Finally... a very late update.

The end of August found us on the road again, headed up to Washington for the Shield of Faith Labor Day weekend conference/family camp. We left Thursday morning and arrived at camp Friday evening. The weekend was a fun and encouraging time. There was speaking in the mornings and open sharing time and singing. Then the afternoon was free time. There was beautiful lake for swimming and boating in, a volleyball court, a climbing wall, and other fun things to do. After dinner there was another meeting time. The meetings were encouraging and convicting. One theme was complete dependence on the Lord. On Saturday there was a special time of baptism. One girl wanted to be baptized, so we all went down to the lake and her father baptized her. Then one by one many more people also wanted to be baptized. It was neat to see God working in people's lives. It was such a fun camp that when Monday came and it was time to leave it seemed like it shouldn't have been over already.
From camp we and the Keulens carpooled over to Montana. The original plan was to stay up on our old ranch in the guest house. But at the last minute it was being used as a school during the day. So, the alternative plan was to camp up on some land that Grandpa still owns up there. We got in to Missoula after 10 pm. Since we hadn't had dinner we stopped at Taco Bell. We all piled out and headed for the door not realizing that only the drive through was still open. After standing there reading the menu through the door and looking quite funny I'm sure (there were 15 of us in all), Mr. and Mrs. Keulen went through the drive through and made one large order and then we were on our way. By the time we made another stop at the grocery store and finally arrived at the property it was very late, and very dark, the field was overgrown with tall grass, and we were tired. Something about driving into a bumpy field at night and bringing our friends with us to camp there just struck some of us as really funny and we had a laughing attack in the back of our van. We were so tired that we did not even set up tents but just laid our sleeping bags on plastic. It didn't seem like it would rain anyway, so what did it matter? Well, at six thirty in the morning we woke up to drops of rain falling on us. Thankfully it didn't rain too much, but I slept in the car after that anyway :) We had a very slow morning that day. We moved everything down to the old schoolhouse that was not being used any more at the ranch. Then we ate breakfast, took showers, and explored the ranch a little. We went and got hamburgers for lunch then took a few walks in the afternoon. It was really fun to spend the day with the Keulens and to show them where we used to live. Before all going to bed we had a Bible study. We were glad to be sleeping inside that night because it rained all night. The next day they had to get ready to leave, but before they left some of us walked down to see the pond and also enjoyed looking at the old farm equipment.
After the Keulens left we spent two more nights there and were able to visit our friends the Browns and the Harringtons. When we left Montana we took several days to drive home. We went over to the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington. It was very beautiful there. One day we got to ride on the car ferry, that was interesting. Then we missed the next ferry so had to wait two hours for another one! It was a good thing I had brought a book. We stooped at a beautiful beach that evening just at sunset. Melissa took some beautiful pictures. Altogether it was a really fun trip with lots of activities pack in. Here are some of the pictures that we took.



The campground where the conference was.


Singing


Swimming in the lake


Playing volleyball


Our late night Taco Bell visit


Setting up camp out in the field


Eating burgers and fries


An old building where we took one of our walks


Our dinner table in the old schoolhouse


Dinner at the Browns


The view from the ferry


On the Olympic Peninsula


Melissa took this picture at the beach.

Fresh Produce for Dinner

It has been so much fun cooking with the fresh vegetables from the garden.


Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with herbs, oil and vinegar.


A colorful variety of tomatoes from the garden.


Red Sweet Corn


Green, yellow, and purple string beens


Hot peppers for salsa!


Dry corn for grinding later.

Trip to Music Camp

Last week we went up to Sisters, Oregon for our second year at Booher Family Music Camp. This time Melissa stayed home to take care of the the garden and the animals (especially Tizzy). It was kind of strange going without her. We took Jonathan's friend Trevor A. with us also, so there were still five of us.
We left very early Saturday morning and stayed over night near Grants Pass. We had a chance to go swimming in the Rogue River and to pick wild blackerries. We arrived at camp around 3 pm Sunday afternoon and got set up and checked in. Then a busy week full of activies began. I took fiddle classes everyday, every night there was a concert, jamming or dancing. During free time I played games, went on hay rides, talked to people or sometimes helped in the kitchen. I even did some crazy things this year like .. . go on a motorcycle ride. It was not something I ever would have thught I'd do. But it was pretty fun, not something I'd want to do often though :). I had more fun this year than last year. Everything was more familiar, I knew more people, and got to know more people then last year.
Here are few pictures from the week.


Jonathan and Trevor Swimming in the Rogue River


The view from camp


Visiting over one of the delicious meals


Jenny and I having a nice talk.


My motorcycle ride


Rachel Z. working in the kitchen. I enjoyed being in the same class with her and getting to know her.


Dancing


There were many backrubs given throughout the week


My class playing during the Friday night student concert

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are such cheerful flowers. I love growing them in my garden. These are some that are growing in the corn patch. I can't imagine summer without sunflowers.

Independence Day!

Pasta Party

Yesterday afternoon we had the Keulen ladies over for a pasta making day. Then later in the evening the rest of their families joined us for a pasta dinner. We had lots of fun making the pasta, visiting, and laughing. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. :)


Studying the recipe. Let's make sure we do this right!


Mixing the dough. The correct way to do it is on a board, but we decided a bowl would be easier. :)


Jenny, myself, and Beth putting the dough through the machine.


Bekah, Mary and Faith cutting the noodles. Faith worked hard making lots of pasta. She probably made more than anyone.


Aimee and Beth got quite creative with theirs. They cut out shapes and letters using knives.


The Pasta Ladies!!


Mom and Ruth cooking the pasta


Mr. Keulen admiring the result of much hard work.


Visiting in the living room.

A Wedding

On Saturday we drove down to the L.A. area for Gabe and Mandy's wedding. We carpooled down with the Keulens, making one stop for lunch at In 'n Out. Altogether the drive took about five hours. We arrived at around 4:30 and the wedding began at five. When we got there we had to quickly find a place to change from traveling clothes into our nice clothes. That was a bit of a difficulty but it worked out fine. It is always neat to see two people covenant before God in marriage. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun. We enjoyed seeing many friends again. We drove home that night after the wedding and arrived home at 1:30.
I took quite a few pictures, so here are some of them.

The parents of the bride and groom.


Mandy coming up the aisle with her father.


Mandy and Gabe saying their vows.


Mr. and Mrs. Gabe Booher


The bride and groom.


Gabe sang a song for Mandy...


...and Mandy sang a song for Gabe.


Gabe and Mandy dancing.

Keepin' Busy

We have all been keeping pretty busy around here lately. It is now officially summer, we have been having warm summer weather. We have been having lots of fun with Melissa's puppy, Tizzy. Last Sunday afternoon we took her over to the beach for the first time. She was so excited, there was so much to see and do! The waves made her a little nervous but she didn't mind getting wet.



Our friend Bethany also got a puppy and named her Sadie. Sadie is one of Tizzy's sisters. Whenever we get together they both bring their puppies. Tizzy and Sadie love it, they go wild and have a blast.



Tizzy love to see different people... when people come over or we take her to someone's house she gets so excited. This picture is at the neighbors house.



We have all been working on cleaning up the back porch for the last few weeks. Back in February we added on to the porch. So we were cleaning the old wood and oiling the whole thing. Oiling was such a messy job. I basicly was covered in it when I finished.





It has been fun to pick and use fresh fruit from our orchard. A few weeks ago the apricots were ripe. They were so big and juicy and delicious. This past week we picked all of the white nectarines. The tree was loaded. This is the first year we have gotten any good ones. Usually they are small and scaly. We have been having nectarine cobbler and crisp. Yum!





Now I am going to bore you all with more pictures of my garden. But this is so exciting to me. It is doing so well and I am kind of amazed. So here is a squash plant, a little tomatillo, tomatoes starting to come on, and the whole garden.









One other project I have been working on this week is sourdough starter. We have made sourdough starter before but is has never been very sour. So.. I ordered a sourdough culture here. I orderd the Italian cultures. It came with two different cultures. On Monday I started one. Activating it was a little trickky because it had to be a certian temperature. It took three days to activate fully. Then yesterday morning it was ready to use. I made one loaf of bread to try it. It takes a long time for sourdough to rise, pretty much all day, then it was ready for dinner. We ate it with spagetti and meatballs. Everyone agreed that bread was a success. It was nice and sour and had a nice crispy crust. Next week I want to start the other culture!







Tomorrow we are heading down south for Gabe and Mandy's wedding. I am really looking forward to it. There should be a new post soon after I get back.