Florence

I haven't had very good internet access the last few days, so I couldn't upload new pictures. After spending the night in Switzerland, we took the train the next day down to Florence. We stayed with some friends there and we went out scouting for where we would film the next morning.


Here is a picture of me in one of the big plazas. We ended up filming here as one of our places.

This is the main dome (cathedral) in Florence. It is very beautiful and made a great backdrop for the other scene we filmed the next morning.

This is the river as the sun was going down in Florence. We left from here and went to have some of the best pasta I've had before. It was a great evening! The next morning we got up at 5:45 and met one of the Florence staff guys at 7:30 to film. We filmed in the two places, then hopped in a taxi, picked up our stuff and went right to the airport. We flew to Rome then on to Morocco...

Switzerland

Matt and I arrived in Switzerland today and got directly on a train to Grindelwald. We are working on shooting scenes for an recruiting video we are doing for the Campus Ministry. I've always heard the Switzerland was beautiful, but I was not prepared for just how beautiful it is!
We met a Swiss intern in Bern and then she rode with us up to the mountain town.

This is a picture out the train window on the way up in to the mountains.

This is Grindelwald. Our hotel is on the left where it says "hotel."

We took a tram up to 7,000 feet. This is one of the mountains we could see so well on the way up.
Here I am doing an over the shoulder shot of Dorthy, the CCC intern looking in to the valley and out at the alps.

This was at the lookout point at the top of the tram line we took up. It looks down in to the Grindelwald valley. It was really beautiful and I think we got some great video. We, however, have not slept in 28 hours (except for about 2 hours on the plane) so I'm feeling pretty tired! We get on the train tomorrow and head to Italy. More pictures to come!

Memory Verses

Today we were working on this week's AWANA verse with Isabella. I asked her if she knew her new verse and Zach said, "I do!" "You do? What is it?" I replied. "God loves English!" he replied happily. Later it turned in to "God IS English, John 3:31" and he's been repeating that all day. Goofball!

Going for a ride

I have an electric scooter that was loaned to me by a friend at church. I've been testing it out with a new kind of transmission that his company makes. I've been riding it to work a couple of times a week and it's a lot of fun. Tonight, I decided to take the kids for a ride and they LOVED it.

Silly outfits

Both Zach and Isabella love to dress up. In the last couple of days, they have been wearing silly outfits. Some are old fashions that they have brought back (see the "oven hat" below) and others are new and unique...

Zach and Isabella both put on their "oven hats" at the dinner table. They were busy "cooking up" some crazy food and needed the correct attire. :-)


Next we see Zach in onesy and coat. Was it 85 outside? Yes. Does it matter? No.
Isabella also got in on the action with her coat and shorts, though she didn't think she needed to zip hers up. :-)

I've also heard them making up games a lot lately. Yesterday Zach was telling Isabella, "Let's play the grasshopper game!" "How do you play?" responded Isabella, "Well, you put down the pillows, and jump and jump, and then do a grasshopper, then you do a backflip..." and on and on it went. I really wanted to see the backflip, but before they got too far on "grasshopper," Zach switched to "Flip the Ant" and launched in to another long list of complicated rules. All of this while Isabella carefully listens, nodding her head the whole time and trying to keep up. That game ended up really just being Zach chasing Isabella until he tackled her and she burst out crying. Fun fun. :-)

Quote of the day

Today's quote comes from Isabella. She came around the corner in to the kitchen holding some beads and announced to Zach, "I'm going to make you the princess of Africa!" He ran.

Quote of the day

Yesterday when we picked up Zach from Sunday School, we asked him who his Sunday school teacher was. The correct answer was "Mommy" since she helped in his class, but he answered with out batting an eyelash, "Moses!"

More Yearbook Pictures

Ever wonder what Liza would have looked like in the early 80's with Cheryl Tiegs hair?

How about Isabella as Olivia Newton John?

Or Zach as his great uncle Buck?

This one just freaks me out...

Yearbook yourself

Several of my friends have been posting pictures from the "yearbook yourself" website. I went there today and found it to be a wonderful way to waste time. :-) My sister Kelli and her family are over at our house since last night from Houston because their power has been out since hurricane Ike hit, so we had some fun. I didn't note the years for each of these pictures, but it is not too hard to tell the 50's from the 70's.

This one is my favorite- 1975 or so I think.

I thought this was a nice look too.

This would have been me in my Gene Wilder days.... :-)

And now for Kelli's family...

Kelli in the 50's
Jeff in the 70's
Naomi in the early 50's
Emmalie in an unknown decade ...

And we couldn't forget Indie as a grandma.

A big prayer

Yesterday evening as we were driving to AWANA, we were talking again about God’s perfection, and our sinfulness. She finally got that our sin separates us from God, and with a very frustrated expression, she asked “What can we do?” I explained that Jesus’ death on the cross is the payment and provision for our sin. All she has to do is trust Him for her salvation, and to help her become the person He wants her to be. I summed it up by saying that is what it means to ask Jesus into her heart.

She asked me to help her memorize what she needed to say, and when I told her she could say whatever she wanted to God, she asked me to turn down the radio so she could pray. Her voice was quiet, but I heard her express her thoughts and desires to God to go to Heaven, become who He wanted her to be, and thankfulness that Jesus died on the cross for her sin. What a precious day for a parent! Lord, please bring about fruit in her life...