Steppin' Out

Steppin' Out is an annual Blacksburg Tradition! It's a festival the first weekend of August where downtown is shutdown and blocked off for vendors!! There were HUNDREDS of vendors and people from all over the New River Valley came to participate!! So, as an outreach we gathered together as a church and passed out over 300 bottles of water, to show the love of Christ in a practical way! We had a great time, got the name of Jesus out to the community and told them a little about Northstar while we were at it!!


loadin' up the coolers

some volunteers

Cody and Sam workin' the corner :)

We gave out all of our waters in like 30 mins, so we headed to the other teams and helped out!

Our new pastor and his daughter chatting it up with some townies

Just a small part of the festival

Erin and her kids trying to hoola-hoop

All the Pastor's and their families (minus Carolyn, Jeff's wife, taking the picture!!)

We had a great time!! It was also quite effective because we've had a ton of people come to church the next day saying they got our info at Steppin' Out from when we were handing out waters!! Awesome experience--hope you can be a part of it next time!!

Blessings,
LaRae

www.northstarfamily.org

Dinner with the Neighbors

Last Friday, Cody and I went over to Sara and Traci's house for dinner! Sara was one of our college students at VT and was a great member of our small group! She used to live across the street from us, but her and Traci just moved two doors down from us!! :)


Our lovely host preparing great food!!

Old Married Couple!


Sara, Xavier, and Traci (Xavier is Sara's boyfriend)



Thanks Y'all for having us over for dinner!! It was so delicious and we had a great time!! Thanks again!! :)

Oh Canada!!

So, I've had some inquiries (mom) about what a "blogee" is....webster's dictionary defines it as...haha just kidding. I'm not quite sure it is a word, but since I'm the BloggER, I figured the readers were BlogEES! haha. ok on to important matters--VACATION!!

This past week, Cody and I were northernbound! Cody's family has a cottage on a lake in Canada and we packed up with his family and didn't look back!


*The funky read arrow is about exactly where the cottage is on Kagawong Lake

The road trip begins!! The drive from Ohio to the ferry in Canada is TEN HOURS!!! Cody's family has a tradition of stopping at the first Tim Horton's (think America's Dunkin' Donuts..donut holes included) after passing the Canadian border. After 5 hours driving from Virginia to Ohio, then another 6 hours in the car, I was ready for a break!!

We finally made it to the ferry--we left at 7am and had a 2 hour boat ride to Manitoulin Island. *at this point, i was just happy we were only an hour away! I'd been up TOO long already! 

Cody and his nephew Noah spending quality time on the ferry--Noah was sure he saw a few humpback whales (ahhh to have a 3 year old's imaginiation!!)

We finally arrived at the cottage...Noah had his priorities in line, first things first...FISHING!

Later that night, hanging by the fire and roasting marshmallows

First of many gorgeous sunsets

Noah finally caught a fish!!

So did Mark, Travis and Cody!!

Fish for the fryin'

Noah was pretty pumped for his little fish

Travis learning the ropes of fish fileting

meanwhile, I was inside making the fam some world-famous banana puddin'

Before dinner, we had a little game of cornhole. Me and Grandpa v. Travis and Vanessa

close game

But, the rookies won it in the end!!!

Wednesday, we headed to the town's farmers market--Vanessa got some fresh swiss chard and we had it for dinner--YUM.OOO

Cody's grandma was haggling with the granolas

the gals, and noah :)

Robin checkin' out the sea gulls made out of wood.

When the girls returned, i came home to this....scuba steve???

the boys were 'fishing' for crawdaddys for bait

Vanessa cutest preggers was holding the bucket

Mark, always the fire starter

Grandpa and Robin always the spectators

Noah showing me his muscles

Local waterfalls

beautiful

under the falls

jet skis!

family photo!

Cody's brother, Travis, and his wife Vanessa and son, Noah.

our little fam (noah wanted to join in on)

We had such an awesome time in Canada---We even got a little sun, so we aren't various shades of 'see-thru' anymore!!!! Hope you're all enjoying the summer and taking a few of your 'sick days' to enjoy the sunshine! 

Until next time,

LaRae

A Prayers Fruition

Hello blogees!!

Well, I know I've been missing in action but there is much to explain and tell!! As I've explained a few times, our church has been on a Senior Pastor search! Well, after much prayer and consideration WE FINALLY HAVE ONE!!!!

I'd like to formally introduce you to Jeff Noble and his family, Carolyn (wifey), Sam (son) and Adelyn (daughter).



Jeff's first Sunday was July 26th *the day we left for Canada, but more of that later* and it was amazing!! The week before that was Jeff's first week in the office and Cody came home every night encouraged and excited about Jeff's vision and desire to see Northstar get out into the Blacksburg community and reach them for Jesus Christ!

We are so excited for the days to come and to see God's plan in using him and his family in our community!!!

Welcome to Blacksburg Noble Family!!!

Check out the Nobles blog and our church's website at
www.northstarfamily.org