Bringing Hope

We had the opportunity to feed the homeless at Camp Hope this past weekend.  This month our menu was Chicken Caesar Salad, rolls, watermelon, cookies, and a waterbottle.  Much to our surprise we had way more food than people this time.  I guess at the beginning of the month there tends to be less eaters as they have received their government checks and are not quite as hungry for free food.

Love our happy helpers!

Many residents eat in their "rooms" or in another big gathering room.

I've really enjoyed serving together as a family each month at Camp Hope.  It's made each of us more grateful and aware of others in our community. I've thought of this scripture several times recently.

Mosiah 4:18 "For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?"

I'm RUNNING out of titles

What can I say...Nate had another fabulous track meet this week!  And I think I am getting some good practice in running photography.

I love this facial expression!  BREATHE!!  It was really hot and Nate said that his mouth was SO dry by the second lap.

A strong finish!

Look who PRed!!!

TOFW - local style

I had the unique opportunity being on the Time Out For Women team staff this year.  I was asked to be on the local staff this year as it is the first time TOFW has come to the Tri-cites.  My job was to find some other awesome ladies to help advertise on social media and in person and also give out local scholarships and then help out on the weekend of the event.  We've been working on stuff since October so it was pretty exciting to finally have the weekend arrive.

I feel so honored to call these ladies friends.  It was a pleasure spending the weekend with each of them.

Our Tri-cities team -- together we helped SELL OUT the event (2,500 ladies in attendance)!!  My specific group was in charge of the door entry (checking for tickets, passing out wristbands and bags).  We were the first face of TOFW and so we were assigned to be extra friendly!  I was really impressed how important it was to the TOFW paid staff that each woman be made to feel important and to not bring in any contention (ie. the customer is ALWAYS right).  It really was a great experience!

My favorite speaker was Carol Decker who got a bacterial infection while she was pregnant.  She had an emergency c-section and basically when she awoke she had had both legs amputated, one arm, and another finger from her opposite hand.  Her baby lived and after months of rehab, Carol returned home and learned how to be a mom to her two young girls (with the help of a nanny), care for herself, learn how to be happy and have fun with her new life.  She was so inspirational!!  I also loved hearing Mercy River's motivational music!

Here are a few highlights for me at TOFW:

-Life is a gift.  It you don't open it you will miss the beauty inside.

-The Lord will MEET you where YOU are. 

-Charity is an outward expression of our inward feelings on grace.

-Through grace you can be turned into the best version of YOU.

-No other work transcends that of righteous, intentional parenting. - Pres Nelson

-When you are going through trials look for the miracles.

-Those who love also choose to suffer.

-Never, never shut the door of your hearts to any of your children.- Elder Oaks (As God nevers shuts the door to any of us)

-The day of judgement will be a day of mercy and love. - Elder Uchtdorf 

Sounds like TOFW will be coming back to the Tri-cities in 2020!!! 

Doing the jig with a pretty gal

Tyler had the pleasure of attending the high school prom with a friend from school.  He reports that he had a fabulous night!!  They dined at Zesta Cucina, danced, and then hot tubed before ending the night.

Tyler and Regan

Looking handsome and pretty

Fun night!

And I must share Alysee's amazing hair creation she was hired to do for a friend for prom.  Isn't she amazing!!!

Macaroons...done ferreo rocher style

This girl is amazing in the kitchen!!  She has NO fears!  Last week Chloe decided that she wanted to try her skills out on making homemade ferreo rocher macaroons.  Um...I was like, what is that? And I'll be out-of-town.  She was like, "Um, I don't need your help." and they are like these...

So while I was out-of-town and Birch was putting together our new lawn mower and attacking the forest...

Chloe was in the house converting grams to cups (actually Birch did help her with this part before he went outside) but after that she measured, sifted, formed, baked, creamed, etc... everything on her own.

Chloe LOVES to get out ALL her ingredients before she starts a project

She uses a frosting bag to make each cookie

Piping the hazelnut filling

Ta da!!!  The final product!  

Outside of the kitchen looking like it had been throw WWII -- the cookies looked and tasted amazing!!!

Inland Awesomeness

Tyler was able to compete at a regional tennis tournament in Spokane this weekend called Inland.  He played doubles with partner, Kade.  These two played hard and won their first match but sadly lost their second match and were booted out of the tournament.

Grannie, Blayre and Ryan and the boys came to cheer on Tyler. So sweet!! Tyler had a great time!!

Sneaking away

Birch and I have been eager for a little get-a-way for a while now.  Birch had a continuing education course in Portland on Saturday and so he worked this past Monday so he could have Friday off.  We left in the morning for Portland and drove straight to the Portland Temple.  We BARELY made it in time for the 11 am session.  The best part about our temple time was meeting my parents!

After our temple time my parents treated us to lunch at PF Changs! IT WAS SO YUMMY!!  We were all ravenous and ate every last morsel of rice!

We had to reenact this picture as we took a similar one almost 22 years ago.

Then we headed to our hotel near Birch's course by OHSU.  It wasn't the nicest hotel but it wasn't nasty either. The next day I enjoyed sleeping in and then met Birch at lunch time.  He then dropped me off at Pioneer Square shopping area and I wandered around for five hours.  I found some fun deals at H&M, Ross, and TJ Maxx.  The rest of the shopping stores were CRAZY expensive!

Birch picked me up and we headed to Vancouver for a super tasty dinner.  We just randomly picked the place after reading some reviews on YELP.  Much to our surprise, the day we went was their opening day for the season.  We had to wait almost an hour but we enjoyed sipping on some soda and enjoying the sunshine and the water.

If you are in the Portland area you need to check it out.  http://islandcafepdx.com/home

Birch's fresh caught halibut tacos were amazing!!  I had fish and chips and it took me back to all my wonderful memories of Long John Silvers fish and chips from when I was little in Pennsylvania.  I loved drenching the fish in the malt vinegar.

Basically I could go anywhere with this guy and LOVE it!!  But throw in some sunshine, water, and good food and I'm a happy camper!

After dinner we stopped at Sierra Trading Post and found some sweet deals!  We didn't get home until 12:30 am but it was worth it!!  We've loved listening to Steve Young's autobiography called "QB: My Life Behind the Spiral."  While I was dozing off on the drive home Birch was entertained.  We're both so grateful that Grannie was willing to hang with the kids while we enjoyed some time with just the two of us!