Brown Belt

Ella has been plugging away at TKD and just advanced to a Brown Belt!

Showing her patch for "Best Sparring."

Congratulations to all!

Ella has absolutely loved TKD the last couple of years and is so excited each time she earns a belt advancement.  However, just this past week, she told me that she's ready for a TKD break.  She is crazy busy with soccer and lacrosse right now on top of school, so we'll see if this "break" ends up being temporary or permanent.  If permanent, it's been fun to see her make it all the way to Brown Belt! 

 

Riley as Goalie

 

We are now in the throes of Fall Soccer Season!  Riley's team is off to a great start with a 3-1 record.  Riley continues to play Goalie and we have so much fun cheering her and her team on!

Tanner: A Week of Baseball and Seafood!

 

Tanner still has the goal of becoming an Eagle Scout and is working hard toward that end!

He had a Court Of Honor this week where he was awarded several merit badges.  He is hoping to attain Star by December.  After that, he will work toward Life and then Eagle.

As part of that goal, he spent this whole past weekend at Sandy Point State Park at the Seafood Festival volunteering by cleaning up trash and such working toward his community service hours.  He was with some of his best friends and took lots of seafood-eating breaks!

And he also had fun playing baseball.  His favorite position is Pitcher.

Go Orioles!  Go #49!

Lacey Getting into her High School Groove

 

Lacey tried out for the  Severna Park High School Unified Tennis Team earlier this Fall and was delighted to make the team!  

Dave and I were both able to see her play in her first match last Tuesday.

Dave getting an aerial view.

And I also had to document early morning seminary.  It is pitch black when we leave the house at 5:50am every morning, but fun to see the sun rise by the time we finish class at 7am!

Lacey has been a trooper.  We are now starting our 4th week of seminary and Lacey is the only one in the class with perfect attendance.  She wakes up on her own every day and without complaint.  So proud of her for that!

Seminary has been a challenge for me waking up so early and planning daily lessons to keep teenagers engaged and then having the energy to actually give those lessons at 6am!  But our Bishop lets us use his home and this is the view from the back of their home (where we enter and exit for seminary each day), so it's a beautiful way to start the day!

Roommate Reunion in Cannon Beach

 

On Friday, I set my alarm for 3:30am so I could catch my 6am flight to Portland.

Had to document my brief layover in San Francisco!

I made it!

Why fly to Portland at 6am by myself?  To meet up with these three lovely ladies!

The four of us met as 18 yo college freshman randomly assigned to the same dorm at BYU.  We hit it off and remained roommates for two years before people started going their separate ways for various reasons (missions, study abroads, etc) and have never been together since.  I've seen each of them individually on occasion over the years, but it has been 25 years since the four of us have been together and we decided it was high time we reunite after a quarter century!

We chose Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast as our destination because Kelli's parents have a home there.  It's in the perfect location sitting directly on the beach right next to Haystack Rock.

Our view from the back of the house.

Sunset stroll

Haystack Rock selfie

BYU grads Class of '98

Then we headed out to dinner.

Kelli, Monique and Ashley staying toasty warm while we waited for our table.

The next morning, we started the day with a nice long walk along the beach.

Can't beat the view!

Then we drove South along the coast and stopped at a few lookout points.

And made it to our destination of Tilamook.

We had lunch in the cafe - cheese was on the menu in abundance!

Getting a lesson in how cheese is made.....

And no trip to Tilamook is complete without some fresh ice cream!

Yes, please!

That night we headed to Seaside, the ending point of the Lewis and Clark trail.

I just finished reading Stephan Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" so I found this particularly fascinating!

And then we had a delicious mexican dinner!

Sunday morning found us with fresh scones, apple cider donuts....

And a killer view of Indian Beach!

The spot where Goonies was filmed!

We hiked 2.5 miles R/T in order to get this awesome view of Tilamook lighthouse.

The lighthouse is out there on that rock.  Pretty cool!

Then we came back to the house and relaxed on the beach for a couple hours.

And wrapped up the day with a trip to Astoria.

We went to see the Astoria Column, built in 1926.  It is covered with a mural on the outside, but the inside is hollow with a winding spiral staircase with 164 steps that goes to the very top.

And we of course went to the very top!  Awesome 360 degree views of the area.

You can see where the Atlantic Ocean and the Columbia River converge.

The spectacular ceiling of Astoria Tower.

We ate dinner outside and saw the tower from another perspective.

We went home, stayed up late talking and then all flew home the next day.

I would describe the weekend as peaceful, restorative and rejuvenating.  It was so good to be together again and pick up right where we left off 25 years and 15 kids ago.