Best Friends

For her birthday, Ashley requested taking a walk with Mandy, Ryan and Grant.. It is such a blessing that the four of them remain best friends! We are also so blessed to have had the privilege of parenting our special 'Ashy'! We love her so much!

 

Miss Ashley Elizabeth, Age 22

 

These lovely woods border our rental's property

 

Grant and Ash

 

Ash and Rye

Mimi, age 19

 

Ryan, age 15

 

Grant, age 11

 

 

Bestest Friends

 

Autumn Nature Walk

Despite the busyness around us, we determined to take a family walk before the weather changes all together and all of the leaves fell.. we are blessed enough to have a service road right at the bottom of our driveway. We purposed an early dinner and headed out! Down the driveway and onto the service road which heads up a hill and eventually leads close to an enormous lake.

 

the maple tree in the front of our house is in the process of dropping all of her lovely leaves

off we go!

We found that the blackberry leaves were some of the prettiest finds of the day!

 

While exploring in the gully near the creek, Ryan finds a beaver-chewed log to show the family

The girls touch the gnawed wood.. amazed that beaver teeth could make such marks!

 

There are many beaver living in the pond near us..

 

 

 

 

Our four lovely ladies

 

What are we all looking at here?

Claw marks left by a bear? Not sure.. but that was the consensus..

 

Here comes the bear now!!!!! :-)

 

 

                           

We enjoyed examining these lovely mushrooms...

As the sun sets, we start back down the hill toward home..

The view up top is gorgeous!

Laura gets a closer look... what a lovely evening of nature and exploring God's creation!

 

From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised.

Psalm 113:3

 

 

 

Summer Highlights

As these chilly fall days set upon us, we have been reminiscing over the fun and sunny Washington summer.. so many fun memories.. here are some photos that we took over the season....

The Children in our home fellowship!

Ashley and Amanda have fun with their Goldendoodle puppies

Grace works on her baby quilt with mama.. here she is learning how to pin squares together

Ryan and Mandy find a turtle on our road! Ryan kindly escorted it back to the pond

                             

Here Gracie is working through her fear of the sound of frying things.. for some reason it sends her through the roof to hear things sizzling on the burner. Daddy told us that she needed to start cooking with me to desensitize her to it.. it has really helped! Now if only she'll stop screaming when the washer spins and the weather brings heavy showers on the rooftop! :-)

Fun with some wax rope that Nana and Papa brought the children

Giving Gracie's baby a ride

Taking a walk (and obviously talking about something *very* important! :-) )

Grant with his special friend Paul, whose family came to visit for a few days

We are so blessed by our family and the wonderful times that we have.. May we never take for granted the precious days of our lives together... Our prayer is that we all grow closer to the Lord, more and more equipped to serve him, increasing in our love for Him and for others...