JV vision night

On Tuesdays we went to Portland to a Josiah Venture vision night. We left early so that we could see Monty and Jolee. We met them at a chinese restaurant and had dinner before the event. We met Shawn and Christena at the event and it was fun seeing them. They had interviewed with Josh Patti, the leader of Josiah Vneture in Slovenia, in the afternoon and then stayed for the vision night. I also talked to Jon, Joel's brother, for awhile. It was a long day because we didn't gfet home until 12:30 but I'm really glad that we went.

Baama fix it!

I bought Abigail a box of colored chalk the other day. As she was coloring one piece fell and broke into several pieces. I told her, "that's okay, chalk breaks but you can still use it." She said with great confidence, "Baama fix it!"

I have no idea where that came from and if Baama is actually Grandma or Grandpa, but one of you or both of you has left a very good impression on her!

Hope you enjoy the JV Vision Night!! I'm glad it worked out for you two to go!

Family Day

We went to Klagenfurt, Austria today...just to get away for the day. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day and just nice to get out for awhile. Klagenfurt is about an hour north of here, through the mountains, so it's a beautiful drive...a bit curvy at times, but beautiful and many places to pull off if need be. They also have a Burger King there...a tasty treat sometimes as well as Toys R Us!

So we totally had an "American" day today. Spoke English (didn't feel bad about it either! : ), ate burgers and fries, played with all the toys at Toys R Us, bought one toy for Eli, a little car for 1 Euro and 50 cents! Then drove home. Fun...fun...fun!

We also stopped at the grocery store there because sometimes they have different American products, like Cream of Mushroom soup, Tomato Soup, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, etc. The soup was almost $3 a can and they didn't have the rolls, so we left empty handed, but it was fun to look around the store anyway.

Here's some pictures. The outfit Abigail is wearing is one from Mom for her birthday. She calls it her "Bamma coz" (Grandma's clothes) She also has Bamma shus! Pretty cute little girl...and boy. The close ups of Eli are photos of him eating french fries...he really wanted our food. : )

Trout Lake WA.

Monday afternoon through Wednesday morning Julie and I were at Trout Lake WA for leadership training. Tuesday afternoon we had some free time so they took us on a tour of the area. These first pictures are from a high hill called "Witches Wart". From there we could see Mt Hood, Mt Adams, Mt Rainer, and Mt St Helens. This is a picture of Mt Adams.

After going to "Witches Wart" we went to a lava cave. It was about 25 feet down to get to and then we walked for some distance in the cave. Julie and I didn't go all the way to the end because she had the wrong kind of shoes for this kind of adventure (city girl you know). By the time we got back to the opening her knees were really hurting, but she's glad she went.

Robert and Annie came down to see mom Thursday afternoon, so Julie brought her to the house a little after noon. We had dinner around 4:30 and had to eat in front of mom (that was not fun). After dinner we took her back to the care facility. She really enjoyed the day.

Family Photos

We got some new family photos taken on Monday. We'll be having new prayer cards made soon and it was just fun to get some new family pictures. Here's a few...a few, okay A LOT that we like:

And here's a link if you want to see more!