Cooking at Fort Worden

Somehow I volunteered myself to help cook for 62 middle school students during their camp out retreat at Fort Worden.  I was told our kitchen facilities probably consisted of one outlet, one or two picnic tables under some kind of a shelter/ lean-to structure and a spigot somewhere in our camping area.  What was I thinking when I signed up for this? To complete the picture, the forecast looked pretty wet & miserable!

Fortunately I was not the one in control of this situation, and as always, God took care of us in better ways that we could have imagined!

I was joined by two hard working, motivated & fun parents that made for a great cooking team.  Our facilities were very luxurious compared to what we had expected.  We even had 4 outlets, a serving counter and the spigot was not that far off (we always found students that "volunteered" to fetch water for us)!  There was enough cover to accommodate the cooking area and tables for all the students.  As for the weather, we even had to get sunglasses & sunscreen out!  Yes, we had some rain in the evenings, a few leaky tents & wet sleeping bags, but everybody managed well and now have experiences to share.

Reason to Celebrate

Congratulations to our cousin Angie, who celebrated her birthday, her  graduation with a Master's degree, and the successful passing of the boards! What an accomplishment!  I have to say that her sister is equally talented, just look at the clever cake she baked.

We were all invited to celebrate by taking part in lawn games and were encouraged to dress the part.

Some people were very creative (it must run in the Klassen family).

Saturday Pursuits

Our weekend plans got postponed due to a poor forecast at our destination.  We were now presented with three days off with nothing on the calendar and for the first time since we moved here, we were not involved in the Ski to Sea race.  The boys spent Saturday pursuing  what I would call typical boys activities; clearing woods with a machete to build a fort, shooting hoops and batting baseballs, reading and putting into practice information found in this book:

I also felt inspired to take them to the Ski to Sea parade.  I don't recall ever taking them to a parade in their lives, and since it seems like it's a rite of passage for most kids, Ifelt like I should give them this opportunity.

Nolan did not agree with my point of view, and could not believe he was vasting valuable time sitting on a curb.  Let's just say we did not stay to the end.

In the mean time, Shawn was pursuing his own version of a Ski to Sea event, by climbing up to 10.778 feet 

to the top of Mt Baker

and skiing it down in a quarter of the time it took to get up.

Snapshots of the Last Two Months

 

I had not seen my cousin Ralf and his wife for fourteen years. They had moved to Germany and our hometown visits never coincided. I'm so glad they decide to visit our neck of the woods (and fields).

 We had a great time retelling some of our childhood stories and making new memories.

Good friends on our 7th(?) annual moms getaway

Skiing on Vancouver Island with mountain and ocean views, not to mention sun, clouds and moon.

Breathtaking!

After a day of skiing nothing like croquet in the sun at sea level. 



Easter with family!

Baseball in full swing!

April shower did bring us May flowers!

Perfect time to celebrate birthdays and Mothers Day

Shawn and I even found  some time to getaway just the two of us.

Spring Ahead

Spring is upon our little town! 

You know spring is here when . . .

 you change your hiking destination to a place where there is a clearing  so you can soak up some sun,

when the kids are all excited, full of wiggles while presenting the spring program,

Loved the picture above, but I have to let you know it was taken as the kids were lining up.  Once the program started they all looked, stood, sang and gestured as they were taught.
It was an absolutely amazing program by the way.  Kudos to all the kids, teachers & volunteers at BCS who helped produce it..

You know it's spring when it's Pine Wood Derby time and

Fire Mt Merit Badge Extravaganza campout.

Bellingham Day #9

It's been nine years now since we moved to this area from the Midwest.  It has become the place we love to live and where we formed great friendships (of course we miss the friends we left behind).  As a way not to forget the way God directed our path and the awe we felt when we first set eyes on our surroundings,  we celebrate our anniversary move by going or doing something unique to this area.  Although other choices were presented, we returned to an old favorite; skiing at Mt Baker.

We could not see much ahead of us for the first part of the day and it felt like we were skiing blind , which for me takes no small amount of courage to forge ahead.  Eventually the skies opened up and revealed the beauty of the region we now call home.

Unique to this area as well, is a name like "Chair 9" to be given to a restaurant.  You understand the reason after you ride eight different chair lifts on the mountain.

The celebration was shared with dear friends, however, we did miss our own Ethan. 

Our youngest one had a birthday sleepover to attend and did not want to miss it. At first I was bummed at the thought of not having the whole family together, but then I realized that a big part of loving life here, is the friendships we have formed. We left our Ethan behind with some of his good friends and brought along another Ethan (we do this Ethan trading quite often).

One more picture of three amigos sitting on a lift chair that was actioned off when the lift was replaced.  These chairs are now becoming part of the region history, and year by year, so are we.