{Don't} Rain on My Party!

Come Friday, we strapped down the trailer, seat-belted ourselves in, and set off to the coast for a weekend of camping with Papa's family.  These pictures give their thousand-words- worth about a trip we will never, ever forget! 

Crab. Garlic butter. Feast. 

Little man watching big man wrangle his crab. 

Aunt Hiedie enjoying her share. 

Central pillar of the weekend: food!  Uncle Larry flips some flapjacks in the picture on the right. 

We celebrated Rebecca's college graduation and Mikaela and my fast-approaching graduation all at once.  My Aunt Vickie is to be held responsible for the atrocious blown-up photos behind us. 

l-r: Cousin Amanda made Melanie an amazing beaker pinata for her birthday, Mikaela and I open up Polish pottery (a family tradition!), and Rebecca unwraps her kit and kaboodle of kitchen gadgets from our family. 

Game time: Who knew Jonah could balance five dice on the end of a popsicle stick held in his mouth?

How many pencils can you toss in the air and still catch?

Zach creamed us!

Cousin Ryan demonstrates the next game which involves a pulley system using your ears. 

l-r: Aunt Vickie, Aunt Lisa, Mikaela, and I

Aunt Lisa and Amanda

Uncle Joe introduced Micah to his passion: golfing!

Cute toenails!

Cousins compete with cards!

Mama and Reed

We had a gourmet s'more cookoff complete with several rounds of five entrants, and three judges per round.  Pop rocks, bacon, espresso, mascarpone cheese, tea, raspberries, sour patch kids, cream cheese, and molasses cookies were just a few of the ingredients used, with surprising results! 

A judge examines his scorecard. 

Grandma and Grandpa approve!

l-r: Ryan and Micah

Happy Camper

Apparently I come by my love of reading honestly. 

Say cheese!

Our true selves come out! 

On Sunday it rained, but all the other days were nice.  Except for when the thunder woke us up on Saturday morning and everyone simultaneously scrambled for tarps.  Oh, yeah, and when the rain was our alarm clock on Monday morning.  But puddles in your tent are normal, right? 

Needing some warmth, we travelled to the Tillamook cheese factory, a favorite stop.  Get a look at the worker's t-shirts!

"Fall in loaf for the first time" says the official hippy loaf van. 

Aunt Lisa and Susanna's matching umbrellas served a good purpose in soggy-hamburger-bun prevention. 

Monday, the final day of the trip, we scrambled to pack up early and head to complete Papa's birthday present: a kayak tour in the ocean bay! 

First things first: none of us tipped over! 

And we had a lot of fun, too!

We returned home five pounds heavier, a bit more sore in the arms, on marshmallow overload, with sand yet between our toes, and still talking about all the silly and sweet memories of the weekend.  Eager to rejoin civilization, we raced up to our door only to realize two things: our water was about to be turned off for construction in a few hours, and church family camp was only days away.  But the sun was high in the sky, and we suddenly realized that showers aren't all they're cracked up to be, anyways. 

Busy as a Baskin-Robbins on a Hundred-Degree Day

The past seven days? I dare you to come up with a busier, more pell-mell, yet rewarding 168 hours. Here's everything that's been keeping us from textbooks this week...

Last Monday, Emily, Rachel, and Sarah came over for a fun girls day, with Emily and Rachel getting to stay through Tuesday. Of course, Starbucks was the first stop after a 7 AM rendezvous. A walk around the park, picnic in the woods, hairstyling, photo shoot, and...oh, yeah, Susanna inexplicably fainting in Rachel's arms made for a very exciting time!

So you can believe that this sinking wreckage is made out of cardboard...

But would you believe that this one is as well? We cheered and clapped and laughed all the way through the Cardboard Boat Regatta as over 50 boats competed.

Beautiful Lauren

We enjoyed a barbecue at our house with two other families on the Fourth before heading to the center of town. The fireworks display at our park inspire, amaze, and overwhelm. We knew we were not to be disappointed when the first song to accompany the sonic blasts was from the gorgeous "How to Train Your Dragon" soundtrack.

Thursday was full of lessons to teach (no slacking off through the summer!), before heading out on Friday to the beautiful Washington peninsula for a girls' conference. There, we met up with friends and spent the weekend together. That's Melanie, Mrs. M, Lauren, Mrs. D, Florence, Susanna, Mikaela, and Julie.

Melanie, Mama, Lauren, Susanna, and Mikaela

Lauren and Mikaela

Saturday was the culmination of many months of preparation on the part of Johanna (center) and Ruth, and many weeks of preparation for us and other dedicated volunteers. (In that upper left picture, you can catch me modeling a very unflattering "what-not-to-wear" outfit and Lauren looking beautiful and glowing in her "what-to-wear" outfit as the girls learned about true beauty and dressing tips.)

Manning the registration table wasn't hard on this beautiful 80 degree day (one of the first this summer)! Mrs. R, Melanie, Lauren, Susanna, and Mikaela, left to right.

Ruth and her husband Chris blessed us with a session on "Success in Singleness."

It was so precious to see moms and daughters learning to love each other and God even more!

Lauren and I were honored to share a session on "Don't Just Live with Your Siblings: Love them!" We challenged the girls to realize just what an important calling and responsibility we have to love our siblings and family and gave practical tips and ideas from our own experiences.

Susanna, Julie, and Florence--lovely young ladies!

In the afternoon, the moms attended a session on "Spiritually Strong Moms" (top picture), while the girls attended skill classes. Susanna chose the gift wrap and candy bouquet class (bottom picture), while Lauren and I taught an hour-long class: "Writing and Blogging: Is the Pen Mightier than the Sword?" (Throughout the class, we had various challenges and exercises for the girls, and one of them was to reinvent an overused simile. Lauren gets the credit for this post title, which she revised from the typical "busy as a bee" expression.)

Melanie, Lauren, and I played "Come, Christians Join to Sing."

Afterwards, we debriefed over carbs at Panera.

Ruth and her adorable daughter, Jacqueline.

A whole bunch of us, exhausted, but grateful to God for bringing everything together and allowing so many girls and moms to attend and learn with us.

This was the view out of our window!

What better way to unwind than to play Dutch Blitz? Despite the fact that Lauren and I had gotten four hours of sleep for several nights in a row, we couldn't resist the noisy, addictive game.

After arriving home Sunday night, we celebrated Melanie's 19th birthday on Monday with Sandi and Ron (Grandma and Grandpa also arrived later than night to spend the week at our house). I'm so proud of the beautiful young lady Mel is becoming, as she seeks God and is diligently learning and taking full advantage of the opportunities around her. It's such a joy to see my younger siblings growing up to become my best friends!

This coming week does not promise to let up at all, but I look forward to new experiences and opportunities to glorify God. I may fall into bed exhausted each night, but it is with a smile on my face and praise in my heart. What has been keeping you busy lately?

All photos thanks to Mama and Melanie!



A Fourth of July Nightmare

A Walmart sprawls where Inde-pendence Hall used to stand. 

Tea is the most popular drink in the United Colonies.

The District of Columbia exists, but not by the name of Washington.  Likewise with my home state.

Benedict Arnold is one of our most revered Founding Fathers. 

The health-care bill?  Non-existent…because socialized healthcare has been around for decades. 

The name of Jesus Christ is honored only by a remnant; few, if any, missionaries are sent out by the United Colonies; Islam is the fastest growing religion in North America. 

And this letter was written by one of our founders:

July 4, 1776 

My Dear Wife,

A pensive and awful silence pervaded the House when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe to what was believed by many at that time to be our death warrants. The silence and gloom of the morning was interrupted, I well recollect, only for a moment by Colonel Harrison of Virginia (a large man) who said to Mr. Gerry (small in stature) at the table: 'I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing... From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.' This speech procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was conducted.[i]

I was compelled to speak.  Our beloved home and estate would not leave my thoughts.  Our son William’s face was ever before me for I knew that I would be throwing him at the mercy of a British musket ball or, worse, British torture if I signed that declaration of independence.  And you, my beloved wife!  You have borne so much already, and I truly could not bear the thought of forcing upon you hunger, nakedness, heartache, and separation from your brother yet in England. 

And thus I spoke.  I reminded these gentlemen that declaring independence would be an act of high treason.  I told them that it were far better for our children to live with the king puppeteering their every act than for our children never to live at all.  That it would be more desirable to be treated with injustice and disdain than to be treated with the executioner’s noose.  That we could bring more glory to God through our quiet, day-to-day obedience than through a suicidal call to Glory. 

These words of reason rang true in their ears, and all discussion of a declaration of independence has been abandoned.  I write with joy and relief that our lives and the lives of our children have been preserved.  I know that future generations will look back on this day and thank us for avoiding such an insane pitfall as independence. 

Signed,

Your Loving Husband

The nightmare from which you have just awoke is the nightmare of “What if the Fourth of July never happened?”  Apart from the first paragraph of the letter (written by Dr. Benjamin Rush in 1781 in a letter to John Adams—I only changed a few words), the rest of the article is fiction.  But it would have only taken a measure more of cowardice, a measure less of nobility, and only one easy choice to have turned this post into solid fact. 

 

I must ask myself two questions this Fourth of July Eve: Would I have opted for the sane, easy choice then?  And why in the world am I making the easy choices now? 

 

“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you.[ii]”

-Thomas Jefferson, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Third President of the United States

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[i] http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=82

[ii] Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, DC: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1903), Vol. 5, pp. 82-83, in a letter to his nephew Peter Carr on August 19, 1785.)

Photo Credit: Steve Caplin