Celebrating The Awesomeness Of Life

 

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Cape Town... I think God was showing off a little bit. As the afternoon drew on I was like, "I would rather go and watch the sunset than go to gym" I messaged Dave and told him this, he was like  "I agree.. and we cycled on Monday so it's okay to miss gym" David then planned a whole picnic/sun downers for us to go and enjoy while watching the sunset.

After picking me up from the bus stop we went and picked up the stuff from home, made a stop at the shop and then headed to Camps Bay beach to watch one of the best sunsets ever.... again I think God was showing off a little. We had sparkling grape juice, strawberries and other yummy snacks while we chatted away and watched the sun set before heading off to Dunes for a super yummy supper. It was really, really nice to just spend some time with Noo, watching the world go by and enjoying each others company.

 

Last night was definitely a top 5 evening in my life!

xKx

Limpopo

David and I may be going to Limpopo.. for three years... eeeeek!

Over the last little while God has been saying to us, "It's time to step into your calling" I was like, okay God, but what does that look like? But as usual God like to be vague until the opportune moment when He'll choose to download it all. What Dave and I do know when it comes to our calling is that we are both called to full time mission work, we're just waiting for God to be like, "BOOM! This is where I want you to go".

An opportunity has presented itself for us to go to Limpopo for a three year mission trip. JAM, (Jabulani Africa Ministries) has a base in Mavhusa, Limpopo where they need a couple to go and stay there and provide support to the two leaders currently running it. They have various outreaches with the people in the village, the children, orphanages and they also run camps. When David heard about this he told me about it, we started praying and we feel like God is saying yes. We met with Git and Miggie, the couple who run JAM and they shared their heart for JAM and for Mavhusa. As they said things Dave and I were like, "Yes!" to everything... and the more we pray the more we feel like this is a yes.

Before we resign from our jobs, sell all our stuff and go, we're going to do a recon mission in January to visit the village and seek Gods will for us. We're also going to join a team going up on a mission trip and do some stuff with them.

I'm excited for the new... and scared... but I know this is Gods will and he is faithful and he will walk this journey with me.

xKx

Beautifully Made

For the last couple of weeks my self-esteem took a bit of knock.. I started to believe that I had put on a TON of weight and was the size of a house. This is glaringly obvious that this is not the case - but I believed that it was. Something in me kind of broke yesterday and I realised that I am probably not as fat as I imagine that I am.

This morning while I was sitting in the bus I let my mind wonder and I started thinking about Psalm 139:14 "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful"

As I let my mind mull over this verse, I thought about how easy it is to believe the lie that is fed to us via the media that super skinny is what is beautiful. It's also scary how little it takes for this to take root in our head. I don't even remember what started my downward spiral of negative thoughts that crushed my self-esteem... I think I need to be more vigilant in future and identify the lie and then stand on the truth in psalm 139 - I am wonderfully made. God doesn't make mistakes - he made us perfectly.

xKx



Where's your line at?

On Saturday we went to a conference and heard a really awesome and challenging talk. The main thing that I got from it was "where is your line? in other words, what do you stand on NO matter what?"

Often as Christians we can get a bit flaky and forget everything they believe about God when things get tough. Such as when God is silent or things are a little bit tough and you feel like God has left you. This is when we hit panic stations, fall apart, we feel like we're in a puddle of mud and think/ sometimes believe that God has left us. This is wrong.. in the bible, Gods word promises that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us, "Deuteronomy 3:16" This is something we should stand on when the paw-paw hits the fan.

Where's my line at?

After some thought I starring thinking about what it is that I stand on when God seems distant. It's things like, He will never leave me, he will work the good in all situations, he goes before me, he faithful, he is trustworthy... I know all of this because the bible tells me this. There are tons of verses and stories of where this is illustrated. Not only do I know this from the bible, but also from personal experience. I have experienced Gods faithfulness, trust etc. These are the things I choose to stand on because I know God, I have a relationship with him where I look back and go - yes.. you are all these things and not all the things we feel.

Consolation  and Desolation

This brings me to the second thing that I grasped on Saturday at the conference. The speaker was saying how we go through consolation, when we hear from God all the time and when things are great, God feels close and all that other "cushy" and "nice" feelings we get. The speaker explained that this is a gift from God, especially for new Christians as they begin to experience God.

We also experience desolation, which is when we don't feel God. I put feel in bold, because we may feel like God is far away, but actually He's not. He's right there, like his word says. This is when we need to stand on what we believe. The speaker explained this stage as a gift because "God trusts us enough to let us do it alone with out all the cushy feelings, massive billboards and all that".

I understand this to be a process, the consolation phase will always be different as you grow with God and your relationship gets more intimate. You may not get billboards - but you will feel close and know Gods voice,  you will have times when you will go through desolation but you will always move back to consolation with God. That's just how God is.

I think it's important to have a line you stand on - what you believe so that you can't be shaken when temptation comes your way, you're having a bad day or when God just feels distant.

xKx

feeling blessed

This morning when I went outside I saw some "wit oogies" flying and hopping from branch to branch in the trees in front of our house. I stood a but mesmerized this morning as I watched - it was rather fascinating, but the best thing EVER was when I went back inside and looked out the window and saw a robin collecting sticks to build a nest.

I have NEVER EVER seen a robin before. It was a real privilege to stand and watch it collect sticks before it flew away to where it's building it's nest.  I also feel "kinda" blessed that I get to see things like this.

xKx

Waiting.... waiting.....WAITING....wAiTiNg...

Waiting is something that we can't really avoid. We like to think we can avoid it with online shopping, online banking, online everything really. We send other people do the things we need to do that require waiting... I think we'll do anything that to avoid waiting, but sometimes you just can't escape waiting.

I spend a lot of time waiting in general. I wait for the bus every day, which isn't too bad since I generally have a pretty view in Camps Bay so it makes it bearable. Waiting for the bus isn't really looooooong boring waiting, since it's never long than 20 minutes. The long boring waiting happens when you have to wait for an airplane, go to the bank - you know those times when you actually have to go in the bank with an inquiry. Then there's the kind of waiting when you go to home affairs or any other government building. I think they take the cake in making you wait.

When you get to Home Affairs you queue outside the office for a bit until you get a number, then you go into a massive room to wait for hours on end with a number. Then after hours and hours you get into the office to wait to pay, then you go and wait for photos and the application process. It's a given fact that you can not come here to apply for anything or collect anything WITHOUT hours of waiting.

Even though we try to avoid waiting for something like the plague, it still manages to find us and force us to wait because everything can't be done online.... even though we wish we could. 

xKx

Vegetable And Herb Garden

There is nothing more exciting than going to our vegetable to fetch some herbs or vegetables when we are cooking, or when I see flowers growing on the plants or the seedlings are popping out of the sand. Most days when I water the plants I look earnestly at the plants hoping to see new buds and growth and when I do.. David has to come and look and share in the excitement of something new happening in the vegetable garden.

Our strawberries are busy "strawberrying" at the moment and I can not wait until they are ripe and ready to pick. Out beans have started flowering and our watermelon seeds are growing - SO much excitement!!!

Apart from all the excitement, I also get deeply distressed when I go outside and a caterpillar has decided to eat ALL of our lettuce and there is something eating our cauliflower.... whatever it is needs to be stopped.

 

While we were in Hermanus in the beginning of October I bought a garden gnome to protect the plants from bugs that eat them... but alas he is failing at his task. I think he's been too busy at night trying to plan his escape plan, which is why we need to chain him up. Garden gnomes are tricky and must be chained and blocked off.. this is a story for another blog post. 

I'm super excited to try some other vegetables like green peppers, carrots, potato's and sweet potatoes next!

xKx

Our Swing

On the 27th of April 2013 David and I decided to make a tyre swing and hang it up somewhere in Hout Bay. We got a tyre, some rope and found a pretty epic place with really nice trees to tie the swing in it.

 

 

After we had finished hanging the swing we wondered how long it would last, if it would break or if someone would steal it. Yesterday we took a drive past where we hung swing and it was still hanging there. Someone had even fixed the rope where it had broken.

 

So... we did what anyone else would do and swung on the swing...

 

 

We've decided to make a second swing and tie it up in a tree next to the one we used so that two people can swing at the same time.

 

I think this is a really cool random act of kindness that brings joy to the children in our community.

 

xKx

 

 



When The Lesson Is Wait

I kind of feel like I'm in a season of wait at the moment... I read this today and thought I would share it. "When the lesson is wait by Tammy Strait" http://www.graceuncommon.com/lesson-wait/

xKx

Love your neighbour as yourself...

If I were to choose one bible verse as the one to live your life by it would be Mark 12:30 - 31 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The is this" "love your neighbour as yourself." There is no greater commandment than this."  (so it's two.. but who's counting)

I think that these two verses are pretty fundamental in how you treat people, especially the second one. We live in a world where people base their relationships on things they "like" about someone. As soon as this person does something that they don't like they often go cold towards the person.

I've often heard people say, "argggh! I don't like so and so, they annoy me", or "when so and so speaks to me I get so irritated and they ruin my whole day, I don't like them"  This got me thinking about how God calls us to love everyone, even our enemy. This leaves me with the question of how do we show love, real love, the kind of love that God calls us to give when we say this about people who irritate us?

A few years ago there was someone who really rubbed me the wrong way, I would get really frustrated whenever they opened their mouth and would always try to leave the room as soon as they entered. Then I started praying about this and the person and God was like, "Go and spend time with them" I was like - "What?!". Randomly they invited themselves to something I was going to and we ended up spending the afternoon together. This then became a weekly thing and now we're pretty good friends.

My point... to learn how to love someone you don't really like, like Jesus loves them you need to spend time with them and get to know them. You need to look past the "aarg! you are so annoying " and see the real person behind whatever it is that annoys you about that person.

I also think it's also important to realise that we can also be pretty annoying and Jesus looks past that and sees the real you and loves us. I think this should challenge us to love like that as well...

xKx

David's Birthday Celebrations

On Wednesday it was David's birthday. We celebrated with a braai with all our friends, his family and cake on the Wednesday night.  It was a really nice evening with a lot of laughter, loud talking and good food.

On Thursday evening we went to The Clay Café in Hout Bay for supper and to get creative. They normally close at 5pm, but on a Thursday evening they have a pizza and wine evening. They say they close at 9pm, but they don't really shoo you  out if you are still painting. They pretty much let you finish what you're creating before closing.

 

The way it works is that you arrive and then you choose what you want to paint.

 

 I chose a cow milk jug - when you pour the milk out it's nose, and Dave chose a normal jug.

 

 

 

And then the fun began as we painted our masterpieces, ate some yummy pizza's and drank some wine.

 

 

 Once you're finished painting you get given a number to out under your masterpiece  and you leave it there.  Once they have fired it in the over, they'll contact you and you can go and collect it. It should take about three weeks until we get to go and fetch our creations.

 

It was  a really fun evening - I want to go "all the time" after last night, but that could be a bit pricey.

 

xKx 

Le Bonheur Crocodile Farm and Babylonstoren

Last week Monday I went to Babylonstoren with Mel and a few other people from Church - IT WAS AMAZING! I told Dave that we had to go there when we went to the crocodile place two days later, which he obviously agreed to after I told him about the garden tour and everything I saw and learnt.

On Wednesday, Dave and I headed of to Le Bonheur Crocodile Farm  to visit the crocodiles and have a cheese picnic. The crocodile part was pretty epic. Our guide was funny and made children and adults feel comfortable and included. A top 10 moment was getting to hold a crocodile.

We learnt some interesting facts about crocodiles, such as they have yellow mouths, no tongue, only eat when it's hot, store all their food in their tails and they never stop growing.

We also saw an alligator - they have red moths and tongues and their teeth are inside their mouth, unlike crocodiles.

...And then there was the poor lumpy who was born without a tail. A crocodile can't swim without their tail, so they gave her a small pen to herself with a very shallow pool.

After visiting the crocodiles and our picnic we headed to Babylonstoren for tea and to walk around in the garden. We stopped for a while and rolled around in the chamomile grass... the perfect place for an afternoon nap.

xKx

Wine Tasting At Hout Bay Vineyards

On Saturday Hout Bay Vineyards  was open to the public for wine tasting and sales. They generally only open the last weekend of May and November, but this year they decided to do an additional tasting because it was the seafood festival this past weekend in Hout Bay. Dave and I decided to try them out. I've often seen them advertising on the side of the road and thought, I would like to try them out. This weekend was the weekend to try it out.

They had five wines available for tasting for R30. We only had time to taste three wines, their Bubbly, Rosé and Merlot which where really good, so good in fact that we bought a bottle of their Rosé and Merlot. The vineyard is family owned by a really awesome family. Peter, Kathy and their son were super friendly, answered all our questions and bent the rules and let us only buy a bottle of the two wines we wanted. They generally sell them by the case, but  they let a few people buy just a bottle or two. What added to an even more awesome experience on Saturday was their two puppies who were uber playful and friends and the relaxed setting high up in the valley.

I just read on their website, http://houtbayvineyards.co.za/index.html that people can picnic there... I think when they're open in November, David and I must gather some friends, pack a picnic and enjoy a lunch time picnic up there while we do some wine tasting.

xKx

Healed

If I ever doubted that God healed, which I surely did - I no longer doubt this.  Last week Tuesday, God totally healed the pain I had in my side. Here is what happened.

For just over a month and a half I had an intense pain on my right hand side, it got so bad all I wanted to do was vomit. After a week of the pain I went to the doctor who gave me antibiotics, these did not help. I then went to another doctor for a full check up and a second opinion. She sent me for an ultra sound, which picked up nothing. Everything looked normal, so she sent me to a gynae. She did an internal scan, which also showed nothing. The final diagnosis was that the scar tissue from my appendectomy was rubbing on my colon. She prescribed tablets for me to take, which helped a little bit. She also wasn't sure if this is what was the problem and the only way to tell for sure was for them to do an operation. I was like no, especially since they don't know for sure what's wrong. I was left feeling sceptical of doctors when all they did was send me to more doctors for more scans - which all cost a fortune only to be told they're not sure what is wrong.

After anther two weeks of pain, David and I decided to fast and pray about it and I went to Healing Rooms for prayer. While I was there, Rose was like this is spiritual and Annie was like we must pray and God will give us discernment. While they were praying the pain in my side got worse, but it was different. It was less acute and more burning.

Rose got a picture of something like an octopus holding tight onto me, so they kept praying and then all of a sudden I jolted/stumbled and Rose flew back. We stood around looking at each other asking "what happened" and Annie said, "you were healed". After this we all started praising God. It was MOST awesome.

The next day my side was super itchy and when I told Annie about it she told me that it's a sign of healing. Since last week Tuesday there has been no more pain whatsoever.

I know God healed in the bible and I've heard testimonies of people where God has healed them, but until now I never believed and was super sceptical when it came to God healing. I can no longer say this... God totally can heal you.

xKx

Where's your focus at?

Over the last while I've picked up on something among some of my Christian friends that has got me asking where are they putting their focus when things get tough, as well as when they are away from their connect group/mentor/church community when things get tough. Prayer requests get sent out asking that we pray they resist temptation, Facebook chats have similar requests and have statements of, "I feel far away from God because I'm not meeting with other Christians", Facebook status imply the same thing. After noticing this for a couple of months now I started wondering where are these people looking? To God when they are faced with temptation, or life is a bit stormy or if they are looking to other Christians.

I think that it is important for fellowship, doing life together, building each other up and loving and caring for people and being loved in return  which comes with being apart of a community. I also think that it is very important to be apart of a community where you can learn how to love, be loved and to be built up. We are called to be apart of a community Hebrews 10:25 "Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." God wants us to meet with other Christians, to share with them, be encourage and to encourage others, but he also wants us to lean into him when things get tough. 

Matthew 11:28 says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." This is Jesus telling us that he is the one to look to when we are burdened and he will give the rest that you need. Yes, your friends and community can encourage you but you need to lean into God and trust that he will see you through this, he will give you the ability to face the temptation. It says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind and God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." I've experienced this in my own walk with God, when I've been tempted to give into the feelings of despair when life is tough or when something seems better but is so wrong and I've chosen to look to God, he has been faithful in helping me out and also giving me the peace that is needed in the situation.


In conclusion... I think it's important to be open and vulnerable with your community, to ask them for prayer and encouragement when you're struggling but you also need to look to God, you need to rest in him and trust that he will help you resist all temptations, to bring  you joy and to sustain you.

Your community can only build you up, encourage you and pray for you.. God can bring you what you need in the situation.

Kx

Lean into Me

The past few weeks have been pretty rough for me, and subsequently David as he's walked this with me and had to deal with my grumpiness, tears and mood swings as I worried about what was wrong with me as we went to the doctor a hundred times and then my parents both ending up in hospital because they were sick.

During this time, God really has been my comfort and source of joy - especially when I forgot to worry and actually looked to Him. During these times and my quiet time there's been a general thread of God saying, "lean in to me" and "I've got this". Sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake or letting it really sink into my heart, but today I actually got it during my quiet time, which had to be on the bus because I went to sleep after my alarm went off instead of getting up.

 This morning I was reading Psalm 64 and verse 8 - 10 stuck out to me, "Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolation's he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

While I sat there thinking about what I read, I let my thoughts dwell on Gods power. He is powerful enough to stop wars he can break things, set things on fire. If he is that powerful - way more powerful than man, the surely He is in control of everything around us. I thought about this, I doubt who God is so much, I doubt His plans, I doubt how He can heal and how He really is in control of everything - but when I read something about His power like I did this morning, it kind of woke something up in me, something that I think had gone to sleep for a little bit. 

I then started thinking about "Be still and know that I am God" This verse has always been my favourite verse of all time. Reading it again reminded me that it's okay to just be still, stop worrying about the world and to just lean in to God and let him take control of everything. He definitely is powerful enough to do so.

I'm going to try and focus on leaning into God instead of worrying about everything. I may not get this right, but I'm going to try to readjust my focus.

xKx

Honey Tasting at The Overberg Honey Company

On Saturday David and I stumbled on a pretty epic experience. His dad told about this place in Stanford where you could buy honey for cheap so we thought that we would try it out. When we arrived at The Overberg Honey Company the sales person asked us what  type of honey we wanted and we were like, "the normal kind". She the offered us a chance to taste honey.

 

 

We tasted seven different types of honey, (apple, citrus, creamed, fynbos, bluegum and two others). I was surprised by how each honey tasted different and how they each had a distinct flavour. My favourite two were the apple and citrus honey's.

 

After our tasting we were given a min tour of the factory and the whole honey process was explained to us, before showing us a hive and the different cells found in a hive.

 

It was really informative and I will definitely be going back there for some more honey the next time Dave and I head off to Franskraal for the weekend again.

 

 

 

xKx

A wedding under R70 000.00

When David and I sat down to plan the budget for our wedding we soon realized that we would need to do something really simple and low budget, as we did not have as much money saved up for our wedding as most weddings cost. Our final budget for our wedding was R48 000.00 and our final spend on our wedding was R46 107.57.

Admittedly we were blessed by David's parents who paid or my dress and veil, our table wine, lawyers fees and flowers which would have added a lot more to our wedding fee. I added this prices onto what we sent and we still came to R68 000.00 - which meant that our wedding was still under R70 000.00.

How did we do this?

I think this was possible because we involved our family, friends and community. We did a lot of DIY stuff - Pinterest is great for ideas, as well as creative people you know. I remember explaining to someone what I wanted as our table centre and two weeks later she sent me a picture of exactly what I wanted. All we hat to supply was paper and sticks - found in the forest.

Another way to save money was to look at idea from an objective point of view, which can be hard when it's pretty and you REALLY want it, and ask your self it's really necessary. It's true, there is a lot of "fluff" that makes weddings expensive and to be honest... your guests won't notice, remember or care if there are no chair covers or draping from the ceiling. These were the hard decisions for me to make, because I wanted ALL the pretty extras but Dave and my maid of honor was firm and eventually I saw sense in it.

God also helped us stay in budget as we planned our wedding. When Dave proposed we both knew this was what God wanted and we also knew He would provide for our wedding. There were many moments when we wanted the big things, but the quickly remembered the purpose of our wedding and that was to have it focused on God. That was what really mattered... and to share what God was doing our life and the next step of our journey with the people who meant the most to us and who we were close to. Yip, we didn't invite the world... just our close friends and family. It can be hard to cut people off your list, but everyone doesn't need to be invited.

Dave and I have been married for 2.5 months now and in hind sight I'm really glad we didn't spend tons of money on our wedding. It was perfect with what we had because it was all about spending the day with people who mean the world to us and having a God focused ceremony and reception.

xKx

Jehovah Jireh

Over the last few months my eyes have been opened to see God as our provider, Jehovah Jirah.

God provided for every single aspect of Dave's and my wedding in ways that we couldn't even imagine. We had a really small budget, but he provided for every single cost we had. This just made me think of the parable of the ten servants found in Luke 19:22-27;  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+19%3A11-27&version=NLT. I remember when God told me to start saving for my wedding, I use the word "my" because back then I was still single and God was like, "start saving for your wedding". I was like ok, I don't fully understand but I listened and started saving as much as possible at the time. When it came to actually planning and paying for our wedding, God just poured out blessings on us because I never squandered the money God was providing me with, but had saved some of it.

 Besides our wedding, where it's easy  to see Gods provision. Another easy place see Gods provision is how He provided for everything we needed for our little housie, as well as the house itself.  That's easy to see, but I'm really beginning to see how God has been providing for every small thing that comes along in our day to day life.

 David and I try to budget and we have a plan, but we also have surprise expenses that you can't really budget for - but God has made it  possible to afford all of this. I saw this clearly last month. I took unpaid leave for our honeymoon, which made last month REALLY tight because it's also birthday month for my friends. We had presents to buy, dinners and lunches and events to go to every weekend and some were pretty expensive, but God provided for all these events and the presents. He provided the petrol to go to the events, as well as everything else we needed to pay for and buy last month. When we got to the end of the month, I was blown away how we still had a little bit of money left even though we thought we were going to run out of money.

This leaves me sitting back going, "WOW, God is great!"

xKx

I turned 25 again

Last week Wednesday was my birthday... I turned 25 again.

David woke me up with coffee and presents before we had eggs made by him for breakfast. OM NOM! It was weird not waking up to my mom waking me up, with the dogs and presents but the morning of my birthday was awesome!

After work Tree popped in for tea before Dave and went off to Quinton at Oakhurst for supper. The place was perfect and the food was REALLY good. It kind of felt like a place from a fairy tale with how the décor was done, I can't really explain it, but it was grand. Dave had a steak that was like the best ever and I had the loin of kingklip... not sure why it's called a "loin" since fish don't have legs and it looked like a fillet... but it was super yummy with a good combination of flavours.

 

 

I celebrated with my friends on Saturday by having brunch with my high school friends, yip.. 10 years later and we're even better friends than we were back in the day. It was also the first time that everyone was together in a while so it was super awesome. When I looked around the table I was once again reminded how blessed I am to have such GREAT friends.

 

 

My birthday celebrating came to an end with a tea party at home with another group of friends. I baked a "watermelon cake".

 

 

We also had scones, lemon meringue and brownies. OM NOM NOM! I think my cake meter is full for now and I need a break from all the cake.

 

 

All in all, I can say I had a pretty epic birthday spent with my love, friends and family.

 

xKx

 

 



The RAT

We have a FAT, GIANT and NOISY rat living in our roof.  We're not sure how long it's been living
there but it's definitely been there since we moved in in June.

A couple of weeks ago we threw some poison up, we heard it running around and then all of a sudden there was hectic thundering on the ceiling, as though it was having a fit. We assumed it had the poison and was almost certain this would kill it. Oh, how we were wrong! A few nights later and we heard the rustling of Mr Rat running around.

Yesterday,  we decided to give Mr Rat round two of poison. We heard nothing at first and then at 3am this morning David and both get woken up by some intense squealing coming from the ceiling. It was pretty frightening... but hopefully that is the last we have heard of Mr Rat.

xKx 

Our Wedding Day

On 14 June 2014 I married my best friend.... It was a day filled with TONS of laughter, love and Jesus. My favourite part was the ceremony, with everything else coming very close behind in top 10 experiences.. Instead of blogging a long story I though I would post some pictures of our wonderful day.