This past week Lulu, Levi and I spent a few days with my parents in Hood River, OR. Mark had to work but is excited to come next year with us! We had a great time playing in the water at the beach. Hood River is on the Columbia River and the beach is just perfect for little ones. There's no big waves, no salt water and you can walk out a good 100 or so feet and the water is only up to about your knees. Levi found a new love.....the beach and water! He LOVED being in the water and didn't want to get out.
In town we enjoyed the shops and especially the ice cream shop. Here we are heading for ice cream after enjoying pizza at a local restaurant.
On the way back to our hotel we stopped and played in a fountain. It was very refreshing because it was in the 90's while we were there.
The next day we took a drive to see the orchards and we stopped at some of the local farms to buy fresh cherries and lavender. Here my parents are with Lulu in Levi and Mt. Hood in the background.
Then after a long day we decided to head to the beach for a late night dip, this was around 8:30pm. We saw the sun set behind the mountains. Levi and Lulu slept really well that night.
On our last day we headed East to
Pendleton, OR. We stopped at the woolen mills and bought some fun
Pendleton Wool gifts. Lulu got a fun horse and she named him
Pendelton.
If you ever find yourself in
Pendleton, OR you must stop by
Hamley's especially if your a cowboy or cowgirl or just a wannabe cowboy or cowgirl. As we were walking to
Hamley's we ran into two of the 5
Pendleton Rodeo Princesses. Lulu was a bit shy but very excited to meet some real princesses.
I had to take this picture of our van for Mark. It looks like it grew antlers. It looks like an 10 pointer too! Get your gun!
Hamley's makes custom saddles and of course we had to try some out.
We had a great time with Papa and Grandma. Can't wait for next year!
This afternoon we went for a drive as a family. Mark gave us a driving tour of where he used to work way before I even knew him. Mark didn't work for Boeing but he did work for an electrical company that worked on many projects for Boeing. As we drove around the Boeing campus it got me thinking about jobs. How blessed we are that Mark has a job and that we live in an area that is overflowing with opportunity. My Grandpa Jack retired from Boeing years ago and my mom worked at Boeing for a few years before she was married. When living in this area it's hard not to know someone who works for Boeing or at least used to work for them. It's amazing to see this HUGE plant and think about all the jobs that are created here. It's amazing to think how many families depend on Boeing for their income. But truly who should we be depending on for our every need? Our employer? Our investments? Our family? Our self? No!! We need God and only God!! He knows what we need and if we surrender our entire life over to Him then we can rest each night not worrying about if we will have a job tomorrow or not. "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19 
This picture is neat because that is the Boeing Dreamlifter sitting right there next to one of the many employee parking lots.
Here is a optical illusion of sorts. This parking lot looks like it goes up to the building in the background. But really there is a freeway in between that building and this parking lot. There's an overpass that connects the two sides of the Boeing plant and this parking lot. The big Dreamlifter jet is on our side of the freeway and has to actually drive across the overpass to enter into the hangers. The blue part of the building that you can see are the HUGE doors that the airplanes drive through. 
Here you can see the overpass and the freeway. Wouldn't it be neat to be driving on the freeway while an airplane is driving above you?
This picture is another one from the freeway and a optical illusion. This building doesn't look that different then most typical industrial buildings.....until you look closely and notice the size of that bus compared to the big blue doors and if you look really closely you can see the tiny cars parked near by. 
This is where the airplanes go to have their stress tests done. They were actually working on a plane as we drove by. I hope it passed!
Then as we were driving through another parking lot this is what we saw. The tail of the planes peaking over the top of the blast shields. Then in the picture below was the sign posted on our side of the blast shields. This was just another typical employee parking lot we were driving through. Can you imagine just going to work finding your parking spot and WHAM! the engines go on? I guess you would have to plan your hairdos accordingly. 
Then the best view we saw from the Boeing plant was of Mt. Rainer. God's creation is just amazing! 
This past weekend Lulu asked Mark if we could go look at Volkswagen's. She was just thinking small toy Volkswagen's but Mark had an even better idea. Since it's summer Mark was sure that somewhere, someone was having a VW car show. So he got online and looked it up and sure enough there was one about 20min from where we live. So, Mark pulled the car seats from the mini van and squished them into the back seat of our VW bug and off we went to the show. 
This really is a roomy little car for all four of us. But now when we have more children we will have to get a VW bus. 
I really liked this red convertible. I would drive this in a heart beat.
Mark and Lulu both liked this Karmann Ghia.
Here's a picture of Mark and I back in 2002 at a VW show. Ok.....now back to our recent pictures.
