Land of Milk and Honey

     For a person my age I am pretty well travelled. I have been to a handful of countries as well as several states. I'm glad I have had all of those experiences. I don't quite remember how long ago, but it must have been 6 or 7 years ago that I decided that I wanted to visit Israel. I wanted to walk where Jesus walked, see the places where He taught, look over a piece of land and think, "This is where it happened." I put it on my prayer list and asked the Lord if He would let me go. There was a group from my church going in February. I asked a friend for more information. The way the timing worked out I could pay for the trip, but it was one day too long. I would have to miss too much school to go. Thankfully I found out there was a misunderstanding and that the trip was one day shorter. :) And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.
   

Mount of Beatitudes

Capernaum, the headquarters of the ministry of Jesus

Overlooking Jerusalem

The Valley of Elah, where God used David to conquer Goliath

 It was an incredible trip. The Lord worked in my life in so many ways. I looked over these places and more than once was choked up with emotions as I thought of what happened. How the same problems those people in the Bible had, I had in my life. They had Jesus with them in person then. I have the Holy Spirit with me all the time.
     If you have not been to Israel, I would definitely say you should go. It will change the way you think and read the Bible.

Washington DC

     Ben and I were planning on retaking this photo from last time we were in DC.

     Unfortunately, the capital building was under construction, it was raining, and everything looked nasty so we didn't.
     I had the opportunity to visit several of the Smithsonian museums. My favorite by far was the Museum of Air and Space. There was so much on the history of flight. Seeing the Wright brothers' flyer and knowing that that was where flying began really was amazing.
     My second favorite was the Museum of American History. If you know me well, you could probably guess I spent most of my time in the exhibit about the wars. American conflicts have always interested me.

We visited the Arlington National Cemetery. My parents have a friend buried there and we found him after we visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. All I have to say about that is wow. The respect and military precision in the changing of the guards ceremony is absolutely impeccable.

Philadelphia

There's so much history in Philadelphia! We visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall

It says 'bobcat'
Ben: "Meow."

Boston

This summer we went on a road trip around some of the well known locations in the history of our country, the first being Boston, MA.

Me: "Let me take a picture of you!"
Ben: "Does it look like I care?"

The guy's actually got a British accent!

USS Constitution

Street performer

The shuttle driver from our hotel was very nice and wanted to give us a few helpful tips. He was talking about a beach not far from where we were.
Shuttle driver: "If you go right down here there's ah beach and it's only gaht maybe ten cahs."
Daddy: (leans over) "Did he say there were cows on the beach?"
 Ha! Highlight of the day!

Summer Vacation

Lately, life has been busy, busy, busy. That's not a bad thing though. I don't like being bored. During the week of July 21st, Ben and I went to Crossroads camp at Camp Maranatha in Ila, GA. As always it was great physically and spiritually. I made many much needed decisions there and made some new friends. Instead of heading home like the other two youth groups that came, the VCBC youth group got to stay all day Saturday. On Sunday, we went to our former youth pastor's (who is now the senior pastor of Joy Baptist) church where the Voices of Victory sang. While the rest of the group boarded the bus towards home, Ben and I hopped on the RV our family rented and we drove around the Blue Ridge Mountains for the rest of the week. My grandparents and aunt are visiting from Japan so the road trip was perfect.

A nice, hot cup of tea :)

My aunt went back to Japan a couple weeks ago. Since my grandparents don't like navigating airports and stuff by themselves, they decided to take me with them. We are leaving tomorrow and I'll be staying with them for a month so I can study. After all, the best way to learn a foreign language is to immerse yourself in it, right?                See y'all later!  Leigha

C-17 Trip

This past weekend was absolutely amazing! In summary, my Civil Air Patrol squadron rode a C-17 to Charleston, SC, slept on the USS Yorktown (aircraft carrier), toured the destroyer, Laffey, and the submarine, Clamagore, and then drove over to Fort Moultrie, and flew back on another C-17. I had a great time, got to know more people in my squadron, and learned a ton about aviation.

You get in and out from the ramp on the back of the plane. This is the ramp half open while we were taxiing.

Airman Lohman and Ben decided to pose with a sleeping Sergeant Dye.

Inside the USS Yorktown. This photo does not make the stairs look steep enough. Any steeper would have been a ladder. We had to carry our luggage up this to get to our berthing area.

Another view of the stairs.

L to R: Major Fowler, Sergeant Shepherd, Airman Bauder (me)

In the captain's seat

L to R: Sergeant Giles, Airman Lohman, Airman Weiker, Sergeant Spitz, Sergeant Shepherd, Major Fowler, Airman Bauder, Airman Johnson

Group picture

This is in the Clamagore. Seriously, they slept above torpedoes.

If you can see, the doorways are very small. 

A skeleton in the jail in the USS Yorktown.

Maj. Fowler, Sgt. Shepherd, Amn Bauder

A posed picture at Ft. Moultrie

The guys goofing off

On the C-17 back

I had a great time. Big thanks to Lieutenant Giles for arranging everything!