Hiking, hiking and more hiking.......and camping too!

This has been a great summer! We have hiked and camped a lot. Our family really draws close when we hike and camp and it's cheap or free! It's a lot of work to get ready, Maggie calculated on our last camping trip we would need to make 108 servings of regular meals, plus snacks and hiking food (hungry kids on a hike is not good!). I don't realize how much food we go through until I have to pack all of it for a 4 day camping trip. We have 2 more camping trips planned this year then a week long drive down the Oregon/California Coast camping all the way and finally ending up in Disneyland!!! Can't wait!

Brian liked hiking on Brian's loop at Shi Shi Beach which is located in the far Northwest Corner of the Continental US
Dungeness Spit
Shi Shi Beach, we had wanted to hike to this beach for years. Kelcey and I saw it on a travel show rated as one of America's top beaches. Finally this year we did it and was it worth it! Amazing tide pools, sea life, rocks to climb and a beautiful sandy beach.
Salt Creek, we stayed at Salt Creek Campground west of Port Angeles. I highly recommend this campgound during low tide. It was amazing.
Baker Rock on the Cowlitz river
Eunice Lake at Mount Rainier. Beautiful lake, hard hike!

Fun Pictures

Babies are here!!

KYLE our rooster


Last spring we went to the feed store bought 6 adorable, fluffy baby chicks. They were suppose to be all hens, but as they grew we realized that one of them was obviously not a hen. We really didn't want a rooster but we decided to keep him for a year and see if any of the hens would hatch out any babies. This hen, a Black Silkie, has been going broody off and on since last September. We finally let her start setting a few weeks ago. She hatched out 5 babies and is an excellent mother. Sooo cute!!

Lanae

One more picture

This picture is from my second trip to Ghana. Comfort had deteriorated so much in the 6 months since we first started the adoption process and got the first pictures of her. There were days in Ghana, like this one, where she felt so bad and was so puffy and would have lots of chest pain. It still completely amazes me how God kept her alive and how she is doing so great now.
One of the verses that God gave me before I left was 'Behold I have put before you an open door which no man can shut' Rev. 3:8 and He really did! Thank you Lord for those open doors and for sending us to do Your work. The last 3 years of my life have been full of the most difficult trials, the most faith building moments and the most amazing joy-filled times. I would do it again in a second! Totally worth every moment.

Lanae

Homecoming Day!!!!

Two years ago today we arrived home from Ghana!! Today we will be looking back at all of the trials and all of the miracles that it took to get our kids home.

Here is Brian now (oh my gosh, isn't he handsome!):
Brian in Ghana:
This is our beautiful Josephine now:
Josephine in Ghana:
Comfort has changed the most, here she is today without the puffy face caused by her heart defect, LOVE her smile:
Comfort in Ghana:
HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO US!!

Lanae

Train Museum Field Trip

I LOVE our homeschool co-op!! And I LOVE that we now have a field trip coordinator!! YAY!!! We have gone on some awesome field trips this year including this one on Thursday to the NW Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, WA. For $5 we got to learn all about steam trains, what train whistles are used for, what type of cargo trains carry and we even got to go on an hour long train ride in an antique train!!! Hands on history is the best and the museum did a great job. We had a lot of fun.

Did anyone notice that my daughter-in-law and grandkids are in the pictures? I feel so blessed that not only are my grand daughters being homeschooled, but they also come to our co-op :)

Lanae

My Birthday at the Park

Actually we went to several parks! The older girls are in Alaska on a cruise and Tyler was at work so we took the 4 younger kids and went park hopping. We usually go to one park but this time we decided why not park hop! It was really fun! We stayed at each park about 20 minutes then hopped in the van and headed to the next one. The kids had a great time and we didn't even go to any parks with 'toys' just beach parks. We will definitely be doing this again.

Lanae