A Year Worth Remembering

2014 was probably the best year of my married life-it was full of growth, new experiences, blessings, and lots of fun. Before my mind is clouded by new memories made in 2015 here is what happened month by month this past year:

January:
-We didn't have too many fun events in January because it was mostly full of support raising and office work.
-Steven and I started vlogging and though that may not seem like anything big, it has become a daily part of our routine and a fun way for us to record our memories.

February:
-We held our first teen winter retreat and loved the experience of putting the event together and spending time with the teens.
-After the winter retreat I went to Splash Lagoon with my family for a fun two days of water activities.
-We traveled back to our home town to doing some puppet judging for the puppet team we used to be a part of in high school.
-We had two of Steven's friends over for a few days-one all the way from England!

March:
-The very beginning of this month started with a trip to Chicago! It was so fun to be back in our first home (though I'm glad we don't live there anymore).
-We started taking some CEF classes (specifically TCE 1)
-We spoke at our first missions conference and got to meet some really great people!

April:
-We went back to our hometown to watch some of our friends put on a puppet dinner theater.
-We spent Easter weekend with family and had our annual egg painting-it was the first time we got to be together for the Holiday since we got married in 2010.

May:
-We went all the way down to North Carolina for a week long CEF conference. This was a big highlight in my year because it was such a huge spiritual encouragement that set my sights back on the importance of prayer. It was powerful enough that it stuck with me all through the year!
-I got to go home to celebrate my birthday with family.

June:
-In the beginning of June we went camping with some friends and family which we do every year-tis lots of fun.
-Right from camping we traveled a million hours up to Boston to attend my cousins wedding-it was probably one of, if not my favorite wedding I have ever attended.
-Then began CEF training school for the teens. We taught the support track class for the first time and really enjoyed it!

July:
- We went back to our hometown to celebrate the 4th of July with our family. Food and fireworks always equal fun.
-Then began our long summer of driving teens around to 5-Day Clubs.
-My family came up to visit us for a day which is always nice.

August:
-Along with driving teens to clubs we also manned a booth at the Butler County Farm Show.
-A friend of Steven's came to stay for a week.
-We celebrated our 4th anniversary (which we didn't actually do anything for because we were going somewhere super exciting in November)
-We were the child care at a Christian retreat-which was more like a getaway than work.

September:
-We went to Lewistown, PA for a CEF retreat which was a nice relaxing couple of days.
-We went back to our hometown again to celebrate Steven's birthday super early with his family because we were going away for the next couple months.
-We left for Children's Ministries Institute in Missouri. Our departure contains a fairly amusing story. For some reason we thought that we were supposed to be there on a Friday so we were going to take our time getting there and leave on Thursday. So here we are on Wednesday night, already in bed (I was already asleep) and Steven shakes me awake and says "Kayla, I think we are supposed to be there tomorrow!" So after confirming that this was true, we bolted out of bed at 11pm on Wednesday night and finished packing the car (thankfully I had been on the ball and packed pretty much everything that day). So poor Steven drove all night (except for an hour when He was so tired we stopped in a Walmart parking lot and He slept). Good times.

October:
-This month was entirely consumed with classes and homework. I found myself surprisingly enjoying it despite not wanting to go in the first place.
-My parents and brother came out to visit us because my dad also had CEF classes that week (perks of working for the same ministry).
-Steven turned 24-crazy!

November:
-We finally got to go home!
-We had our first Butler County CEF banquet and were blessed by all the support that we received!
-Now for the biggest highlight of the year! We went to Europe! After years of thinking/praying about it and months of planning it, we finally got to go. It was such a God thing the way that everything lined up and came together. We started out in London, flew to Rome, Flew to Thessaloniki and staed with some missionary friends, flew to Israel and stayed with another friend, flew to Romania and stayed with my cousin, flew back to London, and then finally flew home! It was a two week whirlwind trip that I will never forget!

December:
-The second week of our Europe trip went into December and we flew home on the 6th.
-We went back to our hometown for Christmas and New Years and had a great time as always, soaking up all the fun that the Holidays have to offer.

As you can see it was a year worth remembering! I'm so blessed and so thankful for all that God has allowed me to do.