Mountain time

Each year during Kriz (the theological training time for university students) they head for the hills for a few days. Everyone stays at a hostel in the Alps and gets some solitude time to pray and hang out with God. Its also a bit of a break from the heavy teaching they've been drinking in all week.

We got some great hang out time with students.

Eliana made lots of friends.

The scenery was beautiful.

While up there I had a chance to go mountain climbing and summit my first Slovene mountain, Prisojnik. The crazy thing about this mighty hill is that there is a huge hole through the top of the mountain called "the window." We got to climb up through it on our 3000 ft elevation gain to the top. It was sweet, even though my camera battery died.

You can see the hole, which is like 70 feet high, in this photo.

Here is a shot looking back down through the hole. It's hard to see but in the bottom right of the picture there are some iron posts and cable that some crazy cats drilled into the mountain so we could climb this beast.

checkin out the town

Last Sunday Sharon and I got to walk around downtown Ljubljana. We had a fun time getting acquainted with our new home and getting a feel for the city. We also got a chance to pray and ask God to show us where we should live.

Here are some lovely girls in a lovely setting.

Here is the administration building for Ljubljana University

Eliana appreciating some Slovene art

And finally my hungry girls sitting down for

some much deserved pizza.

Please join us in prayer that God would show us which apartment to rent. One that would not only be a place of refuge for my girls but a place where students experience God's love and life changing community that they can't shake.

In country

Before take off on Wednesday

Saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa Morrow

We arrived in country a few days ago and are trying to adjust to the time change, and by us I primarily mean Eliana.

Our trip - We were scheduled to leave at 4:30pm on Wednesday from Seattle but due to mechanical problems our flight was delayed 3 hours. That meant that we would miss our connection in Iceland (we had a 35 min. layover). But before we left Seattle they already had us rerouted through Norway and though it would add an extra 7 hours to our travel time, we would still make it.
By providence however, the airline superintendent upgraded me and my two and a half ladies to first class for the 8 hour flight to Iceland. SWEEEEET! The extra leg room and comfy seats were highly appreciated by Sharon, and I wasn't complaining as I sipped some fine red wine and ate my steak.
We got to Iceland and were herded from one flight to the next and were off to Norway. Upon arrival there we had 5+ hours to wait, so we got some lunch and our little girl who had no idea where she was let alone what time it was got a nap in her little tent in the middle of the Oslo airport. We hopped our last flight to Munich, Germany and got in at 9:00pm Thursday evening. Josh Patty met us there and we loaded up the van and started off on the 4 hour drive to Ljubljana, Slovenia. I was able to stay awake and enjoyed the silhouettes of the alps as we scurried through them on the way to our new home.
We got in to the Patty's around 2:30am and got to sleep around 3:45. Luckily jet lag kicked in and my thoroughly confused body was up a couple hours later.

My girls livin the vida loca in first class

Here is my sleep deprived girls in Norway

Ready for takeoff

We leave for Slovenia tomorrow!

The time has finally come and we are ready to go. It's been tough saying goodbye's for the last 2 weeks. I (matt) don't do well with goodbye's. In fact when saying "see ya'" I often have an allergic reaction where my eyes get irritated and begin to drain. Unfortunately the doctors say there is nothing they can do. And every now and then its contagious, so sorry if I infected you.

I said goodbye to my family last week and we are now in Tacoma, Washington saying our goodbye's to Sharon's family before we leave from Seattle to Europe tomorrow afternoon.

It has been great to be here for Hazel's' (Sharon's mom) birthday. She had some of her sisters from Australia in town, so its been a real treat to hang with the reli's (australian for relative).

Thanks Mimi and Papa

The last two weeks I (Eliana) got to live with my Mimi and Papa. My mom and dad needed a place to stay before they started the move to Slovenia. I loved my time with them. I got to do so many things. Like...

Watering the flowers,

Story time,

Swimming,

Chatting with Mimi,

Walking in the driveway (I love rocks),

Taking a break with Papa,

Riding the go-cart (I now know why some people call Mimi "speeder")

Eating good food (Mimi fed me PB&J and lots of cookies :)

I even got to play with great grandpa Mormance,

and see my cousins,

And more cousins,

I love my cousins,

imitate famous movie stars,

It was so good to spend so much time with family, I had so much fun

(I love my family so much)

And I love my Mimi and Papa SO MUCH!!!

Thanks for taking good care of me.

Things that make me smile

Wow - it's been a long time since I (Sharon) have posted. Matt's been doing much better than me at keeping this updated. So, in an attempt to "catch up" and because everyone prefers photos to lots of text. . .here are some photos of things that make me smile.

My mama and her grandbaby

Hobbes loves Eliana. And Eliana loves Hobbes.

(I'm just glad her mouth wasn't wide open - eww!)

(Sidenote - right now, every animal is "puppy" to her. It's pretty cute.

She'll see a cow and say "puppy" like she is so excited that she knows the word.)

Life with this man is never boring!

I can't help but smile every time I look at this photo!

She loved her day at the pool. . .

. . .and I loved getting to snuggle with my water baby.