alabama.

This weekend Nate and I headed to Madison, Alabama. Nate's friend Ryan (from Wichita) was in Madison to preach at the church of Nate and Ryan's former youth leader, Brian. We drove down Friday night. It was a quick trip--only 100ish miles.

We spent the evening with Brian, his wife Morgan, and their kids Nathan (Nate's namesake) and Libby. We ate dinner at Famous Joe's Pizzeria. It was delicious! We even saw Famous Joe himself.

We came back and talked, and I promptly fell asleep about the time the kids went to bed (um, 8:30 ... note the picture). The guys had a good time catching up though.

For breakfast Morgan made delicious cinnamon bread and we relaxed some more. Ryan built a tower out of cups. My body was a little too relaxed and I fell asleep again until lunchtime. (I promise I didn't spend this entire weekend sleeping!)

Brian grilled sandwiches for lunch, then the guys went to buy stones to build the Mayfields a fire pit like the one we made in our backyard. We put together the fire pit and then started a game of backyard football.

Nate, Morgan, and I were on a team, versus Brian, Ryan, and little Nate. It was a long game and we took a halftime break and played some more. I think Brian, Ryan, and little Nate won. All I know for sure is that today I am sore!

Saturday night we put the fire pit to good use! S'mores after and incredible steak dinner. (The Mayfields are the best.)

Ryan preached at Brian's church, The Brook, this morning. The church has been doing a series through the book Ryan recently wrote called A Misplaced Joy. He talked about the Passover from the historical Old Testament perspective and then from the New Testament Christo-centric perspective. Ryan is planting a church in downtown Wichita, Kansas, called The Seed. The Mayfields said it's exciting to see how much Nate and Ryan have grown since they were in the youth group years ago.

A nice weekend getaway. We are back in Nashville watching some NFL football and happy that our cats  survived the weekend alone. Odie was pretty cute and snuggly. You can watch a video of him here.