Seattle Family Reunion

We spent the first weekend of August in Seattle with Charissa's extended family. Aunt Sandy and Uncle Bob live in a great lake house, so we spent time swimming, canoeing, being with family and relaxing as we got over our jet lag from Tanzania. We got to go to the "SeaFair" which is a big festival on Lake Washington where they race hydroplanes. The blue angels did an airshow in the middle of the day and it was awesome. We also had our favorite clam chowder down on the water front and went to Pike Place Market which is always fun. The last night we were there, the whole family went to a Mariners game, and it was "Japanese night" so we all got free hats that said Mariners in Japanese:) But it's a good thing, because we needed rally caps in the 7th inning so the Mariners could win. I (Charissa) got to spend time with my good friend and roommate from Liberty Kristy Graham and her beautiful daughter Hannah Ruth! It was so great to see her and catch up.

July 4th at the Lakes

We spent the 4th of July with Charissa's parents and our long-time family friends Marty, Linda and Katrina Lake at thier ranch (We missed you Matt, Alyssa and Mel-Bel!). They live a the base of Mt. Evans in a beautiful valley with a great creek that we went tubing down. We played some croquet and boche and had a campfire with s'mores to end the day. It was a great way to celebrate our freedom!

Weekend Trip to Buena Vista

By the looks of our blog, you might think all we do is play outside:) We DO go to work, believe it or not, but work just doesn't make for very exciting pictures. We did some mountain biking on Kenosha Pass on our way to Buena Vista where we hooked up with some of our friends who are working at Noahs Ark Rafting. Toby and Andrew came up that night and the four of us slept out under the stars at Turtle Rock. The next day we did some rock climbing and then went and watched the international bouldering championships at the Teva Mountain games in Vail. All in 2 days!

Fun with the Fowlers

We spent a day off doing some rock climbing with our friends Jeremy and Kelly Fowler. We have been so blessed by their friendship and love spending time with them.

The "Jeremy's" are such amazing climbers - they taught us girls a lot!

Yeah Kelly!

We climbed on these great cliffs near Golden - you can see the city of Denver in the distance.

Thank God for great friends and fun in His beautiful creation!

Boys Backpacking Weekend

Jeremy's friend and roomate Kevin from boarding school in Kenya came to visit from British Columbia, and they spent Memorial Day weekend backpacking with our friends Matt Lake and Josh Temple in the Mount Evans Wilderness Area.They took all the things boy's need to have a good time: a compass,

a water filter,
flint(yes they really used flint!),
guns,
and dogs, but left their fear of heights (and their wives) at home:)
If you look on the cliff below Jeremy here, you can see the mountain goat they hung out with (but don't worry, thats not what they were shooting at!)

By the tree in this picture is a newborn Elk! We learned that baby elk have no smell until they are a few weeks old, which is why Butch has no clue it's there!

Moab

Jeremy went on a weekend trip to Moab, Utah to do some mountain biking with our friend Bun Tadlock. "Slick rock" is supposed to be one of the best trails in the world and Moab has beautiful scenery.

This is the famous "delicate arch."

Lynchburg Trip

Charissa's younger brother graduated on May 10th from Liberty, so we traveled out there with the Lewis fam to celebrate. It was a beautiful day and the ceremony was really nice. Chuck Norris gave the commencement address- he shared about how he came to know Christ and how that has changed his life.


Toby's degree is in Aviation and he's on his way to being a Marine pilot.

His diploma ceremony was in the hangar at the airport. It was cool to see the planes that he had learned to fly. Congrats Toby! We're so proud of you!!


We also got to spend some time with our sister Kyndal and all our friends that are still in Lynchburg. Our good friends Jay and Jackie Parks have a beautiful little girl named Lydia and Charissa just couldn't get enough of her. We love our life in Colorado but we really miss all the people we love in Lynchburg. It was a great trip!

Ron's Grad Party!

We went to a party Saturday night to celebrate Charissa's brother Ron finishing his Master's degree. We got to hold Brady - he's getting so big !
I love being an Auntie!
These are our good friends Matt and Alisa Lake. We love you guys!

Baby Bradyn is here!

We welcomed our beautiful new nephew, Bradyn Asher Lewis into the world today. He was born at 6:31am and weighed 8 pounds 13 ounces. He's absolutely perfect! Congratulations Ron and Alisa!

A Colorado White Christmas!!!

    We had such a wonderful Christmas. Jeremy's sister Kyndal came to visit during her break and we spent Christmas at Charissa's parents with the Lewis family. It snowed ALL DAY!!!!!! and it was beautiful. We had such a wonderful day together. Ron ( Charissa's brother) and Alisa are expecting their first baby anytime now. We can't wait to meet him or her:) 

    Charissa's mom Kathy has been working on her blog too and has more pictures of Christmas - click on the link for Norm and Kathy's blog.