Beyond Blessed

We have been down in the city planting a church for almost 2 years now (more if you count the prayer meetings that started before the actual church services). During those 2 years, Justin and I have been blessed so often.

Now there are plenty of times that we feel the love of our congregation but we were recently given something special by our church that really just went beyond anything we would think of and so naturally I'm going to post about it.

Our church knew that we were going up to Whistler for a vacation/Justin teaching at a retreat. They also knew that it was going to be our 7 year anniversary.The night before we left, which so happened to be a Sunday night, Justin was handed a card at the end of church. Inside that card were instructions. We were told that we were to take the gondolas (think ski lift, if you are a native Californian like me...when Justin first told me about the gondolas I pictured Venice and I was totally confused) up to the top of the mountain where we had reservations at a great restaurant. We then got to take the Peak 2 Peak Gondola which goes from Blackcomb mountain to Whistler mountain. All bought and paid for!

On Tuesday (our anniversary) we started on our adventure. We were curious as to how the kids would do on the gondolas. Logan we figured would be fine, we weren't too sure about Ransom, and Everly honestly I thought she'd be terrified. Thankfully all the kids loved it! I was nervous about Everly as she had to sit next to me instead of in my lap however, she did great. She sat totally still and pretty much alternated between saying "whee" and "trees". On our way up we got to see a black bear which everyone thought was pretty cool. That first gondola ride takes a decent while, maybe 20-30 minutes so by the time we got to the top we were ready to eat.

As I mentioned the church had made reservations for us at a great restaurant called Christine's. Food
was yummy and the view was amazing.

Then it was off to the Peak 2 Peak. This thing is totally insane. As I said, it goes from the Blackcomb to Whistler mountains. It's 2.73 miles across! It also breaks some world records, here's some Peak 2 Peak trivia:

• Longest unsupported span of 3.024 kilometres
• Highest lift of its kind at 436 metres above the valley floor
• Completes the longest continuous lift system on the globe

Not a photo of mine. Just one I got off of flickr (see photo source).
Not the same time of year either...but same concept, we just had no/less snow.

Craziest view ever! The boys loved it and decided to talk the ears off of two Canadian grandparents who happened to be in the gondola with us. Everly oddly was more reserved about this ride than the previous smaller, less secure gondola but then maybe it had to do with it being nap time for her as she basically crashed once we got to the other side.

After we got to the end, it was back down the mountain in another set of gondolas. Quite the long adventure but one that we won't soon be forgetting. We were truly blessed by our church.