Happy Birthday, Stephanie!

Or rather, grattis på födelsedagen, Stephanie!

Stephanie, being the stylish, creative, and generally awesome person she is, wanted to celebrate her birthday this year by putting that style, creativity, and general awesomeness to use. To that end, she spent the better part of a week gathering supplies for, and becoming an expert in the process of silk-screening. It was super fun. I tried to take more pictures, but my camera was on the wrong setting for most of the evening, so here are a few that turned out.

Stephanie made the screens from old thrift-store frames, staples and a screeny-type curtain material (they worked great) and we each made our own stencils, mostly out of waxed paper.

This (skyline) was the second attempt at my first design. I think it turned out well. The green pieces are the beginnings of cards Stephanie made for her family. I didn't get a picture of Christian's final product, but it was a cool, stylized picture of a (wait for it...) BMW 2002.

The finished product. I even happened to have a frame lying around that was the right size.

Thanks, Stephanie, for the awesome birthday party. You rock.

At Long Last

From as early as I can remember, my parents have talked and dreamed about having a house on a few acres out in the countryside. There would be room for the dogs to run, for a few animals, and of course a garden.

They talked romantically about us kids waking up early in the morning to get the chores done before going to school. I also remember us kids not being upset that we didn't live on a farm so that we didn't have to wake up at 4 in the morning to milk cows.

Well, it only took them a few decades, but they're finally in their place and I couldn't be happier for them.

Congratulations, Mom and Dad.

Nothing that you eat or drink here is good for you.

See?

September Camping: Lost Lake

Some camping trips require more extensive planning than others. This month's trip went something like this.

[Wednesday]

"Hey Christian, I invited a few other people to come camping with us on Friday, but I still don't know where we should go. Any suggestions?"

"We could go to Lost Lake"

"OK"

[Friday afternoon]

"Hey Christian, where is Lost Lake anyway?"

Our perfect campsite. My car suffered only superficial damage getting to where we parked.

Christian chilling out in the hammock.

There was a perfect breeze coming across the lake for Mikey's kite.

Hope and Laney chilling out on the bridge...

while Christian dangles helplessly. He would survive.

August Camping 2: South Whidbey State Park

Sometimes I'm not very good at posting pictures in a timely manner. Here are some pictures from our ward camp-out back in August (for those of you who may not be familiar, I am the co-chair of the Activities Committee for my church group. We do awesome stuff.).

It was a fairly low-key affair, but tons of fun. Something less than 30 people showed up and there weren't really any planned activities, so we spent most the time sitting around the campfire, chatting, telling stories, roasting things on sticks, trying to achieve the perfect s'more... things like that. Too bad for the people that skipped out because the weather man called for rain; we had approximately 3 drops the entire trip. It was gorgeous.

Lacey contemplating the mysteries of the universe in an open flame.

Somewhere, away from the main crowd, a medieval fair apparently broke out, complete with minstrels.

Theresa, bracing for the elements on a gray Northwest morning.

Christian, bracing for the elements in his own way.

There should be some more pictures posted in another venue sometime soon. I'll let you know.

A few more

Kind of redundant, but I can't help myself. They're just such photogenic mountains.

August Camping 1: A Gravel Parking Lot by the Side of the Road

First of all, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Hey, what happened to July's camping trip?" The answer is food poisoning is what happened to July's camping trip. My friends and I had planned a big 5 day backpacking trip out in the Cascades, but when the morning we were supposed leaved finally came, I got the sudden impression that it would be far more prudent for me to spend the day lying on my couch with a bucket in arm's reach, than setting out on a grand adventure.

The problem was that since it was already the last weekend of July, I only had a couple days to rationalize how my goal was still in tact. Here is what I came up with. A.) This was completely beyond my control. I didn't just slack off and not go. I had something planned, but was unexpectedly incapacitated. B.) I had just spent the previous weekend on a road-trip to Yellowstone and on that trip, I spent the first night sleeping in my car in the mountains of Montana. And, C.) I would go twice in August to doubly make up for it.

So, here it is, the first of my two camping trips in August.

No, that isn't a gravel parking lot by the side of the road. It's Mt. Shuksan from the Chain Lakes trail at the top of the Mt. Baker Hwy. But, just so you all know, there are no campsites available at Douglas Fir or Silver Fir Campgrounds when you show up after dusk on a sunny Friday.


One of the Galena Chain Lakes. We had lunch here. We toyed around with the idea of going swimming, but you're up at a pretty high elevation here, so it was a tad chilly for swimming.


Mt. Baker peeking out from behind a cloud.