Summer Fun (sorry it's long, making up for lost time:)

Well I know this is very late but better than never. I thought I would give a recap of our summer and all the fun stuff that we got to do. Summer is my favorite season! I love the warmth of the sun, trips to the parks, swimming at my in-laws pool, bike riding, taking walks and so much more. In fact I am having a hard time transitioning from the summer to fall. Don't get me wrong I love the fall and the wonderful things that it brings, but I am already freezing wishing that our house was 80 degrees again. But I am looking forward to baking again and having some homemade soups also. Well I will start at the beginning of summer and we kicked things off by going with Grandma to pick strawberries and then made lots of freezer jam. We then went and participated at Kids in the Park, a new outreach that GSCC tried instead of backyard 5-day clubs. It was a lot of fun and I think that all three went well and we are looking forward to see what God is going to do with that this next year. Next we went on vacation with the Moffat clan to Sunriver. It was a blast! I love that place, we played in the pool, went on lots of bike rides, played games and just enjoyed being with one another. After we got home from that we got ready and went as a family up to Seattle to lead a team of high school and college kids and the focus was on service and homeless ministry in the downtown area. It was an amazing trip, we went to Mars Hill Church, Pikes Market and stayed at a great house on Lake Tapps. Our girls loved being with all the students and got to have a first ride on a wave runner also. I got to cook along side with Jenn Rygh, a lady whom I loved getting to know and we had such a great time together. It was such a privilege to be able to go on this trip I loved getting to know the people and to see God move and grow us all up in different areas. We got home from that and Ryan participated in a 3 on3 tournament in Canby with my brother and Malcolm, which he loved and they won their bracket. ( that's right he's still got plenty of game :) Ryan then left and went and helped out with the Montana 5-day club team, which is always an adventure. He came home and got to marry Blake and Kim, a couple that we just absolutely love. Ashlynn got to be the flower girl in their wedding and it was such an honor to be apart of their day. Their lives and relationship is a testimony to many and it is so fun to see a couple walk in purity through their dating years. Then towards the end of August Ryan helped put together a student ministries reunion which was fun and it was great to honor Steve Keels for all of his faithfulness to students for so many years. We then ended our summer with a trip out to my grandparents who live outside of Sunriver on the Deschutes river. My parents and my brother and his girlfriend also went and it was fun to spend time with everyone. We discovered that Ashlynn shares my dad's love of fishing. He had taken her earlier in the year to a pond that was stocked with trout and she loved it. She kept asking my dad to take her out on the boat and go fishing. So she got her wish when we visited my grandparents, she was the only one that could catch anything, she caught a few small ones that we put back and then hooked a nice big 16" trout that we brought home and ate. It was fun to see her have so much fun with my dad fishing, I have great memories of doing that same thing with him and I am glad that she gets to share in that. In between all of those great things we made several trips to Grandpa and Grandma's pool. Our girls are becoming quite the swimmers and Ashlynn made some strides in getting her face wet and going down slides this year. Lorelai has loved the water and wasn't afraid of much but did gain a good respect for water after she jumped in with no water wings. They both could just swim for hours, I don't know how they do it. We also enjoyed a great summer with our garden. It was the best year so far and we got to harvest a lot of stuff and I pickled some green beans for the first time. Well that wraps up the summer months for us, great times and lots of memories had by all.