Showing God's Love in a Practical Way

Here in Corvallis, the church has life groups that meet on Wednesday nights during the school season. They take the summer off and then new groups are formed in the fall. This year Jason and I signed up to be part of what is the named "The New Format" Life Group. This new format group meets together in homes to eat dinner and study the Bible together, but it also makes it a point to at least once a month be involved in some kind of service to the community. In other words, it is a group that wants to put into action what we read in the Bible. A couple of weeks ago, several members of our group served meals to the homeless. Yesterday, we met together in the morning and drove up and down streets near the church building finding yards that needed their leaves raked. We would stop, knock on the door and explain to them that we wanted to rake their leaves for no charge. When asked why we were doing it, we answered, "We are from a near by church and we want to serve our neighbors." For those that wanted to know more information, we left a little flyer that had the church information on it. Everyone we asked were shocked and grateful for what we were doing. It was a lot of fun to serve just knowing it was what God wanted us to do. Below are some fun pictures of the event.

group picture

A picture of the group finishing up one of the yards. If you look closely you can see a little boy in the pile of leaves.


Josiah even helped. He would throw leaves onto the pile.

Josiah picking up leaves while mommy raked.

The Pond

Yesterday Josiah and I went to the park that is only a 5 minutes walk from the house. There I met two other moms with their young boys. Josiah enjoyed playing with boys his own age, and I enjoyed talking with other adults. After playing at the park we all decided to go for a walk through the wetlands that are right outside our apartment complex. The two moms showed me a pond that is hidden back in the trees. Today Josiah and I showed Jason where the pond was. Here are pictures of what we did.

This is a picture of Josiah and I at the pond. The trees are turning color which made the area so beautiful.

What are these two trouble makers up to?

They are throwing rocks into the pond. Josiah throws the rock into the water and then giggles at the splash it makes.

This wasn't taken at the pond, but I really like it so I decided to share it. This is Josiah and his daddy playing with his fire truck on our back porch.

Mary's Peak

Last week we enjoyed one of the last beautiful sunny days of the season and went to Mary's Peak. Mary's Peak is a 30 mile drive outside of Corvallis and is the tallest peak in the Costal Range. It was kind of hazy, but we were told that on a clear day you can see into California and Washington State. Even though it was hazy we could see about 100 miles in any direction.

Jason and Josiah enjoying lunch on the top of Mary's Peak. This is looking north toward Washington.

Another picture of Jason and Josiah. This is looking west toward the ocean.

Josiah playing with the rocks.

This was the view looking south.

A day with the family

After a great week of campus ministry and football game last night, we are taking a break as a family. Here's how our morning went...

Hippy boy goes fishing. :P

Next we went to the park to have some fun on the slides.

It was a great morning. Josiah just woke up from his nap so it's time for lunch and another adventure.

Mt. Rainier and Multnomah Falls

Sorry it took me awhile but here are the pictures of our Mt. Rainier trip.

The first day we got to Rainier after dark and had the joy of setting up a tent in the dark with a one year old running around. Things went smoothly, though. This is a picture of the family cuddling in the tent before we went to bed.

This is a picture of Mt. Rainier as we were headed up the trail. This area is one of the prettiest places I have ever been to. I hope Rainier doesn't decide to explode between now and the time that we can go back.

It was really windy the first half of our trip so a mile up the trail we stopped behind some rocks to eat our lunch and give Josiah a break from the wind. You can see part of Rainier in the background.

Josiah and Jason at the top of the ridge that overlooks Rainier. Notice house Josiah is all bundled up and not looking happy.

After we got off the ridge the trail headed down into a valley and the winds went away and the sun warmed us right up. So after we being cold and assaulted with wind for an hour, the warm sun put Josiah to sleep and he slept most of the way back to the car.

One the way back we stopped at Multnomah Falls. This is one of my favorite pictures of Josiah and his daddy. Multnomah Falls is in the background.

This is Josiah and I at Multnomah Falls.. Notice how he has his finger in his mouth. Yes, it is because he is teething. Right now he is in the process of getting 4 molars. The top two are starting to poke through, but the bottom two are still really bothering him.

Josiah Update

We just got back from spending some time at Mt Rainier National Park and visiting friends in Port Orchard. I want to show you pictures, but Jason left for his student leader retreat today, and took the camera. So you will have to wait on pictures. To hold you over until then, I thought I would give an update on some of the fun things Josiah is doing now.

The biggest news is last week Josiah started talking. His first word was ball. This is not too much of a surprise since that is his favorite thing to play with. He can only say one syllable words so mama comes out as mom. The list of words that he has said up to this point is ball, bird, dog, book, mom, da (dada), milk, duck, pa (papa), nan (nana or Grandma) and uh oh. It is a lot of fun to hear him talk.

Josiah can also blow bubbles in his bath water. He is pretty good at. Sometimes, though, he starts blowing out before his face gets to the water and then inhales when his face gets to the water and sucks water up his nose.

He is also working on getting some molars. There are two on the left side that are starting to poke through. It will be good for him to have his molars so he can eat chicken easier.

I think that is all the exciting stuff. Jason will be back Friday, so hopefully this week-end I will be able to put up more pictures.

Josiah's first camping trip, Crater Lake National Park

A couple of weeks ago we set up our tent in the living room and camped out to see how Josiah would sleep. He slept great so Jason and I decided it was time to go camping. So we packed up and embarked on our first family camping trip to Crater Lake National Park. We all had a great time hiking around and enjoying the beauty of God's creation. We took over a hundred pictures so it was hard to narrow down the pictures for the blog. I guess if you want to see them all you will have to come visit. :)

The first day we got settled into our campsite and went to Watchman's Peak for a hike. At the top of the peak is a platform the National Park service uses to watch for forest fires. From the top we had an amazing panorama view of everything. This is Jason and Josiah at the top looking down on the lake. The island in the background is Wizard Island. It was formed by volcanic activity after the lake was formed.

Another picture of Jason and Josiah at the top.

The peak in the background is Watchman's Peak, the peak we just hiked.

The next day we took the trail down to the lake. Crater Lake is an amazing blue color and is really clear. On a clear, sunny day you can see over 100 feet down. The water is really cold, around 38 degrees, but Josiah enjoyed dipping his feet in it.

As we were hiking back out Josiah was just too tired to stay awake. He finally checked out halfway up the trail. When we got to the car he couldn't even open his eyes as we were transfering him into his car seat. He slept for the next two hours.

While Josiah was sleeping we drove around the lake and took pictures. This is a picture of Jason and I with Phantom Ship in the background. Phantom Ship is supposedly a reminant of a little volcano.

Then it was back to camp for lunch. This is a picture of our camp and Josiah drinking from a camelback. Dehydration was never an issue for Josiah because he thought drinking from the hose was fun. He was constantly asking for a drink.

After a long nap and some food, Josiah was ready to play again.

Josiah playing in the black volcanic ash.

This is the beginning of Josiah's first hike, a 1/4 mile hike to a view of the lake. I think he is pointing at a tree.

Headed up the trail.

About half way up he started to get tired so he laid down in the dirt to take a breather. We were willing to carry him but he wanted to keep walking on his own.

As we were hiking along the trail, Josiah really taught us how to stop and smell the flowers. Every single flower along the path. :)