More than meets the eye!

Well, unfortunately I did not realize that I came home from Tuba City without the adapter for my battery charger. This is all the battery I had left on our campout. I hoped to take lots of picutres but... nope. I ordered a new charger and it came today so that is the great news. We camped at Pearrygin Lake. We boated , tubed, tanned, burned, sang, swam, ate, laughed, bathed, ate, lathered, skiied, floated, played and biked. There were kids for my kids to play with who shared dolls and bikes and life jackets. I love camping. One thing I did realize is that I'm slowly getting tired of deflated air matresses. We're going to need to invest in some more Therma Rests or something! Yeah for camping. We hope to do it again before it gets too cold.

Great Goodness

This is the great goodness post. A post filled with all good things.
These are not in order.

1. Bellingham parks- Whatcom Falls in the center of Bellingham

2. Camping- We leave on Thursday to go to Perragin Lake for our church campout. I'm excited.

3. Sun- We're getting lots of sun. Different tan lines every time I step foot out the door.

4. Quick trip to Idaho- Our church is a part of a group which is meeting in Caldwell in two weekends. There will be a number from our church attending and I'm glad to be learning more and being with people I like. Not sure at this moment if the kids are coming with or if they're staying in town.

5. Tara, Eric and Malak- They're coming to the NW! I'll get to meet one of my new nephews and I'm so excited! It will be good to see all my other family members, too!

6. Bryan and Tracey and boys- They're going to live in Bellingham for a month! Maybe they won't be able to leave!

7. Andy and Yannick and boys- They're bringing my other new nephew all the way from Switzerland! I'm so grateful they are able to come here. Hopefully they will move to Bellingham permanently very soon.

8. More fam- Almost all of the rest of Ben's family will also be here to visit.

Oh, there's more but it's nap time for me! Too much sun, maybe. :) Be prepared for campout pictures soon!

Why, Lord, why?

Don't get me wrong. Jesse is awesome and I really like him. I just thought for sure Deonna was going to pick Jayson. He had my vote! He's from Seattle, he's cute, he's a fantastic guy... Crap! I'm sooo sad for him. It's sad enough that he was left for another guy by his first wife. That's painful enough! Then he gets left again for another guy. I'm pretty sure he deserves to have a fantastic wife... It was kind of funny when he brought up the whole "armor" talk. When he was leaving in the car he said his armor was being put up again. Then at the "After the Rose" he said he's never had any armor! Good one! So, confess. Who watched Bachelorette?

Tuba City, Arizona

Sorry it's taken me so long to post. Here are details and pictures from my first mission trip in seven years with our teens from church to the Navajo Reservation. We flew from Bellingham to Phoenix and drove the three hour drive to Tuba City, arriving at 4am Navajo time. (Which is not the same as the rest of Arizona. Navajo's hold daylight savings and AZ does not.) Here is a sun rise from ones of the mornings.
Ben was the cook for the week and made sure we had great meals and plenty of snacks during the day.We were given some time to relax on Sunday and then for a period of the afternoon we went around to the neighborhoods and passed out flyers for the VBS on Tuesday and Wednesday.
We had a devotional Sunday evening at a canyon close by.
Monday we were split into a number of teams and my team re roofed a house. The shingles blow off there roofs constantly from the high winds that blow through. Here is some before and after pictures of our roof.
On Monday evening we participated in a traditional Navajo Prayer Sweat where you sit inside a sweat lodge with hot rocks in it and suffer and pray on behalf of others. It was a very neat time.
Our VBS didn't have as many children as in previous years but it was still great. The teens did a great job both days. (We had it in the afternoons and did our work sites in the mornings before it got too hot.)
Instead of an ark, the story team requested a sailboat for Noah. The craft team concocted this boat from an array of odds and ends. It is complete wit two decks as well as surround sound and flames on the sides!
One evening the Navajo ladies from church prepared Navajo tacos for all of us. The make a special fry bread and other tasty toppings.
Thursday we had finished up our projects so we went to collect fire wood for the Navajo people for their winter heat source. We toted logs from in the forest to take back and split. Good thing is we drove through the Grand Canyon National park to get to the wood on the other side! They didn't make us pay the fee to enter on either end so we had lunch at one point of the G.C. and then left.
Sonic was down the street from the church and there were Sonic runs daily. For dinner on Thursday we all had Sonic. There were also some free range horses that showed up to dumpster dive.
Friday morning we got up before dawn and went to hike down Jack Ass Canyon . It was so fun and a hard hike. We used a rope a couple times to get down some cliffs. At the end of the hike was the Colorado River. It was nice to be able to cool down there. then we hiked the 1 1/2 miles back up and out to end with some juicy watermelon. Refreshing!
Friday evening we cleaned up the place and we happened to catch this face print on the side of one of the vans which a combination of sweaty body and dust storm had left. There's a bit of the skies reflection in it as well.
Our last sunset in Tuba. Bon Voyage.
That's a wrap!