A Trip for Two

Recently Grady and I were gifted a beach trip to Lincoln City, OR. The hotel was located right on the ocean with a lovely view.. Grady and I had such a nice relaxing time.. truly a time of refreshment and bonding. We were able to sit for hours and talk about current things going on in our lives, read the Word together as well as a great Andrew Murray book that he just picked up at his favorite bookstore (Goodwill). It was such a special time together..

 

 

We brought food from home for most of the trip but this night we splurged and went out to Gallucci's for pizza! We ordered one with all the works!

There was enough left over for breakfast!

Mmmmm... going out to eat is a luxury which we normally do not afford ourselves... When we do go out, it can be stressful since I have a wheat allergy.. so it was a blessing to find that Gallucci's serves this wonderful gluten free pizza. What a treat!

Later back at the room, I made the misake of feeding the seagulls off of our balcony...

They wouln't leave us alone after that! :)

(The view was magnificant by the way!

Well, what we could see of it through the sea gulls!)

 

Grady had me take a few photos of him standing next to the this little BMW.

It is so tiny that the whole front of the car opens up as the door.

 

The entire car fit into 1/4 of a normal parking spot!

 

 

We liked this posted sign in an antique store that we

visited.. it was entitled 'Christocracy'

 

On our last day at the beach we stumbled upon this wonderful 1+ acre garden, right in the middle of town. A local master gardener had designed and worked on it for years before her passing. It is now left for the community to enjoy.. with the mild weather and because there were only the two of us, we spent a long time at the garden, admiring God's wonderful creation..

 

 

 

Look at the size of this Rhody! The blossoms were enormous!

 

 

My sweet tour guide.. In some parts he goes by the name 'Poncho'

 

This bridge was demolished in the late 90's. Being the oldest covered bridge in Oregon, many folks from their community pulled together and salvaged the demolished pieces and over a few years and after the Lord providing huge trees in which to mill the large supports needed, erected it on their property in order to preserve this historic monuement. It was a blessing to read their testimony

 of how the faith of a few and the trust in the Lord to provide was the only way

 it could and was accomplished. 

 

 

 

 

Family Wanderings

Ok so I admit it! Our family L*O*V*E*S road trips! Recently, we had an opportunity to head over the mountains to the other side of Washington State. The weather pattern changes were intense! We left Chehalis while it was rainy and gray, headed up over White Pass, past the skiers,  where it was snowy and blue and over the mountain and down into scrubby pine trees, awesome rocky cliffs and sagebrush with very warm and sunny weather! It is amazing how in 3 hours you can be in a totally different climate. Washington State is such a lovely place! We had a great day, listening to a few great sermons, stopping at places along the way and visiting with friendly strangers.. enjoying our favorite 'Belize Esh Music' and spending time together..

Heading out Highway 12 toward the mountain

There's the snow line!

We never grow tired of these snow scenes

 

A frosty mountain lake

We drove past the skiers...

 Up even further.. and down the other side of the mountain pass..

Into the glorious sunshine and the distinctly different terrain..

Beautiful!

 

 

We love the 'Big Sky' on the eastern side of the mountains

I remember that color of blue.. we saw it in Belize!

lovely farmland outside of Yakima

Over the hills we see the windmill farms.. these things are HUGE! Don't know

much about them but we suppose they capture the huge amounts of wind found

near the Columbia River and used for a power source. These things have got to be

at least 100 ft' high!

Kinda distracting to drive by..

Laura gets a peek at the great Columbia River

The flowers were so beautiful.. there were some (wild phlox?) that grow in bouquets..

We had to stop and get a closer look

'Ok girls, back in the truck!' :)  Uh oh, Grant is out also..

he found some lava rock, sagebrush and some limestone

The 'bouquets'

Breathtaking!

We found a great out-of-the-way State Park near Vantage, WA where we ate lunch and let the children explore.. Grant even got to throw in his fishing line!

 

Gracie finds a friend! No, we did NOT take him home with us!

Back up the mountain!

Here comes the snow again..

The kids wanted to jump out and wade through the snow one more time..

 

..and snap a few pics

Grant follows in his brother's footprints so as to not get snow in his non-snow shoes! :)

back down the hill..

 

Picturesque Randle, WA

A herd of elk

 

We came across this old condemned set of cabins from yesteryear...

With a timeless gospel message leaning up against the dilapidated building..