4th of July

Vancouver normally has a great firework show (or so I hear) for the 4th, but it was canceled this year due to the economy : ( So Richard and I went to a nearby town along the Columbia River called Washougal and they had a great firework show along the beach. It was a really pretty night, perfect weather to watch fireworks. We did come a little unprepared though, next time we will remember to bring bug spray. There were so many mosquitoes along the beach we had to keep walking to try and avoid them!

You can see the moon in the east...

and a beautiful sunset in the west.

The fireworks were shot from a boat in the middle of the river. That made them even brighter because they reflected off of the water.

It was a fun and quiet 4th of July this year since we didn't have much family to hang out with. Here is a video of the finale so whoever reads this can experience a little of what we experienced : )

Frenchman's Bar

Every Wednesday night, our high school youth group gets together. For the entire summer, Richard decided that it would be fun to do off-campus things every Wed. We had a BBQ one Wed, went putt-putting another and this past Wednesday we went to a beach/park along the Columbia River called Frenchman's Bar.


Many of the upcoming 9th graders have started coming to the high school group now and it has been fun getting to know some of them. We all played some volleyball, ate food and just hung out.

In a couple of weeks, we'll be taking about 10 of the youth to San Francisco on a mission trip!

June AZ trip

Richard and I got to spend last week in sunny Arizona! It was definitely sunny, and HOT! But I was happy to get out of the cloudy Washington weather and experience summer for a little bit : )

It's always great spending time with our family and friends in AZ. We had a lot packed into our week; people to see, restaurants to eat at, a bridal shower and a wedding!

Our niece Sophia is getting so big! She is so cute and is getting a little personality, it was fun hanging out with her (and her parents too : )

Here is little Avery Layne. She is my cousin Karie and Steve's little baby and was born almost a month ago, I was excited to see her! She was so sweet and fragile.

Here we are at Karie and Avery's Sip and See. I guess it's this new type of baby shower that cool people put on after the baby is born... we're a little behind the trends in the Northwest.

While we were there, Richard and I went to his childhood friend, Daniel's, wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was great to see friends.

Here we are with Daniel and Christina, the new married couple.

On Sunday we were able to go to our old church, McDowell Mountain. We really miss it and it was so great to see everyone and experience the great fellowship there. Afterward, Sophia and Emma put on a great show for us.

Richard and my biggest little brother, Joey.

We had so much fun in AZ! Thank you everyone for caring about us so much : ) Next visit, Christmas!

Bowling night

Last Friday, we took the seniors in our youth group bowling. This will be one of the last times we'll get to hang out with them as a group now that they are all graduating from high school and moving on up into the grown-up world.

It was a lot of fun! It was cosmic bowling, so we started at 10pm and bowled until 1:30am! I haven't been up that late in a long time, but I made sure I drank some coffee before we started. I think the best I bowled was around a 125, which is high for me, and the best Richard bowled was around a 145, which is low for him : )

Here's Richard doing his awesome bowling moves.


We've had a lot of good times with this group of seniors this past year. They have definitely made our transition of moving here easier and we will really miss them next year : ( Hopefully they will come back and visit every now and then : )

Dog Mountain hike

Yesterday, on Memorial Day, Richard and I went on an 8 mile hike up and down Dog Mountain with some of our friends. Dog Mountain is about 45 minutes east of Vancouver near Stevenson, WA. I'm not really sure why they call it Dog Mountain, it doesn't really look like a dog, but there were a lot of dogs with their owners hiking the mountain too : )

We got up at 6:30 am and made it to the mountain around 8:30. It took about 3 hours to hike up the mountain, and another 1 1/2 to hike back down. We were all exhausted by the end and my legs are really hurting today!

This is the group that went with us, outside of the woman's bathroom...

These are our friends Sarah and Brandon. They just moved to WA not too long ago also, so we have something in common : )

The first half of the hike up the mountain was was pretty much in the shaded forest.

About half way up the mountain, you come out of the forest and the hills were covered with yellow, purple, white and orange wild flowers, it was beautiful!

This is the Columbia River. We were in Washington but the opposite side of the river is Oregon.

We made it to the top! I was so happy to sit down and eat lunch. To me this picture looks like we're sitting on a hill with a fake backdrop behind it, but that was really how high up we were!

Here's a little video from the top of the mountain.

Lilac's

Lilac's are my favorite flower. They smell sooo good and they are my favorite color too, purple! Last week I went over to Richard's cousin Tana's house to babysit her kids for the day. We were playing outside because the weather has been beautiful and I noticed that she had two lilac bushes in her backyard, I was so excited!

When my family lived in Ohio, we had a purple lilac bush in our backyard and I missed them when we moved back to Arizona.

Here are Tana's kids, Ethan and Taylor. They are so cute and I had such a fun day with them : )

Middle School Retreat

This past weekend, Richard and I went on the annual Middle School Retreat to Dunes Bible Camp on the coast of Longbeach, WA. I went as a cabin leader and Richard went to play in the worship band. It was definitely an interesting experience. I was hesitant going into the weekend because, to tell the truth, middle schoolers scare me. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun (and tiring)! It was great getting to know some of the kids that will be in the high school group next year.

There were about 50 kids and 10 adult leaders, luckily I didn't have to ride in the school bus, I got to ride in a nice, quiet van : )

These were the 7 girls in my cabin, there were four 8th graders and three 7th graders. Here they are practicing for their "Saturday Night Live" skit.

This is the worship band. Nathan Arnold was the main guy, Richard was playing electric guitar, he's on the right.

Playing dodgeball

The camp was right on the coast, which is a little different from the California coast we're used to. There was a big grassy field, and then you walk onto the sand. It was a little cold and one day it even hailed on us while we were playing games on the beach, but it was still fun to see the ocean.

It was neat getting to talk about God with the girls in my cabin. It definately stretched me as a Christian and helped me to understand that Richard and I were brought here for a reason.

So that was our first experience of the WA coast, maybe next time we go it won't involve teenagers : )