Things are starting to slow down around here. After my last post Chris and I headed to Long Beach, Wa for Jr High camp. We LOVED every minute of it and the time with those kids made us miss our jr high back home all the more. We really enjoyed getting to know some of the 8th graders that will be moving up in September. There was a little down time for us to explore the city a tad. Long beach is a very touristy place and they have the longest beach in the world! Of course we stopped at the antique stores in town and left with more aprons and coffee tins! After leaving Long Beach we skipped over to Astoria, Or. If you are as big of a Goonie fan as Chris then you know Astoria is where the movie was filmed. Most things were closed by the time we got in town. However, over dinner I did a little research and found the address for the Goonies house. Chris was as excited as a kid in a candy store when I asked if he wanted to go check it out. We took his picture in front of it and decided it was time to head back home. Thursday afternoon Chris picked up Matt and Mandi Ramsey from the airport. Matt is one of Chris' very best friend and was the best man in our wedding. We really enjoyed our time with them. We ate at some great places, went to the zoo, a mariners game, and saw Batman. The boys did a 9 mile hike and Mandi and I rested. We hated to see them go! Now we have a few weeks of down time and Im hoping that includes a mini vacation for the Taylors to Canada! In August Chris' mom will be joining us for a week! We are really looking forward to her visit since we have not seen her since before we moved. I can't forget to mention the new addition! We have fish now... 5 fish and 1 frog. There are: Bonnie and Clyde (pink and blue glo fish), Django (the frog), Walt ( He has a mickey head on his tail so Walt Disney seemed perfect), Flat head (Matt named him because, believe it or not, he has a flat head), and lastly Pedro. There has also been talk of a kitten in the near future! YES! It means so much to us to see how many of you are still keeping up with us and our adventure in Washington! We appreciate your prayers very much. One thing specifically you can be in prayer about is the Jr High position here at Alderwood. Rene (current J High guy) is leaving for seminary in August. We are so excited for him and the new guy will have big shoes to fill! We know the Lord has the perfect person in mind. Please pray Wisdom for Chris and the staff as they are searching for a new Jr High pastor.
                                     
                                                                    Long Beach, Wa

                                            
                                                    The Goonie Home in Astoria

                                                                 
                                        Batman midnight showing

                        
                                                           The new additions!

 
                                                   Time with Matt and Mandi

We had a FANTASTIC time at family camp with our Alderwood family and with my family this past week. We were at family camp Monday through Wednesday and My mom, dad, and Memi came Thursday morning and stayed through Saturday evening. Chris and I fell in love with family camp! We set up our campsite Monday afternoon after leaving the Parsons house for the student ministry pool party. The first evening we only had time for a camp fire and a little visiting. Tuesday we went to the pool, played frisbee with some of the high schoolers, played basketball, took Rachel and Summer for some Dairy Queen, and many more things! That night we enjoyed the company of the Parson family for smores around the fire. Wednesday was very similar to Tuesday's activities. We really enjoyed getting to know some new Alderwood families. We headed home to get things ready for my family's visit. When they arrived we took then to MOD pizza. For you Texans reading this... MOD stands for "made on demand" and is basically subway for pizza. YUMMY! We had a lazy evening and I helped mom make homemade chili. When Chris got home from college service we all watched Cars. Friday we took a ferry ride and went to the Rangers game that evening. We arrived in time to watch batting practice. Chris and I were given a baseball from Yu Darvish! The Rangers WON! It was a great time of fellowship, baseball and delicious food. Saturday we headed to Snoqualmie falls and the back home to watch Cars 2. Unfortunately they had to head back to Portland to catch their flight around six that evening. Chris and I really look forward to their next visit or a trip back to Texas. In the morning we will be leaving for Jr. High camp. This will be a great chance for us to meet the 8th graders coming up to high school in the fall. Matt and Mandi Ramsey will be coming to visit Friday and staying for a few days. Chris will be teaching at vacation bible school each morning the following week and I will be leading a pre school class. When August hits, I plan to sleep the entire first week! More updates to come. Thanks so much for your prayers and continued support!

Post Shasta Chris and I decided to take a mini vacation to Leavenworth which is a few hours from Lynnwood. We rented a cabin for a few days of R&R. On the way out of town Wednesday we decided to see the new spiderman movie. We really enjoyed it! Of course we love most movies! Really looking forward to the new Batman movie. We arrived early evening and headed into the Bavarian town for dinner. Leavenworth is a beautiful, fun, and peaceful town. We look forward to going back. Thursday we went for a bike ride, follwed by coldstone, the nutcracker museum, the cheese shop, the fish hatchery, and touring of downtown. We returned to the cabin early to cook dinner, watch a movie, and relax. Friday we woke up early and went to the biggest antique shop in the Northwest called Apple Annies! We found a few old coffee tins to add to Chris' collection and some cute old aprons to add to mine. After that we ate lunch at a cute 50's diner called studabakers. We went for a hiked close to 4 miles that afternoon, drove to the canyon, had a pizza and starwars dinner date, and headed back for Lynnwood. We plan to head back soon for some white water rafting! Chris' favorite part of the trip was the hike and I enjoyed the antique shopping! Happy Birthday today to my wonderful Cousin Conner! Chris and I are very much looking forward to a visit from my mom, dad, and Memi this Thursday! Rangers and Mariners here we come!! Thank you all for keeping up with us and praying for us in our most recent adventures!

pics: post bike ride, icicle ridge hike, the river at the canyon, Harry and the Hendersons film spot, my surprise from Chris (closest i'll get to a real dog for a while!), nutcracker museum, our cabin, the bigget dandelion ive EVER seen!

We just returned from SHASTA!! Chris and I had a fantastic week with the youth and leaders. I will start with Chris' favorite parts of the trip.. He loved teaching God's word and talking and praying with the kids. Chris was the camp speaker this year and we spent the week discussing the signs of the Messiah in John's gospel. In the mornings we looked at the promises of the Messiah and in the evening we saw fulfillment. The kids really enjoyed this and said it was quite different than past camps. Back to the begining: We loaded up and headed out Tuesday morning with about 130 students and 25 leaders. We began our journey to Shasta Lake, CA. The first evening we stayed at Parkway Christian Center. We completed our trip the next morning. We finally arrived at sunny Lake Shasta Wednesday afternoon, loaded up the house boats, and headed to dock at our home for the week. The kids started every morning doing devos that Chris wrote. After devos we made breakfast and prepared for rec time. Big shout out to the rec crew for some INCREDIBLE games. The funniest was of course the bellyflop contest from the top of the house boats. After rec was free time. We were able to spend some really great quality time with the students. After free time each boat prepared their own dinner. My boat had the boys boats over to cook for them a few nights. The evening services were the best! Worship under the stars and hearing Chris teach the students was definately the highligght for me! Each moring and afternoon the kids also had the opportunity for tubing and wakeboarding. I was able to hop on the boats the last day for that. I was so sore on the ride home! Bathing in the lake was the most interesting part of the trip. I never realized how much I take my shower for granted. Overall it was an incredible week and we saw many lives changed. One student in particular came to Shasta as an Atheist with no hope. He left camp as a believer in Christ and SO excited about it! There are many other stories similar to this one of Kids retuning home with faith in Christ. We will be having baptisms at church soon for those students! Also want to give a shout out the the leaders from the week. They all did an incredible job connecting with and ministering to students. Overall we only had 3 people get hurt! Praise the Lord! We look forward to many more years at Shasta.