Saturday, May 28, 2011

Ontario, Michigan, Minnesota and beyond...

Howdy folks,

Another quick note from our continuing journey down the road. We’ve now pointed ourselves West and are heading home. Unfortunately, some kind of glitch happened transferring some photos and we lost all our pictures of our time in Ontario in Canada. Well, all but this one....



Sam and Stella with some Guinea pigs. It’s ok though...most of the other ones were of us eating chicken wings. I’m sure you’ve seen enough of that.

Our time in Ontario was rich in friends and fun and music and stories. We were a part of Pitch and Praise, which is an annual youth camp/music festival. I (Chris) was the MC and a performer at the nightly “Acoustic Cafe” where we put together our old comedy troupe “Spidie-sense” for a 10 year reunion show. Here’s the little teaser video for the forthcoming series of short films from that performance (http://youtu.be/5oGh7H68HbU)



I also got to speak at the general session on Saturday morning, telling stories from our 20 years in YWAM to about 2000 youngins! Here’s a pic I harvested from twitter. That's me in the orange hoodie...



We also got to share at Stanley Park community church on Sunday morning. God has spoiled us with so many good friends. It has been nice to spend time remembering that.

Last Tuesday found us traveling back into the States and a surprise landing in St. Joseph, Michigan. My old and dear friend Paul took us in for a few nights and spoiled us rotten with great food and put us up at a lake house in the country.



We were able to share music and scripture at the midweek service at his church, the First Assembly of God in St. Joseph. And on Thursday, we drove to Minneapolis, stopping at Jesus People USA on the way for coffee and lunch with our friends Josh and Erica.



Now we are visiting family and anticipating our drive home. Oh yeah, we went to the largest mall in the country...so there’s that. Turns out, it’s a really big mall...



This is the point in our trip where we cease to have a for sure plan. I hear there are some big faces carved into a mountain a little ways west of here. So, we’ll see.

If you pray, please do so for our journey home. It’d be great if our car made it back and lasted for a while longer after we get there. We have wanted all along for this trip to be about relationships within our family and reconnecting with old friends. So far, this trip gets an “Exceeds Expectations” in all our books. We live grateful lives.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Kentucky And Pittsburgh!



My Dad and his brother and sister, Aunt Mary Lou and Uncle Richard.

I didn't take too many pictures in Kentucky as it was a whirlwind of family fun with my sister and her kids and my Dad. I got to sing at my cousins church in central Kentucky and then we had some great food at my aunt's house. We also did a little concert for friends at my Sister's church. You can see photos from that HERE.



And we got to stop in beautiful Pittsburgh for a couple of nights hosted by former DTS student and fellow YWAM worker, Jenny. She showed us the city and arranged a house concert for us to share with her friends and family.

See a few pics at our facebook album HERE.

We're now in Canada and the whirlwind continues. We're having fun though and we'll post pics from our adventures here soon.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Texas and New Orleans...



Howdy folks...the Whitlers are still on the road. In fact, a nice man we met the other day called us the "real Griswolds". He had no idea how high a compliment that was for Amie. Anyhoo, we've uploaded some more pics to our facebook account that I thought I'd mention here.

A little album from our time at Twin Oaks Ranch...the YWAM base where Amie and I met, HERE.

And the important highlights from New Orleans while guests of the wonderful hospitality of YWAM across the river in beautiful Algiers HERE.

We're off today to Kentucky and all points North for a few house concerts and the like, making our way to the big event...Pitch and Praise in Ontario, Canada.

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Grand Canyon!

Howdy folks...here's a few pics and pieces from our visit to the big 'ol Canyon.



We stayed at the beautiful property of Youth With A Mission, Tribal Winds...a YWAM training center and ministry with the Hopi people of New Mexico. Most of the staff were gone while we were there so we took advantage of the quiet.



The Whitlers at the Canyon...there is no way our tiny camera could get close to capturing it.





We did a Fossil walking tour with Ranger Wolfe...



This is an ancient sea shell...



Spongebob Fossil Pants...



Sam and Stella doing workbooks to become Junior Rangers...





For Sam's badge, he had to write a Haiku about the Grand Canyon. Here it is:

The canyon out there
Has the cutting river and
The forest so high


They made it...



And one last thing. Amie had a particularly odd wish. She wanted to see the Hotel where Clarke and Ellen Griswold (in National Lampoon's Vacation) stood and looked at the Grand Canyon for about 5 seconds because Clarke had stolen cash from the register. So, yeah, we...uh...went there...





And now we're on the road, after a little mechanical difficulty in Albuquerque (I knew we should'a taken that left turn!) and on our way to Texas. Week one done!

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Joshua Tree!



The first stop on our world tour is Joshua Tree national park where Uncle Dan (Amie's brother) works as a Ranger. We spent two great days together in the park. You can see more pictures in our facebook album by clicking HERE!