Jaxen - ready to head to Ruidoso, NM!
First thing - we stop for our favorite lunch at Cafe Rio.
(notice all the stripes we are wearing?! even Jaxen’s socks and my shoes were striped!)
The reason we even traveled to Ruidoso was for a wedding. So this may be a long explanation - but it’s important. So pay attention and keep up! Ha ha! Nik and I used to live at a place called Bonita Park (outside of Ruidoso) which is a Nazarene Camp and Conference Center. Nik volunteered his time with the youth ministry for awhile and we just really loved it there and all the people. Then God opened doors for us to move to Temple, TX where Nik served as a youth pastor at the Nazarene Church. One of the teens in his youth group was Tyler (who also had two younger siblings that were all in Nik’s youth group). We became great friends with his family, the Johnsons and one other family, the Palmers. Through Nik’s ministry in Temple, he took the youth group on various trips to Bonita Park (ski trips and a work and witness trip). Because of that, Tyler (and a few others) decided to work at Bonita Park as summer staff. Enter Karena. Karena was also a summer staff and met Tyler. They dated, fell in love, got engaged and were getting married. They asked Nik to officiate their wedding and Nik was so honored to be asked and to do it. They wanted to get married where they met, Bonita Park.
There you have it.
Might I also add that Bonita Park is the place Nik and I met?
I love this picture.
This is Jaxen, sitting in front of our brick at the Prayer Pond.
(we came / we met / we married / Nik & Carla / 11-9-02)
So while we were there…we had many reunions. We stayed with some of our very favorite people, Paul and Brenda. We were able to see many of the staff (although we missed a few - and it made me sad), we attended church there and that gave us the opportunity to see many more people and catch up with them. Plus, we ran into a few of the former youth who attended the church while Nik volunteered. One of them actually catered the Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding Reception!
Pretty cool, huh? Our NM world totally collided with our TX world. Now…how do we fit our NY world in?!
So here are a few more pics from our time there…
Rehearsal. See how tall all these guys are?!
Discussing details of the wedding.
While they were rehearsing - everyone was helping to keep an eye on Jaxen
and make sure he did not fall into the pond! All he wanted to do was to run and play!
The day of the wedding…
Alan Palmer and Nik
Nik and I
Michelle and Alan
Nik and the groomsmen (again…with their height!)
The wedding
Nik with Tyler and Karena
Michelle Palmer and I, at the reception
Sunday after church we talked everyone in to going to my favorite place to eat, Hall of Flame. It was so good, and it gave us a chance to visit with a few other people!
Kaylee and I
Connor and Nik
We love this couple and enjoyed our time with them!
We have such great memories from our time at Bonita Park, and this trip made this place even more special! Some of you may remember that almost 3 years ago (June 9) the Little Bear Fire burned much of the camp and many homes in the area. It broke my heart and still does. It was really tough to go back - but God has been / and is still so good and prevalent in that place! Our time there seeing and catching up with everyone was just so sweet and I am so thankful for it!
I had to include this next picture to show you where I grew up! So this was taken leaving (the beautiful mountains of) Ruidoso and headed to Roswell.
See how flat at barren this land is?!
Now you know why I love NY so much :)
I mentioned this before…it was a time for reunions. Well, one other special reunion we had on Sunday was a family wedding! My cousin Taunya married Ken! I usually miss out on a lot of family stuff, mainly because I live so far away - so I was so excited that I got to attend their wedding. I was able to see many cousins and other family members at this wedding and I really had a great time visiting and catching up with everyone! I only took a few pics.
Ken and Taunya during the ceremony.
It’s hard to tell in the pic, but it was in a courtyard and it was so beautiful!
By the time we arrived home after the wedding on Sunday - we were wiped out! It was one long, very full and very fun weekend though. We would not have missed any of it and would do it all again!
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