Auntie Pam and Matt

So this post is a little late. It has been a couple of week since Auntie Pam and Matt came to visit, but thought better late than never. The only day we took any pictures was the day we went to the beach and then headed north to Tillamook to the creamery. There we watched the production of Tillamook's famous cheddar and enjoyed eating their fresh ice cream. All the pictures that I have are from the beach. Even though it was going 60 degrees and the water was around 40, Josiah loved playing in the waves.

Mount St. Helens

The school year is quickly approaching. In fact, the freshman show up on Sunday and a week after that school starts. Since our life going to be wild and crazy for awhile, we decided to take a day trip to Mount St. Helens for a day as one last vacation to end the summer. I have always wanted to go and since it is only a few hours away we decided to go. We had a great time, but we are all a little tired today.

Josiah and mommy at the beginning of the trail.

This is a picture of Josiah and mommy 2 miles later at the end of the trail. We are pointing at the Visitors' Center on the far hill. If you blow up the picture I think you can see it. We were both tired at this point. Josiah had walked about 1 mile or more of the trail. We had the stroller too, but he wanted to walk like everyone else.

This is the view of Spirit lake with Mount Adams in the background that we got at the end of the trail. It was really pretty.

This is a neat picture of St. Helens. You can see some smoke coming up from the lava dome in the middle. When we got back to the visitors center we noticed that there was a earthquake around the lava dome which means that some more lava pushed into the dome.

Daddy and Josiah toward the end of the trip back. Josiah is completely checked out. If the mountain erupted he probably would never have heard it. We know because when we got back to the visitors center we watched a video about the eruption and it was really loud and he never moved.

We had a great time hiking around together. Josiah was still talking about hiking today. Thanks Jason for making it a priority to make family memories. :)

A Hike on Mary's Peak

In past blogs, I have shared my frustrations with my lower back and hip pain on my right side. A couple of weeks ago, I had another checkup and told my doctor my frustration and he gave me some stretches to do to ease the pain. The stretches worked and I have been able to do a lot more. One of the fun things we went and did, since I can now walk again, is went for a short hike on Mary's Peak. Here are some pictures of our adventure.








Jason also wanted me to put up this video. It is a cute video of Josiah looking around the forest. I almost didn't post it because at the end Jason is making fun of my expanding belly. I will post the video anyway, but feel free to bombard him with comments for making fun of a pregnant lady.

P.S. Dad, if you post a comment about me being fat you're going to be sleeping outside with the dogs.

Family Pictures

I have been complaining that whenever Jason needs a picture for the newsletter or the website he always chooses a picture with just him and Josiah. The main reason being we never have someone around to take a family picture or the picture of the two of us together. To fix the problem, one of our students who is working on a degree in photography, took some family pictures of us. Below are a few of the pics. And for those who wanted to see the size of my belly, I think the first one and the last one shows it off pretty well.

Ultrasound Pics

I didn't realize it until just now, but Jason scanned the ultrasound pics into the computer. Here are the first pictures of our second baby boy. They are kind of small because Jason scanned them into the same file. If you click on the pictures I think you can get a better view. The first one is my favorite because you get a good view of his whole body. You can see the little vertebrae on his spine and his feet kicking up. The dark spot in the middle of his chest is his heart beating. The doctor said that from the looks of the ultrasound, he is a perfectly healthy baby boy.

Blueberry picking

I haven't gone through any pictures to post. I keep forgetting and frankly with everything else going on, it hasn't been a priority. We have been very busy praying, planning, and getting things ready for school to start. I feel like God has given a vision for next year and we are excited to see what He has in store for us. It would be great if you could pray for us as we begin our second school year.

I am almost done with my 25th week of pregnancy. While in some ways it has gotten in easier (not so tired and nauseated) in other ways it has gotten harder. I have been having a lot of pain in my lower back and hips. My doctor is out of town so I am waiting until my appointment next week to discuss options for helping it. I have about 2 hours of mobility in the morning before I have to rest with heat on my back so I can walk again. Then another couple of hours in the evening to cook dinner and clean the kitchen. Both Jason and Josiah have been very understanding about my condition. On the bright side, I have been able to help out a lot with planning for the ministry because most of it consists of praying and reading. But despite the pain I am getting very excited to meet our new baby boy. I can feel him getting bigger and stronger everyday.

So to make up for not having pictures I decided to tell a fun story about taking Josiah blueberry picking.

A couple of weeks ago we all went blueberry picking. Of course Josiah was very excited to go because he loves picking everything from veggies to berries. When we first started out he was very good about picking the berries and sticking them in the bucket. But I think as lunch time came nearer, he began to eat more than he put in the bucket. At first he tried to hide himself in a bush so we couldn't see him and he would eat all the blueberries he could until we found him. When we told him he had to stay with us he just continued to eat blueberries instead of putting them in the bucket. When we would tell him to put them in the bucket he would tell us that he would hold on to them. Which means, "I will hold on to them until I eat them." Jason told him that if he didn't put them in the bucket he would have to go into time out. Josiah ate them and Jason told him to sit on the ground and not to move (which Josiah was very upset about). When timeout was over, Josiah was very helpful for about 5 minutes. Then Josiah decided he didn't want to put the blueberries in the bucket anymore. So he picked them, put them in his mouth, and then put himself in timeout since he chose not to put the blueberries in the bucket. I heard Josiah announce to his daddy, "I didn't put the blueberries in the bucket, so I go to timeout." I peeked over the bush and found him sitting in the dirt for his timeout and Jason trying to hide his laughter. It was at that point we realized in was lunch time and you just can't expect a hungry toddler who is addicted to blueberries to have that kind of self-control. So we left and had lunch.

Trip Home From Wyoming

Sorry that it has been a week since I last posted. We have been busy meeting with people trying to get things in place and organized for the school year. Last week was just crazy. Jason is off hanging with college guys today. They are rafting some river in southern Oregon. I am trying to catch up on some much needed rest. Anyway...so here are pictures from our voyage home from Wyoming.

We went through Yellowstone National Park on our way back. This is Josiah throwing sticks into the lake. If you look in the background you will see a black cloud dumping rain. We thought we were going to drive into it, but it moved and we had nothing but sun the entire day.

We stopped off at Old Faithful and walked the boardwalk and looked at the different smaller geysers and hot springs. This is Jason and Josiah standing in front of one of hot springs pools. Josiah loved to watch the water pour out of the holes and geysers. He would look at them and yell, "Holy Cow!" and point. He made many a passerby laugh.

That night we stayed at a campsite that had a hot springs pool. Josiah loved the pool because it was warm and there was a section shallow enough for him to walk around. He cried when it was time to go to bed. But needless to say he had a great night sleep.

The next day we continued our journey and ended up staying in Pendleton, OR. When one is riding in a vehicle for an extended period of time you must use your imagination to stay occupied. Josiah did just that. He discovered a french toast stick from Sonic makes a great play phone. Here he is talking on his "phone."

The hotel we stayed at had a pool. Here is Josiah and daddy enjoying there time playing together. Josiah couldn't play in it as long as the hot springs pool because he got cold.

Josiah riding on a fish one of the other hotel guests let him borrow.

That ends our trip to Wyoming. I guess now I need to sift through my pictures and show you what we have been doing for the past month since we have been home.