Mark's Visit Home

Happy hour at Casa del Matador on NW 23rd to celebrate Mark's visit home. He's been in Bogota, Colombia for 3 years as an officer in the Foreign Service and will now be doing a year long assignment in Kabul, Afghanistan. I'm sure I'm getting his actual title wrong, but he will be a director of business development primarily focusing on agriculture. As always, he is an incredibly intelligent, driven and hard working man.

Cheryl and Markme and Mark
Cindy and Mark
Katie and Mark
Lisa and MarkJust like the old days...Mark with all of the girls :)
We miss you and will be praying for a safe and successful year!

Dad's 70th Birthday!

Celebrated Dad's 70th birthday (and Mother's Day and Mike's birthday) at the View Point Inn in Corbett! It's an old building, in the National Historic Register, that is currently a small inn and restaurant. We had a delicious brunch there. Extremely well fed.

The grounds are beautiful, and we were blessed with gorgeous weather!
View of the Gorge
Dad doesn't look, act or feel 70. I think 70 must be the new 50!Happy Birthday Mikey!

One last time...Storm and the Balls

Saw what will probably the last show for a very long time of Storm and the Balls. They played a ton of their old stuff. A really great show even though it was a bit sad.

Thank y0u for reserved front row seating! Cousin Jackie, her beau David and friend Laura:
The only camera we had was my Blackberry, but it was so dark that the slow shutter speed made everything blurry. So let's consider them moody with a rock-n-roll vibe :)Our favorite Ball, Davey Nipples

Prince of Peace Retreat

Annual Prince of Peace Women's Retreat at Cannon Beach. Lovely weekend with Anne and Deb-o and their church friends. I am an honorary Lutheran during that weekend :) This year's theme was "Who Do You Think You Are" and we did all sorts of exercises and projects looking at what makes us who we are, if we think others see us differently than we see ourselves, the gifts that Christ has given us in our characteristics, etc. We had some free time to walk along the beach, go through the shops and of course visit Bruce's Candy Kitchen.We stayed in the same cute little bungalow as last year. Quaint with original moldings and fireplace (maybe from the 40's?) but updated furniture. I think the wiring needs to be updated though. Anne blew a fuse with her hairdryer and ended up with a hand covered in soot!
We also had time to do some fun crafty things. Girls enjoy that kind of stuff. Made some really cute magnets with Anne's guidance and beaded an awesome green bracelet with Deb-o's beads. All of my other bracelets sucked, but the first one I made was perfect!

It was a wonderful weekend. As Anne would say, it was full of "fun, food and fellowship" :)