A synopsis of life lately.

This summer has been busy and yet I've taken time to "Breathe." It's been filled with old favorites (such as the Grandma Fredrickson blanket featured in this picture) and new favorites such as Marrakesh, Tad's Chicken 'n Dumplings, and hiking in the Columbia Gorge.

On June 15th I went home for the weekend to celebrate my Mom's Birthday and also Father's day. On Saturday Christi took Jared & Cassadie to the Zillah Public Library to get their own Library cards--which caused a flood of fond memories as I waited outside the little building. It was in that tiny library that I first fell in love with detective and mystery novels--I think I read every book they got in the "Saint" series as well as Sherlock Holmes and others.

One friday afternoon late in June I went to an early movie with my friend Bethany and afterward we went to AppleBees to get 1/2 price appetizers. We actually missed the 1/2 price appetizers, but when we came out of the restaurant, the sky was beautiful. I'm sure the other restaurant patrons thought I was crazy as I stood in the parking lot taking pics of the sky.

For the Fourth of July, my sister Christi and her family came over to join us for the second year in a row. We went down to the Fort Vancouver Celebration and had a great time. It was very hot, but we took plenty of beverages and snacks. Last year we struggled to get all our gear to the park, but this year my smart brother-in-law Alex brought the kids' wagon and we just piled everything in there. It was a good time.

After my sister's family left on July 5th, my parents came on July 6th for my sister Beckie's 30th B-day. We went to this great restaurant called Tad's Chicken 'N Dumplings. We sat in the dining room pictured above . . . it overlooks the Sandy river and all those windows fold back to make it an open air seating balcony. And they serve their Chicken 'N Dumplins in this great big goblet looking dish with the biggest spoon I've ever seen. We had a lot fun . . . for a further report of Beckie's birthday festivities, you should check out her blog. It's listed under "Sites & Blogs I read."

The next day, Mom, Dad, & I headed down to Sweethome, OR for the wedding of our good friend Tim Wyatt! It was a fun little roadtrip and the wedding was sweet. Congrats Tim & Megan.

And what have I been doing with the rest of my time? Working, of course. This is me on a break, sitting at my desk at work, trying to take a decent picture of myself. Summer is a busy season at work and so I've been working hard to keep up. But my job is fun . . . I really like it. I have yet to go camping this summer which is a bit of a disappointment, but there have been plenty of other exciting adventures to fill the gap.

Hey there, Delilah!

My friends Sami, Naomi, and I went to the beach in honor of Sami's Birthday. We made a day of it, leaving around 10:30 am and driving the long, but interesting way to the Coast and eventually ending up in Seaside, Oregon where we spent a couple of hours on the beach having a picnic, drinking sweet tea, and trying very hard to play frisbee in the wind. We got lots of advice from people walking by about how best to throw the frisbee in the strong wind.

Then we moved on down the beach to Ecola State Park in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Ecola is beautiful and we spent lots of time hiking around and just sitting at a picnic table eating muffins and drinking more sweet tea--enjoying the beauty that God has given us. It was a rare sunny day on the Oregon coast. We felt blessed.






Here are some of the highlights.

Sami & Naomi with Cannon Beach coastline in the background.

Random guy surfing or boogy boarding . . . hard to tell.

Sami, Naomi, and I trying to take a picture of us and the beautiful ocean behind us.

Sami, Naomi, & I--much better with someone else taking the picture.

While we were trying to take this pic, a cute little family further down the beach offered to take a pic of us if we would take a pic of them. While we were waiting for their family to gather the father nonchalantly told us their 3rd son (there were 4 total) was going to climb over the top of this large rock (at least 10 feet tall, maybe 15) at any minute. Imagine our surprise when their barefoot 3 year old climbed to the top of this big rock and walked over to the edge to wave at us, much to his mother's distress.

We finished the day with cherry limeades and burgers from the only Sonic around on our way back into town! What a lovely day with two of my favorite people:) The theme of the day was "Hey, there Delilah" by the Plain White T's. It's a sweet song. If you've never heard it you can go to http://www.plainwhitets.com/ and give it a listen. We heard it on every station we turned to that day, so about 10 times within 10 hours or so.