It is finished...

It's done, everyone! Isaac put the bookshelf together last night and it is pretty awesome! Here's the unvailing...

Ooops, I cut off the top here, but it was the best angle (my plan really was to photoshop a couple of the pictures together so you could see the whole thing at once, but I haven't taught myself how to do that yet. So once I learn, maybe I'll post up a new picture)...







To get a sense of the height and a little view from the side...






I've decided, Isaac should make all the furniture in his next house. He just decided to draw up plans to redo an old coffee table he bought a few months back at the Re-Store. So exciting!

AND, it's a beautiful day up here! So beautiful!

Our Garden...

Our garden is beginning and we wanted to share it with you! A couple months ago, we started with basil plants and Isaac's been faithfully watering them and keeping our heat lamp shining on them at all the appropriate times. They've been living on his windowsill because of the coldness of the out of doors, but they've been growing steadily and are now each about 8-10 inches tall! We've transplanted them to bigger pots so they can keep growing even more. About three weeks ago, we put a few of the basil plants and a few rosemary seeds into the ground at Isaac's house, but the frost killed those pretty quickly. Then, two days ago on a beautiful sunny day, we put the rest of the basils outside to get a little sunshine and left them there overnight because it was supposed to stay super nice. Unfortunately, we woke up to frost the next morning, so we're not sure of the fate of our little basils, but hopefully they'll pull through. And if they don't, we'll just start again, right? We're just taking our turn at learning what every gardener learns at some point in their life...the delicate timing of the spring planting against the chance of the last frost.
Then yesterday, Isaac bought me some chive starts (the picture on the right) so I can start a tiny garden at my house! I've never had a garden before, so it's pretty exciting for me. I think we're going to try some carrots and cucumbers with them as well. And then maybe some sweet potatoes, more carrots, and probably a few other choice items can be planted in the vacant lot next to Isaac's house. We'll have to clear a couple spots at our respective houses before it can begin, but it'll be a fun first little gardening experience together! Saturday continued to be a full day as I said goodbye to Kellie, my friend who is moving to San Diego on Wednesday (she's on the far right, Morgan is in the middle). Isaac kept working on his bookshelf, which is looking so cool! Here's another stage picture of it...I'm so excited to finally get to show you the finished product! I think we have to give the paint one more day to fully set before that happens, but here's the last sneak peak...the base is remaining a surprise, however. He also bought an old, smaller table that he's going to refinish next. It's really a fantastic deal because Isaac gets fun projects out of the deal and I potentially get fun furniture. Love it! Here's another fun project of Isaac's from a couple of months ago. He just got inspired one day to draw and spent a few hours crafting this, which isn't finished yet, but it's pretty fun. The actual size is about five feet tall, to put it in prospective. It's the Tree of Good and Evil from the Garden. You should click on the picture and it will load it in a new screen so it's much larger and then you can see the detail. Notice how the leaves are attached to the branches...
Well friends, it is approximately 45 degrees and raining up here in Bellingham, WA this morning. We keep getting teased with the beautiful weather and then kicked back into the reality of April and May up here. Maybe summer will come soon...

Celebration...

Just wanted to say that tomorrow is our eight month anniversary! Eight months already! I know that probably doesn't seem that long for those of you who have been married for years and years, but we're excited nonetheless.

It's a BEAUTIFUL day up here today, and this weekend is supposed to stay beautiful, too. We don't have a lot of plans for the weekend, except a lot of relaxation. I have a bridal shower to go to and Isaac's going to be painting the bookshelves. That means they're almost done! And then we can show them to you all! He stained the bottom piece last night...it's looking so good. There will also be some recreational reading incorporated into this Saturday, which is my perfect idea of relaxation. And maybe a little bread making. I'm into a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which describes a year in the life of a family who moved to a farm in Virginia to live solely off the fruits, vegetables, and animals raised on their land. It's quite interesting and is making me want a really, really big garden when I grow up.

Happy Friday!

A few more pictures...

I didn't have room for all the pictures, so here are a few more from the weekend...




See Isaac's head peeking over the top of the roof?







This is an example of how full the roofs were of pine needles...







My family!







There's Lucy (one of Isaac's many beautiful sisters) and Jayden (Isaac's adorable niece)...







Isaac wrestling with Molly, a very common scene when it comes to Isaac and his siblings...

A perfect weekend continued...

Morning, friends!
So, this perfect weekend...it started out Friday evening with a drive down the old I-5 headed to my parent's house in the thriving metropolis of Appleton, WA. Snow had been in the forecast, so we were expecting a little bit of it, but nowhere near what we ran across on the road. This is what it looked like as soon as we hit Everett. In mid-April, no less! Isaac was like a little boy on Christmas, loving the adventure of driving in the snow. I was not quite as excited, but was able to fully enjoy it because Isaac was the one driving. (He's actually always the one driving on these trips as I cannot stay awake driving anymore past 10 or so at night...what a sweet guy!). The whiteness only lasted for another twenty minutes, though, and then it was smooth sailing on to Appleton. Saturday was spent with my parents, and after a wonderful breakfast that my mom put together, my dad sent Isaac up onto our roofs to get the piles of pine needles off for the insurance company. Scared my mom to death, but Isaac was more than happy to partake in the adventure, as he loves climbing on anything tall and at all dangerous. We roped him in for the house since that roof was the beast, but he was able to fly free without the rope for the garage. And he only fell off once :) Luckily, my dad happened to be right under where he fell, so that broke his fall some. You should have seen the look on my mom's face...It was a BEAUTIFUL day at my parent's house, though! The sun on the forest of trees is like nothing else I've ever seen! I never get tired of sunny days in Appleton. Speaking of Appleton, if you've never been there, consider this a treat. We drove around the tiny town, which consists of one four way stop, a volunteer fire department, and a one room post office. Yep, that's my 'town.' LOVE it! And it was really nice to be able to help my parents out with the upkeep on the property since it's just the two of them now. After Appleton, we headed to Vancouver to stay with Isaac's family, which was also a blast. We were welcomed home to a legendary waffle party with the extended family and it was as much fun as all the stories I've heard thus far. It's an hour of the Hurst kids stuffing themselves as much as they possibly can full of homemade waffles with a ton of fantastic toppings...yogurt, real maple syrup, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peanut butter, you name it! I do believe James ate eight waffles, which is a record for him! It's James, Molly, and Isaac in the picture up above. And there's Melinda, on the left. I must say, I've never seen you look better, Melinda! A movie followed that, which was good because none of us could move very much after the feast. We also spent some significant time seeing who could do the best cross-eyed face and then only move one eye, which you can see Molly demonstrating here on the right. It was pretty hilarious. Sunday was church, a nap for me, lots of games with the siblings for Isaac, and a family trip to the park. It was lots of fun! And then we drove home (or Isaac drove home if you want to be specific). We pulled in at about midnight, pretty tired, but it was really a great weekend. Thanks for playing host, families! We'll see you all again soon!

A perfect weekend...

We went to see the families this weekend! It was great! I'm going to try to post about it today, but if it doesn't happen today, it will for sure happen by tomorrow evening. So stay tuned!

A note to our parents...

Mom and Dad, there's no need to worry...I'm officially with a man who can take good care of me. Michael and Diane, just know that you have raised a great son who is willing and able to take good care of his family. Are you wondering where all of this is coming from? Well, wonder no longer. Yesterday, Isaac changed the oil in my car for me so I wouldn't have to take it to a shop AND he even taught me how to do it myself! Not that I would ever want to deprive Isaac of the joy of changing the oil himself, but it's kind of cool to know how to do it just in case the need ever arose. I was all ready to take my car in like I always do and Isaac was like, "No, no, just bring her over to my house and I'll take care of it." I even got to change the oil filter, which is that tiny bit of orange peeking up from amidst the mess of engine parts on the right (yes, I circled it with Photoshop). I went to the gym when we finished my car because he was going to do his next, and when I got back an hour later, I was fully expecting Isaac to be done and starting dinner or something. But no, he'd decided to fix the cruise control on his car, so he did that after the oil change. And did I mention that he also fixed the emergency break and, more importantly, the heater in the car when he got it? So amazing! I've got myself a jack of all trades, that's for sure. He reminds me of you in that way, dad...always able to fix things around the house, always able to figure it out.

Here's a fun piece of trivia that most of you probably already know, but I was just thinking about it this morning and it made me smile. Did you guys know that Isaac and I have the same birthday? He was born a year earlier, but we're both August 17th babies! What are the odds? I like to say that God made me for his first birthday present. Katy gave me a copy of this picture the other day and it's sitting on my desk right now, which is what reminded me about it. Last summer, we weren't officially dating quite yet, but Alex and Justin threw us a joint birthday bash anyway which started out with this incredible float down the Nooksack River with this fun group (Katy, Ryan...one of Isaac and Justin's small group boys), Alex and Justin, Isaac and me). Well, it had potential to be incredible anyway. I had been wanting to float a river all summer, so you can imagine my excitement when the date was set for August 17th to make our float debut. We all started with high spirits even though it was cloudy and slightly chilly, and our spirits weren't even dampened when we saw the slow the creep that the river was moving at. It'll be fun! we all thought. Well, it turned into four hours on this river in freezing cold water and freezing cold weather. We got halfway down and one of the tubes popped, so the boys (in all their incredibleness) built us freezing cold girls a raft and we all piled on huddling together for warmth. Except for Isaac, that is, because there wasn't enough room on the raft for everyone so he walked down in front of it, guiding it. So cold! (This picture on the right isn't the exact raft, but it's one just like it that the boys built last summer. It's pretty awesome...they just go to a beach and then out of whatever they find lying around on the beach, they make themselves a raft!) Then on top of all of that, our float plan was much longer than we anticipated and us girls could not stand the thought of two more hours in the frigid water, so we all got out, followed this old dusty road to a main road and Justin and Alex hitchhiked back to the car so they could come pick us up. It was definitely one of those memories that is made fun because you're in it with great friends, and is hilarious only because you know you're going to laugh about the absurdity and the pain (from coldness) for years to come. Such good times, my friends!

We're headed home to see the families tonight! Appleton, here we come tonight! And waffle party, here we come tomorrow! It's going to be a great weekend...

I must add a small post script on this one, my friends. I have to admit that I am slightly annoyed at my body regarding it's timing to it's intolerance of gluten. I have been hearing about these Hurst family waffle parties for the past year and have never gotten a chance to experience one, and now when I finally get to I can't even eat the waffles! Just my luck.

Lost Lake and Llamas...

We got blessed with the most incredible sunshiney, warm, beautiful day on Saturday! It was such a great reprieve from the cloudy, drizzly, coldness that has graced our days as of late. So we took advantage of the amazingness of the day and went on a good hike with a bunch of friends to find Lost Lake. Tommy's on the far left with his wife Morgan in front of him. Mark (one of Isaac's roommates) is next to Tommy, Stephanie is in front of him and Katy is beside her. Jordan (another one of Isaac's roommates) is behind Katy, then there's me and Isaac. Doesn't his hair look fantastic, by the way? I LOVE it longer!! Here's a closer view so you can see it in all it's goodness...mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. We drove up to the incredible lookout you can see behind the group of us and hiked a roundtrip of somewhere around seven miles. We're so excited for summer when every weekend and many of the weeknights will be filled with adventures like that. Yay, summer! So, we're hiking along maybe about a mile or so into the trail, when lo and behold, we run across a man walking his SEVEN LLAMAS! Just nonchalantly walking the beasts along the trail like it's an everyday thing. It was pretty hilarious! I don't know how many of you all have seen a llama close up, but they are on interesting creature. I captured one in all of his glory so we could share the experience with you. Cute, isn't he? Apparently this man goes out for several days at a time and just walks in the forests and takes his llamas along so they can graze. What a life...
Another high point from the trail was the excessive amount of mud that we encountered. Katy and Stephanie were the lucky two that decided to wear their Chaco sandals on the hike which quickly sealed their fate. Halfway through, they gave up trying to gingerly sidestep the mud and began tromping purposefully through the deepest parts since their feet were caked already. Notice they're in shorts, by the way...and it's only April in Bellingham!
So, we're almost to the lake (we can see it about a hundred feet below us though the brush and trees) and all of a sudden Isaac and Mark disappear. And then we hear shouts and laughs of excitement and adventure mixed with the sound of branches cracking left and right coming from the nearly vertical side of the hill that's between us and the lake. Being that bushwhacking is one of their favorite things, the boys decided to take full advantage of the opportunity and scramble to the lake the 'quick' way. I tried to get pictures of it, but all I could see were the tops of bushes swaying after they'd lowered themselves through them. Needless to say, the rest of us stayed on the trail like civilized people and met up with them at the lake (which they, of course, beat us to). Although there's no picture of that, this one on the left is proof that we found the lake! Yep, that's Isaac out on a fallen tree in the middle of it. All in all, it was a great hike. It did feel like a disproportionate amount of the hike was uphill, but it was fun nonetheless and we felt great afterwards. We went home to a dinner of barbecued chicken from the grill, salad, and the most incredible kettle chips. Happy summer! We're off to visit the families this weekend, so that will bring some good times as well. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

You're bigger...

In Prince Caspian, part of C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles, the children Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy all find themselves in Narnia after a long absence. Aslan, the great king and lion, is nowhere to be seen. Lucy, the youngest of the children, particularly aches to see him. One night she wakes to a great stirring in the forest, and to a voice calling her. While the other children sleep, she ventures forth through the woods and into a clearing. Here's what happens:

A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all round it. And then -- oh joy! For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.

But for a movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy never thought of that. She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not. She rushed to him, She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment. And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.

"Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan," sobbed Lucy. "At last."

The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. he bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all round her. She gazed up into the large wise face.

"Welcome, child," he said.

"Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger."

"That is because you are older, little one," answered he.

"Not because you are?"

"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."

~Mark Buchanan quoting CS Lewis' Chronicles in "The Rest of God."

Humility...

Never before in my life have I been so aware of my shortcomings, my sin, my ugliness. It seems like every day is a new day for me to showcase my pride, my selfishness, unkindness, anger, indifference. Being unloving seems like second nature to me. The awareness of my sinfulness rests like a weight on my shoulders, reminding me that I am so easily capable of hurting those I love. This is who I am...I am a sinner. I am broken. I am human.

For some reason, God wants to know me - all of me, the selfishness, the sin, the pride, the anger, the ugly, ugly parts. For some reason He wants to know all of that, and then wants - actually deeply desires - to love me with everything in Him. I really don't understand why. I don't understand how the good in me can be worth the bad parts as well. But I do know that it is the most incredible gift to be given...to be fully known and still loved. I am fully known, and yet still loved more deeply than I can even begin to comprehend.

And for some reason Isaac wants to know me as well - all of me, all of my ugliness. And in a manner that reflects the love of our God, he still cares deeply for me even though I am fully known. Maybe because I am fully known.

To be known and still loved. It is the most humbling thought to me, and yet it makes my heart well up with such a deep gratitude. Who is this God who overflows us with such a love, this God who offers to fill us with that very same love so that we can love others better? How lucky we are that God loves us.

A Sneak Peek...

Okay, here's a sneak peek at the bookshelf Isaac is building. It's all you get for now...




...oooo, or is it cooler blurred?

Six hours of exploration...

So, I'm about to present to you all my day at work today...ALL the pastors were gone for one reason or another, so it was just Tina and me holding down the fort in the office by ourselves. With no pastors around, the job of an administrative assistant gets considerably lighter, but lucky for me, our tech guy had just installed the grand program of Photoshop onto my computer the night before. I like to joke that I am the resident graphic designer here at the church, however, all that really means is that my fairly limited knowledge of our design program happens to be more than anyone else's around here. Therefore, the design jobs that aren't outsourced go to me because I am the 'expert.' Nevertheless, my unofficial title landed me the Photoshop program. So fun! I spent six hours... yes, literally six hours...going step by step through some of the tutorials and trying to figure out all the ways this incredibly complicated program could transform my pictures into even cooler pictures. And you're seeing the result right here! This was my day at work. Remember that cool picture from watching the sunset that we posted a few days ago? I took that picture, transformed it (color-wise) into the picture above and then transformed that into this beauty on the right! The funny thing is that this stuff is something that Isaac could do in his sleep because he is an actual graphic designer and he does it for a living. But it's super fun for me to play around with it and pretend I know what I'm doing. So there you have it...all in a day's work. I love my job.

Rest

You know what I like about life right now? That it is restful, peaceful, relaxing. I feel like I've been raving about this newly found rest lately, but I just can't get over how incredible it is. And I'm just scratching the surface, just barely beginning to experience, this kind of life. I get off work every day and come home to an afternoon and evening completely open and ready to be enjoyed. I take the first hour or so to go for a jog or do some yoga or sometimes just lay in the sunshine streaming through my living room window and read or nap. Isaac usually comes over around then and we spend a good chunk of time making dinner and enjoying it. Then we can sit together and I can read while he draws or plays guitar, we can go on a walk, we can go have tea with Justin and Alex, or watch a movie with Morgan and Tommy. This week was particularly fun because every other Tuesday we have a couple's night with Justin and Alex, Morgan and Tommy, and Isaac and me. We rotate houses and make dinner for each other and then just get to spend a few hours relaxing and hanging out together. It makes for a great evening every time. Yesterday was an added bonus of fun with friends because our friends from college, Justin and Suzanne, were up visiting for the day, so I got to have dinner with them while Isaac was with his small group boys and then Isaac came over later and we all got to hang out with them and some of our other friends.

But I digress.
I guess I'm trying to convey that this time in my life, this time of purposeful rest and a purposefully free schedule, is absolutely wonderful. I feel like I have all the time in the world to enjoy the company of the people in my life, to enjoy the simple pleasures of lying in the sun or sitting on the back porch with Isaac and just soaking up our surroundings. And I love it. I feel like I am tasting a small piece (a very small piece, mind you) of what it would have been like in the Garden before the fall of man. And maybe a small piece of what it will be like when this old world passes away and we get to spend eternity just soaking up life in God's presence.

Mud Bay...

My Sunday started out wonderful! Wanna know why? Because I got to church and saw my handsome, rockstar boyfriend on stage playing a pink and white heart-shaped electric guitar for worship! It was incredible! What's even more incredible is that one of our old youth group boys who graduated a year ago made the guitar himself! It was just a great thing to see as I walked into church this morning. Isaac also brought out his harmonica for the first time for a couple of the songs, which added an AMAZING element to the music.

I said before that cooking was one of the reasons I loved getting to share life with Isaac. Another reason why I love being the lucky one who gets to date him is because he takes me on all kinds of crazy adventures! We really enjoy being outdoors, and any chance we get, we'll head out and climb things, explore places, get really dirty, wet, or cold and have ourselves some good old-fashioned adventures. He's all about blazing a trail and I'm more than happy to follow him. Spring is springing, so that means adventures are going to start being a lot more common in our lives since we can enjoy outside without me freezing to death (Yes, I'm the cold one in this relationship). Well, today was one such adventure and it was great! We headed down to Mud Bay, which is on the sound off of Chuckanut Drive (the most beautiful drive in all of Washington State, thank you very much) and scrambled, climbed, and adventured our way around for a couple hours. It started out with more basic bouldering along the shore...the rocks are HUGE and all carved out from the waves and wind, so they were pretty awesome all by themselves. We walked first to the huge train trestle you can see in the background and stood two feet from the train as it passed. Then we made our way all the way around the other side, through bogs, across a couple creeks, scrambling over rocks and trees. It was great! Lots of mud, that's for sure, but it was so nice to be able to play outside again. I'll go on an adventure with that man any day! And it was youth group that night, so I had an evening to bake bread, which was super relaxing for me. I haven't made our wheat bread for a couple of months since I can't eat it, but I wanted to make some for Isaac and it was really nice to be able to bake some good old-fashioned bread again. There's nothing like the smell of fresh bread filling the house. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.

A taste of Caribbean...

Let me just start by saying we made the most INCREDIBLE dinner this evening...Caribbean Rice with a Jerk Chicken. We've never made it before, so it was a fun first try that turned out great. It's topped with mangos, avacados, and pineapple and is one of our new favorite meals. That really is one of my favorite things about Isaac's and my relationship...we get to make dinner together almost every night. We really enjoy having that time together, and we love creating fresh, great tasting meals. Cooking together has been a staple in our lives for the past seven months and it's so much a part of our routine that I just automatically leave a two hour block of time after work every day for us to spend for dinner. LOVE it! I will tell you what, that man is an incredible cook!
Isaac, my artistic creative genius, designed a bookshelf a couple of weeks ago and has been in the building process in his spare time ever since. He just drew up the design and went out and bought a bunch of used wood for it. He did all the cutting, sanding, glueing, everything himself. I'm sure a project like this is pretty easy for Isaac to make happen because he knows a lot about building, but it's just amazing for me to watch because I just don't have quite the same knowledge about projects. The shelves are so fun and artsy and we are pretty excited to see the finished product! My books are some of my most prized possessions...I love books and I have a bunch of them...so I'm hoping I can talk Isaac into sharing his shelves. We'll just have to see. No pictures yet because we want to show off the finished product when it's done.
I am in my first complete week of being done with everything youth (and everything extra-curricular at that). Isaac's still working with his boys, it's just me who needed a break. It's the weirdest feeling because I've been working with youth for ten years now...I feel like it's defined a large part of me for most of my life, and ending that part of my life feels like I'm losing a part of my identity, a part of me. But my soul is craving simplicity and rest, so I'm following that draw and simplifying my life. As you can see from my stack on the left, I'm filling my time with a lot of reading, which is one of the most relaxful activities I could do. And it's a perfect activity for Isaac and me because while I'm sitting with a book, he can draw to his heart's content. He's been drawing a lot lately, actually, all over anything he can find. I love it! My house is littered with envelopes or pieces of scrap paper that are filled with Isaac's drawings and doodles. I'm including a couple examples so you can see his work and be just as impressed.
One last thought for you all. I've got a lot of books going at once, which is how I usually roll, but there's one I wanted to share a quote from. It's called The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan and it's on loan from our worship pastor as I enter this time of sabbath. Listen to this...Sabbath is both a day and an attitude to nurture such stillness. It is both time on a calendar and a disposition of the heart. It is a day we enter, but just as much a way we see. Sabbath imparts the rest of God--actual physical, mental, spiritual rest, but also the rest of God--the things of God's nature and presence we miss in our busyness." I think that's a big part of why my soul is craving rest. I'm ready to just be, to just exist, to walk through life slowly, paying attention to all the little details, taking walks, enjoying the beauty of God's creation, seeing Him in all the ways I may have been missing in my business.

Painted Sky

One of the most beautiful benefits of living in Bellingham are the incredible sunsets. It's been a lot more cloudy and rainy the past few months, so it makes sunset viewing a little more scarce, but come summer we'll be savoring the sunsets every night! Lucky for us, though, Monday was a beautiful blue sky, sunny day, providing a perfect sunset for us that evening. We went down to the water where there was no one else around and it was just us with God all around us. Mmmm, we are so blessed to see such beautiful painted skies.

Hitting a couple more adventures in our lives from the past few months, back in November Isaac took his first plane ride ever when we went to visit my sister and her family in Arizona. It was so fun to see the plane ride from the eyes of someone who had never flown before...Isaac was so excited! While there, he also fulfilled one of his long-time dreams of climbing a cactus. I was so proud!
And on one of the visits with Isaac's family, James, Isaac, and Molly played an incredible game of nerf gun war, complete with full suits of armor. They were pretty creative, that's for sure. We also headed up to my parent's house and encountered chest high snow all over the place! It was incredible! (I wish I had the pictures of it, but they're on a different camera.) We played in the snow for hours...well, played and worked, I guess, shoveling paths for my mom, but it was so fun! I've never seen the snow like that in all my years living at that house.

And it's another beautiful day outside this morning! LOVE those!

Sharing our lives...

Hello friends and family! We've really had the desire lately to be able to share our lives more with those we love. Being that we're all the way up in Bellingham, that proves to be slightly more difficult as we do not hold daily conversations sharing about each day with you all. Thus, this blogspot has begun. It's not something we'll add to every day, but hopefully weekly or bi-weekly so that all of you can share more in our lives up here.

Here are a few pictures from the past few months to catch you up. The first is a pair of Star-Bellied Sneeches from Halloween. We went to Hillcrest that night and helped throw a HUGE Halloween party for the neighborhood with hundreds of little kiddos running around. Then there's our bread baking adventures, which have become quite the staple in our lives. We've perfected our Honey Wheat recipe as well as our Cranberry-Almond Honey Wheat and plan to add lots more recipes to that list. The surprise gluten intolerance on my part has thrown a small wrench in those plans, but I'm working on a couple gluten free breads and am determined to still bake a lot of wheat-filled bread with Isaac. The last picture is from one of the many adventures Isaac goes on with his boys. This one consisted of carrying all the supplies up the side of a mountain until they reached the top where they did a deed for all the hikers around and built a much-needed bridge across a creek and a ravine. We visited it a couple months ago and it was still there, sturdy as could be!

It's a BEAUTIFUL day up here in Bellingham, so I'm going to head out and enjoy it. Thanks for loving us and taking an interest in our lives.