Mercer Slough

ANOTHER incredible field trip! This time we headed down to Bellevue and had the opportunity to go on a hike to learn more about the Mercer Slough. The slough was created when the Chittendon Locks were built changing the amount of water coming in from Lake Washington, leaving a swampy wetland behind. This wetland is filled with creatures such as bats, owls, bunnies, coyotes and tons of bug and aquatic life. The kids were able to see a bat box that was not very well used as some genius decided to put it in the same neighborhood as the owls, um, hullo, predators...bad neighborhood, duh. That was during the hike portion of our trip, we then went down and collected samples of water from the slough, took them up to the lab and put them under a microscope to see all kinds of amazing creatures! This was a really fun trip as none of my family has ever been down to the slough before! I do plan to head back there someday though, it is well worth the drive.

Hebrew

Jordan and I have been taking Hebrew lessons for quite some time now. Sadly we are not as far as I would like, but at least we are working on a pretty regular basis. Recently I had the opportunity to hear an author come and speak about his research into the ancient Hebrew language, which has many differences from the modern Hebrew which is really of Aramaic origin. It was adopted by the Israelites during their captivity in Babylon. So, what predated this modern language? Pictures, much like Hieroglyphs. (from Jeff Benners book "Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible") "The Ancient Hebrew language is a concrete oriented language meaning that the meaning of Hebrew words are rooted in something that can be sensed by the five senses such as a tree which can be seen, sweet which can be tasted and noise which can be heard. Abstract concepts such as "praise" have no foundation in the concrete and are a product of ancient Greek philosophy." So, the word "praise" originates with a picture of a man with his hands raised looking at something spectacular and a shepherd staff that is used to move the flock toward a place. So, the original meaning of the man and a staff is the North Star, a bright light that is looked toward to guide one on the journey. So the word praise (the man with two staffs after it) in its original concrete meaning is a bright light that guides the journey and we praise God by looking at Him to guide us on our journey through life. Isn't that cool??? There is so much rich depth in the original pictures of the language and it opens up the bible in an incredible new way. So, what is my point you might be thinking? Nothing really. Other than I thought it was way cool and I wanted to add it to my blog. So, as I get time I will be swiping a teaching from Jeff Benners site Ancient Hebrew Research Center
and posting them on here for anyone who might enjoy these little amazing nuggets of truth. So I shared the one above today from Jeff's book, check back and I will try to post one a week.

a moment at Padilla Bay

What a beautiful place! Padilla Bay is north of Mt Vernon heading west towards Anacortes. When you arrive there is a large building and inside is a classroom as well as several rooms with information about estuaries as well as very fun hands on room where the kids can really play and learn about estuaries. What is an estuary? (some of you I am sure know, but for those who don't here is your mini lesson) An estuary is the place where fresh water meets saltwater, so where a stream or river meets the salt water of the ocean. These are wonderful places that are just filled with life! So many creatures live in estuaries and it is the home to zillions of babies from plant babies to sealife babies! The kids went first through a class where we learned what is needed to make "estuary soup", watched a video about estuaries and their importance and learned a bit of the history of Padilla Bay. We then moved onto the beach! Armed with shovels, cups for water to hold creatures as well as a clipboard with photos of life we could find and a speciman tray, we were off and digging! The kids found lots of wonderful things from green sea slugs, to snail eggs, as well as eelgrass and even a skeleton shrimp! Our guide took all of our collections and placed them under microscopes for us to view all the wonderful life we had found. It was truly a fun and wonderful adventure!

homeschooling days have begun again!

Well, we are now into our second week of official back to homeschool! We did some schooling througout the summer, but mostly we spent time outdoors just having fun. As we start off our studies this year we are learning about Lewis and Clark and their expedition. Since we do use a unit study that would branch our area of study to rivers and streams for science, France because of the Louisiana purchase (bought from France when Napoleon needed money to go to war) and we are reading historical fiction books about Sacagewea. All very fun and interesting, especially since their expedition ended right here in our neck of the woods! So, this leads me to my pictures today! Did you know that in the part of France where the Seine River enterst he English Channel the hills along the river are made of chalk? You can find chalk caves in this area, so yesterday the kids wrote out their spelling words in chalk outside. The dogs thought it was great fun to lay on them as they worked, making things fun but not quite as easy. And of course our spelling words tie in as well, they are common words we us that are really french words such as camouflage and carousel and crouton, you get the idea. I just love our unit studies, I am so much smarter every day! And the kids seem to doing pretty good too!

A moment at the beach

What an incredibly fun and beautiful adventure we went on this past Friday! Our homeschool group had their first field trip and we went to Meadowdale Beach to hike the trail. It was a beautiful hike a little over 1 mile down to the beach. This route was closed off for 8 months due to the severe storms we had here last winter. I am so glad that it has been reopened! The trail follows a river downstream until it comes to a little tunnel that goes under the train tracks and opens up to the beach! Just as we arrived at the beach a train came right over head, so close to us it made you hold your breath for a moment. We had a park ranger with us for the hike so as we traveled he showed us different species of trees and plants. At the beach he had a small swimming pool filled with wonderful things to see as well, we saw a huge starfish, an eel, crab and a hermit crab. We then spent the afternoon eating lunch and then wondering the beach playing in the water and finding wonderful shells and rocks along the shore. I am so glad our program has started up again. We had a wonderful summer filled with lots of fun, but I love the opportunity to visit such fun places I never knew existed right in my own backyard!

Just got back from conference, again!

We just had a wonderful time in Portalnd, AGAIN! We went to our second conference of the year and this one was also a wonderful blessing to our whole family! My kids were in the childrens program. Jordan is now old enough to be a helper so that was his role and Atira had a wonderful reunion with lots of her friends she has made from past conferences. I came in to teach and help during one session along with Scott and we had a blast! Behind the curtain you see in the second picture is a HUGE and I mean HUGE maze that was built out of refrigerator boxes. It was absolutely incredible! On the last night of the conference the kitchen staff at the hotel asked if they could go and play in our maze!! When Scott saw it he handed me his glasses and said he had to go play now and off he went! It was so big you had to go in with a flashlight because it was pitch black inside and during the childrens program, the kids had maps and clues they had to find inside, it was definitely the highlight of the event! Scott and I had a wonderful time listening to speakers, learning so much about God and His Word and so much wonderful time in fellowship with old friends as well as many new! What a wonderfule weekend, it went by way to fast!

Meet Kayli!

I can hardly believe it myself, but we adopted a yellow lab and her name is Kayli. She is 3 1/2 years old and a wonderful sweet girl. She fits in our family very nicely, she loves the kids, she is a bit shy, but a good girl. We need to do a little work to get her understanding our house rules, but once we get past that we are quite confident that she will make our home an even more fun place to be! Gunner, of course, was a bit jealous, but he is adjusting and we hope he will soon find how wonderful it is to have a companion around. Shaggy worked at scaring her for the first few days, which he was quite successful at to be honest. But now the dog has figured out that Shaggy is all show. So they have settled into a nice relationship too. Another nice thing is that Gunner likes to sleep with Jordan and we are working on training Kayli to sleep with Atira, and Atira thinks that is just the best thing ever! So, we are happy to announce the addition to our family!

Happy 13th Birthday Jordan!

WOW! Our son is 13 years old today! Amazing!! We are the parents of a teenager! So far the only hard thing about it is knowing that he is growing so incredibly fast and will be a man before we know it. I will say as his parents, we could not be more proud of this young man. He is kind and tenderhearted, he loves God the creator of this universe and exemplifies that through his actions of caring for others and measuring his steps by the Word, he is incredibly smart and has a deep love of reading. He has a passion for history and science that astounds me every day. His compassion and love for animals touches me, it again shows how tenderhearted and thoughtful he is. He can wield a stick like a true swordsman, loves to shoot airsoft at targets, be they still or moving! He enjoys soccer and is a wonderful swimmer. I could go on and on...but I will stop here, I just had to tell you all what a wonderful son we have and how thankful, honored and blessed to be the ones in charge of raising him. Happy Birthday Jordan!!

Gunner & Shaggy

I just had to post these for the same reason as one of my other posts tonight, I just like the pictures and hoped you would too!! Our animals are so cute, aren't they?? Gunner is the dog...and Shaggy is the meow.

A visit with Pops

This particular weekend went by WAY TOO FAST! We had Scott's dad Russ here with us for a few short days. We enjoyed lots of family time, lots of food and plenty of laughs. We just wished it could have lasted so much longer! But we are so thankful for the time we had together as well. We love you Russ & Barbara! Come back soon!!

Here froggy, froggy...

We found an itty bitty froggy! We sometimes find these little guys hopping around our yard, I just liked these pictures so I thought I would share them with you!

Here we are at Hear O Israel conference again! We had such a wonderfully fun time this year as many of the people from our congregation attended with us. We all stayed in one hotel (well most of us anyway) and brought food to share, it was wonderful to smell a roast cooking away in a crockpot as we made our way up and down the halls! The kids were able to spend time with their friends that they only see at conference, they were in the pool as often as possible. We had a memorable time and even made some new friends!

SOCCER CAMP!
Well, I am FINALLY getting a moment to sit and update our blog, I will do it in several posts to make things go a bit smoother for myself. This is a picture of the kids on their last day at soccer camp. This was a wonderfully fun week for the both of them. They learned soccer skills, lots of running, played some games and most of all had a really great time! This would be the last year Jordan could play at this camp so he asked if he could volunteer to work at the camp next summer and they said they would be happy to have him! I am thrilled at the idea of him helping out, and Atira is very happy to have her brother there with her. It was a very memorable week and they were plenty tired after it.

19 years....

So for our 19th anniversary we headed off to The Blue Goose Inn
in Coupeville. It was a wonderful weekend. We started our day at services with our former Pastor and his wife at their home fellowship on the island. We were able to participate in the services and then we enjoyed some time to visit over lunch. We headed out and went to Coupeville for the wharf festival. Down on the wharf we saw a seal pup, so cute so tiny so sweet! He kept trying to nurse the bottom of a boat...I think he might have been looking for mama. We enjoyed dinner at a nice little restaurant in town as well. The B & B is a wonderful home that was built in the late 1800's. Lots of antique furniture and great detail work throughout. On Sunday we dinked around along the wharf again and then headed off to deception pass (which is where the second picture is taken). We went to the state park there and hiked around on the rocks and made our way down to the beach. It was so gorgeous and a perfect day! We ended it by driving over the pass and headed home to pick our kids and take them to a swimming birthday party. We had a great time and so did the kids having Grandma Sheila all to themselves for two whole days! Talk about spoiled for all involved!!

updates!!

On Atira's birthday she went to the beauty salon and had her nails and hair done, here is Felicity looking on while Atira is getting all beautified. After that she was whisked off to Sears for her 8 year old girly pictures!
With some of her birthday money she bought "Littlest Pet Shop" toys...well the cat loved the box, so she is acting like this was her new toy, this child loves to act it up huh?!
Jordan in his last day of swim lessons. He is doing great too, they practiced diving, swam tons of laps and racing as well as expanding his knowledge of swim strokes. He did great and he loves to swim.
Atira moved up quickly this year through her lessons as well. She is becoming a very strong swimmer and she also loves the water. Now, let's all hope and pray we have some nice weather this summer so they can go out and use our pool lots this year!
This is an orchid from a field trip we went on to an orchid farm. So pretty...amazing flowers and so many varieties!
The kids in one of the greenhouses at the orchid farm.
This was a super field trip, we went to a place where they teach outdoor training. How to build a fire in the rain, the teacher told stories and we played games that taught outdoor awareness. Great program both kids loved it and it was a gorgeous day! Jordan & Atira both worked on setting up fires and both of theirs were successful, the caught! Mmmm...fire good.

Girly in the process of building her fire. This was such a beautiful place right near Monroe, the day was gorgeous as well. This was certainly a memorable outing!