We are in Cannon Beach, OR

Hello family and friends,
We are currently in Cannon Beach, Oregon at the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center. We are having a great time, only been here less than 24 hours. The trip over was about 8.5 hours and arrived no problems. Smaller group this year for us. Jason and Aaron were not able to make it because of work (it always gets in the way of our play time, doesn't it but required in order to play!!!). And Leah is still fighting fires in Eastern Oregon. But she did come over last night to spend two days with us. We all have fond memories of Cannon Beach. The concept of coming here all started with Susan's vision of a family get away (Thanks to a special group of friends back in 2004 who funded the first year's stay here at the Conference Center). It has been a special family time since. Here is a picture of my girls, with Haystack Rock in the background.

And before dinner last night we got a nice picture in front of the dining hall.

Also here are some pictures of activities over the past month.

My dear aunt Greta visited from Minnesota with her husband Harold. Aunt Greta is my dad's sister and we had a great visit. They were here for a wedding in Spokane. But they visited when we had the graduation party for Hannah. We have a praise too! Hannah got a job with Coeur d'Alene Pediatrics. She will start on October 1st so that allows Hannah to finish out the summer as my Nanny and then to visit a friend in California for a week in September. So it all works out for everyone. Jake is working really hard with road construction crews this summer. So that takes up his time at least for the summer. They are both doing very well.
At Hannah's graduation party that we had in our backyard. Thanks for all the family and friends that showed up to help celebrate Hannah's accomplishments.

We also worked at Creation Festival again this year. This is our ninth year at helping out. Here is Hannah, Mary and Laura on the grassy slope of the amphitheater overlooking the main stage and the Columbia River. A beautiful setting to give God all the glory for the blessings in our lives.

At Creation, Hannah's friend Anneliese came along and worked with the my girls in the Music Tent, selling music and posters and t-shirts. This is a picture of them working behind the cash registers.

Here is Nathan running in his first triathlon in Coeur d'Alene. He was pretty fast in the swim, really fast in the biking and running. He finished 15th overall out of about 500 people. Great Job, Nathan!! Along with that, Nathan, Leah and I are now signed up for the Portland Marathon on October 4th.

A couple weekends ago we went river rafting on the Spokane River just outside of Post Falls. The river was slow except for one set of rapids which made it all worth while. It was cool and fun. We are having a great summer!!!!!

Lastly, Sarah had her surgery to remove the breast Fibroadenomas (benign tumor that was found, I wrote about it on the last blog entry). All went well and the mass was sent off for further testing. We have not heard anything else on the results. But Sarah is doing well. Thanks for all the prayers.