tree house camping

tina and luke outsider their tree house




Josh in the Oregon Caves










carson doing the zipline~ like a pro!











the girls enjoyed the swing there!

There's nothing else like sleeping in a tree house 37 ft. up while

it sways in the wind with the tree that it is attached to. Or hoping and praying that the suspension bridges were made by someone who knew what they were doing. We spent two nights hanging out with tina and luke at the Out 'n' About Treesort in Southern Oregon. We had a great time. We also spent a few hours visiting the Oregon Caves, so we were either a few dozen feet under the ground or above the ground all weekend. Lots more pictures on facebook.

we got a new llama

Baby Cakes was brought to our house to try to protect our goats after we lost two. She's still adjusting to being here but she is a pretty lady and we're hoping she'll work out well.

boys and guns!

yes, those are bullets flying!


NO, he's not happy is he?

Let me start this out with- we are not a violent family...really. My husband doesn't hunt and although we love our soldiers fighting for our freedom, i pray that my children will not feel led to pursue life in the military. All that to say, for the second year in a row, brett took the boys to shoot machine guns and hang out with tanks. It looks like they had a blast! Their smiles say it best. They went with some friends of theirs which added to the fun. I am certain this will be on the calendar for next year too.

lovin' the scrap metal junkyard!

if you've watched HGTV you'll know that it takes a special kind of person to love a scrap metal junkyard. Apparently i'm that kind of person. I love flea markets, garage sales and yes...now i'm a big fan of scrap metal! I think of the "trash to treasure" shows and my son thinks of "junkyard wars" wanting to create things that race and blow up. Either way, it has a little bit of everything there. On one end of the junkyard are the big machines that claw your metal out of your truck- amazing! and then there is the machine that smooshes it all into Wall-E cubes. Then my favorite part where they grab what they think someone may be interested in and put it aside to sell. There are piles of broken chainsaws, helium tanks, restaurant equipment, claw foot tubs, bicycles, parts of old trucks, street signs, welded creations, fire extinguishers, and barrels of rusty horse shoes just to name a few things. Carson picks up a railroad nail and holds it up and says "I bet the nails they used to put Jesus on the cross, looked a lot like these". Silence. He's right, they were probably very similar - what a somber thought. Man! Imagining that piercing his hand was almost too much to think about. God is so good to suffer so much for me. WOW! Thank you Jesus!

track

I've been spending every day after school hanging out with Josh and Meg while carson and brittany are at track practice. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching both of my track stars as they keep beating their personal records and seeing them realize how utterly amazing God has created them. Highlights have been watching brittany beat the school records in the 100, the relay, discus and high jump and watching Carson come in first place in the 200 last week! Yeah, a few proud tears fell from my eyes when he was telling me "Mom--i did great,the whole time..i did great!" That may sound boastful when you read it, but when he said it, it was a comment of total surprise- he was amazed at what he had done. He said " I could see this one kid coming up behind me and I thought- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! and I got this burst of energy and took off". It all ends this week at districts-and then we get our afternoons free again. What will we do with ourselves?

Aliens vs. Monsters!

After church, my mom, stef and our family went and saw Aliens vs. Monsters in 3D. Wonderful special effects! My favorite creature was the brainless blue blob- Bob, who kept accidentally eating his eyeball--oops.

Cleaning at the Staubers

Great time getting together in Mill City, sprucing up Ed and vivian's place for them. It's such a wonderful locatin right there on the river, it's always nice being out there. The weather did NOT cooperate at all. The following day was sunny and beautiful, but the day we were there--was beyond icky! Still, we made the day fun and got some pizza for a lunch break and doodled on napkins like you must do when you are there. Looking forward to having them back in the area.