William Heiss State Park

I should start by introducing David.  He is Greta's favorite person, it seems, in the world right now.  Nobody gets the same reaction David does from Greta.

See what I mean - check out that look.  David is our music director/help with everything else we need help with.  He has been a huge blessing to the church, Mike, our family...  We all love David, 

Greta is just the most exuberant in her expression.

Another introduction: this is Rebel.  I love this picture because you rarely ever actually get to see his eyes - either because his glasses are so dirty or because he keeps them mostly closed or fluttering while he talks to you.  It is pretty much impossible to put words to all that is Rebel, so I won't even try.  But hopefully you will get to know him some here.  He is 72 and hiked all the way to the top of Volcan Mtn. with us - about a 6 mile, relatively strenuous hike.

 The hike...I forgot to tell you what we were doing.  It was our first church camping trip!!  We had a great time and look forward to doing it again since two our our big hiking/camping families couldn't even make this trip.  We camped at William Heiss State Park and hiked Volcan Mountain.  Weather was great.  Kids slept great. Food was great (thanks to David).  Music was great - I got to drift to sleep listening to David and Noelle play guitar and sing.

 We forgot to change Joseph's shirt before we went hiking, so he went shirtless so he wouldn't die of heat stroke.  It is so funny what kids think is normal...Mike does not go around shirtless often so it took Joseph a while to be okay with having his shirt off.  August on the other hand...

 Kaitlan and Nowellwell (Noelle), as Greta calls her.  Noelle has helped with our children's ministry  since the church started.  She has grown from never babysitting before to being a pro - keeping everyone's kids from church at some point or another.  Kaitlan is...it is so fulfilling to look at these pictures and just see how all the people are becoming a part of our family - how our kids love them, how they serve the church and the neighborhood here.

This always happens when we hike and I am pregnant.  You've seen it before.

Can't wait until the next trip...though it will probably have to wait until after the baby arrives...seeing as I have been having contractions the entire time I have been making this post.  Whew, slow down baby - we have a few more weeks yet!

Joshua Tree

After 7 years of marriage Mike and I have learned a few things about how we function best. Well, at least Mike has. Our neighbor, Robin and her daughter Lilly were camping in Joshua Tree for a week and invited us to join them at any point during their time. We really had a pretty busy week, but have been itching to camp and see Joshua Tree. If Mike has said, "Let's do it! Wednesday night! We'll leave early in the morning, stay the night and come back after supper on Thursday. It won't be a big deal. We'll keep it simple!"...if he had said that, I would have immediately started stressing about the planning (because we all know that camping is a great big fat hassle that is totally worth it, but a stinkin' lot of work). BUT he said, "You know, I'm not completely sure we should go, but if we are going to do it we should leave in the morning. Let's just act like we are doing it and head in that direction until we are derailed and decide it isn't the thing to do." I started making pasta salad for supper and protein bars for hiking and piling clothes on the bed (which I almost didn't even pack because I figured we would just wear the same thing both days). It was stress free! And we made it!Desert camping is different than East TN Mtn. camping. It's own kind of beautiful. I love it!
Mike went out for a dawn walk and met some friends. We heard them a lot during the night.
It was a hair chilly morning and evening, but HOT during the day - desert camping. Those tall trees with the green bunches on top.
Three climbing partners. Terra was camping beside us.




Can't explain this pose. I just called her name and she struck a ballet move.
She's hooked. They loved climbing. You wouldn't believe the stuff people do out there. Robin's friend who joined her the day we left has been climbing out there since he was a kid. He did climbed close to 200 feet without gear. In fact, if you scroll back up to the first picture, it was the big rock in the background.

Cant' wait to go back! The kids slept great in the tent! Now that we finally have them all camping ready, we are starting back a square one with another baby. Oh well.

"Camping"

I put it in quotations because that weekend really does not deserve to be dignified with that title. It was our first desert trip and it was beautiful! Here are the kids doing a little bouldering after a very long Friday night. The wind was extraordinarily strong ALL night. Mike hurled ALL night. And Greta cut a tooth and cried ALL night. Consequently, I did not sleep ALL night. It was lovely. I can't believe the people we went with are still speaking to us.
The most beautiful and mocking part of the night. An enormous full moon! Rose over one mountain, crossed over our heads all night and set on the other side. Only problem was I kept thinking "oh, daylight is coming..." nope, it's only 2:50 A.M.
Look at baby G all bundled! She was warm. She wun't happy, but she was warm.

Almost Camping

Some friends were beach camping a couple of weeks ago and were gracious enough to let us crash their site for an evening. I have been dying to camp lately, something about the Fall (the season, not the result of Adam's sin) I suppose. And I've never been beach camping.It was very blustery. After 103 degrees that week, this chilly night was welcome.
Everything is more exciting when you are camping...glow sticks...
...scotting...
...doing dishes...if they could reach the sink at home, I would capitalize on this.
She's thinking we messed up - she was supposed to be skiing, not camping.

We'll go soon, hopefully. After taking Joseph at about 6 months and him screaming through a silent camp ground in the middle of the night, I decided that wasn't good camping etiquette. She went 11-7 last night, so we might be out there sooner rather than later.

Tecate Mission

We drove down to the border last week for Mike to preach at a chapel service at the Tecate Mission. It is an English speaking Christian school attended mostly by Mexican kids from the city of Tecate, just across the border. I was so impressed by the kids. They had better attention during chapel than most of the college kids I knew at Covenant. We spent part of the morning with them and then went on a little desert hike.

You are looking over the border.


The Mission is the group of buildings in the foreground of the picture.

Hiking with The Cousins Eddie

Columbia has this great warehouse sale in St. Louis twice a year and just before we moved I picked up these ensembles - his and hers Cousin Eddie hats with matching gloves. I think I paid like $3 for each set.A couple of weeks ago we went up to Palomar Mountain. It is about 2 hours outside the city and about 5,000 feet up. Usually they have snow, but not while we were there. There is a Christian retreat center that gives discounts to pastors. We didn't stay the night this time, just hiked, but I am looking forward to spending a weekend there sometime soon.
All that dead stuff in front of Joe and me is fern. You can see a live one in the front of the picture. I don't know what killed them, but I love ferns and I bet they were so beautiful on that hill.


The kids did great. We made them walk all the way down. We found some deer tracks to follow and Joseph had to poop once so that kept things exciting. I was wandering out to explore the trail a little when I heard Joseph say, "I need to poop." I pretended not to hear and kept walking. Then I heard Mike say, "Okay kids, I'm going to teach something about hiking in the woods." I stayed gone long enough for all business to be taken care of.


A meadow on a mountain top.
Okay, so I have been beyond tired lately. Don't know if it is pregnancy low iron, or pregnancy at 34 with 2 small children, or I am weakling. Anyway, this was a pretty good day - but hiking back up the mountain with a 30+ pounder on my back....well, honestly I said I was fine, but Mike didn't like how the pack was wrapped around my belly...and the fact that I was wheezing. Geez, 34! That's it! And I have wheezing lately like...like something that wheezes a lot. California has given rebirth to all the allergies I ever had. So he doubled up. Olivia complained about Joseph's butt being in her face the whole time, but otherwise it worked out fine and I felt horribly guilty for being so weak.

I at least got to bring him in the last leg.

We ended a great day with them snugly in bed...Olivia in her Cousin Eddie hat and gloves, picking her nose. I'll spare you the picture.