting and different places. Here is a few photos of our travels throughout the day.
This is the First Baptist Church of Dallas. Actually this is a side entrance to the new building. This is the church that Criswell pastored so many years ago. It is huge now. They have two "Traditional" service and one "Contemporary" service. It was very interesting to see the changes over the years to people, buildings and philosophies of this place.
Here is a picture of Dr. Criswell that was pictured on the wall of pastors of the church over the years.
We also visited the Dallas Arboretum. They had all kinds of exotic flowers, waterfalls, trees, shrubs and etc. scattered throughout the property.
This was the long walkway that lead to the fountains. We abstained from this activity, but it was really beautiful.
We saw many pretty flowers and the best part was it was only $1 that week. (outside of parking... $5!) We had a great time together and are starting to love certain parts of Dallas.

Adult Status...

We had a rather exciting weekend that actually started a day early this past week. I was able to take friday off due to the excessive amount of hours that were put in during VBS (fbcomteens.blogspot.com for the story) so Steph and I decided to visit The Shops at Willowbend Mall (since Dallas has more shopping per capita than any other US city). We looked at Mac's... iMac's to be more specific at the Apple store, perused the Brooks Brothers and a multitude of other things. We then went home and enjoyed dinner. The next morning we spent out in our "Neck of the Woods" with a plethora of gift cards and exchanges. We bought the Whisper Close 3000 - best toilet seat in the world, towels, hung pictures (printed off pictures for the mass of frames with no pics in them) and had a time doing it.

So far this week, I have worked on my Jeep (differential gasket and changing oil), broke my lawn mower and now my Jeep wouldn't start this morning... All part of "being a grown-up... Who ever said that was fun - lied!

God is good and Steph and I were able to see one saved last night, 3 committed to Baptism and a family is going to join on Sunday. What a night out together.

Our life the past few weeks - Hectic!

My life has been so ridiculously crazy the past few weeks, that I didn't have time to blog, barely had time to breath, but now I am back on the "blogging bandwagon". Here are a few pictures describing what i've gone through...

I have been in so many states of this country just during the summer time. Let's recap, I started in Dallas, TX (where we live), then I went to Alicia Nijoka's Mann's wedding in Baton Rouge, LA. The day after the wedding, we decided to go visit New Orleans, LA (I know, same state, but about an hour away) and then back to Texas. The next week we flew from DFW to San Jose, CA. We had a wonderful time at Shawn and Aimee's wedding. It really was a beautiful wedding and gorgeous reception. We took our flight home, which had a layover in Orange County (John Wayne) airport in So. Cal... delayed. But finally returned home again. Somewhere in there I went to Bob Gray II's Youth Convention in Longview, TX (again, I know, still TX, but this is one large state). We were back for some time before heading off to youth camp in Arkansas (Triple S Ranch). Just before we were leaving for Camp I got news that my grandma, Virgina "Ginny" Elizabeth Bird Eskelsen passed away on July 3rd. So, I had to leave camp and fly from Little Rock, AR to Perry, UT. Delta had a funny way of taking me from Little Rock to Memphis, TN and then on to Salt Lake City. There are some pictures below from the wedding with a little info on who and what it is of. After a full day of flying (cancelled both flights, somehow still made it halfway through the viewing... after getting pulled over in Seary, AR in the church van... no ticket :) I then went from SLC to Atlanta, GA and on to Little Rock (The red eye... both flights delayed) I finally made it back to camp approx 48 hours after departure. It was one crazy week. We only had one flat tire on the way to camp and only two teens puke on the way back... all in all, it was a whirlwind month for us. Here are some pictures from all these stories:

Ok, so technically this isn't from any of my travels, just the Bass Pro Shop in Garland, TX. I wore this shirt last week and had 3 positive comments about it. Apparently Texans still agree!

We went to Winger's in Brigham, UT the night of the funeral for my grandma. My dad and my cousin, Andrew enjoyed "sticky fingers" and Asphalt Pie. I love this restaurant.

A sign at Wingers. It really is the best Chicken in the world.

A picture I took to show my wife the delicious food I was enjoying in Utah after the funeral while she was "suffering for Jesus" eating all that weird camp food. Come to think of it, I don't know if she ever saw it, she never said anything about it. Hope she looks at the blog and gets to see the good food I enjoyed...

Me, Dad, Andrew and Rick at The fancy Maddox restaurant... It has good food in "The Lodge"

Rick and I, me or whatever the proper english wording is there - Don't tell Mrs. Flint I still don't know... I don't think she'll be too happy to know I guessed my way through her English 103 final.

These are the mountains that I miss. They don't look that beautiful in this picture, but they really are incredible. I miss them.

Here we are at suffer, uh, I mean summer camp. It was great. We stopped at Subway on the way back home afterward for a much needed stop and hang out for a few minutes.

Here are the shirts that Mike Weithorn had made up for us. They look really sharp and it was really cool to be the only church wearing a special shirt the last day. I could always tell where my kids (teens, not actual kids yet) were by their bright shirt.

And here was the bus baking in the hot sun while we waited for the tire guy to come fix our flat tire. It was quite a trip and I am really glad that those few weeks of my life are finally over. It was hectic, tiring and great all at the same time. Now it's back to work, back to life and back to normal.

Alisha Becomes a Mann in Baton Rouge

What a great time we had this past week in Baton Rouge, LA (not in Southern California, but in the real South - which still believes it will rise again). Steph and I had the great privilige to stay at Bro. & Mrs. Barry Nijoka's house and spend time with his son, Jared and wife, Liz. We saw many old friends and had a great time. (Praise God for Community Coffee).

The Nijoka's daughter Alicia married Nathan Mann on June 19, 2009. It was a beautiful ceremony

with an incredible reception. We have so many stories from this trip, but perhaps the best part for us was spending time with Jared and Liz. We were able to go to New Orleans

the day after the wedding and eat some Beignet's and drink a couple Cafe Au Lait's

the famous Cafe Du Monde. What a great time we had.

This just in - More honeymoon pics from Italy

We have had a lot of people say they want to see more of our honeymoon pictures from Italy. Today may just be your lucky day since my good friends Mike and Bree got us some of the pictures they took with their camera. The mail system from Italy to Texas must be slow. :) Hope you enjoy.

Mike and I found a playground not far from the apartment we stayed at in Rome. We had to stop and let our inner-children out.

Here Steph and I are throwing a coin into the Trevi fountain. It is key to throw the coin from your right hand over your left shoulder. According to legend, doing so will will ensure that the spirits of Rome will bring you back again.

Kissing at the Trevi fountain!

This is Palentino Hill. You can see the Roman Forum in the background.

Here is the place where Peter and Paul were imprisoned in Rome. The upside-down cross is a symbol of Peter's crucifixion and off to the left of here is the chord in the wall where Peter would have been chained.

Another shot of Palentino Hill. This is ancient Rome, the Rome that Peter and Paul would have known. It was so weird walking around looking at things that these men would have seen.

Just outside the Colosseo (Colosseum) we were "engaged" by the Roman gladiators. They wanted us to pay them 5 Euro (nearly $8) just to take a picture! With a little bit of prodding and starting to walk away, we only paid 3 Euro. It was a lot of fun. They asked if they could keep Steph and Bree...

The Colosseo... "My Favorite Part of Rome"... There was so much history that happened within this awesome monument. I love listening to the stories, learning the mechanics and figuring out the engineering of this place.

As we sat at the small restaurant just above the Colosseo in the loft with windows looking out over not only this great monument, but all of Palentino hill Mike and I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a "Michealangelo" picture...

Dinner that night with the Ivanovs at a little place we found down a side street.

The Colosseo in the background with the Ark of Victory. I forget the exact name, but it is really beautiful.

Here are the infamous Mike and Bree Ivanov in the Caracalla Baths. I watched a History Channel thing on this part of history and it would have been more than words could describe when it was built. It was more than feet could handle for us old tourists that day however. We loved this area.

Here are the frugal newlyweds saving a few dollars only getting one audio guide and trying to both listen in on the history of the Caracalla Baths.

This is inside the Vaticani (Vatican) more specifically St. Peter's Basilica. This is a list of all the Pope's and the year in which they pass away. I never realized there were so many.

Another shot inside St. Peter's.

Here is one of the dead Pope's... I don't know which one he is, but I guess they mummified him.

Inside a shot of the actual Vatican City. The men in the crazy colors are the Pope's Royal guards.

This is out in the St. Peter's Square with the Basilica to the right of the photo. It is a huge square and very beautiful.

Mike and Bree in St. Peter's Square.

The gang with St. Peter's Basilica behind us. What a great day spent with my Russian friend and his wife.