A West-Coast Escapade

During our trip throughout the West-Coast, we had the blessing of combining a week-long conference with a vacation celebrating Priscilla’s Birthday and topped the whole trip off with a wedding of some friends. This two week escapade was packed full of fun and family time.

Not everyone has the privilege of traveling like we do, but with it can come some challenges such as long lines at airports with tons of luggage and tired children and fellow travelers.

Homeschool Conference

Here David addresses the group of volunteers and staff who are working to put the conference on. This was the final conference of this sort for the year for us.

We both enjoyed addressing a breakout session of young people encouraging them to guard their heart and wait for God’s best

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have been such encouraging friends to us over the years. It has been a blessing to also have them speak at several of the sessions.

We enjoyed visiting with some friends that we met through our blog a few years ago. It has been so fun to keep up with them and visit them each time we come out to Sacramento.

Paul is just getting to the age where he really enjoys playing at the park.

The final night of the conference was the Fourth of July. Thankfully the sessions ended early enough for us to get out and see some fantastic fireworks nearby.

David’s salsa or Priscilla’s salsa. Which version of spicy do you prefer? 🙂 It really isn’t quite that bad, but for some reason, Priscilla can really heap on the hot sauce when she is pregnant and enjoy every bit. David has a harder time and cannot share her food because it is simply too hot.

Visiting Friends

On a relaxing Saturday afternoon after a long conference week, where does Paul want to be? In the muddy water.

After we cleaned Paul up a little bit, we went over to a sweet Russian family for some “evening tea.” In reality, it consisted of tons of fresh vegetables from their garden, fresh baked bread, cheese, and lots of other things. It was by no means simple tea, but it was nice.

The next morning David preached at their Russian speaking congregation and we had a sweet time of fellowship with them before driving up to see some other friends Northwest of Reno.

 

Lake Tahoe:

We had heard so much about Lake Tahoe, that we thought it would be good to at least stop by since it was less than an hour out of our way. We ended up taking a nice walk along the beautiful lake.

Then Paul thought he was so hot, so he took a dip. He really loves the water!

Of course, we just came from church and didn’t take time to change so David got to balance on rocks while Paul enjoyed the water.

Visiting a Family on a Ranch:

That evening we arrived at the ranch of a family we had known for years, but never realized the beautiful place they lived. We were thrilled to see the horses and enjoyed riding them.

Priscilla made fast friends with this horse who was well over twenty years old.

Paul did his best to make friends and found it so much easier using carrots.

Paul absolutely loved riding. First he would put his hands on David’s, then take David’s off the saddle horn and put his own there. He enjoyed it immensely.

There is nothing quite like a little boy enjoying the velvety nose of a horse. 

Just looking up the driveway across the dry pastures and up the beautiful surrounding mountains was a sight to be remembered.

David even went sailing……while the girls enjoyed a ladies tea 🙂

They all had to wear their unique hats and mind their manners… 🙂

The boys smoked some amazing chicken for dinner!

 

We enjoyed a second celebration of Priscilla’s birthday along with one of their daughters. It totally took Priscilla by surprise.

Vacation Alone As A Family:

As much as we love traveling and being with people, we have also found it important to take a little time alone for time together by ourselves.

We enjoyed three days in Cottage Grove, Oregon which is near Eugene. One of our favorite parts was all the windy mountain roads that led to hiking trails and beautiful waterfalls.

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Got to love the beauty God’s creation!

We found the number of huge trees to be fascinating. I am not sure, but I do not think any of the ones in the places we hiked were even the famed redwood trees. They were just huge trees.

We went to several different falls and with each one, we had to hike in to see them.

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It was always fun to come around that last bend in the trail and take in the awesome sight.

These pictures simply do not do it justice!

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Can you see the butterfly. You would hardly imagine that those falls beyond it are hundreds of feet away.

On our date night, we enjoyed a beautiful dinner that came as a part of our room package deal that we found on Travel Zoo.
On our way out of town, we saw a beautiful lake and were able to rent a canoe for a few hours. 

On our last night of being alone, we went to the coast. I don’t think either of us were picturing anything but a different version of a Florida coast. We were quite surprised to feel the cool climate and frigid water.

The next day, we headed to the wedding of a friend. On the way we stopped to pick up some fresh fruit. Priscilla, in usual nature, gave the young lady a Gospel tract which started a conversation about God, the Bible and salvation by faith in Christ. We had the privilege of witnessing her pray to give her life to the Lord.

The wedding was beautiful and the platform was decorated nicely with trees from a local nursery who kindly loaned them to the couple. Elegant and yet backwoods!

David was the Emcee for the reception.

We stopped in their photo booth for a quick shot!

What fun would a wedding be unless you got to help with decorating the car?

Barak and Kezia have been good friends and we look forward seeing what the Lord has in store for them.

Paul never seems to hesitate to go for the mud, even if he is in a suit.

 

Friends in Portland:

Lastly, we have some sweet Romanian friends we have gotten to know in the Portland area. They graciously hosted us in their home and took us to some of the tastiest food in Oregon!

They also took us to a large church picnic.

The church had a big baptism in the Columbia river. The whole day was a very special experience.

We then got up very early in the morning to make our travels back home.Glad to be home, we had a little bicycle repair before we could go out for a ride. Paul is so eager to help. 🙂