4 Years!

We celebrated our 4th anniversary in style, and cheaply :) We headed up to Mount Baker and went for a great hike. Originally we thought we'd do a 4 mile in and out to a lake, but when we got in we were feeling cool (and had met a lot of people we thought we should be able to outhike) so we decided to try the whole loop (7.5-9 miles depending on the map you look at!) We finished in a solid 4 1/2 hours, and other than the last mile and a half which was literally stairs felt pretty good. Mt Shuksan from Picture Lake

Nooksack Falls

Family Pic in front of Mount Baker, from the high point of our hike

The boys

Mom's Visit

As we left the Scheers at the In-gate of the airport we walked downstairs and picked up Carole's Mom at baggage claim. It has been a nice visit with her as well, less Mario-Kart, but good! We have done some shopping and a little bit of hiking. We also went out to the islands again in an attempt to see whales one more time, but had no luck. The weather was much nicer, and it was a great day even without whales. Smokey got to go along this time as well, and had a great time digging in the sand at the beach.

A Week To Go

We can not believe it but there is only one week of camp left! It has been a crazy summer, but a good one. For those of you who have not heard Carole still is unemployed and feeling a little off balance with nothing really to do! After dropping Stan and Karen at the airport we picked up Carole's Mom, so they have been hanging out and watching the Olympics.

Since nothing came through for Carole the current plan is to hang at Lutherwood for another season. Could be that we are getting a message on where we are supposed to be this year, but a little gentler message would have been nice! Lutherwood has hired an interim executive director and Brandon is excited to see where that leads. Although he is tired from an understaffed summer there is some anticipation of changes that will hopefully make things work a little more smoothly here. Carole will be substituting in a couple districts near camp and helping out with "hospitality" (that is cooking and cleaning to the layperson) around camp. There is something to be said for a lighter load after the intensity of the last year of school. She is also hoping to begin learning Spanish on the side.

We hope you are all doing great, give us a call if you'd like to come visit beautiful Northwest Washington!

The Fun Continues

The last several days of vacation have been pretty awesome. On the way to take Mel to the airport we took in some Seattle sites. The Market, Queen Anne Hill, and Golden Gardens Park. It was a fun day to spend together.

Then on Friday evening we spent some time at the good old casino. Brandon was the big winner at the craps table, turning his $20 into $200!! He had a lot of fun, and after the rest of us gave up on the slots we enjoyed watching and trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

Saturday saw us headed out to San Juan Island. It was a kind of nasty day, but turned out to be worth it. We drove over to American Camp National Park with the intention of a hike down to the beach, but as we geared up it started POURING. We made the call to head back into town and do some shopping and whatnot and see if the rain broke. We went to the whale museum and when we came out the sun was peaking out. So, we decided to take advantage of the break in weather and try the hike again. As we came down to the cove Carole said "Wow, look at all those boats, my friend Erica says that if you are looking for whales just look for all the boats. THERE'S A WHALE!!"
We got to spend the next hour and a half watching whales cruise by us and play a little. It was a pretty amazing thing to catch. About the time the whales faded out the rain started and we headed back to town. What perfect timing!!!

We also caught a great sunset to finish the night out.

Scheer Reunion

Papa Goat helps out in the Lutherwood kitchen!

The scooter arrives!!! Finally!!!!

Unfortunately it takes 2 days for us to figure out the assembly instructions in Chinese and get all the parts they "forgot" to include :( A frustrating experience, thank goodness Stan was here or my hog would still be in the box.

But we prevailed and I was off! Then I let a few other people give it a shot.

Goat catches some air and Stan catches it on film. OK, not really because it is a digital camera, but the rapid fire capabilities of Brandon's camera were Stan's best friend. He took 800 pictures of us on the water! (Don't worry, we didn't post them all.)Mel gets going again on the wakeboard.
Brother and sister sharing tube time.
Bottoms up!
Mom and Dad speeding around the lake.
Then Dad goes a little more exteme on his own!Look Mom, no hands!Synchronized tubing.

So far we have been having a great time, more to come, I am sure!!

Guess What We Did!

Well, we took the plunge and bought a new car yesterday. Faced with repairs costing more than the Forester was worth we went to "look." Of course we walked out with it, what were we thinking?? It is an 05 Honda Pilot (with more features than we know what to do with.) From the dealer we took it for a drive to pick up Mom, Dad and Mel from the airport. On the way home we hit REI (of course!) and had dinner. We also took family pictures in both the elevators we rode in. We have an action packed week ahead of us, it should be a great time to all be together.

Cailyn

Our other new cuddle-bug, Cailyn, taking a rest on the quilt we made her (it looks pretty good from this distance!)

The Downside of the Job

A couple weeks ago Goat got the bad side of the cleanest cabin reward. The cabin that has been the cleanest all week gets to make a staff member of their choice jump in the lake at the end of the week, and for the first time he got the call! He did it with style, despite the fact that he was giving a tour to several people at the time!

Brandon Makes the News!

No, not for his triathlon performance, but for camp! Here is a link for an article you can read about the challenge course. We are trying to track down copies Moms and Grandmas!!
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/lifestyle/story/465149.html
The online version is a little different from the print version (fewer pictures), but here is a link to a slideshow of some of the pictures. The one with Brandon that was actually in the paper didn't make the slideshow, but there are a few others.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/galleries/gallery/464533-a464525-t2.html

I'm a Triathlete!

Today was the day that Brandon became a triathlete. He is feeling it now, but reached both his goals: He finished (in a time of 2:13) and he is alive ("so far" he says). It was a rough swim and his knee gave him some trouble, but I think all in all he is happy. Nearly comatose, but happy!

It's My Birthday!

And I got a scooter! Yippee!!! I was very surprised and even more excited. It should arrive some time next week so today I took birthday money and went and got my motorcycle permit (I missed none, Brandon missed two on the test!!!) and got us each a helmet so he can ride along, if I let him :)

Here we are, ready to hit the road with our new helmets and permits.
This is what my scooter looks like, can't wait for it to get here, won't I look chic???

Life for Us

Hello Everyone! I realize that it has been a while, to be honest, our life is not that exciting! Some things that have been happening...
Brandon is in full swing at camp now. He has a great (if slightly smaller than he'd like) staff, especially his program staff this summer. That has been a huge blessing to have those few people that he can trust to take control on a few things here and there. Not that that means he is working any less! He is once again going in at 8 a.m. and not returning until...well, I don't really know when he comes home, I am usually long gone into dream land.
The good news is that apparently no one told my professors this summer that this quarter is relaxed and fun, like I was told! I have already cried twice this first week of class, once actually in a class, for no apparent reason other than the stress is breaking me down, finally. On top of school stress I have also continued to receive "we're sorry but the position has been filled" notices across the board for the jobs I have applied for. There are still a few out there, but it is definitely beginning to look like I will be substituting next fall. I'll be honest, that makes it a little tough to get excited about writing papers about my classroom procedures! Oh, yeah, I started this paragraph saying this was all good news...it is, kind of, I don't notice that Brandon works until the wee hours of the morning because I am doing homework and then falling into bed in an emotional exhausted haze.
I am looking forward to reading this in a month when I am done and realizing that it wasn't all as bad as it looked at this point!
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers and we try to decipher what all of this means for our life over the next year. We are continuing to argue about who "has" to make the decision on where to live, what jobs we will each be doing, and so on and so on.
On a much brighter side here is a picture of me with my new "niece." My good friends Jon and Briana had their baby girl on June 11th, and I got to spend a week visiting them and Connor in Portland before my summer classes started. She is adorable, but the experience definitely left me feeling unprepared for any ideas of motherhood...even a baby as gorgeous and well-mannered as Kadyn made me feel incompetent and glad to not be the one getting up with her all night!

One step closer...

I am one step closer to being a "real" teacher. I have finished my student teaching! It was a little hard to walk out not knowing if I'd see them again, that first batch of students.

My school went to camp for the first half of the last week. It was a fun way to spend a few relaxed days with the students before the end of the year. Now just one quarter of classes and I am on my way. Still waiting on a job, though. Patience is not one of my strong sides when I am trying to decide how to spend the next year of my life!

Brandon is in full swing with camp, staff training is half over and going well. He is excited about the staff he has and looking forward to the summer. He is still waiting to see what I get offered job-wise before he makes any decisions about the next year might hold for him.