Take Two: French's Dome

I got the chance to go rock climbing again Saturday. That is twice in one week, which is crazy, but it just worked out that way. I found some climbing shoes on craigslist for $5, which is a steal, and I needed to try them out. Let's use that as an excuse. Do I need an excuse? :)

We went to French's Dome, which is near to the Salmon River Slab where we went last time. There were a lot more people out, but we had so much fun and it was cool to see some people attempting the harder routes that we can't do yet!

My friend Julie was rock climbing outdoors for the first time, and she bravely attempted it with tennis shoes. It is MUCH harder to climb in tennis shoes because they don't stick to the rock nearly as well. Danielle says that going from tennis shoes to climbing shoes "feels like magic." Either way, Julie did a great job! She's the one on the far left.

Julie on her first outdoor climb ever! Andy is belaying her.

Me at the top of climb #2. I took up the camera because I was told there would be some great views of Mt. Hood. Yes, I'm clinging to the side of a rock taking a picture :).

The view down to where Danielle is belaying me.

I believe this was on my third climb of the day.

Danielle is practically a mountain goat. She makes it look so easy!

Danielle repelling after "cleaning" the route (getting the rope ready to come down).

Super fun!

Salmon River Slab

I learned to rock climb today. It was awesome. I had climbed a couple of times in gyms on rock walls, but to be honest, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about clinging to the face of a big chunk of rock. I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not. I love hiking and love to have my feet planted firmly on the ground. But I really liked it! I had so much fun. Mark had climbed a little in high school, and we even had some of the gear from our mountaineering excursions (Rainier, Hood, etc), but neither of us had much experience. So when some friends said they were heading out on our day off, we jumped at the chance to go with them. The two most experienced climbers led the climbs and fixed a top rope for us newbies. This is the much safer and easier way to climb. Our friend, Danielle, was able to borrow some shoes for me and another girl to share, but most of the guys weren't able to squeeze their feet into Andy's size 8 1/2 climbing shoes, so they went up in tennis shoes (not the easiest thing to do, which makes their climbs even more impressive). Mark and I each completed 3 routes and had a blast. I can't wait for the next time!

chalk prints.

I'm the one at the top! This was my second climb.

Repelling down.

This is Danielle after racing Josh to the top. She was climbing on an injured ankle, but she scampered up the rock face like it was no problem (at least she made it look that way - I think it actually hurt).

This one is Mark at the top. He climbed up a 5.9 route in tennies. What a stud!

Repelling down after a victorious climb.

I think we found ourselves a new adventure :). Thanks for the invite Danielle!

Family Fun

My parents and sister came to visit for a week, and we had a ton of fun! I only get to see them a couple times a year, and it's been a long time since my sister and I have been able to be in the same place at the same time, so it was really special to have all four of us in the same place for a time of exploration and fun. Here is a brief overview of our week:

We were at the mall and met a lady who's husband runs the carousel in the park in downtown Salem. She called over and got us a free ride, and it was way more fun than we anticipated! They had a game where the outside riders could try and hook these rings on your fingers as you went by a certain spot, and if you got a gold one, you won a free ride. Somehow I won two :).

My dad is in the rodeo! Giddyup!

Our first full day was a big circle around Mt. Hood. We went up to Multnomah Falls, over to Cascade Locks and Hood River, and then around the east side and up to Timberline Lodge and back home. We google-mapped it and it came out to over 5 hrs of driving! This is Multnomah Falls, which is often on calendars.

Mark, Jess, Bethany, and Mom at Multnomah Falls.

Dad at Mt. Hood. We were lucky and the clouds parted for a view of the mountain!

This is a view of Mt. Hood from Trillium Lake near Government Camp, OR.

Our next full day was spent at Silver Falls State Park. We saw 9 out of 10 of the waterfalls. By the time we realized we missed one, we were too tired to go back :). This was a 4-5 mile hike day and oh-so-beautiful. The falls in the picture is South Falls.

Wednesday we hit the coast at Newport, OR. It was raining pretty steadily in the morning, and as we dried out at lunch, the rain stopped and we had a dry, but cloudy and cool, afternoon.

We climbed the lighthouse at Yaquina Head. I think it has about 114 steps.

We also saw some tide-pools, sea lions, and harbor seals. Mark climbed out on a rock when we were tide-pooling. We didn't see anything too crazy, but there were plenty of sea anemones and and starfish.

My sister and I "shopping." No, we didn't bring the hats home :).

Family photo! The first one we've had in a long time!

My dad is a gardener, and he helped make my garden awesome. We planted my tomato plants, zucchini, cucumber, and peppers, and he helped me stake out a trellis for the cucumbers and the cages for the tomatoes and zucchini. I even got a few ripe strawberries!

mmm...yum! Fresh from the garden!

Dinner, Silent Auction, and a Pie in the Face

There are roses in the center of the table, Italian music play in the background, and the smell of wonderful food is in the air. "Yes," you think, "I must be at at a high-class restaurant." But then you look around and realize your waiters and waitresses are 6-12th graders! While it's not technically a high-class restaurant, the food might rival one and the service just as good :).

We put on a spaghetti dinner and silent auction last night as a fundraiser to send our kids to youth camp. There were a lot of hands that went into making the night a success, and our students did an awesome job of helping set up, serve, and clean up - earning the money that will go toward camp. Each one played their part, and did it well, and the night was a huge success! Mark even auctioned off taking a pie to the face!

Our "Italian Bistro."

Some students were the "cooks" and made up the orders that came in from the waiters and waitresses.

We had a pretty full house!

Christina doing dishes...I hear this is a rarity so I thought I'd post the picture so her family would know it happened. There's proof! :).

We auctioned off the opportunity to hit Mark in the face with a pie. His parents, who are visiting actually won the bid! They then let the kids/youth guess a number and the winner got to throw the pie. Cooper was our winner!

Here's the result of the pie in the face. There's a short video below if you want to actually see it happen! One guy in our church said, "It was worth the price of admission just to see this!"

Two of our students, Josh and Kyler, also raffled off a pie in the face, which we got to do tonight at Youth Group. I think Kyler got some up his nose :).

I think Cooper looks way too excited about this!

Gotta Love the Mountains!

We have been duped by the weather more than once now. We will plan to go hiking, snowboarding or something else that involves being outdoors, then notice that the forecast calls for rain or storms and decide not to go. Then the day will not be nearly as bad as it sounded. Well today was one of those days. We had planned on going hiking on some trails that would lead up to Jefferson Park at the base of Mt. Jefferson. Then last night the weather report called for, not just rain, but thunderstorms. So we decided not to go. Then as I was watching the news in the morning they mentioned that the thunderstorms were already passed, so after some debate, we decided to go, albeit a little later than we originally had planned. It was will a bit overcast and a little rainy here and there, but we had a great time and really didn't need anymore time than we had. Here is the progression of our hike. You'll soon see why we didn't need anymore time!

We had to stop half a mile short of the parking lot because of a snow drift in the road. We had just gotten done saying, "I'm surprised we haven't seen any snow yet..."

Here we are at the trailhead. 4100 ft.

As we climbed, we soon hit patchy snow. It brought back memories of hiking the PCT.

At about 4500 ft. our trail became 95% snow covered. Luckily it was still pretty easy to follow and navigate...just follow the clear cut and look for small patches of trail!

At this trail junction, we could have taken another trail 2.7 miles to meet up with the PCT, which runs through Jefferson Park as well. We didn't have time to go all the way into Jefferson Park, but we thought we'd go a short ways down the trail to see if we could get any views of Jefferson.

Soon the trail looked like this...

And finally like this. At this point we climbed up on top and only took a few more steps. We decided it wasn't worth the effort and risk to keep going if we weren't even going to go all the way. This is a western slope, so they usually take much longer to clear out, but this is nuts!

We are so lucky to live near beautiful mountains where we can head out for a day to places we would have to take a week off to go to for vacation in the past. We will definitely come back here, but we'll probably give it a few more weeks (months?) to melt out a bit more!

Growth

Growing up, my dad always had a big vegetable garden. I never paid much attention to it, other than to eat of it's bounty each summer, but looking back, he was able to grow an abundance of vegetables in our own back yard. It wasn't until I had graduated college and gotten married that I had the urge to attempt to grow my own food. As I have grown in my love for the outdoors and for vegetables in general, the desire to have a garden has only become more tempting. However, this is the first time we've ever lived in a place where we had a yard and the opportunity to do so.

As I've walked through this process, I've come to realize how much I have just enjoy growth. I love to grow in my own life, whether that means spiritually, mentally, or emotionally. I love seeing goals met and dreams come true. I love seeing and helping other grow as well. We have great opportunity for this in ministry, and it is so fulfilling when we are used to challenge or encourage someone who takes that next step, whatever it might be. I'm not sure if these two passions are connected, but regardless, the processes are similar. There is some aspect of weeding out the stuff in our lives that will inhibit good things to grow before we can really plant, nurture, and eventually reap a harvest. We have to remember that growth is not an end result, but a journey that we have to take one step at a time.

This is what happens in the NW when you plant grass in the rest of the yard and then proceed to ignore the dirt patch that will be your garden in the spring. It took a whole afternoon to weed it. I had put down some straw to keep my strawberry plants from freezing, but the grass still managed to grow up through it.

The straw and grass/weeds filled 6 garbage bags! Debbie got a lot of organic material for her compost :).

This picture was taken 4-6 wks ago. They are my strawberry plants that are now blooming! Yay!

I was very eager and started my zucchini and cucumbers a bit early. They did germinate in my kitchen and are now planted in the garden. It's a bit early for them, so I'm hoping they make it. If not, I will just replant and take note for next year to wait a few more weeks :).

Cucumber, Zucchini, Onions, Broccoli, and Roma Tomatoes. It's early for tomatoes as well, so this plant is in a flower pot in my kitchen for now.

It took another few hours of an afternoon to till the hard-packed soil. Because I didn't want to wait to borrow a tiller, I did this with a shovel and P90X power (aka: my arms) :).

Someone gave me some flowers that had this pinwheel in it. I thought it only appropriate to put in in the garden.

Here is the semi-finished product that I put in just this past Saturday. I planted the onion, zucchini, cucumber, carrots, romaine lettuce, and broccoli. I also have the strawberries, and will also plant tomatoes and possibly peppers and green beans once it gets a little warmer consistently. The marigolds are planted around the peripheral as a natural way to keep bugs from the veggies. Apparently they like marigolds even better. I hope it works!

I will definitely enjoy the end result, but have really enjoyed the process of preparing and planting. It was and (I'm sure will continue to be) a lot of hard work, yet it was so much fun! I look forward to learning more and *growing* in my knowledge of gardening as the summer goes on!

Happy Birthday Mark!

Today is Mark's 28th Birthday...28 on the 28th. This is probably more exciting when you are little than when you are 28, but it is what it is, and today Mark turned 28 :). We are very blessed to have Mark's parents with us. They are back out in Oregon to help work on cabins and to do some work at the same camp they were at last fall, and they came down to come to church with us and then spend a couple days with us.

We went out to lunch to a seafood grille, and they made Mark wear this fish hat and have his picture taken. Luckily he got a hot fudge sundae for his humiliation. Isn't he lucky I put this picture on the blog? ;)

Our wonderful church family planned a surprise brunch between services this morning as well. There was a cake, homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit, and a plethora of quiche-like dishes. It was all so yummy and such a fantastic surprise. I must confess that I knew for a few days, but luckily I was able to keep it a secret from Mark. He was truly surprised! Oh, did I mention they sang "Happy Birthday" to him in both services?

It's crazy to me that this is his 7th birthday that we've celebrated together- two before we were married and five since we've been married. I'm amazed at how far we've come and how much we've learned. It has been a journey that I wouldn't trade for the world, and I look forward to many more birthdays celebrated together...hopefully without the fish hat :).

Happy Birthday, Mark! I love you!