Dunn family reunion

We've spent the past 9 days doing a lot of traveling (3 states), sight-seeing, and spending time with our relatives on Lee's side. We all had a blast, and I'll let the pictures do the talking. As a summary, we flew to Nashville, spent a couple of days there, then drove through the Smokey Mountains to Asheville, NC and spent several days there. Then we finished in Hartwell, GA at a really neat B&B and got to go hang out on Tim's cousin's houseboat during the day. Then we drove back to Nashville (6 hrs) and flew home, totaling about 16 hours of traveling yesterday. So glad to be home! And, to the Midlanders, Lee & I take full credit for bringing the rain home with us...you're welcome!!

Annalee in the cockpit of our first plane...the pilot was so sweet to let her sit in his seat!
Josiah, Annalee, & Addie on one of our car rides
paddle boats at a state park in Tennessee

The Biltmore House: a 175,000 square-foot house built by George Vanderbilt. It took us 2 days to tour it and we didn't even see the majority of the entire estate. There is also an Inn, a winery, and a large bass pond to name a few of the other parts of the estate.
Petting the animals at the Biltmore Farm. All the animals were very calm & tame, definitely a highlight for everyone!


Eating blueberries off the bush at the Biltmore's Kitchen Garden. This was an amazing garden, where they grow everything from vegetables to herbs, and use the harvests in their restaurants.
Dancing with Daddy at the Fiddlin' Pig

Cute hat pics (just channel your 1-1/2 year old imagination for Addie's)

pony rides in Hartwell, GA...both girls LOVED it!!

2 dinners

I have a confession. I ate 2 dinners tonight. Plus dessert. I cooked chicken squares and veggies, and was still hungry. So I made some toast. Still hungry. I soon realized that even if I ate a dessert, it would not be enough food to tide me over until breakfast. So my awesome, non-judgmental husband drove us all to Dairy Queen to get me a chicken finger basket and an oreo cookie blizzard. He got a blizzard too, I think to keep me from feeling like the biggest pig on earth. I am not looking forward to weighing myself again...I'm certain that my 1 pound per week goal will be exceeded this week.

our little readers

Addie and Annalee have been reading constantly lately, and it is so fun to see Annalee memorize entire books and also to watch Adde try her best to "read."  Addie's favorite thing to do while she reads to herself is to point out the various animals on each page.  Annalee's ability to memorize and then say the correct words with the corresponding page is astounding to me, and apparently it's inherited from Lee because according to Terri, he was the same way at this age.  I'm surrounded by reading prodigies!

The video is of Annalee reading a portion of "Are You my Mother?" (about 2 minutes) And if you've ever read it, you'll see how she has about a 95% accuracy rate.  I'm so proud!  And the pics on the couch are from the other day when the girls were simultaneously reading 2 different books out loud.  This went on for about 20 minutes, and neither seemed bothered or distracted by the other.  

Annalee is also going to daily swim lessons with Aunt Becky and Memaw (Terri), and has made vast improvements in the past few days.  I'll get a video posted of that soon.  She can jump off the side of the pool to someone, then with a little shove, she can hold her breath while kicking and reaching for the steps- about 10-15 feet!

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Back from Israel!

I intended to write a few weeks ago to say that we were going to Israel on a tour with Lee's family and a few other church families, but if you've ever tried to pack and prepare a family of 4 for such an event, you know that time gets the best of you. Anyway, we're back, and what an amazing experience it was! The most difficult part was being away from the girls, but we were so thankful that my parents wanted to keep them for us. And after hearing so many of their stories, it is clear that the separation was much harder on me & Lee than the girls.

About the trip...where do I begin?!? We were there for nearly 2 weeks, and it was absolutely incredible. It totally changed the way I read the Bible. So many stories have been brought to life for me because I've now seen where they happened. Our guide would let us walk a while, and then we'd stop and find shade, and have a 20-minute faith lesson and talk about where we were, what happened there, and read from the Bible how it happened. I loved that part. The theme of our trip could be "we learned with our feet." We hiked 6-12 miles a day, sometimes in 100+ degree heat. But it was worth it because I now GET a lot of things that I didn't before. The best example of that for me is from day 3. We actually hiked around in the area that the children of Israel were for most of their 40 years of wandering (above photo). It's a giant crater (God-made), and NOTHING lives there. I've always been quick to judge them for complaining and wishing to go back into Egypt and the slavery from which God had delivered them. But after doing our own 3-1/2 hour version of wandering, I totally get it. Especially knowing the lush, fertile land they came from. As difficult as it was for us, I kept asking myself as I was walking, "How on earth did they do this for 40 years? In sandals? And with children??"

My favorite part of the trip was the day we spent in Jerusalem going through the day, as Jesus did, the day He was arrested. We started on the Mount of Olives, and took our time walking down and into the Garden of Gethsemene. Then we continued down the steep, winding road down the hill, through the Kidron Valley, and then ascended up to the Temple. It was about 1/2 a mile. Then we walked through the Lion's Gate that He walked through, which was the gate that the people would bring their sacrifices through. This is where the people were waving palm branches at Him and saying "Hosanna, Hosanna!" They were expecting him to go in through the King's Gate, establish His kingdom, and rule them. Instead, He knew He was marching to His sacrificial death. Then we walked to the place where He was scourged outside of Pilate's palace, then we walked uphill to the place where He was crucified. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't "on a hill far away" as the old hymn says. He was brought through the busy business district and the cross was right in the middle of town, for everyone to see. This is how the Romans did everything: all-out. This day was very emotional for me, and extremely impactful.

I could go on for hours as there are so many other amazing stories; but I'll just leave you with some of my favorite images. I would LOVE to talk about it some more, so please ask if you're interested!

view from the Mount of Olives of the Temple, Dome of the Rock (built by the Muslims), and surrounding wall .
an olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemene. Could have been there when Jesus was.

Caves of Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947.

hiking down Mt. Arbel

North side of the Sea of Galilee, looking across to Tiberias. The north side is where Jesus did the majority of his ministry & miracles.

Place where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.
typical ancient tomb. Jesus' would have looked very similar.

valley where David killed Goliath

Ein Harod: spring where Gideon narrowed his army from 10,000 to 300 (Judges 7:1-7)