Pizza

Today Abby and I made pizza for lunch.  Pizza is such a fun meal to make and to eat! 

We put different toppings on, depending on what items we have.  Today we put meat, yellow & red bell peppers and cheese on it.  And, the crust today I think was a little too thick, so next time I need to make it a bit thinner.  But it was fun to make, and it tasted great!  Abby took a photo of the circular one we made on a pizza stone, but somehow it was deleted. :)

Family Trip - Part 3: Creation Museum

DANGER:  This is a really long post!

We took so many pictures inside the Creation Museum, and out in the gardens, that it's hard to choose which ones to post up here.  Several of them weren't the best quality, so that helps in the picking process.  But I'll put the good ones up, and hope you enjoy them!

We're getting close!!

And we're finally there!!  Yeah!

The front of the Creation Museum.  There was a crowd of people who were going to get a group tour.

This is what you will see when you walk in the front door.  To the left is a 'rock' wall that reaches all the way to the ceiling.  And, if you look close, you'll notice that there are 4 or 5 different rock "layers".

This is one of the animatronic (spelling??) children in the area where you start your tour.

And here is the famous animatronic dinosaur, which looms above your head as you begin your tour.

The main part of the tour starts here, in the Grand Canyon hallway. 

The fossil dig site.  These manikins have an amazingly real-life appearance.  There was some real talent that went into this exhibit, and really into ALL of the museum.  It's profoundly high-tech.  The pictures do no justice.

Jaden (bottom, center) in front of one of the dinosaurs.

Joel at the bottom of the Grand Canyon! 

The Old Testament was represented in these three historical Bible characters: Isaiah, Moses and David.

Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses on the church door.  Ken Ham and AIG are calling Christians to do the same in our day. 

This 'ghetto alley-way', as I call it, was very interesting.  Again, a lot of talent went into making this.

This is the sad state of our Nation and world today.

The Millions of Years wrecking-ball at the base of the church.

Don't we just look intrigued? :)

Caleb and Joel in the Garden of Eden.

Yes, humans lived with dinosaurs!

The guys with one of the many dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden. 

Adam and Eve.

"The world's not safe anymore."  Notice the 8 or 9 different locks on the door.

The post-fall animatronic dinosaur, hovering over his dead prey. 

Adam and Eve, post-fall.

Noah and one of his sons preparing the ark.

This is one of my favorite exhibits in the whole museum.  Again, so much talent went into the design and building of this exhibit.  Amazing. 

One of the many model arks throughout the museum.

Jaden got to ride on the Triceratops!

The gardens are absolutely gorgeous!  So many different plants and flowers.

The arbor from across the lake.

The many flowers along the trail.

You will see this beautiful waterfall as you begin your journey down the Nature Trail.

This is one of my favorites in the gardens!  Try to go across without hands, it's quite hard!

A beautiful spot to stop and rest in the cool shade.

Apparently we only got a few photos from the Petting Zoo.  This one is of a Zedonk (I think?).  They had sheep, goats, a cow, a camel, a couple of lamas and some other animals.  

Check back soon for pictures from the rest of our trip!

Family Trip - Part 2: Defending the Faith Conference

This second post will be all about the 5 days we spent in Sevierville, TN and our time that we had at the Defending the Faith family conference.

Update: I put a few more pictures in this post that I discovered after I published this post. 

You can now see why the Smoky Mountains are called the Smoky mountains. 

Just on this one hill there are dozens of cabins.  It looks pretty neat when it's dark.

We had these three very nice rocking chairs on our front porch.  We didn't use them enough. :)

We were blessed with a full use kitchen in the cabin where we could cook our own meals.

We also had access to the tennis court down the mountain.  We kids played twice during the course of the five days we were there. 

Johanna in position.

Abby really getting 'into it'. 

Caleb is ready to hit!

Yours-truly getting in on the action.

We celebrated Joel's 24th birthday on Monday while at the cabin.  So I made an Italian Cream cake, and we used tea-light candles, since we didn't have "real" birthday cake candles. 

With the cake we had ice cream and root beer.  Now, you're not getting hungry, are you? 

On Monday we got the chance to visit the Johnson Bible College campus in Knoxville.  Dad graduated with a Masters of Arts from Johnson in 1995 (before I was born!). 

Then for lunch on Monday we ate at Chili's, thanks to the very generous gift from the G. family.

We ordered their delicious fajitas.  They are so good!

Unfortunately we only got a few good pictures from the conference.  I think in this picture Steve Ham is introducing John G. Elliot.  Mr. Elliot played 2 or 3 piano concerts throughout the conference.  He is a very talented pianist.  We were truly blessed by his music.

Carl Kerby talking during one of the teen sessions.  This one I believe was on Fossils: Friend or Foe?

We each got a spiral-bound book, in which to take notes.

Dr. Jason Lisle taking questions from conference attendees. 

We girls were able to get Dr. Baucham's autograph, and also a photo with him. 

Joel was also able to get his book signed by Dr. Baucham, and also speak to him for a couple of minutes.

While at the conference we were honored to video interview 5 of the speakers.  Above is a snapshot of Bill Jack.  Mr. Jack is with Worldview Academy, and he talked three times, including twice in the teen sessions. 

Carl Kerby is one of AiG's most dynamic speakers.  He is truly gifted in this area, and he gave us a lot of godly wisdom during the interview. 

Joel and I were the ones who did the main part of the interview.  We did it out in the hallway, so it was kind of noisy. 

During the interview.

Dr. David Menton is another one of AiG's speakers.  We as a family have greatly enjoyed and benefited from his "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" DVD presentation. 

Dr. Jason Lisle - I, personally, have greatly benefited from Dr. Lisle's "Ultimate Apologetics" DVD set, on presuppositional apologetics, and logic.  He talks science, but in a very down-to-earth and understandable way, and I appreciate that about him.

And, last of all, we were very privileged to get a short interview with Ken Ham.  We are very grateful for Mr. Ham taking time out of his busy schedule to do a video interview with someone he doesn't even know!

Caleb got these gorgeous photographs of the sunrise on one of the mornings while we were at the cabin.















God's creation is so beautiful... especially in this part of the world!

Check back very soon for more photos and news about the rest of our trip.