Our trip to the Bayou to see our family and friends

This past weekend we went to the Bayou in Louisiana to see Mike's Uncle Perry (our Brandon is named after him Brandon Perry) and Aunt Lou at their home with Mike's dad.  He always goes through there to spend the night on his way from TN to TX to see us.  It breaks up the trip for him plus he gets to see his brother.  We have not been to see them since Derek was 6 months old so they had never met Brandon or Analeigh, so we decided to got o LA this past weekend to see them.

The gang-Derek, Papa, Uncle Perry, Brandon, Mike, Alyssa, Analeigh

The Bayou (this is off of their back yard by about 500 feet)

We also got to stay with some very dear friends that we met while living in AR and over the years they move to Louisiana and we moved to Texas but whenever we go home we stop and see them.  They are the kind of friends that when you are away from them you miss them terribly but when you are together it seems that no time has passed.  I love them dearly-our kids adore their kids too and they all play so well together.  We had a really great weekend-I am always so blessed to be around Margie-she is so kind and sweet and such a wonderful mom and wife-she has a calming effect on me-that is good for me-lol!  Here are some photos from our time with them too.

Margie and Me  (she just glows with the love of Jesus)

Our babies swinging-they are about 8 months apart-they really were cute together.

All the kids playing cards and the girls doing relay races with the babies-they loved it!

The Hendricks-our wonderful friends and host family.

All of us-we wondered what neighbors thought will all those kids-we were also acting really silly as you will see in the next photo-so we laughed like crazy wondering what they were thinking.

Mike and the kids wanted donuts in the car on the trip home-so we stopped at a place that sold Krispy Creams and this is what Analeigh did to her donut-she ate hers by licking all the icing off the top and then sticking her thumb in the middle to get out all the cream-yummy.

I am so thankful for the friendships that God has given me and for the fact he knows when I need a boost from one of them-I was having a little lonely period of time-missing friends that I have had over the years and wished they still lived close-I got to spend this weekend with one the sweetest friends He has blessed me with and it was wonderful.

I AM BLESSED!

In so many ways-I am thankful for this past weekend where God had a chance to show and remind me of those blessings.

Thanks Marige and Ivan and girls.  We love you all and were blessed to get to see you and spend time with you this past weekend.

On this Pathway-

Jill