Quick Update

Melissa's father crafted this by hand. I'm impressed.



Rachel's new best friend is a 5 foot stuffed catfish. She dresses it like a princess and rides it around the house.



Hannah: 10 days old. Welcome to the family! Congrats Heidi and Bryan!

Rachel and Rizzo and I hiked the ridge canal.

Such a good dog!

Hope all are having a great summer!

Thin Air

The big Mt. Adams climb was this weekend...

Was it fun? Yes.
Was it hard? Yes.
Would I do it again? Not any time soon.

It was a 2-day climb which meant packing in a tent, sleeping bag, extra food and water etc.

Also, we chose to hike up the snow fields in some areas instead of the lava rock, so we packed in an extra pair of snow boots and attachable spikes and an ice axe. Spending the night on the mountain gives a chance for the body to acclimate to the elevation as the total gain is almost 7,000 feet.

I was supposed to be hiking with a group of youth from church and 5 other leaders. However, myself and one other leader got a late start getting out of town and starting the climb. We never caught up and didn't see the rest of the party until we were 3-4 hours from the summit and they were on their way down. I ended up climbing the last 2,000 feet solo as my partners legs were maxed out and we decided to meet back at base camp.

The higher parts of the climb were amazing. I was able to look down at Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Hellens and across to Mt. Ranier and see each of them piercing up through the clouds.

The descent is unique in that climbers can actually sled down the snow fields that they hiked up. I carried a piece of plastic in my pack for just that reason. It turned out to be a pretty wild ride and I came home with a bruised rear to go with all my other sore parts.

Melissa has been very nice to me and after being home for 24 hours I'm starting to feel a little more like myself. A hot bath, a couple warm meals and a soft bed!

8 days in Kalaloch

Look to your left. I (Roger) learned how to post a slideshow.
This is from Melissa's 8 days and my 4 days up in Kalaloch.
Enjoy!

It was SO hot today...

How hot was it?

It was so hot that our skinny candles gave out.

It was so hot...

I saw a dog chasing a squirrel and they were both walking.

It was so hot that we set an all-time record!

Hooray.

How hot has it been where you are?

Polite Conversation

So, when there is not really much to talk about... a lot of folks talk about the weather.

Many of my friends and neighbors are boo-hooing about the heat. Tell you what; after 3 summers in Dallas and 4 summers in South Mississippi, this Washington summer is feeling A-OK to me.

Melissa did survive the virtual bear attack-in case you were wondering if that was the reason we haven't blogged much as of late.

Real Reason: Not much happening.

I love summer.

Happy Camper Club!

So, Melissa is up in the Cascade Mtns for 5 days at Camp Zarahemla.

There are no phones there.

I assume all is well, but haven't heard from her.

Our church has a great summer camping program that many of the youth attend. I remember that some of my first spiritual experiences were at camp. It can be a powerful, even life-changing week.

As a camp couselor, mentor, chaperone, trail guide, activity coordinator etc. I know that Melissa is going to make this a very special time for these young women. She has a wonderful way of helping young people understand their eternal worth and of helping them reach for the better things in their lives.

They are in good hands.

------BIG FAMILY NEWS------

baby news! (not what we expected!!)

Okay folks, we started this blog last fall to keep everyone up to date on our adoption from Ethiopia. Well, Melissa and I were thrown a major curve ball when she started showing signs of pregnancy . Since, biological kids have been slow happening for us we decided to keep this private until she reached the end of Tri #1 and that happened yesterday!

Confusion!!

What about our Ethioian kids?

Can we still adopt?

Why does this great news bring also a measure of sadness?

What now?

You have likely noticed that we haven't metioned our adoption for the past month or so on the blog. We just didn't know where we were with it LOGISTICALLY or EMOTIONALLY. As so many of our family and friends have been a huge support to us in this we will try to keep you in the loop.

What we know:

>Melissa is due in mid-January 2010.

>We are not able to adopt during our pregnancy or right afterwards.

>Adoption is still in our future.

>There are a ton of little ones that need families and we can't wait to welcome them to ours.

>Unless Melissa is pregnant with twins, we are going to need to change the name of our blog... :-)

$$$$$$$$$ Attention to those that have donated for our adoption! $$$$$$$$$

$ We have kept careful track of donations and want to be very respectful of the much generosity that has came our way.

$ We are going to take all money that was given to us for the adoption and donate it to the orphanage in Ethiopia so it can directly help the kids until they find a home.

$ We have a garage full of donations for a yard sale. We will either have the yardsale and donate the money or we will add it to the yardsale of a family we know that is in the adoption process also.

$ If anyone that has donated to our adoption would rather us return funds to them, we will be happy to do that instead.

Our family and friends mean so much to us!

We're super excited to finally let everyone know our big news!

Goonies! or "Happy Love Day"

You remember the 80's classic that ended with the unflappable cadre of misfit kids sailing a preserved pirate ship out of hiding and into our hearts...

Well, the iconic monolith is called Haystack Rock and sets just offshore in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Observe:

Harkin back to 1999. (Are you hearkening?) The Euro began circulating, Columbine gun violence erupted, and the Y2K sitch had us shaking in our cargo pants. But none of this stopped Melissa and I from sealing our eternal union (aka "getting hitched").

We honeymooned in Cannon Beach, lo those many years ago,

and returned this weekend to celebrate 10 blissful years.

Highlights:

The Beach! Spent hours on the beach each day. Water temp: about 55. Air temp: about 70 and breezy. Not quite the Florida beaches we left behind last year. More kites than bikinis on the Oregon beach. We read, talked, walked the shore, and listened to the waves crash.

The Town- Cannon Beach (the town) has stayed small. A handful of restaurants, art galleries, souvenir shops are about it. We saw a charming parade on the 4th of July complete with a hula/ukulele/harmonica artist (photo unavailable) and a Crab Themed Amateur Dance Team. The kids near us went crazy for the candy.

There was also a dynamite candy shoppe- Bruce's. We saw fresh saltwater taffy getting made in the shop next to the store. We left with a little bag of sweeties. Be jealous.

My Wife!- If you don't know Melissa, you are missing out. I'm lucky to get to hang with her quite often. She's the best! The best part of this weekend was spending lots and lots and lots of fun time with her.

I can't believe 10 years has come and gone so quickly- each one better than the ones before. I'm a lucky fellow.

What can be cuter...?

What can be cuter than a little girl dancing around to live harp music?

Dancing around when you are not trying to leave...and have

asked her 20 times to come on....

At the rose garden there was a beautiful amphitheatre cut into the side of a hill. A wonderful place for kids to GO CRAZY...and parents to watch in comfort.

Rachel lives with her mom and her grandparents, so when she has the chance to play with someone under the age of 30, so goes for it.

She invited herself into a game of run- and- jump- off- the- edge- of- the- stage -into -the -grass.

The the parents of the kids that she found to play with brought everything, a ball for hitting each other with, a Frisbee for hitting each other with, and a jump-rope for tug-o-war....

Otherwise known as drag the lone boy across the grass.

HA HA HA