Hood To Coast

Well i finished HTC! it was SO fun. Two days of no sleep, sitting in sweaty clothes, showering with naked women, eating on the go, porta-potties, lots of running, headaches, funny people, good memories and few injuries. Success. I started us off at the top of the mountain at a nice 7:56 leisurely pace and then waited 8 hours before my  next leg which was at night so that was cool. except the headlamp and reflective vest i had to wear. BUT i was offered beer which was super nice of those random guys....Then i didn't run until about 7:30 the next morning which meant i was done after that! My team was super fun and chill and we had a grand ole time. Once everyone in my van was done we headed to the beach to wait for our other runners to get done so Dal and Brynn were waiting, then we finished as a team, took pics, loaded up, ate dinner and headed back home. 

We were almost home when this car next to us zoomed by, almost hitting the car in front before she careened off the road into the trees. No joke, it was crazy. we pulled over and ran to her but luckily she was totally fine, just a little shook up. So the ambulance came, we talked to the police and then finished getting home in one piece. It was a pretty wild way to end our night. OH man, Brynn just ripped one and it stinks!

We also took family photos too so here are a few we really like. 

 Had an ultrasound last week and saw the wee little babs. I'm officially due Feb. 10 which means I'll have 2 kids the same age for about a month, weird. Find out what we're having Sept. 24 so we can't wait! Hope all is well. Love you , miss you! xos.

Orchard Gone Wild

So the plums and apples went bonkers and Sara had to give boxes and boxes away to ladies in the Ward.  She's in pioneer mode and made applesauce with her sister for a good 12 hrs. yesterday.  A deer and her fawn started coming around to pick up the scraps.  (tried to get a pic for ya Mom, but they were on the run and my phone didn't capture the action shot)

Presley was diggin the plums...and her next diaper proved it

Got your email about the mail situation.  Sounds like you might not get the vitamins we sent.  Will the mail go thru if we plaster it with pics of Mitt Romney?

Things at the house are good.  As soon as we got on the road heading to Chelan our renters called and said the AC went out...on the hottest weekend we had all summer.  But at least the guy was able to salvage the system.  Chelan was great, minus the camping.  (just kidding)  It was a lot of fun:  tubing, wake-boarding, cliff jumping, and some intense games of ultimate frisbee.  I know we took the camera, but not sure if we actually used it.

We just got our family pictures back so we'll go thru em and post a few of our favorites.

Porter had to get glasses, thanks Brandon for letting him use  your old ones

Love ya!

Gaseosa

No, it doesn't mean what you think it means -- it's actually the R-hen-teen word for soda pop.  I used the word "soda" one time at a fiesta and the sister had no idea what I was talking about.  And so it goes almost daily -- learning some new term and trying to remember how to use it.  Mom and I feel like we're somewhere between spanich and inglesh -- we'll probably have our own twins-type sign language or something when we get home.

Anyway, thanks for all the posts with all the pic's.  Looks like Dal and Sharla are having altogether too much fun for being such new parents.  Speaking of fun -- we were thinking of you this last weekend -- at the lake in WA and the beach in CA.  Hope everybody had a good time and got home safe and sound -- just in time to start school for some of your kidletts.  What a sweet shot of Luke, Darby and Bailie on the first day of school -- Bailie in her little tutu and rainbow tennis shoes !!  And Luke, the big brother, towering over his sisters.  We love the photos -- keep 'em coming.

Speaking of photos, here's a few new ones.

    

    

    

The first one captures a fairly common mode of transportation -- a horse-drawn wagon clip-clopping down the street right along with all the motos and cars.  You'd think we were still living in the 1800's.  Those folks are the poorest of the poor and make their living going around collecting stuff to recycle -- cardboard, pop bottles, etc.
The next one is another common form of transportation -- the family bicycle.  That grandmother got on her bike with her two grandkids and rode home after our Sunday meetings.  Most people have motos they ride to church.  Almost no one has a car. 
The next one is us at a sister's house in Villa Angela -- a couple hours south of Roque Saenz Pena by colectivo (bus).  She'd invited us to lunch so we went and had a great time -- afterward, her son treated us to some original Argentine guitar music.  He also cooked the meat on an open grill out in the back yard.  (We make sure we have a blessing on the food every time we sit down.) 
The last one is a bunch of us at our apartment -- bet you can't pick out the senior statesman.  The guy beside me is a stalwart member who's always helping out the missionaries.  He's a former branch president who was abruptly released after three months because he released the RS president and cut off some other members who were abusing use of the church building -- they were apparently friends of the then district president.  There seems to be plenty of unrighteous dominion to go around down here.

Wanted to share an experience I had a week or so ago.  I can now say that I have "felt" darkness.  The brother in the photo and I went to visit a family and the further we walked into the night the darker it got.  We were on a dirt road that went deeper and deeper into a neighborhood where light was almost non-existent.  We walked past people who looked like zombies -- just shells of human beings wandering in the night.  We finally came to this little brick and cement box of a house where this family lived.  The woman brought out two plastic chairs and we sat outside under a single light bulb and tried to share a message with her and her children -- of course there was no man to be seen anywhere around.  I sat there thinking what an almost hopeless situation these people lived in -- in darkness, impenetrable darkness -- like what's described in the Book of Mormon.  Yet she had joined the Church some time in the past and made sacred covenants.  I have to wonder sometimes -- we waltz into these primitive situations and present the gospel to people who don't have a clue, who's ability to understand and embrace the gospel is such a far stretch that it's almost like inviting condemnation.  The gospel is indeed for everybody, but there has to be some preparation beyond whether an indigenous native can answer a short list of baptismal questions.  That's why I have the assignment I do -- to try and reactivate enough people to qualify to become a stake -- which requires 12 to 15 MP full tithe payers per branch.  The situation can be summed up in one verse -- Jacob 5:48. 

Beyond that, we're having a great time !!  There really is no other work that can compare to the Lord's work and we hope all of you get the opportunity to go when the time is right.  So I'll sign off for now and let Mom say her piece. 

I love you very much and look forward to our reunion.  Kiss hug secret to you all.
XOS,
Dad               

first day of school in cali

Luke in fourth grade, Darby in second, and Baylie in kindergarten!  Baylie was the most thrilled to be in kindergarten and did great!  We miss you and are praying for you everyday!  Love you!  Hope all is well!  xos!

3 Year Anni.

We had a fun anniversary weekend that Dal had all planned out which started with getting a facial (the BEST thing ever!) and then driving to the Tillamook Factory to sample some cheeses and then continuing down along the coast to Manzanita. I had no idea what we were doing so come Friday morning i thought we were off to some super intense hike which turned out to be renting surfboards and wet suits (i'm tough but not THAT tough people) and spending the entire day catching some waves. It's definitely a lot harder than it looks but I sort of got the hang of it and was pretty cool other than the salty ocean and sand. Oh and we also got FRIED, i'm talking like lobster red here. Painfully sunburned...

We then hit up the Big Wave restaurant where he thought it'd be cool to try some oyster shooters. NOT so cool. The thing was huge and i gagged trying to swallow it down. Tasted nasty besides but at least it was entertaining. Lots of Olympics watching as well which was a bonus and then home by Sat. afternoon.

She's into biting her lower lip now like Beck does....

Welp, summer is coming to a close quickly but I still have Hood to Coast coming up but I'm now running a different leg which means I start the race off running straight downhill for about 5.5 miles so we'll see how that feels on the ole knees. Love you both lots and keep up the good work. Do you guys have to do "letters to the president" each week? XOS!

Last of the 20's......

I'm just going to repost what I put up on our blog but first I wanted to say how much I love that picture of mom in front of Wal-mart! Takes me back to a few short months ago and all our little trips to that store. Good times. We love hearing about all your experiences. I read them out loud to Emma so that she doesn't forget her gma and gpa! Love you both, your package is on it's way.

Garlan turned 29 last week! A big shout out to my one and only true love as he enters the last year of his 20's! We both feel somewhat sad to leave behind these golden years but we are excited to see what the 30's have in store for us.

I wanted this year to go out with a BANG so I threw G his first ever surprise party (actually I didn't know he had never had a surprise party). Thanks to my sister April and all of her help, it was a huge success. We had 40+ people come and give G birthday wishes, as well as partake in some delicious cake and ice cream. I took G out to dinner and told him we had to be back so that April could go to the movies. She played the roll perfectly so he didn't suspect a darn thing. When we got back he walked into the kitchen and our house was packed with friends and family to yell "SURPRISE"! In G fashion, he remained cool and calm with a big grin on his face. The weather was perfect so we moved the party outside until kids started to show on the face and in their actions that it was time for them to go home and go to bed. We love all our new and old friends and neighbors for coming to spend the evening with us!

I especially want to say how much I love my husband and best friend. He is my rock and makes me want to be a better person. He is kind, unselfish, humble, and loving. I couldn't imagine life without him. I'm so grateful Heavenly Father kept him for me all those years! 

I love you always and forever G!

Here are some pictures from that night......

Foam Fest!

On Sat. we participated in our 2nd annual mud-type run and with tradition, i was also about 3 months prego again. Even better that we were running thru Sherwood Forest (along with an innumerable amount of horse poo--it WAS an equestrian park people!). Obstacles included scaling walls, climbing under electric wire thru mud, running of course, a huge slip n slide, a "car wash," tires, a bouncy foam pit and another slip n slide to the finish line where we were awarded our medals. SUPER fun of course, especially the foam slip n slide which we went down together. 

Erin and Becca were both here which was super fun and holy crap, oh my gosh the olympics are on!!!! did anyone else think the opening ceremonies were a bit weird and kinda lame? i mean, i LOVE England but that was some weird shiz. and so anywho, glad you got the package finally. Things are going just swell, enjoying summer and playing with baby B. Love you guys!!!

She's definitely my girl, loves kittys!

XOS!

We're in love

Yes, we're each in love with our comp, but we're in love with some super-cute litle granddaughters too -- Ivy, Presley, Kennedy, Brynn & Emma (although Emma's looking a little water-logged in that last shot).  It's fun to see how they're each so unique and yet bear such a family resemblance.  We just want to cuddle them !!  And thanks Amberli, for sharing your own tender feelings about your tender-hearted little boys.  It's hard to see how innocent they are, knowing what lies ahead of them out there in the big wide world.  It's too bad they (actually all of us) have to learn combat survival skills just to cope with all that life throws at us.  But such is the purpose of mortality.  And such is the purpose of parenting -- to teach those survival skills.  All we can do is all we can do to hopefully minimize the casualties.  But ours are among the 2000 stripling warriors, right? -- no losses.

Well, we have some new pics for y'all --

                                          
 
The first one is yours truly out in front of the shopper's Mecca -- Walmart !!  It's so nice to be able to find just about everything you need in one store -- albeit often of inferior quality. 

Next is the Dad sitting in his "office" with -- whallah -- a bag of Doritos !!  Yes, I found them and now we can stay down here indefinitely.  (And I'm going to hide them if any of you come down here, along with the glazed donutes I found, and the home-made V-8 juice that you all liked so much.)   

Lastly is Mom at the bus terminal as the sun's coming up -- on our way to the big city -- Resistencia where we spent Friday and Saturday with President and Sister Heyman (from Chandler AZ).  Besides going to Walmart, we went to the Sculpture Festival -- a biannual event that brings in sculptors from all over the world to work on a piece of art for a week and then they place them around the city -- a pretty big deal.  We also went to Corrientes which is across the Parana' River and looked around
-- what you would picture as a nice South American city, yet with plenty of poverty and "disorden".

Had an interesting missionary experience last week too -- a furniture salesman we thought we had lost contact with saw us on the street and invited us to come teach him English "even if it was with the Bible".  So we made an appt and went over with an English copy and a Spanish copy of the Book of Mormon.  We gave them to him and his wife (the nicest, sincerest people you'd ever meet) and invited him to read the Introduction first in Spanish, which he read in its entirety.  Then we invited him to read it in English which he and his wife did -- albeit a little rough -- and the spirit just filled the room.  They both expressed a desire to know more, so we have a follow-up appt this Friday.  Of course, Mom wowed them with her banana bread as well as her own engaging sincerity.  There's nothing quite like sitting in someone's humble home teaching them the basic truths of the gospel which they're hearing for the first time in their lives and feeling the spirit bear witness to them that what they're learning is true.  We hope you all have the opportunity to go on a mission together when the time is right.  There's really nothing comparable to it. 

Well, better bring this to a close and hope it posts like it's supposed to.
Love you all.  Keep in touch.
XOS,
Dad & Mom/G-pa & G-ma