Fun In Portland

We had a great time in Portland (and Hillsboro/Beaverton), Oregon with Ben and Alli last week. We went to a Timbers Soccer game, hiked some "Green Space" trails in the city, Visited Multnoma Falls, visited Canon Beach and Astoria (where the movie Gioonies was filmed, and ate at some great places - super italian restaurant in Portland and a very cool loggers place where we encountered Big Foot. Way too much to do in one visit so we're sure we need to go back again!


Cannon Beach


Bruce trying to break out of the Goonies Jail


Bruce and Big Foot - see any similarities?


Can you see the elephant in the forest?


At the Falls

More Pics!

Here's a few more pics of our garden!

Harvest Time

Yes, its harvest time around here. Lots of wheat being cut and trucked to the silos. This is a picture of the field close to us being harvested.




We've had some more wild weather recently. One night we had up to 100MPH winds! It knocked our corn patch flat which we had to stand back up and reinforce with more dirt. Now it looks good and is growing fine.






Janice is really enjoying our garden - tomatoes, bell peppers, cantalopes, and cucumbers are all popping. Our flowers are doing well too. How great to see how we do a little work and God grows the rest!

Wild Spring

OK - Its been a wild Spring. We've had some unbelievable weather recently. Here's a picture of some of the golf ball sized hail that hit our house and car. Yes, this is the second time our car has had hail damage. Thankfully no broken windows, just a few dents that can be taken out easily.




Here's a view of the cemetery decorated for memorial day - its right across the street from our back yard. It looked really nice with all the flags and flowers.

OK... It was Janice's idea to give blood - not me - I'm a chicken. But we get there and they're giving away a cool t-shirt. So I say I'll do it too. Then Janice doesn't pass the test for iron in her blood. Go figure. It is a cool t-shirt though. Here's Bruce - happy to help save someone's life.


We started gardening about two weeks ago. Four kinds of bell peppers (Bruce's favorite!) Several different kinds of tomatoes, plus cantaloupe, and cucumbers. We're just about ready to plant the watermelon and pumpkins - probably corn too. Janice also planted an old iron bed to make our flower bed - Ha! (We'll post a picture when the flowers bloom) The house now has started to look like someone really lives here - we've even got several bushes planted in the front. We're still hunting for the right trees and hopefully get them planted soon.




Here's a couple of shots of the inside of the house - looking good eh? Janice has a nice touch with the decorating ideas.

Landscaping Begins

Janice and Emily in front of our new Japanese Maple

Well, its about time! We finally got a break with the weather so we could begin planting a few trees. We've been plotting out our landscape plan and are going to and fro checking out the best deals at several nurseries in the area. Our house is looking pretty good on the inside - just a little more detail work on the main floor and we'll be done. (Which is code for there are only 20 projects left instead of 50. But its really feeling like home to us. We're starting to have people over more often and can't wait to have an open house. Now that planting season is officially here - we'll almost, they say we won't be frost free until late May - we're busy cultivating a garden area and will be joyfully planting things around our house. We'll post more pics of the progress soon.

Bruce busy planting a new River Birch

Cookie Traditions

We love decorating cookies for special occasions. Janice decided to host a cookie decorating party for the kids of the young married sunday school class we work with. We had a fun time and afterwards we took some of our cookies to the retirement home to share with some of the residents.

Bruce showing some of the kids how to do the fancy stuff!