staying in paris a few more days... its just too wonderful here!!

we scaled the eiffel tower & notre dame today!!
:)

gotta go - times up on the computer!!

paris, je t'aime!

the louvre

notre dame

everything is going so great - paris is absolutely as amazing and beautiful as it seems! delicious pastries & beautiful art!! tomorrow we might be going up into notre dame (it was closed today) & definitely up into the eiffel tower. but we walked all over today, through the louvre (wow!!), & just as we came upon the eiffel tower for the first time it was dusk. then the lights turned on & maybe 3 minutes later -- the most amazing light show!! the whole eiffel tower lit up & sparkling!! miss you all!

by the way...

we are in paris now!!! :)

Madrid!!

the cathedral in madrid

the palace real in madrid, just outside the gardens

getting his fill of wisdom and virtues...

the outside of the palace

the cathedral from the outside

Madrid!!

We´ve only got a couple minutes left on our timer here on this computér so we´ll make this fast.

We have been in Madrid for 2 days. It´s beautiful & very busy. But we´re off to Paris in the morning. We´ll get there around 2:30pm our time. Very exciting. We will be staying within miles of Versailles, Notre Dame, & of course the Eiffel Tower. We will be sure to post pictures of both Spain & Paris next time we have internet access (which is hard to come by here in Madrid!!)

love & miss you all!!

:)
Josh & Leslie

Galway

We made it to Galway yesterday by train. Pretty cool to see the whole country by train. It really IS as beautiful as you would think. Galway is on the other coast of Ireland. Today we are off to see the Cliffs of Moher & some other pretty cool sites -- castles & caves & such. We'll have to post pictures for sure later or tomorrow.

It's wayyy colder here than in Dublin. I suppose because it's so much closer to the coast. We are definitely bundled up but we brought the right stuff so we're comfy. :) We also stayed in the Kinlay House Hostel last night. That was an experience in itself haha. But we got lucky. We booked an 8 bed room but were upgraded to a 6 bed room & THEN we didn't have anyone else in the room with us. So it was just a cheap hotel room with a community bathroom/shower down the hall. AND we had free breakfast!! So not too shabby for our first stay in a hostel. I'm sure they won't all be so wonderful... But here's hoping!

Love you guys!
Josh & Leslie

DUBLIN!!!!

Day 2...

We are rested(10-11 hours of sleep) after a long trip and day...

We are now ready to continue on this journey.. spirits up.. sun out.. had a nasty (half-pint of) Guiness- done .. going to go see more of the beautiful Ireland then hopefully off to England(these Irish dont want us here so we have only a week or two until they kick us out!)

Here are some pics of the trip so far!

Miss you all!!!!!!!!!!

J.L

Dublin --

We're here. We're safe but chilly! Just trying to figure this whole thing out -- which I think we've decided will definitely take a few days. But hey, there's no rules so whatever. Might be back sooner than we thought though haha.

We'll write as soon as we can. Keep praying for us.

Josh & Leslie

well tomorrow is officially our last full day in the country!!

a lot of people have asked so just to keep everyone updated -- i was in a car accident friday evening & totaled josh's car. but i'm doing just fine & we ARE still leaving tuesday. just bad whiplash & sore muscles. :] 

this is a short one but keep us in your prayers!! 

we also have an email address for anyone who needs to contact us or can't comment the blog --

it's josh.leslie@live.com.

peace/love.

Leslie

For Mike McCormick

Lake-effect snow is produced in the winter when cold winds move across long expanses of warmer lake water, providing energy and picking up water vapor which freezes and is deposited on the lee shores. The same effect over bodies of salt water is called ocean effect snow, sea effect snow, or even bay effect snow. The effect is enhanced when the moving air mass is uplifted by the orographic effect of higher elevations on the downwind shores. This uplifting can produce narrow, but very intense bands of precipitation, which deposit at a rate of many inches of snow each hour and often bringing copious snowfall totals. The areas affected by lake-effect snow are called snowbelts. This effect occurs in many locations throughout the world, but is best known in the populated areas of the Great Lakes of North America.

If the air temperature is not low enough to keep the precipitation frozen, it falls as lake-effect rain. In order for lake-effect rain or snow to form, the air moving across the lake must be significantly cooler than the surface air (which is likely to be near the temperature of the water surface). Specifically, the air temperature at the altitude where the air pressure is 850millibars (roughly 1.5 vertical kilometres) should be 13°C lower than the temperature of the air at the surface. Lake-effect occurring when the air at 850 millibars is much colder than the water surface can produce thundersnow, snow showers accompanied by lightning and thunder (due to the larger amount of energy available from the increased instability).

10 days!!

well it's hard to believe but we're off in ten days!! things are really coming together. josh & i went shopping for some last minute toiletries & clothing today & i just finished packing my bag. except for just a few things we can't really pack until right before, we're all packed!! the bags are definitely full but really not too heavy. especially for all we have in them!! 

anyway, just checking in. dan left today for mexico! and we couldn't be more excited for him! if you wanna check out his blog it's holadanmains.blogspot.com. he's out in hermosillo attending the university, studying spanish, & soaking in as much as he can at the church down there. he's has such an amazing opportunity there! 

thanks for all the support as always! we are hoping to really get out there and see the world. & it's going to be an amazing time for us!!

love! :)

leslie & josh.