Stretching out the fun

Visiting the nearby Boole Tree with Jason’s parents.

This month has felt like a beautiful whirlwind of fun which we feel incredibly blessed to be part of. We’ve had visitors to the cabin (not just bears!), we’ve gone on trips, celebrated a 7th birthday and purchased our return tickets to Guatemala – departing November 15th!!

We also had a bat visit us in our bedroom in the middle of the night. That was not part of the “fun whirlwind.” Ha!

Early in the month Jason traveled to Spokane to spend a few days with his parents and sister, then returned in time to enjoy a visit from our special friends – the Botts family! We met Randy & Sarah in a young-marrieds bible study group over 15 years ago. We have loved being able to stay connected with them and now it’s a blast to watch our kids together too.

We celebrated Mabel’s 7th birthday with family. She’d requested a donut cake and a piƱata for her celebration. Several cousins were sick and couldn’t come which was pretty sad, but we all still had a fun time celebrating. So glad God has gifted us with this funny, sweet girl.

Mabel even got to have a ‘ketchup party’ with her oldest cousin, Elijah, who shares her affinity for eating A LOT of ketchup.

My Aunt Lori and Uncle Steve were our next visitors. My aunt brought crafts to do with the kids and her favorite caramel recipe to teach them the art of making perfect caramels. YUM! And of course, we went to see some ridiculously large trees too.

The kids and I took a quick trip to the L.A. area last week to catch up with some special friends. I am so thankful for these strong, beautiful women in my life — Julie, Pam, Marti, Christy and Sydney – who make time in their schedules to see and host us. We also took a field trip to the awesome La Brea Tar Pits!

Jason & Luke made their annual overnight backpacking trip – into the Jennie Lakes Wilderness.

And lastly, Jason’s parents spent this past weekend visiting and boy did we stretch ourselves to do all the exploring that we could with them! We feel incredibly blessed to be living less than 10 miles from Kings Canyon National Park and only a bit farther from Sequoia National Park.