Restoring Love

 This wins the award of most spontaneous trip of the summer for sure. About a week before the Restoring Love convention, which was located in Houston, Texas, Scott told me he felt like he should go. I was a little busy at work and didn't know if I'd be able to get it off. So the plans were made for Scott and Janette to go to Texas and I was going to be staying in Idaho. I made them stop by my work before they left so I could say good-bye to Scott and after they left I started feeling really left out. I mean, I've never been to Texas before, and Scott was going without me. So, I called them up, told them I was going, and and hour in a half later the three of us were headed to Texas. Talk about short notice.

For those of you who don't know what Restoring Love is you can check it out here. http://www.theblaze.com/news/restoring-love/  Yes it is a Glenn Beck thing. And typically I'm not a Glenn Beck fan but Scott is and that is why we went but I was very glad I was able to go to share in the experience because it was amazing. The first night of our journey was spent in the car at a gas station. Yes... All 3 of us slept in the sedan. We made it to Dallas, Texas and stayed with an old class mate of Scott's which was so nice because it was free and he lived 5 minutes away from all of the events. The first day that we made it to for the Restoring Love event was the day of service. Thousands of people from all over the United States came and did service in the Dallas, TX area. It was pretty amazing to see. Scott, Janette and I did our day of service at the Goodwill and even got to be on the Blaze! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOvOgsivWSg The Goodwill was huge and there was so much to do.

 Lisa Paige, Scott, me and Janette at Goodwill volunteering

That night we went to a religious leadership conference called Under God Indivisible where they had pastors, bishops and priests from different religions come together and speak to us about God and Patriotism. It was so awesome to just see the different religions come together and preach the same thing to everyone. It felt so united.

Saturday was the last day of the event. We went to a Preparedness Convention where they taught us all about food storage in the morning and then to the Restoring Love event where Glenn Beck would be speaking that night. All I can say is. Wow! It was so incredible and spiritual. I was not expecting to feel the spirit there but I did. I don't always agree with Glenn's tactics, but I do think that he is doing what God wants him to. He's trying to make a difference in the world and he is in a place that he can do it. I was glad to be apart of the whole event. 

 There were all sorts of people at the event...

 Abraham Lincoln's Desk

 A blood soaked beam that was under a hospital at Gettysburg, and a tree trunk that has a canon ball that was shot into it.

 One of the original bibles printed by the government in the new America's

 Janette and I from Scott's seat

 Glen Beck

 Scott and the Liberty Bell

We headed back to Idaho Sunday morning. Stopping in a small town in Oklahoma for church. It made the whole trip. I can now say I have gone to church in a legit double wide! It was just a small branch and this was their last week before moving into their new church building. (which was also pretty small) It was just so cool to experience church like that in middle of no where Oklahoma. We drove through the night and made it back to Idaho Falls in time for me to just be a couple hours late to work Monday morning. Well at least I would have only been a couple hours late if we hadn't discovered our dog was missing from the in-laws... Long story short, Cricket was lost for about 8 hours, but she was safe and sound at the dog pound. She had a little adventure of her own. We got her back shortly after discovering her location and now she is back with us.

On the Fourth Day of July...

 On the fourth day of July it was very warm.
But we went to the parade, which is the norm.

"Now to the greenbelt!" We yelled in high tones,
To wander through vendors while eating snow cones.

After our time at the greenbelt did dwindle,
We went to the home of the Well's to mingle.

It was at this time that we would celebrate,
The birth of Janette, who could hardly wait!

Off to the greenbelt again we would go,
But this time to watch the firework show.

Our bikes we did ride to avoid all the crowd,
To be under the fireworks where it would be really loud.

We sat by Clarissa next to all the commotion,
To celebrate the birth of our wonderful great nation.

I know, I know... everyone is super jealous of my awesome poem writing skills....

The 4th of July was great through! this pretty much sums up what we did the whole day. The only difference was that I was pretty sick the whole day. And It just continued to get worse and worse as the day went on. I tried to be a good sport though and go to all the activities of the day.

Scott and I decided it would be easier to get through the crowd at the greenbelt if we rode our bikes. So we borrowed Janette's bike trailer, threw all our stuff and Cricket inside and set off! It ended up working out really well! After the fireworks we rode our bikes on the rode to our car and were home no more then 20 minutes after the fireworks had ended.

Scott and I waiting for the fireworks to start with Cricket

 Venny and Scott-er :) Newly engaged!

 Clarissa and I watching the fireworks