What have the Pendletons been up to?

If you have been on the edge of your seat wondering what the Pendleton's are up to these days...relax, click on the link below, and enjoy a few merry words from us and lots of pictures.


Pendleton Christmas Letter

Sneak peak...Back in Italy!

Conwy Castle, Wales

Scotland

Twilight at Eileen Donan Castle

Scotland, land of the bagpipe, home of William Wallace, range of the highland cow, and castle heaven. Being that we are already on this side of the pond and also that I (Caleb) had saved up a few dollars for our anniversary, we decided to take an early anniversary and enjoy seven days of Scotland. Since I was planning the trip, logically, it would include as many castle stops as possible.  We drove over 1,500 miles and along the way saw more than  25 castles, magnificent and rugged Scottish countryside, waterfalls, holy sites, ancient  Roman walls, and quaint little villages.

Hadrian's Wall 122AD  (74 miles long)

Justus not liking the cold-windy walk - Hadrian's Wall

Overlooking Edinburg

Our trip started out by what was supposed to be 4 ½ hour trip (according to our faithful GPS) from Newcastle-Under-Lyme, England to Edinburgh, Scotland. It turned out to be 9 hours. We learned that whatever estimated time the GPS said it would take us, we were to double it due to nursing, food, potty, castle, and beautiful view stops.  The saying, “getting there is half the fun” was our motto except we changed it to “getting there is half the fun and twice the time” Especially, since every other day we spent a day driving getting to our next destination. We had a blast seeing most of Scotland. On our way to Edinburgh we stopped at the English/Scottish boarder to check out the 2000 year old Hadrian's Wall. If you've seen the movie "The Eagle" they show what it would've looked like 2000 years ago when the Romans where trying to keep the Pics (ancient  Scots) from attaching Roman settlements. The wall went from the West to the East coast. 

Justus enjoying a picnic in the castle courtyard

After Hadrian's wall we arrived in Edinburgh, which is full of history with its castle that has changed from Scottish to English hands and back and forth again, to its palace, and ancient city. Charity and I seem to be on the same page, big cities are interesting and full of history and museums, but we prefer the small town and countryside. Of course, the exception to that would Rome and Prague. While in Edinburgh, I dropped Charity off to get some pampering=haircut (she has had her hair cut in 4 different countries{USA,Mexico,Ireland, and Scotland) and snuck off to buy her some exquisite Celtic jewelry. That night we went for a romantic walk around Edinburgh. It is always fun to see a city in the daytime and then at night again. 

William Wallace Monument - Looks like something out of the Lord of the Rings

FISH and chips - "What ya got Mama?"-Justus

After a couple of days in Edinburgh on the east coast we took the scenic route to the west coast port town of Oben(with a few stops at the Wallace Monument/Sterling Castle/Inverary Castle). Here we stayed at a great B&B with the best hostess. Of course being a coastal city we had to have some fish and chips.








The next day we booked the three Isle tour, Staffa, Mull, and Iona. I don’t usually like to do tours, but this was kinda forced upon me since there was no other way to see the Isles. In the end I was very glad we did. Our coach driver was hilarious. It was like a comedy show, but on a bus. Here are a few extracts:

Highland Cow

“See those cows? Those are Highland cows, they are strong, brave, good looking, humble, courageous, and benevolent…I am a Highlander as well.”

“You know how they do those sales, the buy one get something free? Well, the other day I bought a cup of coffee and got a free wife.”

“This part of the trip is boring. It’s a great time to take a nap, I’ll go ahead and take one too.” – he’s the driver

“See that boat (it was a two man dilapidated boat)? That is similar to the one you’ll be going on to the Isles, expect yours will be smaller”

Isle of Staffa

The boat rides to the Isles were amazing. The Isle of Staffa is an incredible and unique volcanic formation. The isle is made up of naturally formed hexagonal pillars and home to puffin birds. Fascinating!

Isle of Iona Monastery 

Afterward we spent half of the day at the sacred Isle of Iona, where Saint Columba started a monastery in 563 A.D.  The monastery was hugely successful, and played a crucial role in the conversion to Christianity of the Picts of Scotland in the late 6th century and of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in 635. A large number of satellite institutions were founded, and Iona became the center of one of the most important monastic systems in Great Britain and Ireland. While here one can feel the spirit of peace. I felt as if the centuries of this Isle being used to seek God had left an imprint of God’s peace. The Scottish writer, William Sharp, poetically expressed the spirit of Iona "To tell the story of Iona is to go back to God, and to end in God."

Eilean Donan Castle

Our journey continued into the Scottish highlands where we got see some of the most impressive castles I’ve ever seen. As we meandered through barren and rough mountainous highlands we came upon Stalker castle, which was built completely on an island and could only be accessed by boat or when there was a drought. Further on we got to see Eilean Donan Castle. Eilean is one of my very favorite castles; I even had it on my bucket list.

After the castles we drove to Isle of Skye, (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Eilean Sgitheanach) it is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous center dominated by the Cuillin hills. Even though there was a cool waterfall and landscapes, this area and the B&B we stayed at were our least favorite (the breakfast at our B&B was old and the bread was even moldy…yuck). If you are going to Scotland, avoid Skye and enjoy somewhere else instead.

Even though we’d gotten to see some spectacular things in Scotland there was more to come. For about an hour we drove next to Lock Ness looking for Nessy, but to our chagrin we didn’t get to see him/her. We ended up in Cairngorms National Park, the epicenter of castles. After so much traveling, Charity had seen as many castles as she needed to. So we decided that she would like to spend the day in town visiting the little shops and taking it easy and I would do some castle hoping.  We both had a really fun time respectively.

We finished the glorious trip with a visit to the Boarder Abby’s in the south of Scotland.

Here are a few pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure: Videos and Slideshow

A Belated Christmas Letter

Warmest belated Christmas greetings, and best wishes for a New Year full of purpose. As the end of 2011 draws near, we thought a letter with a few words about what has transpired in our lives over this, the most eventful and wonderful year yet, were in order.

Well, let us start at the beginning...the start of 2011 found us blessed with our first baby, Justus Finley Pendleton, born on December 1^st, 2010. It also found us as sojourners in Uvalde, TX as we had just moved out of our San Antonio home and were anticipating a move to England soon thereafter. Not to be daunted by all of these changes, we signed up to take a five day training course from Christian Listeners USA (CLUSA), a non-profit whose mission is to “be the listening heart of Jesus Christ in a broken world.” 

Days after the course finished, our little family boarded a plane headed for a study-abroad program in England. We arrived exhausted and without a home, but thanks to the valiant efforts of Caleb, the help of kind owners of a B&B in Keele, and the favor of God, we moved into a lovely two-story flat (aka apartment or townhouse) in Newcastle-under-Lyme. We spent the next six months there as Caleb studied at Keele University. 













We had the time of our lives: we bonded as a family, cherished every day with Justus, learned the ways of a different culture, read lots of books, traveled a good deal (Czech Republic, Italy, Scotland, and Wales), soaked up the beautiful green, wet , and cool England, entertained friends and family from the U.S., visited over 30 castles, saw ancient wonders, and made many new friends.

July found us back in Texas: visiting friends and family, taking the next level of training in Christian Listeners, and acclimating to the blistering Texas Summer; in August we were off to Manzanillo,Mexico to spend time with family, but come September, we settled down in Uvalde as Caleb's school schedule necessitated. During this time, we also started a new business in the trucking/oil industry. In October, we were surprised and overjoy to find we are expecting another little blessing; he/she is due June 19,2012. 

We have only six more months to prepare Justus for big-brotherhood! December 1^st brought about Justus' first birthday which we celebrated with a trip to the San Antonio Zoo; Justus loved seeing all the animals, but his favorite were the fish. As this month comes to a close, we will celebrate Caleb's birthday, Jesus' birthday, head to Mexico, and celebrate the New Year with Caleb's side of the family.

2012 will be full of big events for us: in January, we will help teach and oversee a Christian Listening Retreat in Uvalde (it's not too late to sign-up; there's our shameless plug ;)), we also hope to move back to San Antonio towards the end of the month (keep your eyes out for a small home/cottage for rent). In May, Caleb will complete his undergraduate degree in Business management Information Systems from the University of Texas at San Antonio completely debt free. He will also get to participate in a study-abroad trip to China. In June, God willing, we will have baby Pendleton number two naturally, in fact we are even toying with the idea of doing a home-birth. July onwards we anticipate enjoying our expanding family, focusing on building/managing our business, working with CLUSA, and dreaming...about traveling, attending graduate school at Denver Seminary, and the Retreat/Healing Center that we hope to one day open. In a nutshell, there is the past year and the upcoming one in the lives of Caleb, Charity, Justus, and Baby-boy-on-the-way Pendleton. If you are dying to know more about  the life and times of Mr. Justus Finley, then check out his blog at www.blogforjustus.blogspot.com.

Warmly,

The Pendletons