moving on 3:27 AM

please note: we will have more pictures up later! when we aren't running out the door

Yesterday we left Vegas. I can't say we were sad to see it go. I think Vegas was... more than we all expected. It was sad to see that money and women can consume peoples lives. I think we all agree we prefer the Vegas in Oceans 11 over the real thing.

Though I have to say Vegas did teach us that the Nevada sun can cook a hot dog pretty well :)

We arrived in LA yesterday just in time to say hello to a few of Stan's friends at Disney and look around :)

We got to eat dinner at a cool little place in Burbank and enjoyed a grilled veggie sandwich while playing some Guitar Hero. I explained to the waitress what it is we're doing and asked her if she could write down what love is to her. It's funny how differently people respond to that question :P Some people will stare at you like "How could I possibly answer a question that huge??" others will frown and laugh off the question, as if the love they once knew has caused them pain. But our waitress just paused briefly to hear the question and began writing. She smiled and handed me her answer before walking away. "Love is patient" it said. I've been thinking a lot about how love is patient. Patience is something I once very openly lacked. But I realize it's something I want. It's something I have chosen to chase after. To act in even when I don't want to. Because ultimately everything is a decision. Patience. Love.

Right now we are running off to go help at the Dream Center. It should be fun :) We'll do our best to post about it later tonight.

<33emilyy

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY :) 8:06 PM

This day we are reminded that the greatest love is to lay down your life for another. We are thankful to all people who are risking their lives to protect ours.

Today we are spending some of our time in Las Vegas making care packages to send to our troops overseas. We will be working with anysoldier.com This site posts the needs and locations of soldiers overseas that we can support and send letters and packages to. Our soldiers are serving us everyday so that we can live the lives we live. Too often we forget all about them. At least I know I do.

Going on the site and viewing all the men and women who have died in service really hit home with me today. I didn't realize the sacrifice that was being made. It's heart wrenching. These guys are my age. I guess I just don't think about it. I know I don't keep up on the news enough.

They've given so much. They sacrifice their lives everyday. I think we should all find ways to give back.

Here is a video that talks about how to create care packages if you are interested in joining us with this cause.

We will update later with pictures of the packages and letters we write, plus more about our adventures in Las Vegas! <3 Stan

ROUTE 66 & the CANYON 7:45 PM

Hello!

Stanley here.

We've been doing some of our traveling along Route 66. Its been gorgeous. :)

 Historic Route 66 is no longer displayed on most road maps but it used to be America's main street.  If you were going across the country for the family Road trip, this was it.  The road was bustling 40 years ago. Gas Stations, diners, motels, small town culture, friendly faces, and beautiful countryside.  It was America. 

Unfortunately today, Route 66 has been forgotten.  People flock to the bigger interstates.  It makes sense.  That's progress.  Right?  New roads go up and people travel whatever route will be the quickest, the most convenient.  Route 66 has mostly died.  It only lives as a novelty sentiment.  It's now abandoned building, empty motels, and rusting gas stations.

I think its a sad reflection on our culture.  We often go for whatever is most convenient.  What is the fastest route?  What will get me where I need to be the easiest?   Our country has chosen the Interstate 40 lifestyle.  I think we need to go back to the Route 66 pace.  

Things move so quickly in our society that we often forget to take the time to meet people.  Take time to start up a conversation with someone.   Invest into them.  I want to be more interested in others than I am in myself.  This trip is helping me to see people as more important.  It's helping me to make the little sacrifices.  I want to love my family more.   I want to let people cut me off on the high way and not get upset.

Route 66 was so much fun.  We took some time to enjoy the beauty of the old buildings.  I love the bright colors against the bleak landscape.  We ate at a diner at the midpoint of 66, 1139 miles from LA, and 1139 miles from chicago.

The best part of this trip has been meeting people.  People are so precious.  Everyone has something beautiful to offer and to learn from.  I think everyone wants a friend.  They want to be listened to and loved.  We met some people at the hostel who's reservation got all mixed up.  They had one bed at the hostel we were staying at when they were supposed to have two.  It was gonna split them up, so I offered to let the guy have my bed and I went to stay at another place.  Suddenly we had some new friends.  People notice when you make sacrifices for them.  I didn't feel like doing it, but once I did it felt so good.

On top of that, at the other hostel I made some new friends, Timo and Phillip.  They are from Germany and were also traveling the US.  They offered to let us stay at their campsite in the Grand Canyon.  On memorial weekend it is impossible to get a campsite there.  It was great!  We saw a gorgeous sunset and then shared stories and laughs around the campfire.  It was so cool how it all worked out.  Giving up my bed ended up getting us two new friends and a great night of camping.  Its sort of a what comes around goes around story.  :)

  Sometimes spreading love is just making new friends and taking the time to listen to people.  I know it doesn't seem significant, but our world needs more of it.

PS- here is an extra photo of me and jason I found as we were modeling our love.each.one.shirts.   :)  very funny   

<3 Stan

on the road againn :) 4:26 PM

Yesterday we drove from Albuquerque, NM to Flagstaff, AZ.

Arizona's landscape is so beautiful! It changed so much in the five hours we drove through it.

We stopped at a little tourist stop to check out the petrified wood and fossil-y things. We where able to talk with the store owner, Ken, which was cool, and asked him what love was. At first he looked at us for a moment, then shrugged and said "Well..I don't know what love is." It is a big question. I think the fact that the question itself is only three words has made me think that it's a simple question. But the realty of it is its not. Ken turned and wrote down his answer and handed it to me. I said thanks and was about to put it away when he said "Aren't you going to read it?" with a smile.

I looked down and read out loud "Love is traveling the Unites States with three friends."

:)

Its such a fun answer. And I think for each of us it's been true. This trip with my three friends has taught me more about love than any other time in my life. Learning to love each other all the time, learning to love when I don't feel like being loving.

After a few more hours of driving we arrived at our hostel in Flagstaff. Let me tell you...I love hostels. So many cool people. Cool buildings. Cool environment.

We immediately met some other travelers, Jordan and Sophie. It was really nice getting to hang out and talk with them about their lives, where they're going, where they've been. After Jason introduced them to the world of geocaching (check out www.geocaching.com to learn more about it) we decided to go looking for a few in the area. Stan found both! (it was his first time being the first to find them :P ). After we grabbed some awesome food at the Pita Pit and caught the end of and outdoor screening of UP :) The rest of the night was full of silly pool games, meeting more people, and a planning for the next few days.

It was really awesome meeting so many people. We met an Irish couple, a girl from Germany, and a bunch of other cool travelers. Learning about individuals has been really beautiful, hearing about people's goals in life, what they enjoy doing, where they want to go.

People are so important. I want to be sure after all this traveling is over I continue to keep loving people in my everyday life.

Something we've been reading over and thinking about:

Love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

Love does not demand its own way.

It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.

It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NLT&NIV)

<33emilyy

travelin travelin 12:14 PM

We arrived in Amarillo, Texas late on Tuesday night. The night ended with a beautiful lightning storm that consumed the whole sky. There was no thunder, just a continuous stream of lightning bolts. Ginger pulled out the video camera to try and capture a bit of it. The second it turned on the sky began to light up even more, Ginger turned to me with a smirk and said "Looks like God's showing off."

After a good nights sleep we made our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jordan (who is represented by the octopus) told us about his church here, so as we arrived we scooted on over to see Calvary's wednesday night service.

The worship was sweeet and it was nice to dig into the Word of God. After we spoke with pastor about volunteer opportunities in the community and were given a nice little list of places that would love help. The night I enjoyed some soup and salad. The boys enjoyed discovering that the car we parked in front of had a red octopus sitting in their front dash.

In fact I think it made their night. We almost lost Jordan because they thought it would be so funny just to leave him on the window, staring into the eyes of the pretty red octopus.

Ultimately we all agreed we couldn't do that to Jordan, so the boys settled with leaving a note on the window of the red octopus' car letting the owner know that we also had a octopus.

That night we all discussed a lot of things. It was good. This trip has really opened our eyes to what t truly means to walk in love. How difficult it can be, how necessary it is. Walking in love is so very important. It's a decision. It's a life style. It's the way we are called to live.

So that's what we must do.

Keep growing, loving, and learning.

On Thursday we looked up the different organizations that we could volunteer at. We found this two places, one called Joy Junction that cares for and feeds homeless families in the area. The other was a shelter for women, the Barrett House. Both had a list of supplies they needed, so we put some pen to paper and headed down to Walmart to do some shopping.

We got lots and lots of food and hygiene products along with a few cleaning supplies. The only tricky part was filling our already full car with all of these things. But we managed to move things and people around enough to fit everyone in semi-comfortable.

The highlight of that trip was that Stan's entire right leg fell asleep before we got to Joy Junction. So when we got out he was dancing around like a crazy person, trying not to fall over, and fake crying rather loudly. I don't think I've laughed that hard in awhile :)

At Joy Junction we swept, mopped, and took out trash. We didn't get to interact with a lot of people, but it was nice to just be able to be there.

I think the fact that we were serving on our own free will was astonishing to many of guests and other volunteers.

After dropping off the other supplies at the Barrett House, we made our way down Route 66 to find somewhere to eat. Instead we found the coooolest hostile! so we totally had to stop.

They were full for the night, but we were able to talk with the people who worked there. They were really cool to talk with and it was awesome talking to them about love. Our tummies kept rumbling to be heading down to this cute little Route 66 diner for some shakes.

We're very thankful for the the support we've been given <3

Today we move on to the Grand Canyon! We're still figuring out details on camping and hostels but I know it will all be worked out. We hope to volunteer at an Indian reservation somewhere, but I'm not sure if we're going to be able to.

I can't wait to meet more people and keep learning to walk in love :)

<3emilyy>

introductions are in order.... 4:56 AM

dear jordan,

we hope you don't think we are crazy.... but, we decided to name our new purple octopus friend after you :)

we rescued him from the steak and shake parking lot and we've adopted him into the love each one family.... so world, meet jordan!

he really enjoyed the car ride today....

~loveeachone

tooday 4:41 AM

first: we love you emily b! thanks for letting us stay with you!

today we got to go see the goonies in the movie theatre and that was pretty sweeet...... we have been talking about how we want to see an old movie in the theatre and stan hadn't seen the goonies soo jason randomly looked it up and poof! there it was. the goonies showing in a movie theatre in wichita, KS. so we obviously had to go see it :)

next we got on the road headed for amarillo, tx..... which is the halfway point on our way to albuquerque, nm. the kansas country side is beautiful at all times of day!

it was a lovely drive :)

we even got to drive through a lightning storm tonight!

~ginger (i obviously stay up waaay too late....)