Interesting...

This is a 12 story building. Why would I be posting a picture of a 12 story building on my blog, you ask? To give a visual reference of course! So, take a good look...don't worry, I'll wait. Okay, got that picture in your head? You took note of how tall the building is compared to the people and cars on the ground? Now, put that building under water. And picture me at the bottom! That's where I was yesterday! Well, there was no building, but there was 120 feet of water over my head!! You get the idea. Tyler and I signed up for an Advanced Open Water diving course with our favorite instructor (no sucking up intended, Neil...well, maybe a little...) and started yesterday with DEEP diving! I admit freely to being a tad bit nervous at the thought, not only of all that water between me and my unlimited air supply normally taken for granted, but also of adding the increased probabilities of nitrogen narcosis and an even greater risk of getting decompression sickness than with shallower dives. Luckily, because we were well-informed and knew what we were doing (at least, were diving with someone who did!), none of those ailments presented themselves. Everything was perfect and now we are certified for deep diving (up to 130 feet; anything past that and you get into deco diving which we are not interested in). Our next segment of the class will be night diving, then currents, and navigation to round it out. Then we will have at least 24 dives (probably more like 30-35) under our belts and be Advanced Open Water Divers! :)

Labor Day Get-Away

This weekend we whisked ourselves off to "the best place on earth:" British Columbia. We left Saturday morning and had no trouble crossing the border. We found our hotel and checked in Saturday afternoon. We stayed around Langley (where our hotel was) that afternoon and spent some time at Fort Langley, which turned out to be a cute little town. We had ice cream at the little ice cream parlor and enjoyed walking the streets and looking into storefronts. That night, we had Chinese food and watched a movie in our hotel room. Sunday morning, we leisurely got around and headed into Vancouver for the day. We tried to find the Granville Island market, but since we didn't have a map, we couldn't. :) So, we decided to just give up and go on to Stanley Park. It is a huge park (1,000 acres) with many activities available. We chose to see the Vancouver Aquarium and had a great time! I loved watching the dolphins, and as always, the sea otters were adorable! It also had some gigantic prehistoric fish that were amazing!

After the aquarium, we headed to an Ethi restaurant for dinner, and it was delicious!! Some of the best Ethi we've had around here, actually!! Then, Sunday, we got up a bit earlier and drove about an hour to Bridal Veil Falls. It was really beautiful, and the hike up to the falls was really nice as well. We found a trail "off the beaten path" that led up closer to the falls and were the only people up there. It was gorgeous! On the way down, we were passed by two older gentlemen. As they passed us, one of them said "It was pretty, wasn't it?" We replied that, yes, it was really pretty! As they moved ahead, I whispered to Tyler that the guy sounded exactly like Sam Elliot! Then, Tyler whispered back that he LOOKED exactly like Sam Elliot (I didn't get a good view of him, other than gray hair). I am totally convinced that it really was Sam Elliot. Tyler is not as convinced, but I don't think he's ruling out the possibility. I tried to get a picture of him without him knowing, but it didn't really work out (he's the guy on the right). I had actually worked up the courage to just ask him, but then we couldn't find him. So, I guess we'll never know FOR SURE, but I firmly believe I talked to Sam Elliot :) Anyway, after that exciting adventure, we headed to Harrison Hot Springs to take a dip in their public pool which is fed by the hot spring. It was nice! We also encountered a sand castle-building competition. They were literally works of art! I can't imaging how many hours it took to build these things! After spending some time walking the beach around the lake, we decided to head home, since we were told to expect a 2 hour wait at the border. We waited exactly 0 seconds! :) We went to a smaller border crossing, and apparently nobody had thought of it because there was no wait whatsoever. It was lovely! :) So, we made it back into the US and our mini-vacation was over...kind of sad, but it's always nice to be home. And of course, Allie was super-glad to see us :)

Care2Share

I realize I already posted once today, but I wanted to share an experience that happened to us on Sunday. Our church has started a program recently called Care2Share. It's basic purpose is to bring evangelism more the forefront of our minds. It is equipping us to share our faith in everyday life and look for opportunities that God brings our way. Sunday, we had our second outreach event. We were all supposed to take a picnic lunch to different local parks and just be available to talk to people. The church had printed up over 500 frisbees that had the church name and website on the front and the steps to salvation on the back. Tyler and I took 4 frisbees and went to a park. We were both a little nervous and didn't really know what to expect. We ate our lunch and decided to walk around the park. We found a court for a sport that we had never seen before. So, we talked about what it might be, and finally saw a sign that indicated it was for "bocce." We still had no idea how to play, but decided to go on our way. As we were walking off, a guy came up and asked us if we know what the courts are for. We said no, we didn't really know. He then proceeds to tell us how to play bocce ball! He was very friendly, and he and Tyler started talking about other things. Come to find out, this guy grew up in Africa near where Tyler grew up! They had so much to talk about concerning the differences between life in Africa and the US. Then, we found out that he's in school learning how to be an engineer! So, they talked about that for a while also. Tyler did actually get a chance to give him a frisbee and share the gospel with him at one point, but he didn't make any declarations. He had grown up catholic and most recently had been attending a LDS church. We're pretty sure he is not a Christian, just based on the answers he gave us to the questions we asked him, but anytime the gospel is shared, a seed is planted. As our pastors said, if we hadn't been able to talk to even one person, they would still count the outing as a success because we were available to be used! It's almost that decision to be available that is so hard and scary. Anyway, just wanted to share how proud I am of Tyler for stepping out there. It was also really cool to see who God brought our way and how much he and Tyler "just happened" to have in common. Amazing...

Snack Pictures

Here are pictures from KTC that I haven't taken the time to post until now. I think they all turned out pretty well!

This is Samson's face with a pretzel dumbbell.

This is Hezekiah's Crown and the Belt of Truth.

These are the "Shoes of Peace."

This is the Fiery Furnace.

This is the "He is Risen Doughnut."

Happy Birthday, Tyler!

Today is my wonderful husband's 24th birthday! He is such a great guy, and he's all mine! :) I also wanted to brag a little bit, and let you all know that he got a promotion!! He is now a "level 2" employee at Boeing. We're not totally sure what all this entails, but it does come with a raise, and a bump in seniority. A level 2 employee is supposed to have 2-5 years of experience, and Tyler has almost 2 (his anniversary with Boeing is the 18th of August). Obviously, he has shown himself to be a good worker and of value to the company (not that I ever expected anything else...). Go, Tyler!! :)

Catch-up blog

Wow, this has been an incredibly busy few weeks! July 14-18 brought KTC (Kid's Town Camp, or in layman's terms, vbs). As you all know, I was in charge of the snacks, so of course, that week kept me on my toes! We ended up having about 360 kids each day, plus leaders. The snacks went over pretty well, as far as I know. My parents flew in on the morning of the 18th, so they got to experience a little bit of KTC themselves. I think they were quite impressed! Our church is fairly large (about 1000 people each Sunday) so they go all out. We had black light puppet shows (like a little-kids' rock concert feel), skits, fun games, crafts, and of course snacks.

That brings us to the next segment of the catching-up: the Baker visit of 2008! :) We started off their trip with a bang. We went right from the airport to church to finish up KTC. Then, as soon as Tyler got home from work, we made the 3 hour trip to Pacific Beach, WA to stay in a little cabin owned by some friends of ours. It was a great weekend! We played games, read books, flew a kite (which was actually really fun!!), browsed through the stores of "downtown," ate at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant which turned out to have some excellent food, built a bonfire on the beach to roast hotdogs (although, it was incredibly windy and the sand at the beach is very fine, so it got into everything and I could not force myself to eat my hotdog!), and just enjoyed spending time in such a beautiful and laid-back place. We came home Sunday night and stopped at an air show that was going on, so we got to see a flying demonstration. Throughout the week, we took it easy, just making small trips to places like the Pike fish market and IKEA. Then, Saturday, we drove up to Salish Lodge for breakfast and to hike down to the falls. We spent the morning there, grabbed some golf-ball-sized rainier cherries for the rest of the ride, and drove down to Mt. Rainier. We spent the afternoon hiking around some trails there and enjoying the crisp mountain air, then headed back home. All total, we drove about 200 miles that day. Sunday brought church, and then......ETHIOPIAN FOOD!! My parents had never been to an ethi restaurant, so we wanted to make sure they experienced it. The food was really good (Tyler still says nothing is quite authentic enough for him, but it tastes great to me), and my parents had a good time. We visited the Ballard Locks after lunch, which was fun and relaxing. That signalled the end of the trip, which was sad, of course, but we are going home for Christmas, so our parting was made much easier knowing we have a plan to see each other again soon. They flew out on Monday morning, and had to be at the airport at 4am, so we were up at 3am. That brings us to my next adventure (after some pictures)....

Monday morning at 6am, I left home and drove to Maple Valley to begin my week of watching 2 darling kiddos for a friend while she was in New Zealand visiting family. I arrived at 6:30 each day (I was up by 5am each day this week, which, if you know me at all, is not my forte), and stayed until 6:30-7pm each night until their dad got home from work. We filled our days with trips to the park, playing outside, playing at the playplace in the supermall, and watching a few episodes of Curious George. :) It really was a great week, and the kids are so well-behaved that it made my job easy. I have also discovered yet again how hilarious kids are, and kept track of a few of the funnier things they said. Here is a sample:

While eating waffles for breakfast, Zach says: "You have to cut my waffle into little pieces, but you don't have to cut your waffle into little pieces because you have a huge mouth!"


While changing Molly's diaper and trying to be careful of her diaper rash, Molly says: "Kiss it make it better" ....mmmm, sorry girlie, not gonna happen! :D

White looking at pictures of me and my siblings all dressed up at my sister's wedding, Zach says: "Why are you all cuted up?"

So, those were definitely some funny moments! Now, I'm looking forward to a week off and catching up from all the excitement!

God has a sense of humor

After my last post yesterday, and my remark about assuming we wouldn't have another thunderstorm for a while, God decided to show me up! Last night as I was lying in bed, lo and behold, what do I see? That's right, lightning! And this time, we actually got the whole experience! Rain, thunder, wind, everything! It was amazing! Just had to let all you faithful readers that I really have no idea what I'm talking about :)