Retreat 2011

This year's retreat was stellar!

Guest speakers and a focus on

Loving the Lord your God with all your

heart. mind. and strength!

Retreat Friends

Our seventh year of a weekend of fun and fellowship!



God is perfect love.

Nothing can separate me from God's perfect love.

God pours his perfect love into my imperfect heart.

Accessed, I can love anyone through anything.

It is sticking . . .

If April showers bring May flowers, what do April snows bring? When I woke up it was raining with snow mixed in. Then snowing, sticking, and sprinkling the flowers with powdered sugar and now back to rain. Beautiful while it lasts.

Picnic time

The sunshine invited us to go for a picnic. We stopped by a store and picked out our treats and headed for picnic bench number one. It was so windy and the wild flowers were not as evident as we had hoped. We drove on and walked up to picnic bench number two, aka hard rock. It overlooked a carp pond and my hubby seemed to think that was spectacular. It also overlooked a loud train and I-84. We decided to try picnic bench number three. We drove and walked, then crossed a stinky waterway. I waited, hubby explored and we decided the Mosier sewage treatment center must be close by and we could still hear the freeway noise. We paused, thought of our back yard with the birds, the pond and a table with chairs that have backs. We drove home with our treats. It only took us an hour to find our perfect outdoor picnic location.

Zoey

We traveled south last week to Roswell, New Mexico to visit with family and were privileged to meet this little great niece for the first time. She is almost 15 months old and weighs just 16 pounds. She is very thoughtful and has a beautiful smile!

She hung out on the floor with her great grandma and they shared some laughs. Or perhaps great grandma was hanging out on the floor with her!

Then we played with a puzzle . . .

and read a book. She is a delight!

Eagle Hunting

We headed up the Klickatat River today to see if we could find any of the eagles that are migrating through our area. Last week, sixth grade students from Horizon took a field trip and saw dozens of them in the trees.





We found a pair. One eagle sailing around in the air and one across the river, resting in a tree, and looking the other way!

New Granddaughter born!!

Introducing: Asha, born Feb 13, 2010. This is our first granddaughter.


Love the expressions on these two big brothers' faces!

Merry Christmas

Here's the family gathering for the day. My aunt quickly went from shock, hugs, and tears of joy when three of her grandchildren (with their parents) unexpectedly walked in the door. The surprise visitors flew in from California!

Snowman Humor

Favorite Pics from last Saturday!

Four Boys and a Boat

Down the Slide

Up the Slide

Small Spaces

Yet another slide!

Short break with mom

Climbing,

Standing, so close to walking . . .


End the day with a Bath!

A good day on the River

Eighteen pound Chinook caught on the White Salmon. "Surf and Turf" dinner plans for tonight.

Fishing with Grandpa

Three generations of Spotts boys trout fishing on Northwestern lake!

A One Year Old

I can crawl,


explore,


and even drive.


Sharing cake with Camp Morrow family


How do you get this package open?


The boxes are really the best!

Family Fun

Almost a year old


and I can leap like a frog.


Actually I just like to hang out . . . with grandpa,



. . . or grandma,


and I especially love hanging out with my mom or dad!

No Fruit

As my hubby was getting ready to eat his cheerios this morning, he commented, “no fruit.” He has fruit every morning on his cereal. I chuckled. There are 28 jars of freshly canned peaches next to ripening peaches, but we froze the ripe ones last evening. The bananas range from ooh, brown ready for banana bread to green, but nothing in between. The last of the fresh blueberries I had mixed with the last of the mango and that is not a combination he enjoys. All the fruit in the house is either frozen, canned, ripening or overripe. Frozen strawberries were thawed and breakfast was redeemed.

Playground action with Shane!

Shane had the whole playground to himself.

Check this out.

Resting with the sawdust.

Run, run, run

Oh, the joy of the day.

On the Floor!

The best place for grandpa and Luke to hang out!

Blueberry picking with Shane

Find Berries

Um, um good!

Hey, how come there are no berries in my bucket? Do you have any in yours gramma?