Ocean Fortress

Father's day was great! We all headed to New River Beach for a pinic and day of relaxing. Now when we go to New River Beach, there are only really two things that we do. (A) catch as many crabs as possible or (B) build a giant sand castle and defy the vast and terrible ocean with a highly complex ODS (Ocean Defense System). I think you know which one we picked!

We start by building a castle. Due to the impending threat of the highest tides in the world, time does not permit us to fully exude our creativity, but we have to make something that is worth defending. Shiloh and I worked hard on a central castle with a star tower design.

Emma was busy helping get sand with her dad and she also helped her grandfather create the first level moat defense. Jonah felt that it was necessary to test the walls and moat early on to keep us informed of possible weaknesses. We call this Rapid Defense Development. Build-test-Build-test, and so forth. Jonah can be seen here carrying a live ocean test to the construction site.



The next phase is the Barrier Wall. As most of you know, waves tend to crash into things. Therefore the Barrier Wall's strength becomes the defining feature of the ODS. We used a large bucket to pack sand tightly and dump load after load after load onto the Barrier Wall.


For the final touches, Josh mounted a pepsi look-out tower and then we both worked on a pre-moat defense (these are only possible if you have time before the first wave strikes).


Once the battle started, we carried over a log to help the Barrier Wall. I tried talking the ocean down, but it would not negotiate.


After fighting off the first wave of waves, the castle stood strong, but the ocean was relentless. The Barrier wall kept taking blow after blow. As the waves grew larger, Josh and I knew that the only way to protect the castle was to soften the blows with our bodies.


With all hope lost, Josh and I went on the offensive. In a blaze of fury, we dove and flipped and kicked and belly-flopped the waves to smithereens, but as we looked behind us and saw the seaweed flag sink down, we knew that the war was lost once more.............

Next year we are going to bring concrete!!



We hope you all had a wonderful father's day too!

Micah is very very sneaky

Micah, being the wonderful husband that he is, decided to throw me a birthday party. We usually keep Thursday nights free for our “date night” so, like always, I was getting ready to curl up on the couch with my tea for the evening. Until there was a loud knock at the window. Micah ran to the door to get it and when I got to the door there were all our friends ready to shout Surprise!!! We had such a fun evening with, of course, lots of food.

Micah and Stephen turned the TV around so they could play video games while us girls did what all girls do….chit chat!

I was blessed to have my friends come over and I was very blessed with all the wonderful gifts they brought. After we ate our ice cream sandwiches and our treatza pizza from DQ, we had a time of prayer. It was a wonderful 23^rd birthday!!!

Raclette Party

Even after the 4 days of wedding feasting with Nat and Naomi there was still room in us to enjoy a Raclette Party with friends who where down visiting.

Raclette is a type of cheese from Switzerland that is prepared with vegetables on a special Raclette grill, then it is poured over a potato. We set up 3 different Raclette machines and had one table that was just for holding the potatoes and cheese.

Each grill heats 8 small pans in which each of us melted the Raclette with vegetables (which have been fried on the grill top) and other toppings of his or her choice over the potato. This is such a great way to share a meal together because it takes a few minutes for you to cook everything so it really allows great conversation!

Something new, something old, something borrowed and everything else.......BLUE!!

On the weekend of June 3rd, Micah and I had the privilege of being a part of the wedding of our great friends, Nat and Naomi. The celebrations got underway on Thursday June 1st with the rehearsal. After all the formal stuff was out of the way we headed over to the Phinney’s to enjoy a feast! There was such great food there that I can’t even describe it! It was an early day for all of us on Friday as we headed to the church around 9:00am to start decorating and getting everything ready for the big day.

The bride was even there to help us out!!








Later in the afternoon things did get a little crazy and the Phinney's dog abner had to come help out! Oh little abner, how you've grown!




The wedding day was a little rainy but that didn’t stop anything. The groomsmen carried around these beautiful umbrellas. The ceremony was beautiful with each of the bridesmaids wearing silver. Naomi was wearing a beautiful blue dress! The day was so great!!! ( I can't seem to find a picture of Nat and Naomi. When I get one I will post it)

After the wedding we enjoyed a fun filled reception!!!! Marie-Helene and I were the MC’s and we really had fun telling stories about our dear friends!!! The food was also every delicious….chicken, salmon, rice and vegetables. To top that all off Wedding cake with ice cream!!! God Bless you Nat and Naomi as you begin your journey together. We love you lots!

Get out the Tuxes!

My Brother Ben (shown here at Christmas reading a classic novel to his beloved) is getting married to the beautiful Quebecquoi Johanie! He posted this anouncement on his blog, go check it out!