Ashley's Blog

Another recipe...

2012-02-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I tried out a recipe from the newspaper that piqued my curiosity. It's called Chocolate Chai Pudding, and, yes, it's very tasty! It's basically a home-made microwave pudding, with an added step of steeping chai tea in the milk. The result was a nice chocolate pudding with the spicy taste that you would normally enjoy in your chai tea. It would be easy to make variations on this recipe. Here's a link to it: http://www.relish.com/recipes/chocolate-chai-pudding/.

A Knitting Project

2012-02-04T19:39:00.000-08:00

I've never blogged about my knitting projects... but here's one I just finished. It's from a cute book I got called Knit and Purl Pets. I thought the projects looked fun and that they would be good things to give away. I just finished my first one, this cute little dog. It took me a while to finish it, but it was a fun project!

Tiny works of art

2011-12-07T13:11:00.001-08:00

It was really foggy early this week. It's also been pretty cold in the mornings lately, so the frost was quite thick. Since they were coated in little ice crystals, all the spiders' webs outside really stood out. The two below are actually two halves of the same web that some spider decided to spin on either side of a post in our porch railing. They were obviously corresponding pieces of the same web, but there was a big, thick pole in the middle. It made me think--isn't it amazing that tiny little creatures like a spider the size of my fingernail can create something so beautiful? If any human made something like that, we would think he or she was a very creative artist, but these little spiders are just doing what they were made to do! The real Artist in this case is the one who made the spider.

A Cinnabon Recipe!

2011-11-28T20:36:00.001-08:00

I've never blogged about food before, but last Saturday I tried a new recipe that I think is definitely blog-worthy! To begin with, a little background. My family loves Cinnabon cinnamon rolls. There used to be a Cinnabon at the Vancouver mall, but it closed and now the closest one is at Lloyd Center. Needless to say, we haven't gotten any in a long time! However, the other day a friend told me about this cookbook called Top Secret Recipes, and that there was a recipe for Cinnabons (thanks, Kathy!). Well, I found it online here. It seemed worth a try. I tried to do it just like the recipe said to and the results were amazing! It truly tastes like a Cinnabon cinnamon roll. Some parts of the recipe are a little unusual. For one thing, several ingredients are measured by weight. It also requires kneading the dough and beating the frosting for a really long time, but it's totally worth it. I'm not sure if my family will ever buy Cinnabon again...

Fall

2011-11-12T12:45:00.001-08:00

"So you're finally blogging again! Where have you been??" Well, I've been working on school again. I'm continuing to do (almost) full time studies with Whitefield. I'm getting pretty close to having an AA in Christian Studies--just a few more months to go! I say almost full-time, because I have been busy with other things, as well. A couple weeks ago Christina and I went on what will probably be our last trip for a while, this time to see some very dear friends who live in Oklahoma. We met them over ten years ago, when dad was in the Air Force, and we went to the same church in Germany. It was a very quick trip, but it was wonderful to spend time with them, go to church with them, and just do some catching up (not to mention they served some really delicious meals!--they're talented cooks).

However, none of that is an excuse for not taking pictures and blogging. I can only say that I got in a rut again. I finally got out of that rut and took some pictures yesterday. The fall colors are so nice right now! It was a misty, wet morning and I found some different things in the yard that caught my attention.

Texture on the grape leaves

Colorful blueberry leaves

Delicate maple leaves

These hydrangea flowers used to be blue, but through the fall they have transitioned to a purple-ish/red-ish color

I was taking pictures of this Japanese maple in the front yard when...

...a hummingbird came up to the feeder on the porch! Isn't it cute?

Alaska

2011-10-09T17:53:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, we celebrated Christina's graduation from Whitefield by going on a trip to Alaska. And, while this trip was not for me, or planned by me, I got to tag along, too...

So, what did we do in Alaska? We started out with something crazy--we went to the town of Nome for about four hours. Nome is a coastal town near the arctic circle in northwest Alaska. If you've heard of it, it's probably been in connection to the Iditarod sled-dog race that finishes here. Unless you're a musher, the only way to get to Nome is by plane (or boat, I guess). It's an interesting, kind-of rough little town.

This is the Bering Sea, right behind the main street of Nome!

Nome City Hall, and the End of the Iditarod Sled-Dog Race.

Nome's Airport is tiny. One room served for ticket counter, baggage claim, and boarding area. And note the sign on the counter. ALL ulu knives must be checked. Gotta remember stuff like that, since this door serves as the entrance to the TSA screening area.

We spent most of our time in Anchorage. We used to live in Anchorage many years ago, so it was neat going back to places that we had been to a long time ago. I was about six when we left Alaska, so even here, many things felt new.

We took a short hike in Arctic Valley, just outside Anchorage. It serves as a ski slope during the winter. The fall colors on the mountains were just lovely!

Looking over the ridge into the Eagle River Valley. Do you see the rainbow under the clouds?

Later in the trip, we headed up to the Fairbanks area. From Fairbanks it's just a couple hours to Denali National Park. The Park is partly closed down for the season, but we were able to drive a short ways inside. It was a little disappointing--we didn't see any wild life or Mt. McKinley (too cloudy), but I guess that's not uncommon! Someone told us that only fifteen percent of visitors see the mountain.

We may not have seen McKinley, but the vastness of Denali is still breath-taking!

We intended to head home on Thursday. We were flying standby, and it turned out to be a very bad time to leave Alaska on standby. Most of the flights were full or nearly full, while the standby list at times had 60-80 names on it. We tried to get on flights Wednesday and Thursday, but couldn't. By Friday we were pretty tired of hanging out at the airport, and things still didn't look good, so we took a break from trying to get home and just drove around the area some more. Back at the airport, things finally started to improve on Saturday, so by the wee hours of Sunday morning, we had all made it onto a flight. It was so good to be home!

Goat Rocks

2011-09-05T11:43:00.000-07:00

We went on our last camping trip of the season this past weekend. The goal of this one was specifically to hike in Goat Rocks Wilderness, which is about 3 1/2 hours away from us. I first read about hiking Goat Rocks in the paper. I cut out the article and made it kind of a goal to get there, but it took a few years to actually do it.

We headed up to the Goat Rocks area Thursday evening and spent the night at a campground by Walupt Lake, which is not very far from the trailhead we were going to use. It was a great campground and would have been a nice place to spend a few days, especially if we had a boat or kayak.

While it would have been nice to spend more time at Walupt Lake, the main purpose for staying there was to use it as a base camp for our hike to Goat Lake the next day.

Here's a map of the 12-mile trail.

I had read really great things about this trail, so I was very excited to hike it. I was definitely not disappointed! The scenery on this hike was some of the most beautiful I've ever encountered.

The hike really got exciting once we reached the tree line and started hiking through the alpine meadows at the top of the Goat Creek Basin. The wild flowers were still in bloom, but there were a lot of snow patches that hadn't melted yet.

The narrow trail, surround by wildflowers.

Christina heads down the trail through one of the meadows.

A shallow snow-melt pond by the trail.

One of numerous little tributary mountain streams we had to cross.

Goat Lake is in the little bowl in the middle of these cliffs. The waterfall is where it flows out to become Goat Creek.

Another tiny mountain stream.

Looking down the valley toward Mt. Adams.

Finally we got to Goat Lake! It was still mostly frozen over this year, as I had heard it would be. Still, it's amazing to think that on the first weekend of September, last year's snow and ice had not totally thawed.

Dad checks out the edge of the lake.

I don't know my wildflowers very well, so I'm not sure what these are, but they were very soft to the touch.

That's a marmot or something (?) on that rock, admiring the view of Mt. St. Helens.

To get back to the trailhead, we crossed Goat Ridge into Jordan Creek Basin. Here's the view down that valley toward Mt. St. Helens.

Okay, so Goat Rocks, Goat Lake, Goat Creek, Goat Ridge... there's a theme, right? You are supposed to see mountain goats in this area, but we were over halfway through the hike and we hadn't seen any. Finally, we spotted one goat high up on an opposite ridge.

It's a goat!!! (It's to the right of the two snow patches.)

The hike made for a long and very tiring day, but it was completely worth it! I'm so thankful for God's kindness in allowing us to visit this gorgeous, wild area, and for his protection on the trail and the road.

From the Mountains to the Beach

2011-08-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's high time for another blog post! Before I get started, though, a little side note... Some of you have mentioned not knowing when I had a new post up. Now, I know this is really my fault, because when I don't post very often, frequent visits to the blog aren't worth it. However, did you know that there's a handy little service that will send my blog posts to you by email? Just enter your email address into the "Follow by Email" box on the right, and you'll be signed up for updates whenever I post. That way, you'll never miss them. And of course, you can unsubscribe if you get tired of the updates (it's okay, I'll never know!).

Okay, now on to the fun stuff. August was full of lots of opportunities to get out and enjoy the beautiful place we live in. We have my cousin Amber to thank for a lot of those opportunities, because she came out and visited us. We wanted to take her to all our favorite places and in the process had a nice week-long "staycation."

Anyone who comes to the Northwest has to see Multnomah Falls, so that was our first stop. It was very crowded. I guess that's to be expected for a Sunday in August!

Crown Point, on our way home from Multnomah Falls.

We also went on a hike in the Gorge around the Cape Horn area. It was a lovely hike, even though the weather was a little cloudy.

Wild Columbine.

Fireweed?

The Gorge again. Such a lovely view!

Cigar Rock. Appropriately named, don't you think?

This thin, misty waterfall was a highlight of the hike. The trail passes behind it.

We also took Amber to Cape Disappointment State Park for a couple days of camping.

The moon rises as we get ready for our first night.

Amber, Christina, and Mom, with North Head Lighthouse in the bakground.

Pelicans

North Head Lighthouse in the morning

The North Jetty on the Columbia. We walked out on it a good distance. It was fascinating to see how the water was rough on the north side, but very calm on the south side. There were lots of birds and a few sea lions around it.

See-sawing on the beach.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.

Another must-see for anyone visiting the Northwest is, of course, Mt. St. Helens, so this was our last excursion with Amber. We were really thankful that although it was a cloudy day at lower elevations, the clouds weren't too thick at Johnston Ridge.

Wildflowers! Still blooming in August.

We were so glad Amber could come out and stay with us, and it was very fun showing her around the area. The week after she left, we got to go to the Coast again, this time to visit the folks at our church's annual camp-out at Cape Lookout State Park. Again, we were blessed with gorgeous weather.

The beach at Cape Lookout, looking north.

Starfish!

Looking south toward the actual Cape Lookout.

It's been an exciting summer, and it's not quite over yet. Stay tuned for more. :)

Colville 2011!

2011-08-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

We returned last Saturday night from an eight-day mission trip to the Colville Indian Reservation with Mission to the World. While we certainly faced difficulties during that time, God was faithful to provide for us through them all and blessed the trip with much success. It was a very good trip and I count myself blessed to have been a part of it. It was a real joy to see and participate in God's work on the reservation this year.

Okay, now for pictures.

Saturday, July 23

Our week got of to a rip-roaring start by...spending several hours in the parking lot of a towing and transmission shop after one of our vehicles started having trouble. We were about half-way to the reservation when this happened. Mount Vernon Towing was kind enough to allow us to borrow a vehicle for the whole week. This was just one of many times when we watched God provide for us in exciting ways.

We took the North Cascades route to Omak and stopped at the Diablo Lake overlook.

Photo op!

It was kind of neat to see the mountain pass in the evening (the incident with the Suburban had gotten us behind). I loved the shadows of the mountains reflecting on other mountains. We finally arrived in Omak somewhere around 9:30, I think. The other main team, from New Jersey, arrived after us, so it was a late night.

Sunday, July 24

We went to First Pres. in Omak Sunday morning. We've gone there every year and have always been graciously received. It's become a tradition to take a picture just outside the door after church.

Sunday afternoon we had time to go for a swim in beautiful Omak Lake (sorry, no pictures) and hike up to a little waterfall not far from the Longhouse where we stay.

Monday-Friday, July 25-29

Monday through Friday are our work days when we do our projects such as wood sheds and house painting. We also do our senior, VBS, and jail ministries on those days. I personally was involved only in painting projects.

We got to paint this house inside and out. It was really exciting to see it transform.

The outside before

Inside before: Moving furniture in preparation for painting.

Scraping loose paint off the outside

Washing the inside walls

Inside after: it was so much brighter!

Outside after: not sure if this is the primer coat or the final color, but you can see the difference from how it was before!

Painting a fence on Wednesday

The final fence color was a cheerful yellow. The folks in the picture below are some of our friends from PCNJ, the other big church group on the team. Sadly, I somehow managed not to get any posed pictures of us and them together. : ( But we really enjoyed spending time with them. It's been neat to see how our two groups are able to compliment and support each other. They would help us with work projects in the morning, then run the VBS in the afternoon. From past years, I know that they have a true gift for working with the kids!

The adorable kitty at the fence project having a cat-nap.

The third paint project, known as the "duck house." (Think Oregon Duck team colors.)

Before: The front

The back

Duck house no longer! The front after

And the back after.

Friday Night

Friday night we normally have a big meal with our friends from the reservation. Normally we've had it at the Stampede grounds in Omak, but this year we had it at the Longhouse where we stay all week. It's a time for us to say thank you to those on the reservation who have allowed us to be a part of their lives, and to share a little more about our relationship with Jesus, Who is the reason for what we do. It's also a time for goodbyes.

This year we made a special friend in Chanell. She lives on the reservation and met the MTW team that came in June. She decided to spend the week working with our July team and we're so glad she did!

Us gals with Chanell (showing off her new slippers that we gave her as a parting gift).

The inside of the longhouse where we had our Friday night feast, complete with delicious salmon prepared by our cook, Ron.

After dinner we had a time of singing and sharing with our guests, similar to the worship time we had as a team every night during the week.

Saturday, July 30

Saturday was its own adventure. The Suburban was still out of commission, so some of us had to hitch a ride with other MTW team members who live in Kent. In Kent we met up with some other friends who providentially happened to be up in the area for something else. In the end, our whole team made it safely back to Vancouver around 9 p.m. It was a great week and I'm very glad I could be a part of it.

Lower Falls

2011-07-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

So after going to Victoria the week before, we had yet another family adventure this past weekend. We spent two nights at Lower Falls on the Lewis River. We went there a couple years ago (as this blog post documents). If anything, I love that area now even more than I did then. It's just beautiful and a great place to camp and hike. The campground is just a short walk away from the viewpoint for Lower Falls. It's also right next to the trail that takes you to Middle and Upper Falls. All three falls are really impressive and the trail itself is very pretty and not terribly challenging (there are few narrow places where you may not want to look down if you don't like heights).

Lower Falls

One of several creeks that passes under the trail and joins the Lewis River

Middle Falls

The woods are so beautiful!

There's one tree in particular off the trail that's just enormous. As you can see, it makes Christina (standing at the bottom) look tiny, and yet you still can't see the whole thing.

A mini forest growing on top of a log, complete with trees and "ferns"

For a while, the trail is overhung by massive cliffs that echo the sound of the river below.

Another tributary creek.

Majestic Upper Falls

It's kind of become a tradition of mine to take fire pictures on camping trips.

Victoria

2011-07-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

About a week ago we took a quick trip up to Victoria, B.C. Mom and Dad had gone there before and this was an opportunity for them to show Christina and me some of the things they had seen and to explore some new places. I really enjoyed it and I hope we can go back some time. We started by looking around the downtown/waterfront area. This is where the beautiful Empress Hotel is located. The downtown area has a fun, British feel to it that I really enjoyed.

The lovely Empress hotel.

The view of the waterfront across the street from the Empress.

There are lots of nice shops (including yarn shops!) and interesting restaurants in downtown Victoria. I wanted to eat lunch at the Sticky Wicket (loved the name!) but it wasn't open, so we went to another very cute place down the street.

Once we were finished in Victoria, we took the bus up to Butchart Gardens. This was definitely a highlight of the trip. The gardens are just amazing, and very extensive. They were developed on the site of the Butchart family's quarry operation. It's amazing how they were able to transform something ugly into something so beautiful and lush. We wish someone would do the same with the quarry down the street from us!

At the edge of the gardens is Butchart Cove, which was important for transportation from the quarry. Now they use it for tours.

I liked how they incorporated a hanging basket into the sign.

Senior Pictures for Christina

2011-06-28T19:06:00.000-07:00

June marked a major milestone in my sister Christina's life--a few weeks ago she completed her final courses for a bachelor's degree from Whitefield College, majoring in philosophy. I'm very proud of her! She's worked hard on this for years and has been a very dedicated student. Okay, almost everyone says something like, "Philosophy...wow... what is she going to do with that?" Well, she got it more for the knowledge, rather than to prepare herself for a job. She enjoyed her studies, but she's glad to have this behind her now. We're waiting to see where God takes her next.

As part of graduating, Christina wanted to get some on-location (non-studio) "senior pictures," because she only got Penney's studio portraits when she graduated from high school. And she was willing to let me take them, so I got some great opportunities to continue practicing with portraiture. These were taken at Lewisville Park. It's such a great place for doing portraits! We went on a weekday morning and it wasn't crowded, which was really nice.

Christina has played flute for quite a few years now, so she wanted some shots of her with/playing her flute.

Hawaii--Some Time on the Beach

2011-06-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

My last day with Anna and family we went to the beach in Honolulu. Actually, this was my second to last day, but I spent a lot of the next one in the airport trying unsuccessfully to get on a flight (the risk you take when you fly standby), so it doesn't exactly count.

We went to Alamoana Beach Park. It's more of a "local beach" (not so tourist-y), but very nice. Here's me with Sydney, Mack, Cole and Nora. You can see Waikiki and Diamond Head behind us.

Anna and the kids.

Then we went down to another beach that was supposed to have sea glass. Believe it or not, the beach-combing in Hawaii is not particularly good, so it was exciting when we actually found interesting stuff in the sand here.

Cole and Sydney scanning the beach in front of a perfectly blue backdrop.

I think that pretty much completes my recap of my time in Hawaii--now time to focus on enjoying and photographing our brief, but lovely, Northwest summer.

Hawaii--A Day on the East Side of Oahu

2011-06-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

While I was in Hawaii we spent one day over on the east side of Oahu, which is the lush, green side. I just love the mountains over there!

We ate lunch in a park near Chinaman's Hat, a famous little island so named for its unique shape.

We also toured a Buddhist temple in the Valley of the Temples. The grounds there are lovely, as you can see.

There's a huge bell there that visitors can ring.

You are allowed to go inside the temple, but you have to remove your shoes first.

The actual statue inside the temple. The picture really doesn't get across how tall it is--over 18 feet. I'd never seen something quite like this before, so it was certainly an interesting experience.

Hawaii--The Botanical Garden

2011-06-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

I was able to visit my friend Anna and her four kids again at the end of May. I was only there about a week this time, but it was really good just to see them again and hang out. While I was mostly there just to spend time with them, we did do a little sight-seeing and hit the beach a couple times. One place we visited was a botanical garden in Honolulu. Here's a few shots from our time there.

Mack and Nora--very cute!

This is some kind of giant seed pod--I thought it made a nice abstract shot.

Tulips!

2011-04-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

Holland America Bulb Farms up in Woodland has a tulip festival during the month of April and I felt inspired to go check it out this year (intending to take pictures of course!). So Mom, Christina, and I headed up there on a weekday morning. There was hardly anyone else there that morning, so we were able to wander around the show field by ourselves. It had been raining fairly recently, so there were deep puddles in between the rows. It's really stunning to see whole fields covered in such a rainbow of colors. It's amazing how many different kinds of tulips there are. My natural reaction was just to snap away...

Breanna's Senior Pictures

2011-04-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of taking senior portraits for my dear friend Breanna. The weather was wonderful that day and Lewisville Park was a perfect setting. Here are some of my favorites.

What Love!

2011-04-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

"Not only saints, but even men who do not know the Lord have patiently suffered the most atrocious pains, but in Jesus, with his infinite pains, there was a secret, inner pain that we are unable to penetrate. It is the pain of carrying alone the weight of our sins before the holy God--he the innocent for us the guilty. It is the pain of finding himself as if separated by them for a moment (though I scarcely dare to touch on the mystery), separated for a moment from love of the Father (if one can speak in these terms) though remaining one with him, and forced to cry out, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Why does he suffer thus? For you, sinner, for you. And he loved you so much that if there were none but you to save on earth, he would have entered his Gethsemane for you. What love, my God, what love!"

Adolphe Monod, Living in the Hope of Glory

Some late snow

2011-02-28T20:00:00.000-08:00

We've had hardly any snow this winter, until last week. It didn't stay long but it was very pretty while it lasted!

Raindrops

2011-01-22T11:02:00.000-08:00

It's been raining a lot lately. I like to watch the way the rain hits the back deck, and I decided to play around with some raindrop shots. This is what I came up with. I put a high contrast black & white Lightroom preset on most of them, which brings out the lines and circles more. These shots ended up reminding me a little bit of shooting with black & white film.

For the Birds

2011-01-10T19:17:00.000-08:00

Our family enjoys having a bird feeder right outside the kitchen window. Since we put up the suet cage again it seems like it's been especially busy out there. Some of our favorite visitors are the bushtits. They're extremely small and they really stick together. It's fun to watch a whole bunch of them crowd onto the suet cage at all these crazy angles. I took these pictures of the bushtits and a couple of the other birds we get while I was messing around with my telephoto lens.

A Good Quote

2010-12-29T12:20:00.000-08:00

"The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether."

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I know...

2010-12-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

It seems like every winter I just start dropping out of the blogosphere for long periods of time. I'm sorry. I'd say it won't happen any more, but that probably wouldn't be realistic. Part of the problem is that the thing that normally gets me blogging is pictures. Right now I spend most of my day inside working on school, where inspiration for photography tends to be pretty minimal. No pictures, hence no blog posts.

School right now is two Whitefield classes. I'm taking Foundations of Christian Culture and Biblical Discipleship. Biblical Discipleship is the first of Whitefield's counseling classes, an area that I recently got more interested in. It's a really good, practical class. The culture class is a little harder for me, but it's still good. I'm really looking forward to Christmas break, which is just around the corner...

Leaf "Portraits"

2010-11-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

The fall colors were so beautiful this year, weren't they? Our neighborhood has a lot of really pretty trees. Most of them aren't on our street though, so I took a little walk around the neighborhood to find some of the "prettier" leaves. I was glad there were still some left! We get a really strong gorge wind over here, and it blew so hard this week that it seemed like it would blow all the leaves away.

A Little Time in the Sun

2010-10-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

We were so blessed to be able to take a family trip to Hawaii last week. This trip actually wasn't connected to my first two trips (the Sterner family was back on the mainland, so unfortunately we didn't even get to see them). However, knowing that I would have this opportunity to come back with the rest of the family, I had been storing up ideas of things I wanted to show them. We stayed four out of our five nights in a cabin at Bellows Air Station over on the east side of Oahu. It's a lovely little spot, and it was a prefect "home-away-from-home." I didn't take as many pictures as I expected, but one thing that definitely brought out my camera was the sunrise on the beach at Bellows. It was a wonderful thing to experience.

No sun yet, but lots of color. That's Rabbit Island on the right there.

Looking south. (And yes, I know this is the only picture with a copyright. I'm still working on that.)

There's the sun!

I spent more time boogie-boarding than photographing. We were in the water pretty much every day. It was so much fun! We did go on some hikes to a couple places I visited this spring, Diamond Head and Makapuu Lighthouse Trail. I took pictures again, but they look pretty much the same!

Here's a picture from Makapuu. This is looking north. Remember the mountain range in the picture above? Makapuu is the farthest little point on that range going toward the ocean. We could see the lighthouse light from Bellows at night. So in this picture, you're actually looking out to the stretch of beach that Bellows is on in the background.

This is the Makai Pier where we went snorkeling. There was some nice coral and pretty fish, and the water was very clear!

It was a great trip. The best part about it was being able to do these things together as a family. We had a lot of fun and just got to relax. It's good to get away from the normal everyday.

Now we're back home to cool fall Northwest days. Hawaii, I miss you and warm days in the sun.

Random Shot

2010-10-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

McKenzie Head

2010-10-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

We only spent one night at Cape Disappointment, but I guess I was kind of "snap-happy," so here's post number three.

North Head in the morning

On our way out of the park we stopped by McKenzie Head. It's a significant site for Lewis and Clark history. They camped in this area when they reached the Pacific Ocean. There's a nice memorial at the bottom of the trail up McKenzie Head.

From the top of McKenzie Head you can see the little triangle of land that goes out towards the north jetty for the Columbia. That was pretty neat, but I think the bunker behind the view point is equally interesting. Apparently, this was one of the places where they kept guns stationed during World War II to protect the mouth of the Columbia. The bunker is open and you can walk around inside. However, it's extremely dark in there so we didn't explore very much. I'd like to go back with a flashlight.

Partway down the trail there is another old building that must have had some purpose related to the bunker. I'm fascinated by old buildings and I like to photograph them, so we had to go investigate a little.

Nightscape at Cape Disappointment

2010-09-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

I was very happy to have the opportunity to experiment with some night shots on the beach. Most of them didn't come out all that well, but I was excited about how a couple of them turned out. I was mostly trying to get the lighthouse, but then I realized that I could pick up stars, too. I'd like to experiment with this kind of shot again sometime. This is looking toward North Head Lighthouse.

Sunset at Cape Disappointment

2010-09-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we got to camp for a night at Cape Disappointment State Park. I know, the name just begs for comments ("Why would you go there if it's disappointing?"), but really, it's a great park. I'm sure my opinion is influenced by the fact that both times we've gone there the weather was wonderful. We stayed in one of the sites right next to the beach. It takes just a minute or two to walk through the trees and bushes onto the beach. I had a great time with my cameras (my digital SLR and Dad's old film one, just to play with). Here's some of my favorite shots from the evening we got there.

Unofficial trail to the beach

Someone did a very nice job making this driftwood shelter--it even had a bench at the back.

Investigating an old abandoned boat.

North Head Lighthouse

So you're probably wondering, "What is that?" It's actually a bug that got its wings wet and was stuck in the sand. Somehow it could manage to crawl around and make this fascinating design.

The sunset was so beautiful!

Hiking Mt. St. Helens

2010-09-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had the amazing opportunity to hike up the south side of Mt. St. Helens for the first time. It's a hike we've heard about from other people for years. It has the reputation of being really hard, but then it has a view at the top like no other hike you can do. Christina signed us up this year a bit late in the season, and September 3rd was the date we got. You have to pay for a permit before you climb, so once we were signed up, we were committed. It was kind of scary to realize we were actually going to do it this year. We did several prep-hikes to try to get ourselves ready, but I was still a little uncertain of how I would do.

We got up really early to head out to Cougar, pick up our permits, and drive to the trailhead, which I'm glad for, because it took us pretty much the whole day get to the top and down again. The first couple miles is really easy. Then you get to the timber line, and the terrain suddenly gets a lot more challenging. First you do lots of climbing/walking up through slopes covered in boulders.

Getting ready to start climbing through boulders at the edge of the timber line. The pole behind Mom and Christina was one of the first of many trail markers on the way up the side of the mountain. They were really critical in the fields of boulders where there isn't really a trail. From this point on, the view was already stunning. On the horizon is Mt. Adams.

In the back left of this picture you can see Mt. Hood.

As we got higher the incline got steeper. It was weird looking sideways across a 45 degree incline.

Towards the top the boulders end and the trail becomes a steep slope of rocky gravel. Then it turns to soft, sandy ash for the last climb to the top. The higher we got, the slower we climbed. Finally, I got to the edge, where the crater suddenly opens up in front. It's an amazing experience to look down into the crater at the lava dome, with little puffs of steam coming out, and across to Johnston Ridge and Spirit Lake, and finally to Mt. Rainier in the distance.

Looking south. The lake might be Yale Lake, but I'm not sure. Again, Mt. Hood is on the left.

Smile!

Fellow hikers looking over the edge.

I didn't take many pictures on the way down. Climbing down had its own challenges. I was kind of nervous about slipping on the steep grade. It was harder to find the trail going down. We were definitely glad to be finished when we finally reached the trail head. It was a long, very challenging day, but I'm so glad we could do it. It was wonderful to see God's creation from this unique perspective. It was also satisfying to know I could physically do this hike. Granted, it took us much longer than other people. It's amazing how fit some people are. As we were just leaving timberline in the morning we met someone coming down the mountain. He had started at something like 3 a.m. (after working night shift) and been up on the mountain for sunrise. He didn't seem exhausted at all. I don't think I'll ever be that fit. But I guess it surprises some people that somebody like me would do it at all. As we were starting to go down the mountain, someone looked at me made and made a comment about whether a little girl like that could really climb to the top. She made it up and down again, but she was really tired!

Church Camp at Cape Lookout

2010-09-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to Cape Lookout State Park for our church's annual camp-out. This was our second year going to Cape Lookout--it has a nice campground with a great group site right next to the beach. It was such a luxury to just walk out onto the beach any time we wanted to. Here's some of my favorite shots from the days we were there.

I really liked the way these trees were lit up by the sunset on our first night there. This was just off to the side of our campsite.

Sunset on day one.

Sunrise on day two. The tide was out and the reflections in the water left on the beach were so pretty.

Off on the southern end of the beach, the cliffs come out towards that water, and there's lots of little sea creatures living on them. It's my favorite place to walk to at Cape Lookout.

Sunset on day two.

On day three, the clouds never really burned off. Apparently there was a little cloud bank settled right over the Cape Lookout area. Back in Tillamook where we got ice cream, it was a lovely day.

That evening Christina and I explored a little sand bar during low tide.

Looking back from the sand bar.

Definitely no sunset!

Water caught between the beach and the sandbar.

Really, despite the clouds, we couldn't complain. It never rained, which was a real blessing. The next morning, we woke up to yet another beautiful day. I'm glad we had those days at the beach to enjoy God's creation and spend time with families from church.

Thomas Lake Trail

2010-09-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

Mom, Christina, and I joined some friends from church to go on a hike two Saturdays ago in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in the Indian Heaven Wilderness area. Indian Heaven is a beautiful place with lots of little lakes and alpine meadows. Everything is so still and quiet up there. We took the Thomas Lake trail which was nice and not too difficult. Thanks to Kyle for planning this one. It was a fun day!

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of Mt. St. Helens. Though we could see her pretty often, we never got a really good, unobstructed view.

Blue Lake, appropriately named. ;)

Hamilton Mountain

2010-08-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

On Monday my family hiked Hamilton Mountain, which is out in the Gorge on the other side of the highway from Beacon Rock. We had done part of the trail before. When we got to this sign, we had turned around and decided to hike the rest of the trail some other day.

This time around, we were ready to tackle "more difficult." It was a really enjoyable hike. The climb up to Hamilton Mountain was fairly steep, but the spectacular views of the Gorge and the river made it worth it.

The "Pool of Winds" is part of a nice waterfall on Hardy Creek.

Looking down from the "Pool of Winds" over the rest of the waterfall and the trail bridge.

The view was so very beautiful! My pictures don't do it justice. This is looking west down the Columbia. That's Beacon Rock down near the river on the bottom left.

It felt so good to reach the summit.

Looking east. Table Mountain is on the far left. Directly to the right of it is Mt. Adams, but it doesn't stand out very well in this picture.

Walking along a saddle away from the summit.

As you may know, Monday was a really hot day. We definitely drank a lot, and we were glad to get back to the creek, take our boots off, and put our feet in the creek for a while. This was probably the best hike I've done in a while.

Sliver of a Moon

2010-08-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

Portraits of Christina

2010-08-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

Now that I've learned more about portraits, I need to keep practicing! Yesterday Christina graciously went with me to Officers' Row so I could take some pictures of her. We both had fun and I think some of the shots turned out pretty well, though there's always lots of room for improvement. Here are three of my favorites. These were edited in Adobe Lightroom. I got a trial version for the workshop and now I know that I definitely want to buy it.

Colville and PWP2

2010-08-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

Wow... I haven't posted anything for a month. Sometimes it's hard to know what impact my blogging/not blogging has on my readers. Do people stop reading when I don't post anything? How often do they check my blog? Well, if you're a regular reader, let me say two things: 1) thanks for faithfully checking my blog, 2) I'm sorry if you had to check multiple times before anything showed up!

Last week was very busy for our family. Mom and Christina went on our church's annual missions trip to the Colville Indian Reservation. Dad also got to go for part of the week. The team came back with good reports. To see more about WPC to Colville 2010 check here.

While I wasn't able to go on the trip, I did get to take the team picture before they left.

I wasn't able to go on the missions trip because I was at a photography workshop hosted by IPS. IPS is a Christian photography organization. I can say from first-hand experience that they provide very high quality instruction. This workshop was Prizewinning Photography 2, which focused primarily on portraiture, workflow, and editing. Some of the highlights were taking urban portraits in Portland, going to Multnomah and Bridal Veil Falls, and going to Cannon Beach. And there was class time in there, too, so every day was really packed!

After having said that we concentrated on portraiture, all I'm posting here are landscapes I took during the week. I don't want to use the portraits on my blog without having asked my "models." However, hopefully you will see the fruit of what I learned about portraiture in future blog posts.

Multnomah Falls (my second time there this year)

Bridal Veil Falls--my first time there ever

Cannon Beach (second time there this year as well)

As you can see, it was cloudy that evening on the beach. We were there to get sunset portraits, so that wasrather disappointing. It was cool, too, so a nice warm fire felt really good!

For more on PWP2, check out the IPS blog.

Raindrops on roses...

2010-07-05T16:49:00.000-07:00

A couple shots from the yard last week.

Mt. St. Helens

2010-07-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

Monday we headed up to Mt. St. Helens. We had arranged to have a tour with Mr. Lloyd Anderson from the 7Wonders Creation Museum. At the museum, he gave us a lecture on the eruption and some of the things it teaches us. Then he rode up with us to Johnston Ridge, explaining to us along the way the things we were seeing. It was good to have someone there to explain everything to us from a Biblical perspective.

Our first stop was this cabin not far from Toutle, where the museum is. The cabin looks like it's in a hole, because the mud flow from Mt. St. Helens came around it and raised the ground level.

This viewpoint below was another one of our stops. This area marks the beginning of the blast zone.

The viewpoint for an elk preserve near the mountain.

Elk grazing far, far below in the preserve.

The mountain!

It's interesting how the south face of the mountain can become so commonplace to us, because we see it so often (when it isn't raining). In contrast, the north face looks a lot more menacing. I find trips up to Mt. St. Helens rather sobering. It makes one realize just how finite we and all the created world around us are. Not even mountains can be called unchanging--only God. This week for our devotions we read Psalm 46 and found ourselves struck by the way Mt. St. Helens illustrates verses 1-3:

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling."

In the Gorge

2010-07-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

After seeing the Coast on Friday, we took Uncle Dan's family to the Columbia River Gorge on Saturday. If the weather was a bit cool and cloudy on Friday, it was just perfect on Saturday. It was lovely and sunny all day. First we took them to Beacon Rock and everyone hiked to the top.

I just love this little arch in one of the rock walls on the way up. I have no idea why they built this little arch there, but it just begs to have pictures taken through it.

Uncle Dan, Aunt Rita, and family at the top.

Our second stop was Multnomah Falls. It was really crowded, as I guess we should have expected it to be on a sunny Saturday in the summer.

We debated whether or not we should hike to the top of the falls. After all, we had already done Beacon Rock. In the end we did go up to the top. Everyone hung in there quite well. The sign at the bottom says it's only a mile to the top, but it feels like more than that. Getting to look over the edge of the drop-off where the falls begin makes it worth it, though.

Friday on the Coast

2010-07-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

In the 2 1/2 weeks that I've been home we've had visits from both sides of the family. When your grandma lives in the Midwest and all of your aunts and uncles live on the East Coast, that's a really big deal. First my Grandma (Dad's side) came to visit. This was her third year coming to visit us in June and we enjoyed having her here with us for a few days. She was able to see Christina play at her flute recital, which was really nice.

After Grandma left, my Uncle Dan's family (Mom's side) arrived to spend a few days with us. This was the first time our cousins had been out to the West Coast, so they wanted to see some of the sights. On Friday we took them to the Coast. Our first stop was Cannon Beach. It was a cool and cloudy morning on the Coast, but I think it's always pretty there, even when the weather isn't the best. We walked down the beach to Haystack Rock, talking and playing Frisbee as we went.

I will probably be taking pictures of Haystack Rock for the rest of my life. I don't think it would matter if I finally got one amazing shot of it that outdid every other one I had ever taken of it--I would still have to take a picture of it whenever I saw it again.

Our family--photo credit to Uncle Dan.

Left to right--Janelle, Jeannine, Joanna, Julia, Aunt Rita, Uncle Dan, Jason, and Jessica.

We snagged someone passing by on the beach to take a group picture of all twelve of us.

Jason photographs the big rock.

I love the beach cottages on the Coast. This one looks so picturesque.

After spending some time at Cannon Beach we drove south to the Tillamook Factory, which Uncle Dan particularly requested to visit. It was a good way to wrap up the day. They were having an advertising campaign outside the factory, with a Tillamook employee passing out little metal pins next to this cute little van.

Chinatown and Manoa Falls

2010-06-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

I returned home with Mom this past Tuesday. It's good to be home, but it's so cold and rainy here! (I know, I was spoiled.) All joking aside, it's very good to be home with my family.

Mom flew to Hawaii to last Friday to spend the weekend there with us. Friday night in Waikiki was our first little adventure while she was there. On Saturday, the fun continued with a trip to Honolulu's Chinatown. Anna had arranged for us to meet a friend of hers there for lunch. We got there early, so we walked around a bit and looked at some of the markets. The markets in Chinatown have all kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as fish and meat. This was pretty authentic Asian groceries. They had everything from brightly colored tropical fish to pig heads available.

The streets were fun to walk around. There's lots of little stores, bakeries, and flower shops in addition to the markets.

The street signs are in English and Chinese.

A cat in front of a street-side bakery.

Nora got an easy ride in her mom's backpack carrier. The Asian people around us gave her lots of attention.

The shops sell all kinds of little trinkets. As you can see, there were various things around that indicated the presence of Asian religions. However, there were also signs for Christian churches in Chinatown.

Mack shows us how to wear a dragon mask.

Mmm... The only thing better than chicken noodle soup is some shark's fin in chicken soup!

This is the restaurant where we had Dim Sum. I had never heard of Dim Sum until Anna told me about. It would describe as a Chinese version of brunch. It's pretty different from your typical American Chinese restaurant. You pick all these different little dishes off a cart--they all cost about $2--and share them around the table. I should have taken pictures of some of the different things we got. Most of them I was not familiar with, but a lot of them tasted pretty good. Chopsticks were were the main utensils provided; if you didn't want to use chopsticks, you had to ask for a fork. We also got to drink tea in traditional Chinese teacups--no handles!

After Dim Sum, we headed up to the Manoa Falls trail. Manoa Falls is up a valley in a rain forest area.

Bird of Paradise flowers near the parking lot for the trail.

You can see how much it rains in that area by the amount of moss covering this sign.

The trail was not particularly challenging, but it was super muddy and in places the rain had caused the trail to erode. Those factors made us go slower.

Manoa Falls itself.

Mack and Sydney at the top of the trail.

Anna, Nora, Sydney, Mom, and Mack near the end of our very muddy trek.

Nightscapes in Waikiki

2010-06-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to see the fireworks that are set off every Friday night at the Hilton in downtown Waikiki. The fireworks were really big and the sound echoed off the huge hotels behind. After watching them we just walked around the area where the Hilton is. It's a fairly busy place after dark and it looks pretty all lit up. I took the last four pictures on my tripod using a really slow shutter speed.

Practice with Portraits

2010-06-11T17:12:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that I got to do a photo shoot for some of Anna's friends last Saturday. Here are few of my favorite shots from that day. We took the pictures on one of the beaches at the back of the base. It was a perfect background, and the girls looked really cute in their Hawaiian print dresses. It was a fun opportunity.

Busy days

2010-06-08T23:35:00.000-07:00

The weeks have been full, and my time here is quickly coming to a close. One of the things I have enjoyed has been meeting new people. Anna has friends both in the EOD shop (where her husband works) and at church. I've had a good number of opportunities to get to know some of them better over the past week or so, from a Memorial Day barbecue, to a Mary Kay party, to a church potluck.

Saturday I had the opportunity to do a photo shoot for some friends from "the shop" down at the beach. I'm always glad for opportunities to practice taking portraits, and this family was very understanding about me still being new at it. That day I also got to meet a friend of mine from the church at the swap meet. The swap meet is kind of flea market. The locals have little stands there for all kinds of souvenirs and local products. The rows of stands wrap around the sides of a stadium. It's fun, and the deals are good, but it also gets very hot walking around out there.

Sunday Anna's church had their "potluck at the beach" (doesn't every church wish they could have one of those?). It was another nice opportunity to spend time with folks from church. The kids got to play together out on the beach. Here's a couple pics from that.

A Little Beach Time

2010-06-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

We (Anna, me, and the younger two kids) got to go to the beach for a bit today. I just love this picture of Nora. It was nice to get out there and enjoy the beach for a while.

Another week goes by

2010-05-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

What have I done this week? Among the more interesting things, I killed a cockroach. It was probably about three inches long including its antenna and was hanging out in a closet. Bugs are just part of life in Hawaii--Anna's house is new and the bugs don't get in very much, so this was my first sight of a cockroach since I've been staying here.

Yesterday the kids took the day off of school and we went to a water park. I don't think I've been to a water park since I was 12 or 13. It was fun going with the kids and trying to keep up with them as they hurried from one slide to another.

On Wednesday we drove down to the beach at the back of the base to try to get pictures of the moon coming up over Honolulu. It was higher in the sky than we would have liked, but some of them still came out nicely.

My first week back

2010-05-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm due for another blog post. It's been a fairly low-key week. It's nice to come back and have things be familiar. I know where to find most of the things I need in the grocery store (it can be so time-consuming to learn a new store). The kids know me better this time. I now have the privilege of being addressed by name by Nora, the littlest one ("Ashee! Ashee!" when she wants to get my attention). I know several of the families at church, so I don't feel like a complete stranger there. It's just good to be able to come back and sort of pick up where I left off.

We went to the zoo with another family on Wednesday. Here's a handful of pics from that.

Not every zoo has banyan trees with vines to swing on.

On Saturday Miss Sydney had a ballet recital which we all got to go and watch. Good job, Sydney!

So there's my week in a nutshell.

Hawaii Again

2010-05-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

It's true, I'm back in Hawaii spending another month with Anna and the kids. I flew back over on Monday, and got in just in time to go to bed. Actually I think that's the best way to do it. After a six-hour flight, I don't really have much energy anyway, so it's better to just start fresh in the morning. So I'm back to my other normal, every-day life, the one that I learned over the last four weeks I spent here. Stay tuned for more updates from the island.

Irises and Sunshine

2010-05-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

Our front border is filled with irises this year. Probably too full--I think the other plants are getting deprived of sunlight and space!--but on a sunny afternoon they made great subjects for some macro photography. Here's a few shots.

I made this one extra-saturated in Photoshop. I like the way it looks.

Beacon Rock

2010-05-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday evening we took a quick trip into the Gorge and hiked Beacon Rock. It's a short trail, but a steady climb all the way up to the top. The views from Beacon Rock up and down the Columbia are just beautiful.

Beacon Rock is a pretty old trail. I find the little, old-looking details like this stone wall and the railing interesting.

The zig-zagging trail as seen from above.

The Northwest is so beautiful! Just having been in Hawaii, it's interesting to compare the two. I think they're both gorgeous. Though the Northwest may never seem like the vacation destination that Hawaii is, I think anyone who lives here should consider themselves blessed. A 45-minute drive up the Gorge is all it takes to be completely surrounded by an amazing display of God's creation.

Home

2010-05-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

I must be home... it's been raining a lot. Not the warm, light showers I experienced often in Hawaii, but that heavier, cool, soggy Northwest rain. (I did see downpours in Hawaii, but my experience there was that it's more often light showers. Lots of rainbows too. The sunshine normally isn't far behind the showers.) It's definitely colder here. For all that, it is nice to be home, especially to be with my family. I love to travel and see different places, but it's also good just to come home. Especially when home is a place I like as much as the Northwest!

Cole and Nora's Pictures

2010-04-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

While I was able to spend a lot of time with Mack and Sydney trying to get pictures, it didn't work out for me to spend the same amount of time with Cole and Nora. I still got some pictures of them, though. Here's one of each of them.

Waimea Valley and the North Shore

2010-04-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was my last excursion with Anna and kids before I left. Mom came over for a few days on Tuesday, so she was there, too. We headed up to the North Shore and stopped at Waimea Valley. It's kind of like a botanical garden with a path winding up the valley to a waterfall that you can swim in. The weather wasn't the best--it rained on and off, but it was still nice.

As we entered the park we saw a little pig which turned out to be a wild one that had been adopted by one of the park employees. It was a so cute. Apparently it's going to grow to be huge, though.

I didn't take many pictures going up the trail because of the rain. At the top of the trail is this waterfall. You're allowed to swim in the pool below. I decided not to--it still wasn't very sunny, even though the rain had stopped--but Cole, Sydney, and Mack did.

Here's the brave threesome and some other people beneath the waterfall.

I took more pictures on the way back down. The tropical flowers there were just amazing.

These last two flowers are banana flowers. Very weird looking.

We all enjoyed seeing these Hawaiian moorhens. Apparently they're an endangered species. There was a little family of them there.

It was fun to watch the chicks try to get across the pond.

After Waimea we headed on down the road to a shrimp truck. Shrimp trucks are plentiful on the North Shore. They're these rather dingy looking trucks where you can get shrimp covered in garlic and butter--yum! We made quick stops to look at a few things on our way home. Below is an arch off the coast on the North Shore.

This is Chinaman's Hat--another unique island.

Sydney's Photo Shoot

2010-04-21T23:46:00.000-07:00

Last week I also did more work on taking photos of the kids. Here's a few of Sydney's pictures. This is the same area as Mack's pictures.

Ko Olina

2010-04-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

Last week we spent some time at a resort over on the south-west side of the island. Ko Olina is quite a fancy place, but they have four lagoons that anybody can swim in. So we just went for the day. I walked around to see all the lagoons.

This was "our lagoon."

Nice place to spend a few days? I can only imagine it's pretty expensive.

...and my "artsy" shot for the post.

The Other Side of Life in Hawaii

2010-04-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

My month in Hawaii is almost over. I realize that from what I've posted you may have gotten the impression that all I've done here is play every day. That's not the reality, though. We get out and play, but I've been living in a family that has to do lots of normal, everyday stuff. I try to help where I can. Those things don't normally lend themselves to pictures, though. Trips to the commissary (grocery store) don't make good pictures. It's been good for me to experience life in a busy family with four kids. I get opportunities to help with things that I didn't have back home--like reading to somebody or watching the baby. I also do a little bit of my own school and try to keep up violin some. So while those things don't really get on to my blog posts, they are happening.

I Must Be Acclimating

2010-04-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

When I checked my little weather gadget on my computer today, I was surprised at what it showed for today. Right now it shows 68 degrees. When I saw that, I had some thought of "I wonder if I'll need a sweater when I go out today." Sure enough, when I opened the front door to go out and get some groceries, a coolish breeze was blowing. I decided to skip the sweater, but I did comment to Anna "It's chilly today!" She agrees--this is like January and February weather for Hawaii, cloudy and "cool."

Well, all that to say, I think I'm adjusting to Hawaii weather. At home we would call 68 a nice, warm day. Here its chilly. 80 is the perfect temperature!

Out and About with Mack

2010-04-15T00:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I went out with Mack to take pictures. We went to different places on base to snap shots. We ended up wandering around on the beach. It was fun and I think some of the pictures turned out pretty well.

"Painting Your Nails" Takes on an Added Meaning

2010-04-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

Until this week, I'd never done a pedicure before. Anna tells me that in Hawaii they buy cheap shoes and spend more money on their nails. Makes sense. So we went to this nice place and got our pedicures, complete with extra nail art. I don't think I've seen this before, but they paint little pictures on your toes with tiny brushes. And they put little rhinestones on, too!

So maybe this is a little weird--but here's my toes. I love the way they turned out.

Makapuu Lighthouse

2010-04-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Thursday I had the opportunity to go on a hike with a new friend from church. We hiked around the Makapuu Lighthouse area. The view from the lighthouse viewpoint was just amazing.

This is the view looking north.

The Makapuu Lighthouse. We couldn't go inside; we only looked at it from above (and later from below).

Heidi graciously took a picture for me. As you can tell, it was really windy up there.

Afterwards we hiked down the cliff to the rocky tidal pools below. I know this picture looking up the cliff makes it look really dramatic, but it was pretty steep.

At the base of the cliff there's a rocky shelf with tidal pools. The waves crash up against the rocks, sometimes shooting up very high.

The water in the tidal pools was so clear!

Heidi knew of this neat place where there's a log sticking out into the water that you can jump off. After getting hot on our hike, a good swim was the perfect thing. The whole day was a ton of fun.

Diamond Head

2010-04-07T01:12:00.000-07:00

Monday we all went to Diamond Head, the famous crater next to Honolulu, and hiked to the viewpoint at the top. It's a very popular place, so it was different from Northwest hikes where you only see a few people the whole time. We were surrounded by other hikers. The crater used to be a military site, and I think part of it still is. At the base of the crater where we parked we saw these neat old empty military buildings. Some of us wished we could have gone inside the fence and explored them.

The beginning of the trail inside the crater

A fairly impressive view, but the best was yet to come

After climbing up the inside rim and going through a kind of multi-story bunker in the crater wall, you crawl through an opening in the wall onto a trail that takes you to a lookout at the top. The crowd was pretty thick at the top, but I think it was worth it.

Honolulu

Looking back into the crater

After Diamond Head we drove to the Halona Blowhole and watched it blow repeatedly as the waves came in.

Easter Weekend

2010-04-07T01:11:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we had a Passover dinner for 16 people. We would have had it on Passover, the Monday before, but it didn't work out, so we postponed it. We joked that it was a "semi-kosher" Passover. Making everything "Passover kosher" would have been a lot of work. This was my second Passover dinner and the first time I had helped host one. It's a pretty neat thing to do. It makes the history of the Israelite's deliverance from Egypt more tangible, and also reminds us of Christ's Last Supper. There are certain dishes in Passover which represent different elements of the Passover story. In addition to those special dishes, we had a normal meal. I wished that I had gotten more pictures, but here's one of the table for Passover before everyone came.

On Easter morning we went to the beach before church to take some pictures

Anna and kids

Yours truly

We also saw a rainbow on our way to church.

More pics from out and about

2010-04-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

This week we took a quick trip over to Ford Island and saw the U.S.S. Utah, one of the ships sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

An old air traffic control tower on Ford Island.

The view from the Pali Lookout on our way to the other side of the island.

On Good Friday we stopped by the beach on the other side of the island before going to church. Anna has asked me to take pictures of the kids, so we took advantage of having on nice church clothes to snap some shots.

Sydney

Mack

Cole

Nora

Shark's Cove

2010-03-31T01:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we headed to Shark's Cove in the evening after a normal day of stuff like school and grocery shopping. As we drove over to the North Shore it was raining. We got out for a little while at Shark's Cove, but it was still raining, so we got back into the van to eat our tacos. Sydney prayed for our dinner and asked that God would make the rain stop. By the time we were ready to go back out to the beach, the clouds were breaking and the rain had stopped. We didn't see much of a sunset, but the clouds created some beautiful pictures.

Cole, Sydney, and Mack had a great time playing in the water and on the rocks.

Nora watched from the shallower tide pools.

Sunday on the Windward Side

2010-03-28T23:49:00.000-07:00

Today we went to church on the other side of the island. Just getting to the other side is a beautiful drive through lush mountains. The church is a good PCA church, in some ways similar to Westminster, in some ways different. It's nice to go to a different church, just to remember that we have brothers and sisters in many places and that we all share a common bond in Christ. After church we went to a small group at the home of a family from church. They live on a kind of peninsula, so we stopped by the beach on one side of it before we got there.

Their house is right on the beach on the other side of the peninsula. Prepare to be amazed--the last picture here was taken from their back yard!

It was a good day, enjoying church and Christian fellowship in an amazing place.

It's So Beautiful!

2010-03-28T00:49:00.000-07:00

Just a couple pictures from the beach today.

I'm here

2010-03-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Thursday I arrived safely in Honolulu. Some of you already know my story. For those of you who might still be wondering what I'm doing in Hawaii I'll try to explain it the short way. Some friends of ours from a former church are stationed here right now. I volunteered to come and be extra hands, help with the kids, etc. while their dad is deployed. I'll be staying for about a month. It's been fun and good to have a change of pace.

Here's me with the kids in front of the house right after I got there. They gave me a lei--it was so sweet!

I have already told people that I would try to blog more often while I'm here, and I will. So stay tuned.

Cape Lookout

2010-02-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

I know I kind of disappeared again, but I have something to talk about now! This might as well be a travel blog since I'm most likely to post soon after I've gone somewhere. (And sometimes I haven't really gone anywhere for a while...hence the silence.)

Last weekend we went back down to Cape Lookout where we had the church campout last August. We stayed in one of the three cabins they have there in addition to the yurts and normal camping spots. The cabins are kind of off by themselves, which is nice. They're set back in the woods a bit but you can still see the ocean from the windows. They're very small, but they each have a full bath and a little kitchen area. There's no stove or oven, though, so our cooking options were the microwave and the gas grill. We decided to take advantage of the grill and have steak dinner.

We were hoping we would get to experience a big storm while we were there, but the first day actually ended up being fairly nice. It started to rain overnight, but overall the weather was pretty mild. It was great trip.

That's Cape Lookout proper in the background of this picture.

A winter ocean.

Our little cabin.

I thought the bench on the porch was a nice touch.

I think the inside is so cozy looking. They're real log cabins and I love the natural wood walls and ceiling.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

It's been a long Christmas break, but I'm finally back into school this week. Those weeks off were eventful in their own ways. Christmas itself was quiet, though, and it was good just to spend time as a family. The day after Christmas we went on a drive down the gorge. We stopped by Multnomah Falls on the way home, which is where the shot below is from (with a little desaturating in Photoshop). The wind chill that day made it feel incredibly cold, and you can see the frost around the falls. I love the gorge, and it's always nice to get back out there.

It's hard to get back into a more structured schedule after quite a few weeks off, but it's also a good feeling to know that the day was full of mind-stretching work. Sometimes I struggle with wondering what my motivation to do college classes is--after all, I don't consider myself the "scholarly type." I can do it, but it's not my passion. I know, though, that God wants me to keep expanding my mind and gaining skills, and this is one of the ways I can accomplish that. So I will press on! I have yet to decide on a particular track, so right now I'm still taking this and that. This quarter I'm taking another online class from Clark: Introduction to Database Design Using Access. It's another computer class; enough said (I really do find it interesting, though). I'm also taking two Whitefield classes: New Testament Survey and Ethics. Altogether, I think these are going to keep me quite busy for the next few months!

Water and Light

2009-11-12T20:05:00.000-08:00

Rain and light--what a beautiful combination designed by the perfect Artist.

This little leaf was on our deck, and it caught my eye. I used Photoshop to make the background black and white.

The rest of these photos were taken around sunset last Saturday, which some of you may remember was really stormy.

In addition to this lovely rainbow on the east side of the house, there was this incredible golden glow towards the west. It didn't look quite like the pictures do, but it was pretty amazing!

Reformation Celebration

2009-11-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

Our church Reformation Celebration was last Friday. It was a great evening, we really enjoyed the music, lectures, and play that made up the program for the evening. The play was on John Calvin, who was born 500 years ago this year. Christina had the opportunity to direct the play this year, and she asked me to take pictures at the dress rehearsal. So here are some of my favorites.

This was probably my favorite scene. Calvin and Farel are having a heated argument about whether Calvin will stay in Geneva to help Farel in his ministry.

Farel makes a point for why Calvin should stay. But Calvin says he's not staying...

"CALVIN!!"

"NO!!"

The curse upon Calvin's rest and labors, since he has refused to help Farel. But Calvin changes his mind a few moments later.

The "mob scene"--angry Genevans threaten Calvin and Farel

Farel and Calvin

Calvin sees the new edition of his Institutes

Another day of pictures

2009-10-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

My camera has been sitting idle far too long, so I finally pulled it out today. Today's weather was an interesting mix of rain and sunshine, so I took advantage of that to get some different shots. Here's what caught my eye.

We also took a quick little drive down the Gorge. The autumn scenery from Cape Horn was beautiful!

Back to the blog

2009-10-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

This happened last year--school begins and I fall out of the blogosphere for long periods of time. I have no excuse. Here's a little update for the last month or so.

This past Monday marked a special anniversary for us. Five years ago on that day we moved to Washington. Five years?? To a girl who's never before lived somewhere more than about three and a half years that is a long time! God has been very good to our family. I love my adopted home.

I started working on a couple classes. One is an online class with Clark College--"HTML fundamentals." It's been interesting, and I'm surviving so far. My other class is with Whitefield College; it's an Old Testament Survey class that I started last spring but didn't finish. I just completed the reading and lectures, so now on to the research paper, then it will be over.

Last month we attended Ligonier's West Coast Conference in Bellevue. It was really enjoyable. The topic was, "Is There Life After Death?" The speakers were R. C. Sproul, Alistair Begg, and Michael Horton. Considering that the resurrection is such an important truth, and that we tend not to focus on it as much as we should, a conference dedicated to the topic was very beneficial. I wouldn't be able to do justice to what they said, but if you can, listen to the CDs when Ligonier starts selling them!

Purple hands, wet tents, and good friends

2009-09-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

We and several other families met up for a two-night camping trip at Peterson Prairie, over on the east side of the mountains last weekend to pick huckleberries and enjoy one more camping trip this past weekend. It was really fun and I think we had pretty good success with our picking. Our family took back something under two gallons, which is a lot as huckleberries go. They're really small and there's not that many on a bush so the picking is pretty slow work. We also enjoyed great times around the campfire and good food (sorry, no pictures of that stuff). The weather was great for most of the time, but the last morning it rained as we ate breakfast and packed up. Oh well, it just added a little excitement!

Cape Lookout

2009-08-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

Thursday we got back from an amazing four days at the Oregon Coast with our church. As you know by now if you read my blog frequently, I'm not always very good about getting the "people pictures" in, so take everything you see and remember that we were there with a lot of church friends.

This is the view from the beach just steps from our campsite. It really doesn't get much better than this. In the distance is Cape Lookout for which the park is named.

This is the trail leading from the beach up onto the cape.

And the view from that trail back down toward the beach. You can barely see it, but there's another cape in the background, Cape Meares, which we also visited.

Cape Mears boasts two main attractions--a light house and the amazing "Octopus Tree," which looks something like...an octopus.

Us and Caitlin at Cape Meares

And how could you go to Tillamook County without visiting the Tillamook Cheese Factory?

At low tide on the beach, you can get to these rock cliffs that are covered in barnacles and other little sea life.

We also hiked to the end of Cape Lookout. This is the view from Cape Lookout towards the south.

Of course, the whole group spent a lot of time just hanging out on the beach, walking, wading, boogie boarding, and playing volleyball, but I didn't have my camera down there for any of it but one volleyball game. :(

Having bonfires on the beach was another definite highlight.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip--maybe the best WPC camp-out I've been on.

More Violin Photos

2009-08-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

Just an Ordinary Day

2009-08-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Is it weird to blog about plants? Anyway, this is my 7-Up plant which has been blooming lately. It's got these delicate little peach colored flowers, as you can see. It has other nice qualities, though, like smelling just like 7-Up soda, and being fuzzy all over. What more could you ask for in a plant--looks good, smells good, and feels good to the touch. They're apparently not very common, so I'm indebted to one of our friends who works for a nursery and is a plant expert for finding one for me.

And here's my other photography subject for today--my violin. For being such an important part of my life, it's sadly absent from my pictures. I'll probably take more of these, so violin pics will probably show up on here again!

Colville 2009

2009-08-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

We returned Saturday night from another week-long missions trip to the Colville Indian Reservation. This was my fifth time going. I felt really privileged to serve with such a fine group of people, and I think we were all excited by the things God is doing up there. Our team from Westminster was pretty heavily involved in the construction part of the ministry, but different ones were also able to serve through VBS and the senior music ministry. It was a real whirlwind of a week. It's nice to be home, but part of me is sad to have it over and already missing everyone I spent the week with. I didn't take as many pictures as I have other years, and a lot of these are more artsy than documentary, but here they are.

Nice pose

The moon over the hills near the Longhouse, where we stay.

The beautiful entrance to the Longhouse

Evening sky

One evening we took our traditional hike up behind the Longhouse and the school grounds. This is looking roughly northwest, over the school grounds to a storm in the distance. We saw more thunderstorms than ever before.

One of the houses we worked on early in the process.

Getting closer to finished

Another house we worked on.

Friday evening barbecue at the Stampede Grounds is an important time. We invite people we have met throughout the week to join us for the evening. A good number of tribal elders attended this year, as well as kids from VBS.

Playing the stick game after dinner. The stick game is a special traditional game for the Colville people.

Silver Star

2009-07-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

Christina and I had the chance to Hike Silver Star Mt. this past Tuesday with some friends, and all I can say is that it was beautiful. The clouds hadn't burned off yet when we started out, but that's actually the best conditions for photographing flowers and stuff. By the time we reached the summit, it was sunny--good for getting a really good view.

There were so many wildflowers! The meadows were covered in yellow, orange, red, white and blue.

Cute bumblebee. There were lots of bees, butterflies, and normal old annoying flies.

A cool creepy-crawly. Also known as a centipede--wait, or is it a millipede?

The butterfly that I "saved." Caitlin was going to keep it, but I took pity on it, and she let it go.

Tiger Lilly

Paintbrush

I should mention that one of the main goals of the trip was for our two "butterfly people," Caitlin and Braden, to catch lots of butterflies. It was a perfect place; there were butterflies everywhere.

The view from the summit is amazing--you can see four, maybe five, white-capped peaks. It was a little hazy and the clouds kept covering up the peaks, so they're kind of hard to see in these pictures.

They're hard to see, but on the horizon are, l. to r. Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams

Mt. Hood

Mt. Adams

The whole group together

Moon and Fireworks Pics

2009-07-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a pretty uneventful 4th of July for us, but I decided to play with taking fireworks pictures. I took tons of pictures, and some of them were pretty neat. A lot were not that great. Here's some of the most interesting ones.

Actually, first I tried taking some pictures of the moon that was nice and full. If you've ever tried taking pictures of the moon, you know that normally it just ends up looking like a bright white blob; none of the detail that our eyes can see. I think I've figured out why, and how to compensate for it. Cameras automatically assess the lighting in any particular scene, and decide what aperture and shutter speed would be appropriate. With moon pictures, your camera "sees" all the dark area around the moon, and thinks, "This seen is so dark, I need to let as much light in as possible!" The aperture is wide, the shutter speed is long, and the moon ends up being totally washed out. To get good moon pictures, you have to override that and use the manual setting, make the aperture smaller, select a faster shutter speed , and then you'll have more detail. Afterwards, I did a little photo-shopping to bring up the brightness and contrast, and sharpened it all a bit. Sorry for getting technical. That may have been a really boring paragraph.

Fireworks from our back porch. For fireworks, I found that a wide open aperture and a shutter speed of over a second worked well. I definitely needed a tripod. The lights on the horizon are mostly some parking lot lights, but also some farther away fireworks.