funniness

In the interest of keeping at least one or two of my readers, I've decided to abbreviate the vacation pics. If you really want to see more, I'll have them posted on my Shutterfly site. The link for that is also in the sidebar. My last few shots of vacation are of some funny things we saw on our trip. We spent a lot of time on the road and covered many miles. So we saw a few things that we don't normally see at home...


wildlife... I asked the raccoons to do our laundry while we slept, but I forgot and locked them out of the truck bed. Ooops.



more wildlife...this time on two legs...and he caught my unsuspecting niece...



Lincoln City, OR: President Abraham Lincoln riding a horse. There's nothing strange about that- oh wait- he's multi-tasking! He's reading a book while he's riding a horse??? Okay...



Braden got his finger caught in a whale's mouth...we're having more trouble with the wildlife on this trip...



just too funny to pass by without stopping. Don't worry. Paul Bunyan was there as well.



no comment.



Okay, so there's nothing truly unusual about this picture. Except the fact that Everett was able to pry my fingers out of a death grip long enough for me to hold my camera and take this picture in the center of the Golden Gate Bridge. Two gold stars for me!



Whew! That was a whirlwind tour. Now that we're all caught up from vacation I can get on with showing you what we've been doing lately!

Blueness

The next stop on our vacation was Crater Lake National Park. Setting up camp takes a lot less time now with two great helpers, even though we were getting swarmed by mosquitoes. Thank goodness for DEET, because the citronella was just not up to the job. Although, the candle did drown 5 or 6 of them. We got to experience Crater Lake from the top of the crater as we drove around, and then we got a totally different perspective from a boat ride on the lake. Take a good look at the side of that crater- we hiked down into that...and back up. I considered just having my mail forwarded to the boat dock, but finally decided that if Braden could make it, so could I. I hope you can get a feel from the pictures just how blue the water really is- I've never seen anything else like it.

Tallness

I've finally had a chance to check-out some of my pictures from this summer's vacation. We had a really fantastic time in the northwest, and the pictures just don't capture it. You'll see what I mean if you've ever been to any of these places. There is just no way to show how amazing old growth redwoods are. And this was only the beginning...

at home

We're home from vacation, and it was wonderful! Very relaxing, very beautiful. In fact, I've had a few moments to go through my pictures, and they just don't do it justice. We praise God for many days of safe travel. Sadly, I am leaving today to head up to Minnesota for my Grandma Ring's funeral. She left us suddenly, but peacefully. We, too, have peace knowing that for her it is only the beginning of an eternity with her Savior in Heaven. She will be dearly missed by all those who loved her, but we rejoice in her life and the many years we had with her!

We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8