Heat Wave

Summer has finally arrived in Vancouver. Thursday we went white water rafting on the Deschutes River in Eastern Oregon. Jared was one of the guides for the college group, so they let me tag along. There were 60 students in eight rafts. Ours was named the Platypus... we attacked other rafts using the platty whack techinique (aka splashing them with our oars)... there was no defense against it.

Last night we celebrated Caleb's birthday with a barbeque at a park. After slack lining, frisbee, hot dogs, and cake, we went to Nate & Em's for Rock Band fun on the X-box. I never would have guessed that making horrible music could be so much fun.


Today the official high for Vancouver was 101 degrees! We celebrated by turning on the AC. By the time early afternoon rolled around we were tired of being inside, so we checked out the disk golf course at WSU. The course in Portland that we have been to is almost entirely in deep shaded forest... not so at WSU. In fact, there wasn't a single part of the course with any shade at all. Determined, we made it through all nine holes, motivated by the reward of Coldstone Ice cream at the end (Jared's coworkers graced us with a giftcard as a goodbye gift). We even came out sunburn free... I must thank my shirt-bonnet for that.

Jared tees off


Putting with style


Ada enjoyed rolling around in (and eating) the dry grass


This morning I harvested cauliflower from the garden. We ate some for dinner and it was scrumptious!

Laura Olson

Laura is one of Jared's good friends from Indo (and now a good friend of mine too). Back in 2006 she stayed with us before embarking on a two year adventure with YWAM. She went all over: China, Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia... I think I left some out too. Last week while on her way to Minnesota to see family, she paid us another visit. It was amazing to catch up and hear stories of all her adventures and challenges.

Jared went on a hike with Laura and Aaron (the SPU student/Indonesia MK living with us for the summer)

On the one night that I didn't work, we stayed up late eating Tom Kah Gai & Mi Goreng, playing Settlers, and looking at Laura's photos. Laura's friend Jessica from Portland joined us.

Putting the Men to Work

Last Saturday Jared, Anthony, and Aaron all helped out in the yard. I was in heaven! Our lawn mower had been very fickle for several weeks... that along with plenty of rainy weather meant that the backyard grass (actually more like weeds) were approaching several feet tall! With the guys help, we got all the grass mowed and edged. We also put up some latice under the deck, which made the flower bed look a hundred times better. It has been months since the yard looked so good.


Mom, here is the picture of the Oregon Grape. I'm pretty sure it has more than doubled in size this spring.




Now if we could only get some healthy green grass to grow! Who knew a green lawn could be so difficult to achieve.

A Fond Farewell to New Heights North

This Sunday was our last time at New Heights North (NHN) since Jared's new job will have him working at other New Heights locations. For nine months now Jared has been working with the middle school ministry at NHN every Sunday morning. It was not only great to connect with the middle school kids, but also the leaders and high school volunteers. Ryan Beck (Jared's co-leader) and his wife April are soon to be heading to Indonesia with New Tribes Mission. It has been great to connect with them during our time at NHN and we look forward to working and living side by side with them in a few years. When we left church this sunday, we found a farewell send-off in the form of saran wrap and window paint. While it was the WRX's first saran wrapping, I doubt it will be the last.

For a game prior to the lesson this week, Jared quized the group on how well they knew him... apparently he could have stumped them if he's asked how to spell his wife's name...

and how long he had been married...

and what holiday it was...

A Full House

Sunday mom Wiley stopped by on her way to visit her parents in New York. She stayed until this morning, but unfortunately that meant I only had one day off while she was in town. Jared got to see her a bit more Sunday and in the evenings. Jared had a half day yesterday, so mom observed in his class and then visited Karen's (Jared's mentor teacher) classroom. Karen's class was given a question and answer time, which was made up mostly of inquiries about what Jared was like as a second grader. Joan said most her stories involved insects or other crawling critters.

That night Karen and her husband Dave came over for dinner. Joan made delicious oven roasted potatoes to go with the salmon, asparagus, and salad. Karen brought dessert, a scrumptous blackberry cobbler. Robb and Anthony had just come into town that afternoon and joined us for dinner. As we were clearing the table, Kat and Caleb arrived with their friend Jared. Karen didn't seem at all phased that there were so many unexpected people to partake of her dessert. We had a great time of coffee, tea, and dessert in the living room with plenty of interesting conversation.

After Karen and Dave had gone home, we played a game of sardines. Aaron Rainey, an MK living with us this summer, made it home just in time for the final few rounds. It was great to have our house so full of friends... it has been awhile since we've had such a crowd.

An Early Anniversary on the Coast

To celebrate our upcoming two year anniversary, Jared suggested we spend a weekend at the coast... I did not need convincing. I have been wanting to visit the Oregon Coast for years now, even when we were back in Seattle. This weekend we stayed in a cute bed and breakfast in the town of Gearhart ten miles north of Cannon Beach. We arrived late Friday night, but with enough time for a quick trip to Gearhart's beach to watch the sunset. Ada made the trip with us and loved every minute spent on the beach. Her favorite activity was chasing birds, but seemed happy enough as long as there was sand under her feet.

Something tells me that Jared loves this dog...

Saturday we took a drive down the coast to Cannon Beach. While definitely more crowded than Gearhart, there was still pleanty of room to run and play.

This was the first time we had seen Ada near water and we were curious if she would swim. The weather was a bit dreary and cold, so we didn't expect to find out this trip, but Ada surprised us and, after a few timid steps, dove right in... going after a bird of course.

That night we headed back to Gearhart for a campfire on the beach, smore's and all. We would have smiled in the picture, but it was hard enough to just hold still for the long exposure.

Today after checking out of our hotel we explored Seaside for a bit, then headed up to the Washington coast for crab fishing. The sun finally came out and we were able to sit on the dock and take in the rays, reading and playing Yatzee. While we didn't catch any keepers, we did toss three back. Needless to say, it was a relaxing way to end our vacation weekend.