Spring has sprung!

Well it feels like an age since my last post, which is probably true - but things have been pretty busy! This past semester has gone by very quickly. Josh had his spring break last week - which I had hoped would mean some time that we could go out on a day trip together, but he had exams to study for and assignments to write, so it ended up being a regular week. But he made really good progress on his work - it amazes me how hard he works, but I'm thankful for it! 

Another thing that we are very thankful for at the moment is the warmer weather! The grass is turning a healthy green again, and (dare I say it) the white winter snow seems almost like a dream. It's just amazing to see how much the landscape can change in a short period of time. And there is something so cheering about longer sunshiny days, and warmth in the sun - it was strange to get into the car and discover it to be toasty warm (as opposed to frigid). So after experiencing temperatures like the ones that I recorded below - we are now back up into the positives and today got up to wonderful 15 degrees. :)

Brrrr!

One of the last big snowfalls that we had in February

We were really blessed to be treated to a delicious pizza dinner with some of our Kiwi friends from church. They took us to a famous local pizzaria which had a really great atmosphere and very delicious pizzas. 

Josh enjoying the tasty pizza

Before all of the snow melted I also got to go sledding with the Couperus girls! It was a lot of fun. A cold day, but we trekked up and down the hill and had a lot of fun.  

Zara at the top of the hill

Kate with her rosy cold cheeks! (and you can see Zara going down the hill in the background)

We had a couple of big inner tubes to slide on, as well as a couple of boards that were kind of like boogie boards (just the snow versions of them)

The view from the bottom of the hill!

Now we'll just have to wait until next winter to go again. :) Here are a few more pictures that we took over the past couple of months. For a combined Valentines Day/Wedding Anniversary present to ourselves we decided to go out for dinner to a local cafe and enjoyed a bowl of chili - that they very cleverly decorated with a heart. ;)

Some of Josh's snow-blowing exploits at the seminary

Josh and Albert managed to convince the seminary to fly the NZ flag on the flagpole again for Waitangi Day. NZ represent! :D

Our Valentines Dinner - they always serve the meals here with a massive pickle. 

Mountains of snow that Josh had to shovel through over the winter

A cool picture that Josh took :)

The other news we have is that we have had our summer internship confirmed! We are heading to Canada! And not just any part of Canada but British Columbia - which is about as far away from where we currently are as you can get. :) It is apparently a really beautiful part of the country, and we are really excited to have the opportunity to travel there. The church is the United Reformed Church in Abbotsford, which is about an hour west of Vancouver. We are so thankful to this church for taking us for the summer, and we (in particular, Josh) are really looking forward to working alongside the pastor, and Josh will have a lot of opportunities to preach in the 10 or so weeks that we will be there. It's such an incredible gift to be able to experience this, and for the church to take in a first year intern is amazingly generous. We are really looking forward to the experience.

So below is a map of the road trip that we will be going on. It's a biggie! So your prayers would be really appreciated as we plan and prepare for a big trip and also the time that Josh will be preparing for regular preaching as well as our travel once we are on our way!

According to Google Maps it's about a 34 hour drive

Something else that I am kind of excited about is that in the pictures that I have looked up of Abbotsford, it looks a little like NZ...

Abbotsford = mountains, hills and rivers!! Hurrah!!

Don't you think so? Cool huh! It'll potentially be like a little trip home! So that is a little update from us. We will try to keep you posted as things progress and we get some more things arranged for our trip. In the meantime we really appreciate all your support and are so thankful to be a part of a worldwide family. Plus our first year in the US is almost over, time has flown! We are enjoying it here - but don't worry, we look forward to coming home in another two years. ;)

Til next time!  

Bike Trails & Pie

Thought I would share with you all an outing that we had the other night. A (very cool) group of people from our church go biking every Wednesday evening during the summer, and they invited us along.  

There are quite a few bike trails through the towns here in northern Indiana - and they have been converted from abandoned train track routes. They run through some really pretty countryside, and it was a gorgeous evening, so I got a couple of pictures just to give you an idea. 

I even took a little (albeit wobbly & low quality) video for your viewing pleasure. :) All up I think we cycled about 15 miles (24 kilometers) - so not bad! 

Afterwards, we experienced a real treat of visiting a restaurant called 'Baker's Square' where we enjoyed dinner and pie! It was 'free pie Wednesday' so you received a free piece of pie with a main purchase. I wanted to go really good and American as part of this experience so I had the Peanut Butter Cup pie (N.B. this pic is courtesy of the Baker's Square website, because I didn't get a picture of mine - but it looked just like this)...

I couldn't fit it in at the restaurant - I was too full from dinner (which was a lovely chicken breast with roast veggies and greens, so pretty healthy I might add! I I know, I'm just trying to justify the pie now), so I took it home to enjoy the next day. 

Needless to say, it took me 3 (yes three) goes to finish this piece of pie. It was A-mazing - but soooo rich. Hahaha so I paced myself and had a little bit after lunch, then at afternoon tea, and then after dinner! Josh had the Three Berry Pie, which looks a little healthier than my Peanut Butter one - but let's be honest, if you worried about health, then you shouldn't be eating pie in the first place. 'Healthy Pie' is an oxymoron. :)

All up it was a really fun night, and great to spend some more time getting to know the others! We have been so blest with good friends and opportunities over here already!