FIRE!

Yeah, so it's true, yesturday I nearly set the house on fire. You know it really isn't an advantage when parents keep their kids out of the kitchen--grunt, I'm such a novice! So last week sometime Chad & I were looking for a quick lunch and he took two of our new potatoes and cooked them up in the microwave. I distinctly recall him saying he put them in for 15 min. So yesturday, quite hungry and wracking my brain for something to eat for lunch I took two little new potatoes, cleaned them off put holes in them and put them in the microwave for 15 min.

Most of you can guess what happened. At the same time I was doing laundry and then the phone rang. After answering the questions from the person who called I hung up and looked up over across the living room towards the loveseat where to my astonishment I saw big billows of smoke. "Oh my gosh! something's on fire behind the couch!" I thought to myself. When I jumped up, I suddenly noticed that the whole house was filled with black smoke! Running to the microwave I saw that all of that smoke was coming from it--billowing out the door. Quickly I opened the microwave, turned it off and observed my lunch. Two tiny black coals. I poked it with my fork and it fell apart, two empty coals.

Needless to say my lunch was ruined, my house smelled like someone had been smoking a chimney in it--all day, and I banned myself from using any household appliances for the remainder of the day. Now this morning I'm going to be making bannana bran chocolate chip muffins, I pray we'll do a better job.

Gotta get that Fire alarm checked too!

Our FIRST Anniversary!

Well, we've made it! Year one of being married! In some ways it is so hard to believe, I mean really, once you've been married for a bit it is really hard to remember what it was like not married. In some ways the year has flown by, in other ways it seems like we've been together forever-I don't mean that in a negative way either.

Being married to Chad is a blessing from God. He, is human like everyone else, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt God planned us for each other. Chad's sense of humor, love for God, consideration, education--are all things that I love so much in him. We laugh so much in our house! It is so wonderful to "witness" each other's lives. That, of course, isn't to say we don't have our moments, marriage is hard, working with someone else on everything in your life takes work. But the laughs, the tears, the quiet walks together, the conversations, the silent moments holding hands--they make for a rich life, one I would not change for anything.
So you ask, what did we do on our anniversary? ;) Chad preached in our two morning services and then the church was gracious and gave Chad the evening off from church responsibilities. We came home and had a light lunch and a nap and then headed off to Suwanna Restaurant in St. John. This is an amazing Thai food restaruant where we actually had our first date just a little under 2 years ago. We hadn't been back so it was nice to reminice.

The drive down was much the same as our first date, wet and foggy. We arrived a little early for our reservation so we went and checked out the Reversing Falls which neither of us had seen before and then went to dinner. I have been inspired (Thai food does that to me!) We had this delicious Matussumen (not likely spelled right) which I just moan in pleasure over everytime I eat it, so I'm going to try to make it and Pad Thai, in the next week or so, I'll let you know how it turns out. So we talked, reminising on the good things that happened this past year, and savored our delicious food.

We arrived home, probably around 9pm. When I walked in the kitchen there was a bit present all wrapped up on the table, it hadn't been there when we left. Anyway, I said to Chad "What's this! I thought we'd decided against gifts!" Where we had such a lavish vacation we're trying to cut back a bit now. Anyway, he said to open it and when I did I was sooooooo estatic! It was our wedding album, the finished product, and I must say it is so absolutly beautiful, I would wait another year for it, but I'm glad I don't have to. I poured over it's pages several times, I wish you could all see it, it is truly a work of art. I guess that Mark Orienstein, our photographer FedEXed it to Chad on Friday so he would have it in time for our anniversary. Chad kept it a secreat without even looking at it first, wrapped it up and saved it for us on our 1st anniversary. How special it is! Anyway, with this to end the evening, we had a bit of our wedding cake top which I guess is traditional and called it a wonderful first year. I posted a couple pics to remind us of the day last year!

Savanna

I really like the way the light plays on her face here too.

Beautiful Savanna

I love this picture of Savanna, she's so precious!

Savanna enjoys her presents!

When we returned home from all our travels we bought the girls a couple T-shirts from away and brought them over to them. Here Savanna is sooooo excited about her new presents. She's such a doll!

Youth Camp

Well I was back from NFLD, just 4 days and then off to Youth Camp to do the music. It is always such a privilege to be able to usher people into the pressence of God through musical worship to Him and then to watch youth, in this case, give parts of their lives, their hearts, and ultimatly be committed anew to Him, it is a privilege. This was certainly the case this week of camp week as well. God gave me a picture the first night of a puzzle, and how things each night would begin to click into place for the youth, one piece at a time. And I must say it proved true. Each night it was apparent they were giving more and more of themselves over to God's word, God's life for them-and the final night, they just would not be turned away. God ministered, and was obviously healing hearts and then there was such an atmosphere of celebration to follow. It was great!
I must admit though, I was happy to be home Friday. It'd been a long month and a half of runnning.

Homeward Bound

Driving to cath the boat back home was a hard drive for me. We took the night ferry, leaving at midnight and arriving in North Sydney at 6am, we took this pic at 6am from our hotel site the night before we went over to NFLD. It really hit me, we had travelled so much and had a blast together, but it was over. I was happy to be headed home, but looking at the approching year, I was overwhelmed. So much had happened last year, we had found so little time for each other, from the moment we returned from our honeymooon it was a jump right back into the crazy swing of things. Tearfully I was trying to express this to Chad, I'm not sure he was getting what I was saying. I pray we find a way to learn to say "no" to some things and "yes" to our relationship this year. That aside, what an awesome vacation and a butt load of great memories! Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Gros Morne National Park Fjords

So our last day in NFLD, we decide to try again to go into the Fjords, and take the boat tour they offer. I only saw 1 moose way off in the distance and we made it just fine. It was totally worth it, the scenery was gorgeous! Of course these are glacial carved mountain clif things and they just jut up out of the lake. The boat tour takes you all throughout, they are breathtaking and make you feel so small and insignificant. To think that ice chipped away at this for years, carving a way through for itself--it's pretty awesome! Check out more on the NFLD Fjords here:http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/national-parks/gros_morne.html

Chad & the Black Bear

Ok, I deliberatly left this story out until I came to the picture, just because it made more sense to tell it with the picture in your mind. The morning of the Seakayaking and Ms.Moose, while I was still sleeping in the tent, Chad got up and sat on a picnic bench overlooking the beach and ocean. Staring out at all the beauty he was having some quiet time when he heard a whistle and turned around to find the park ranger whistling at him while a black bear was running towards him. Immediatly he wished for his camera and then quickly wondered what to do, should he jump under the picnic table and have the bear claw him to pieces, throw himself off the cliff into the ocean and the rocky beach below?...not sure, he waited. What had happened was as the park ranger was doing his rounds and headed out of our campground, he gave a wave at a family cooking up a big breakfast in their campstie. The family waved back, but there was obvious alarm and uncertainty on their faces. As he pulled up to their site to see what was going on, the bear darted off their site and started running towards Chad. While the family was cooking up breakfast, the bear came out on their property. They managed to get the kids quickly and quietly into the car and then were wondering what to do when the ranger passed through. So this brings us back to Chad, for whatever reason, I figure Sharon was praying at the time, the bear vered off towards the woods at the last moment and ran to the shelter, knocked over a garbage can and began munching down. Cue me crawling out of the tent, "morning babe!"--oblivious. Reminds me of that commercial, I missed it all cleaning my glasses. I missed it all sleeping. Anyway, Chad filled me in on the events of the morning and we heard the garbage can being mulled around, followed byshots over in the distance. We figured they must be tranqualizing him. We started up our breakfast and the ranger came over. He asked us if we were leaving that night and we said, actually we had another night's stay. He told us how the bear didn't seem afraid of humans at all and that this was strange and really dangerous. Suposidly it was really rare to see a black bear around the area too.no They had shot at him with rubber bullets trying to tick him off and out of the area. Later, while we were finishing up breakfast they pulled in this massive bear trap with the word DANGER on the top of it. They watched us pretty closely when we went over to get Chad's picture taken with it and the sign. Crazy tourists! but as Chad always says "What a story!"

Green Point Sunset #2

Another beautiful sunset from our campsite that evening.

S.S.Ethie Shipwreck

On the way back to the campsite we come across this heritage site, and walk down to the beach where we found the reminents of the S.S.Ethie, a Ship that wrecked in December of 1919. The ice had become so thick it couldn't go forward and the crew, including a baby they put in a mailbag, had to run across the ice to shore. They all made it, but there extremites had sever frostbite. The baby was in great shape. Here, I'm sitting on a big peice of it on shore, you can see other remainders behind me. Check out the story here:http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/nl/grosmorne/natcul/natcul10_E.asp

Chad & the Fjords

Here's Chad & the Fjords from the entrance to the hike.

Ms. Moose & the Fjords

Here you can see, even after we got a good distance off the Ms. Moose was still patrolling the grounds. This is actually a beautiful picture, you can see the Fjords in the background. So close!

Ms. Moose & the boardwalk

We noticed that as long as we kept moving backwards she would stop and pose for us, but as soon as we stopped moving she would start towards us, snorting. Now Chad & I can both be a bit thick sometimes but her message seemed pretty clear, we weren't getting through today. When we got to the boardwalk we were both certain she would head off into the marsh and maybe we could pass by her, but no, quite not the case, she decided to continue to follow us over the boardwalk, we weren't getting in to the Fjords today. Chad kept stopping and saying "look babe, look babe" but what he hadn't noticed is that I was doubled over doing my best to keep walking back the path we'd come. Let's just put it this way, I'll save you the details, but it seems that the saying "had the crap scared out of you" had some roots in truth. No, my pants remained clean, but it was a close call!

Ms. Moose

So we finish our sea kayaking adventure around 2pm and have a late lunch and then decide we should drive up a little further into the park and take a little hike into the Fjords. It should take aproximatly an hour. We thought we'd do this before supper and then go back to the campsite for the evening. We head up to the Fjords hike and start in. It is quite beautiful and works it's way over some different terrain and a lot of marshlands, with a comfortable boardwalk trail through some of the really marshy parts. Rounding a bend into the wooded area suddenly I stop and gasp, unable to speak. Chad, oblivious continues on a bit and then stops and stares at me, then ahead and goes "Quick, get a picture!" There just 25 feet or so in front of us, is this massive Moose. I had never been that close to a moose, in the woods, by myself, with noone around and wasn't quite sure what to do. I did, with shaking hands, get a couple pictures of this moose but then she started walking towards us and snorting. Since there really wasn't any room for her to walk towards us, we started backing up slowly trying to put space between her and us.

Gros Morne

Here you can see Gros Morne in the distance, it's covered in cloud making it impossible to climb this day. Gros Morne means" large mountain standing alone," or more literally "great sombre."

waterfalls

The people who had gone out before us saw whales go under their kayak-what an awesome experience for them. We didn't seen anything that exciting but some beautiful scenery, tons of jelly fish, white and pink, and some tiny fish. But we had fun. Next time we'll take out singles though, driving a double and trying to get in sync is certainly not all it's cracked up to be. The guide was sweet, telling us we were better than most couples who just start fighting with each other when they get in a double, but it still was a chore, and there is the rudde that the back driver has to steer with, not fun to operate either. Oh well, we'll know for next time and we had a beautiful day!

Sea Kayaking

The next day was beautiful and we drove down to Rocky Point to go Seakyaking. Because Chad & I were basic novices we took out a double kyak and had a tour guide. Here we go!

Heidi & the penny whistle

Here I am, life of leisure, playing my penny whistle infront of the fire ad trying to dry out my sneakers and socks, see my socks drying on the stove rack there?

Chad reads

You might notice in the picture before this, in that beautiful sunset that the clouds look at little thick. Well, at 10:00pm while we were sitting out by the campfire it started to rain, ok pour. We rushed to our tent to call it a night and did it ever come down--and it didn't let up! it poured all night long--thank goodness for a good rainfly--and into the morning, so we decided to just stay in our tent. At noon the next day when it was still pouring rain we decided to come out and get some lunch and try to find a hot shower. Honestly one of the best showers of my life! Anyway, this first evening, after a day of downpour, the rain had taperd off a bit and we had supper in one of those open shelters with the stove. We brought our chairs, had spagetti and hotchocolate, read books, played our harmonica & penny whistle and just enjoyed being quiet and DRY!

Green Point Sunset #1

But the sunsets were amazing. This was our first night in our campsite. We were so pleased to be able to experience this beautiful sight, and just take in a deep, happy sigh, listening to the ocean hit the rocks on the beach beneath us.

Heidi at Green Point beach

Sunday afternoon, after Morning-after brunch Chad & I packed up for Gros Morne National Park. We figured where we had come so far, had a few extra vacation days and may never return to NL, we would do a little camping. We camped at the beautiful Green Point campsite, a little more secluded and you could litteraly spit onto this beach!

Krista & Jadon Harding

Krista & Jadon had a beautiful wedding. Here they are cutting their cake together after a great day. Of course this was the whole purpose of our NFLD trip and it was so thrilling to see them get married. From the time we stepped on the Island it was steam roll ahead to the wedding, the bachelor/ette parties, rehersal's, rehersal dinners, decorations and finally the wedding. Not always do I feel as good about a couple as I do about Krista & Jadon, I wish them the absolute best in God's plans for their life together!

Deck Sunbathers

It was a beautiful balmy sunny day on front dek, here is Chad licking up the rays, and Danny Crain over there passed out sunbathing. Rough trip eh?

Cape Breton

Next morning, bright and early, 7am to be exact, we're off!

Lick a Chick

Of course across the street from "Lick a Treat" we find "Lick a Chick" and honestly, we were not mature enough to be able to handle this and had to get out picture taken here! LOL! It was a chore trying to convince Chad not to do some seductive licking face in this picture-just joking!

Lick a Treat

Well we headed to North Sydney Wednesday morning. I drove a good deal of the way and Chad slept. I had a blast listening to the Amherst noonhour 80's show! That kept me entertained for much of the trip--I also tend to drive a little faster than Chad so we made some good time :) When we arrived in North Sydney we noticed this little shop: Lick a Treat and decided after supper to stop over and see what they had. Chad and I each got one of these homemade drumsticks--now THIS is a drumstick, no this isn't me eating two! Covered in chocolate and nuts, filled with soft serve, this waffle cone put nestle to shame! and for only $2.50 I don't know if I'll ever be able to buy a store bought drumstick again without questioning it's value.

Heading Home

Well that was the end of Seattle and Bremerton. The next morning we packed 'er up again and grabbed the Bremerton-Seattle Ferry back into the city where we caught a cab to the bus station. We were both longing for a SUB from SUBway so I went looking while Chad checked us in. Right around the corner--we were in luck. So lunch in toe we hopped on the Grayhound yet again and headed back to Vancouver where we were to catch our flight back home the next morning. Getting off the Grayhound we walked back through downtown Vancouver to the Skytrain, took that around the city and then hoped the city transit for a really long ride out of the city to the airport. I thought we must look rediculous with all of our luggage on the public transit, but at the same time a cab that far out of the city would have cost us an arm and a leg. We spent a really nice night at the Delta beside the airport and hit the airport the next morning at 11:30am to head home.

I was excited to get back home but a little sad too. I so loved spending time with Chad, I hadn't really noticed how little time we spent together in the very busy year, with all the church things and everything else that took us from each other. I thought a lot on the way back home, about our life together, about being a couple "together" and how hard that is to do in today's society, and even, or especially in church ministry. I longed for it to be different, but am still unsure as to how to make that happen.

The lights were so pretty as we flew into Moncton at 11:00pm. My heart longed for home.

We missed the proper exit and headed off to Shediac, but luckily got ourselves turned around. We made it home at 2:00. It was so nice to walk into our little home, it's so cozy. I was thankful we couldn't see how much the untended grass had grown while we were away!

Home for 5 days, then on to new adveture--Newfoundland!

Judy & Gabriel watching the girls play.

Josie enjoying the spray

Gabriel & Daddy

This awesome fountain is a great place for the kids to play. After walking around downtown Seattle we headed up to the Space Needle (see previous picture) This is a huge fountain that bursts in different intervals, spirts in different patters to music. It's really cool. The kids just loved to stip down after a warm day downtown and run around trying to touch the base before it spewed water out at them. Of course most of the fun was in being caught!

The Seattle Space Needle

I absolutly love flowers. At the Seattle Pikes Place Market, there are thousands of flowers. Florists come and bring there flowers and there are rows and rows of them putting together beautiful boquets like this. It is stunning, but equally as stunning as the sheer amount of flowers all in one place, is the amazing price they charge! A boquet such as this one would cost easily $35 here at home, but I got it for $10. Of course I couldn't pass this up. So I bought it and dragged it all over Seattle with me and then left it with the Oleson's to enjoy. What I wouldn't do to have flowers like this around home!

So what do you think is all over this wall? This is below Pike's Market in Seattle, a totally awesome Market a couple of blocks of artisans, florists, food stops of all different ethnicities etc. This is the Gum Wall, yup, everyone comes here and sticks there gum all over the wall. Pretty neat just don't back into it!

to keep the kids content while we waited in Seattle for Jon's Ferry to come over, Judy decided to get them candy. Wow, did they love it--quite sucessful.

Ahhh, the beautiful charm bracelet. It's really quite neat, and fun. I was excited to get my Seattle piece, it was really neat, a double link with the Seattle Space Needle on it. So to this point I had a plane, for my first flight ever, the Ogopogo Lake monster for Kelowna BC, a much sought after Vancouver charm with a totem pole, a dangling Inukshook for Victoria, 'cuse I couldn't find one that said Victoria or Vancouver Island :( , the Seattle Space Needle and a Ferry for all the ferries we'd taken and the big one we were about to take to NFLD, sorry lets be geographically up to date, NL. Pretty bracelet!

Chad & Josie checking out their personality results, I think it was strong willed for Chad & I. Ahh, the fortunes a quarter can bring. This was actually a really interesting shop, it had all kinds of trinkets and things, I got my charm bracelet piece here, oh, right and a mummy. yeah, we didn't get pictures of it, it was gross, but an interesting shop nonetheless!

Filling another day, we headed in to Seattle on Monday. As usual we were running a bit behind and concerned that we weren't going to make the ferry Jon dropped us off at the runway thing. From the van, we each grabbed an Oleson kid and took off running. We just made it and as the guard closed the runway thing and we stepped safely on the ferry we realized how stupid we had been. There was Jon, on the other side, waving his hand at us. He would be an hour coming behind us, we should have just all waited and come across together. So here we are, hanging out on the ferry, I'm possing for Josie.

Father's Day

Next day, after a very cold, cold night at the campsite we packed 'er all up and headed off to church at Christ the King, Jon & Judy's new church. Unfortunatly Chad decided to take his camera in and maybe get some shots of this satelite church, but things got busy and Chad forgot it under his chair. Because Christ the King is a satelite church, they rent a community center in a community that has expressed some interest in small groups, therefore, once things get packed up for they day, it is locked and the keys are returned--making it really difficult to get back into the building. Ahhhh....you see where this is going. Let's just say that the remainder of the trip had a hint of annoyance as we no longer had the camera, even after tracking down it's whereabouts. Jon did mail it home to us, but unfortunatly it arrived AFTER we returned from Newfoundland, thankfully friends hooked us up with their camera's and lenses so we could get some good pics of our NFLD trip as well, and Jon gave us his digital to take some pics while we were in Seattle. Ah, reaping the rewards of a moment of absentmindedness. Oh well, as Chad would say, makes for an interesting story.

Widby Bunny.

Gabriel & Uncle Chad share a story while waiting for supper.

The Pacific

the gang packs 'er up for the campsite and supper time

Gabriel & Mommy

Josie, so camera shy :), posses with some really cool, vibrant yellow seaweed. Neat eh! too bad she lifted it a bit high and hid her face, and beaming smile

Gabriel enjoying the Pacific

Josie & Katelynn took turns "being the leader" and showing us the path.

We were overnight car camping in the beautiful State park on Widby Island. As Jon was preparing for Saturday evening service at his new church "Christ the King" we went for a hike to the beach.

Katelynn posing pretty. Can you tell these kids are used to the camera!

An awesome picnic overlooking the great Pacific

little diva Katelynn

Next day we head off on yet another ferry to the Oleson's new home to be--Widby Island. Here's Gabriel posing perfect!

cutsie Katelynn