Upcoming events...

We are getting excited about some of our fall plans.

With our friend, Leah, I have signed up for a ceramics class that starts in mid-September. This is something I've been talking about doing for a long time and I'm so excited that it's happening--and that I get to share it with a friend!

On a Saturday in late September, Eric will play in a golf scramble with a former parishioner and, on the same day, I will be running in a 5k (!) with Mike, another Forest Grove friend, and hopefully Mat and Leah. It will be my first race since Albion! Yesterday, Mat, Leah, Eric and I made a trip to a great running store in Beaverton and were surprised to find some amazing sales. I got a pair of $110 running shoes for $25! Mat also needed new shoes and he ended up buying three pairs for $25 each!

In mid-October, we plan to drive down to the Bay Area to attend Albion friend Carrie's wedding! During the trip, we will also get to see brother Justin and Lill in Chico and Sarah (an Oregon friend) and Tyler (a college friend of Eric's) in San Francisco!

In November, we will fly to Wisconsin where Eric will be doing video work for a conference youth event. I'm sure that experience will be great, but what we are most excited about is seeing Mark and Jeff, Garrett friends, and their spouses and kids!

Ms. Em and Company

This past weekend, Mike (Eric's brother), Tanya and niece Emerson came to town. We had a wonderful time visiting while wandering, eating, tasting wine, playing disc golf, and just sitting around.

They stayed at McMenamins, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Free breakfast, strange and facinating art in the hallways and rooms, a disc golf course, great places to eat...




It was so fun to play auntie! Emmy makes me laugh so much. I think she might like me, too.

Emmy, in all her cuteness:

The ceremonious handing over of the forgotten rental car part.

It was great to catch up on life with some of the Spokane Conklins. I love that we don't have to do anything but just enjoy being together. And Emerson changes and grows and learns so much between visits--it's amazing! We hope to see them again soon!

Camping!

We've been wanting to go camping since we arrived in Oregon and we finally found an opportunity! It was a short trip--just one night--but our friends Mat and Leah, who are both teachers, go back to school next week, so we were happy to find a night we were all able to go! Perhaps best of all is that the camp ground, Gales Creek, is only about half and hour away from our house!

Setting up the ginormous tent:

Roasting not dogs over the fire for dinner:

In the morning, we realized that we had forgotten to bring a kettle to boil water, so we used some empty stubbies from the Sessions the boys had had the night before. Amazingly enough, it worked! We went great lengths for our coffee--and it was worth it!

The brewmaster:

One learning: let bottles cool completely before refilling them with water and putting them back over the flame--they will crack apart and spew water into the fire!

We had some leftover marshmallows so we decided to make s'mores in the morning, too. Why not? It was sort-of like our breakfast dessert!

Later we drove down the road to the Tillamook Forest Center, where we ate our lunch at the top of a model fire outlook station. It's a bit hard to tell, but we are pretty high up!

We learned a lot about the Tillamook Burn, a series of horrendous forest fires in the 1930s and 40s that were caused by logging and destroyed a huge portion of what is now a State Forest. Most of the current trees were planted after those fires. This is a map that shows the areas burned during those fires--most of the dark green on the left. In the flat area on the right is Forest Grove, the larger town next to Cornelius, where we live. On the other side of the forest, on the far left, is the ocean!!

Checking things out.

We hiked on a gorgeous trail along the Wilson River.

I was a tad nervous crossing this log bridge, but it was a beautiful spot.

We encountered a huge banana slug! Gross...and cool. Leah says that if you lick them, your tongue goes numb for a bit. And she knows from experience.

We followed the trail for a couple of miles to Wilson Falls, which was really pretty.

It was a wonderful little excursion and a good way to start the week. Even though temperatures were up to the low 100s through Saturday, it was cool yesterday and today--just a perfect temperature. And it didn't start raining until we were almost finished with our hike today! As always, we had a great time visiting with Mat and Leah and we will definitely be back to the Tillamook State Forest as soon as we can carve out another day or two! We feel so thankful to be living in such a beautiful place!

Cumpleanos de Eliser

Saturday was Eliser's birthday and he threw a fabulous birthday in the park near his house Sunday afternoon. After reaching 100 degrees the three days before, it much cooler and a bit cloudy--a perfect day to be outside!

With the birthday boy:

Daniel and Yanani waiting patiently for cake:

Tres leches, mmm....Folks came from all parts of Eliser's life. We were especially excited to see the Dumolts, a family from Clarkes UMC, Eric's church during our first time out here. Sue (in the yellow), Jim, and Jimmy (though he now wants to be called Jim--and because he is now taller than me, I will comply).

Eric and I were some of the first ones there and here we are among the last to leave!

Helicoptero

Melchor, a really sweet man who has been living and working on a nearby farm this summer, joined us for Cornelius's National Night Out, a community event that took place just down the street from our house.

It's a neat, safety-focused event for families that we found to be, well, a little boring. It didn't help that they ran out of snow cones just before we got there! And neither Eric nor Melchor wanted to sit in the back of the police car with me!

One thing that was pretty cool, though, was the life flight helicopter that was there. We stood a short distance away and watched as people climbed in to check things out. Melchor didn't want to go up there, but I could tell he was interested--he hadn't seen one before. So I walked up and peeked in and after a little bit, he followed me. Then he asked if he could get in. Here he is sitting inside:

Melchor doesn't smile in photographs because he says that he looks funny. I don't think he does, but I can understand not wanting to look unnatural. Eric decided to take the Melchor approach for this one.

None of us had ever seen a helicopter take off from up close before--it was pretty cool!

I have really enjoyed visiting with Melchor. Not only is he a very thoughtful and interesting person, but he is also originally from Santiago Naranjas, which is just down the road from San Francisco Paxtlahuaca, the town where I stayed for a few days in rural Oaxaca a few months ago! After the park, we looked at some pictures from my trip and printed off some helicopter shots that he could take with him. He was scheduled to leave just a few days later for Fresno, where he plans to stop over before heading to Baja California to vacation with his family. I hope that he is traveling safely and that he comes back next summer! I had such a meaningful time visiting over this past month with Melchor and the others living at the nearby migrant camp.

Day Camp

It has been a lovely, exhausting week at the Forest Grove Day Camp. FG is just down the road from Cornlelius, so several of the kids are neighbors of ours. Here are two--Giovanni (who lives across the street) and Lizbeth (just a few blocks from us).

Everyone is happy on water day.

Dios te ama = God loves you.

The kiddos painted this sign for the garden.

Gotta have music at camp. Emily and Bobby were great!

Goose teaching the kids about God's creation.

Matt, Evan, Giovanni and Anthony.


I am tired, but happy.

It's been a whole month?

The rhythms of daily and weekly life are quite a bit different now from what they were during our last year in Chicago. The days are less-packed and our sphere has become much smaller. Though we have gathered with good friends here and there and have explored the area some, much of our time is spent close to home--something that I have really enjoyed. Today I spent nearly my whole day off organizing books and papers and trying to find a special place for each of the little things that remain in boxes! I rode my bike to the library and then came home and created a special place for library items! I'm not naturally good at it, but I really like to be organized! Oh, and we've also been getting a decent amount of sleep. It's amazing how much less often I think about drinking coffee (and actually drinking coffee) when I am well-rested.

Yesterday, we took a trip into Portland to meet Stephanie, a Chicago New Sanctuary friend, and her roommate, Lizzie. They are in Oregon for a week with Common Circle Expeditions, a non-profit organization that leads folks on sustainability-oriented bike trips that include service projects and visits to sustainable organizations and projects. And they get to ride along the amazing Oregon coast! I had never heard of this organization before but their trip sounds like something that Eric and I would definitely be interested in doing.

We had a lovely dinner on the patio of McMenamins White Eagle Saloon in Northeast Portland.

Other highlights from the week include:

*Taking Melchor, a guy from the migrant camp I've been visiting, to the DMV. He is from a town that is very close to the town I visited in rural Oaxaca and has quite a story. He shared it with me over potato wedges and Gatorade in a shady spot in the parking lot. I look forward to going out there for another Bible study tomorrow. It will likely be the last trip out there this summer because the blueberries are nearly gone and the workers are all moving on to Eastern Oregon, Washington, or California.

*Visiting families in the neighborhood to invite their kids to the Forest Grove Multicultural Day Camp, a week-long program that starts Monday. I'm really excited that several of the folks I visited are going to participate!

*Driving into Portland one morning with Don, a member of the Cornelius church who helped us pick up some free chairs (see below) in his truck. He is a lovely man.

*Meeting with lay people at two different churches that are doing amazing work in the Latino community--and neither speaks Spanish fluently! I left those meetings so inspired...

*Starting a weight-lifting routine! We have both been sore, but it is good to work hard.

Here are a few more shots of our house. These chairs were freebies from the United Methodist Conference Center. They're not intended to be dining room chairs, but they work--and are way comfy.

The living/dining shot. Next step: put stuff up on the walls!

And here are a few pictures from the Cornelius picnic last Sunday. Barbara pulls weeds:

The intense game of croquet--Jenny, Don and Albert:

Mabel and Bonnie enjoying the game from the bleachers: