So much has happened!

It's been so long since I've blogged, we haven't had internet in forever and when we did, the blogger thing wouldn't let me publish the blog I wrote! So I'm about two weeks behind, I'm so sorry! I'll try my best to catch everyone up but not be monotone and boring.

Last I wrote we were in a scary hotel room in Tonasket, Wa. We had a good service the next morning and some delicious tortellini afterward! I love tortellini and a lady made it for the potluck. I think I ate three plates of it. Yum! That night we were in Oroville, Wa which is about 5 miles from the Canadian border. The Pastor there, Bro. Isenberger, has a house that literally faces the border guard station! It's so funny. We had a really good time there and stayed a few days so Caleb could help out with some things that the Pastor needed to get done. On Tuesday night Bro. Isenberger took Caleb fishing and he caught 3 steel-head trout that were 4-8 lbs each! They were huge. He had a good time and he grilled them up and we ate them at Josh's house, they were really good.

Next, we went to Summerville, Or. It is so beautiful in Eastern Oregon in all those valleys! It's beautiful because you have the classic farm land that I love, farm houses, and barns and then you are surrounded by mountains! It's perfect. We had a great time there with Bro. Umber and his church. His son is a KU fan so it's good to know that people in Oregon can see the light! lol

That Friday (the 17th I believe) we went to an Oregon Trail History Museum. The Pastor let us use his 2007 Saturn Vue to go since the church was paying to have our alignment fixed (Praise the Lord!). When we got there Caleb tried to pull out the key, but it was stuck. He decided to push it back in, and it snapped in half with half the key still in the ignition! You can just imagine what he was thinking! He had to made the dreaded call to the Pastor and thankfully he was understanding and didn't get mad, that we heard anyway! We went ahead into the Museum and really enjoyed it and then we went to the park across the street. Bro. and Mrs. Looney, who Pastor in Baker City, picked us up and took us out to lunch. I was so grateful that they would do that! We're going to be with them in November and it was so sweet of them to feed us. We had a good time, even though the kids were ready for a nap after the long day. The finally got the key out of the ignition and Bro. Umber brought us a new key. We had a good meeting with them and the people were really sweet! They gave us a nice love offering and really treated us well. We stayed with the Smiths who are an older couple, and they have an amazing little stretch of property on the mountainside. They were so good to us and we're grateful to them.

That Sunday we were going to be with the Raes in Pasco, Wa so we drove there on Saturday. We had a mixup trying to find their house, but we finally found it! What amazing and sweet people the Raes are! They certainly love the Lord and we had a wonderful time with them! We stayed until Tuesday morning. We were going to stay all week and Caleb was going to help Bro. Rae build a shed, add onto their kitchen, and finish the garage and make it into a school room, but the county wanted $750 for the permits and it was a two week wait! So it didn't happen that time. I'm sure we'll be going back though, the kids had a great time together and I learned a lot from Shari, she's such a wonderful mother and you can tell from her children that she has a sweet spirit. We had a lovely surprise Sunday morning, we showed up and found out that Andy and Nina Kroll (Krohl? can't remember) are there and working in the church! I haven't seen Nina since Noah was a baby and it was SO good to see them again! We were friends in college and we lost track of each other. It so fun to travel around and find out where people are and what they're doing! It's exciting. We had a great time there. The boys played "Army" the whole time so here is Noah with Jacob and Josiah (Little Joe) getting ready to kill some "bad guys"!

The rest of the week we hung out at Josh and Rochelle's. They were able to get us a little trailer to use so we have "more space" but I'm doubting it gives us more space! lol It's more like a fire waiting to happen with all the stuff crammed in there. It scares me a little. But it is nice to have the privacy.

Today we were with Bro. Gosnell in Burns, Or. We've heard a lot about Burns, mostly people saying "Do you know where that is?! It's in the middle of nowhere!" and "It takes forever to get there!!" Well, everyone was right. On the map it looks like about 4 hours. Our GPS said 6 1/2 but we were doubtful. It ended up being right! It took us just about six hours to get there, a long time! We went through lots and lots of mountain passes, scary curves with no guard rails, and we were on a lot of cliffs that went down miles and miles! I was pretty sick the whole time, and Kayla eventually threw up everywhere! But we made it finally about 7pm Saturday night. We had a good day today. The church is really laid back and it reminded me of our church back home! People responded during the service from the crowd and there was joke telling and laughing. We had fun. The only problem is that everyone is burning their leaves and everything here and the smell of the smoke is making me sick! But I will survive. Sunday night I played the piano, the kids sang, and Caleb sang so that was fun. I love having the oppurtunity to play congregationals again. I really need to practice my offetories, I'm getting sloppy! Maybe we can put a piano in our trailer....? I'll ask Caleb!

Well that's an update for now. On Wednesday we'll be in East Wenatchee, Wa and then Sunday we'll be in Hillsboro, Or, so I'll try to keep you updated when I can, when we get internet! I'll also try to post some pictures. Thanks for reading!!! Love you all.