Thankful Thursday

vacation edition...

We recently took a family vacation for 10 days. It was such a blessing to be able to take such a chunk of time off and go on a road trip together to the Pacific Northwest. There were many things I was thankful for.

I am thankful for the innocence an joy my little boys have.

Corbin enjoying the fall leaves at the James Cant Ranch in the John Day Fossil Beds

I am thankful for fossils we got to see at the John Day Fossil Beds and that this is proof of the ice age and that Noah's Flood actually happened.

I am thankful for our trailer that we got to camp in. I am grateful for the heater and the comforts of home we had in it. I am also thankful for the memories we have made using our trailer. ** This is the first road trip that I have actually packed a fruit and vegetable basket to take along and homemade broth to drink throughout the trip!

I am thankful for waterfalls. Sunsets and waterfalls are two of my favorites in God's creation. We saw A LOT of waterfalls at the Columbia River Gorge on our trip. I was in awe of the beauty. I took over 80 pictures of the waterfalls!

I am thankful for new discoveries, like this leaf that is as big as Corbin's head. I am thankful for the quiet peace that the hikes up to each of the falls had to offer. 

I am thankful for my family of boys. They are so curious and full of energy. I am thankful they have a Daddy who is willing to teach them how to grow up to be men and give them the wrestle time now that they need. 

I am thankful for sweet treats! We had several treats on our vacation and since the boys are Gluten Free and I am Paleo we had to hunt for treats a lot of the time. We were thankful to find Kyra's Bake Shop. It is a 100% Gluten free bakery! She is the two time winner of Cupcake wars on Food Network. She won with some of her Gluten Free Cupcakes.  I did not partake in a cupcake but did have a small bite and they were delicious. The boys were in heaven! 

Speaking of food, we found some amazing places on our trip that were Paleo Friendly and had many Gluten Free options. One of the places we stopped was Cultured Caveman - a little food truck in Portland. I am thankful for Clean, Whole Paleo food that is prepared for me. We had coconut crusted chicken tenders (fried in beef tallow), braised collard greens with bacon, bacon wrapped dates, macaroons, chili, and homemade garlic aioli. MMMM...I can taste it now. I am thankful for good food! 

I am thankful for the power and majesty of God. We visited Mount St. Helens and it had a way of making us feel real tiny. Like small little peons. It is amazing how this 8,000+ high foot mountain could literally blow thousands of feet off it's top devastating everything (for miles) in it's wake in a matter of three minutes. There is nothing like being at the foot of this mountain in person. It is HUGE. It is active. It is mind blowing. God is big! God is all powerful. Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

I am thankful for laughter. We visited the fish market at Pike Place in Seattle and it is always so much fun there. The fish Corbin is standing by moves when the fish monger pulls on a chain it is connected too. I knew this (because we had been there before but Corbin was really young) and so I told the boys to go up close and look at the fish. They did and when they did the Monger moved it and scared the bejeebers out of them. Corbin thought it was funny and Cody did not! He wouldn't go near that thing. It gave us a good laugh.  Such fun memories.

I am thankful for animals and for Corbin's love of animals. I have always loved animals too just like him. They are so fun to watch and learn about. It is amazing how much we can see that we have an intelligent Creator through the study of animals.  The intricacies of all animals is astounding. There is no way they could just have formed from a blob. When we visited the Seattle Aquarium it was like a field trip for our homeschool. We learned so much about aquatic animals (which happens to be what we are studying in science right now anyway.) We saw Octopus being fed and very active, otters, harbor seals, fur seals, jellyfish, starfish and more. It was a great time!

I am thankful for my husband. To have a complete family is a blessing I don't take for granted. God has blessed us tremendously. He was the one to do all the dirty work on the trip like jack up the trailer and make sure we had the spare tire. Get the "lines" hooked up to make sure certain things - eh-hem, went where they were supposed too. All the loading and unloading. I am thankful to literally have the man-power. Also I am thankful that God has allowed my husbands back issues to heal and God has given him relief and ability to be able to do these tasks without pain.

I am thankful for time away from the normal routine and all the many sites to see on this earth. I am thankful for renewal and refreshment at the perfect time of the year. It was much needed and what better time that to go see the fall colors!  This is the Puget Sound in Seattle from the top of the Seattle Great Wheel. We were in a Ferris wheel that was 200 feet above the ground over the Puget Sound. We got so see an amazing sunset which I am thankful for and view all the sites of the town from way up high.

I am thankful for the means to take a much needed family vacation like this. God has provided in abundance! 

I thought this Psalm was a fitting end to this thankfulness post...

Psalm 145
A Praise of David. I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, And I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, And shall sing of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, And Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power, To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord upholds all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh shall bless His holy name Forever and ever.

~Blessings~

Fall play time

It is not often I get to go and play.  My days are usually full of blessings but play time is not always present.  Last week we had a free day that we still did "school" but in a different way.  We decided to have a nature day.  It was so fun because the boys got to get out and explore God's creation through discovery, hands on and some sketching.  I had a chance to play by using my new macro lens for my camera to capture the glorious fall colors of this year!

It was such a refreshing time that I am so grateful for.

Not all of these photos were taken with my macro, some were taken with my other lens but boy was this fall day spectacular.

Close up of a log.  It kind of looks like the surface of Mercury to me.

Looks like a dry and barren dessert but it is really a log! I love close-ups!

They brought their buckets to collect leaves and nature pieces for our nature shelf.  Cody spilled his several times but was very diligent to pick it all back up and put it in the bucket.

Hard to believe these beauties look like this so close up.  Amazing.

This is one of my favorite pictures.  The bees were swarming all over these flowers.  Their favorite color is purple so maybe that is why.

I don't know what these things are but they had a cool texture.

Look at this leaf.  It looks like leather to me.

After we took our nature walk we took our picnic lunch, blanket and our art supplies over the park.  We were among tall golden trees all shedding their leaves and the bright sunshine falling on our shoulders. Oh so decadent. So relaxing. So inspirational.

The boys went looking for acorns.

This is Cody concentrating on his sketching.  He always has to have his tongue out!

Corbin doing his bark rubbings on the tree.

Sketching and keeping a journal of the creation we see if such a wonderful experience.  I hope to instill this in my children so they never forget God's creativity.

OK... this is not nature but I thought it looked cool.  It is my shoe!

After eating and drawing we decided to walk a few steps and enjoy the river.

This was so much fun.  I highly recommend getting out with your children to explore nature and relax under the trees with a picnic lunch.  It is great to enjoy each others company and admire what God has made for us.

Psalm 34.8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

Summer 2012 Recap

Summer is coming to a close for us.  Even though summer isn't truly over until next month we start school next Monday so I count summer to be over.  This was our first summer in our new home in our new state.  We sure had a blessed time and I truly thank God for His amazing grace and all He has poured out upon us. 

Join me in looking back on some of the "Lazy (or not so lazy" days of Summer 2012)...
(Bear with me - I am a scrapbooker and can't just choose one picture from each event. Pictures are fun anyway!)

Finger Painting

Cherry Festival

The carnival part of it. My cousin John went on a ride with Corbin.

Cody picking a little ducky.

Cherry dark chocolate ice cream.  Read about it here.

Homemade smoothie popsicles

Pool time with friends

Fourth of July

I didn't make these look as good as the links on pinterest but they still tasted yummy!

Burning our last sparkler from our wedding 8 years ago!

Made edible playdough... it was yummy.

Slip N' Slide

Watering the garden everyday and enjoying the harvest from the fruits of our labor.

Green beans

Peas

Roma Tomatoes

Max loves to water with me every night.  He goes to every plant with me and follows me around.  He is so cute.

Going to the water park right by our house for the first time.  We had a blast!

We made our own Gummies.  We learned about seaweed and carageenan which is an ingredient gummies are made from. Actually you can find it in a lot of products - even salad dressing!

Running in the sprinklers

We went on our first real train ride through the mountains. It was beautiful!  We got to wave to all the rafters in the river along the way.

The boys had fun at our table in our train car.

We had Corbin's 7th birthday! Super Mario Themed was his request.

Lastly, we went on our first camping trip here. Actually it was our first camping trip in three years - since I was pregnant with Cody!  We went with our church to "Family Camp."

They had a family activity where the kids got a handful of whipped cream and a popsicle stick.  They got to smear it on their Dad's face and "shave" it off with the popsicle stick. Steve was a trooper for this one!

We had worship everyday by our worship leaders (it was awesome) and Steve got to lead our devotional one night on Initiative and taking our part as the Body of Christ. Our church also provided smores every night for the camp.  That was a huge hit!  We had a potluck dinner one night as well.  I can't wait for next year.  It was so much fun.

Fishing in the river one day during our camping trip.

This was Cody literally 5 minutes after we got into the car to head back home after our camping trip.  He was pooped!

We had an eventful summer.  It has been fun to look back on some of the fun things we did.  I have to say that I am looking forward to the return of the school year.  More structure and routine and hopefully a little less busy.  We will see?

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ~ To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...

Thank you Lord for a great summer season!