Saturday, July 27, 2013

Peniel Ranch: Part One (July 15th-17th)

Day One:

Today was basically travelling, but we were in a caravan with Grandpa & Grandma Olson and a family from our church, the Roberts. Their oldest daughter, Mallen is one of my best friends, so it was really awesome getting to spend the whole day with their family and ours! On the way to the ranch, we made a couple stops including Snoqualmie Falls, The Soap Lake, and the Grand Coulee Dam. I took lots of pictures, and Andrew, (he's my oldest brother right now in Indonesia), gave me the job of doing the slide show of the ranch when we got back. Talk about responsibility! We did finally arrive at the ranch, only to find that the Hough's and Miller's had beat us! :( Oh, well. It wasn't long before the rest of the church showed up, and we had dinner. Dad and Mom decided to do something each evening, and this evening's program was a sharing time where each person had to share a blessing or testimony. It was kind of fun to see people up front that never really do that sort of stuff at home, and I got to take pictures of it all! Let's just say that it was amusing... :D. I was the second to last person, and being up front is not my thing. I was shaking up there the entire time! (hopefully no one noticed). We ended the day with a game of volleyball and fell into bed exhausted. Better go.
Our Evening Thing:

Mom

Day Two:

This morning I woke up bright and early so that I could take a quick shower and do my Bible Bee Sword Study somewhat in peace. It was so refreshing to go outside in the morning and breath in the fresh air. When I get up early, I always feel groggy at first, but after the first five minutes, or after a cool shower, I'm glad I did. Breakfast was served at 8:00 and it was really good (as were all their meals we found from experience!).
Following breakfast, we did a Bible bee hour,
Margaret Doing Bible Bee

Sarah getting quizzed by Mr. Hough



and went down to the river until lunch. It was awesome to be able to swim in freezing water, and kayak up and down the river with friends. Also amusing watching some of the boys dare each other into dunking themselves into the river. Ah, good times. :P




Me kayaking with David

The boys, goofing off. (Jacob Miller, Killian Krause, and my own brother, Maxwell Eddy)
I didn't use sunscreen that day, so I got a horrific burn on my arm from the first day that hurt for the rest of the trip. (let this be a warning to all who ignore sunscreen). I had to put aloe and an ice pack to keep it cool. After dinner, for our evening thing, we watched "God of Wonders", a creation DVD on how God created the earth and why we should be thankful for it. If you've never watched it, I highly recommend it, PK approved! (Pastor's Kid approved :). Once the movie finished, volleyball was played, but I was so sore, I couldn't play. :( So instead I watched, which, I must say, is more entertaining than playing the actual game in the first place. :) However, even with my arm hurting, I could still play apples to apples, which was more hilarious playing than watching. :D

Having way to much fun playing apples to apples (can you tell it's past our bed times? :)
It was so fun! Better go.

Day Three:

Today started with a thunder storm and hail that was so wet that standing out in it for merely five seconds it would drench you to the skin, you know how I know, I tried it, and was shivering for the rest of the morning. When breakfast was over, we had the Bible bee hour, and stayed inside playing Ping-Pong, Pool, Piano, and chess. My younger brother Maxwell is really good at chess, and he basically obliterated all his opponents today. Yay, Max!!

Playing pool, a major attraction for the teens.
The sun did eventually come out again, unlike in western Washington, and we enjoyed some playtime outside,
Mr. Asa & Dad relaxing in the sunshine. :)
and we went down to the river after a little bit, me being very careful about getting my poor blistered arm in the sun. (believe me, I now use lots of sunscreen.) One of the people in charge of the ranch said that we could ride ponies that afternoon, so of course I looked forward to that with great anticipation. When we did eventually get around to riding ponies, it was interesting to me to ride on one, because I've only ever ridden on regular horses, so it was quite an experience to say the least.
Me and Cadence


Ronan
 Dinner came at last, and quickly following it, we had a prayer meeting and Grandpa Olson shared on how we should stand up for what is right and maybe by this change the world. He showed several examples of one person who changed history because of what they had done. It was really neat, and I'll not forget that message for quite awhile. The day finished again with volley ball games, and a couple rounds of apples to apples. It was another long, fun filled day, better go.

Friday, July 5, 2013

The 4th of July: Fourth and Last day of our Family Leavenworth Trip

Today, we go home. :( There was a lot of re-packing, and we had the van loaded in record time, us kids being really excited about the creation museum. We got to feed the fish in the pond one last time before going, and we stopped for gas at Safeway before finally getting on our way to the creation museum. When we did finally arrive, we introduced ourselves to the Marron family, and they introduced themselves to us. Mr. Marron, and sometimes the oldest son, Isaiah, explained the different displays they're going to build, (the museum in still in progress, although Mr. Marron said that he was hoping to get it finished by the end of summer or beginning of fall, Lord willing), and we even got to see a geyser in action! (It wasn't a real geyser, just pressured water under control.) The names of the kids, from oldest to youngest were: Isaiah, Zachariah, Daniel, and Elijah. (I wonder if they were trying to name their kids after profits. :) Anyways, it was really neat to meet that family, whose view on the creation of the world is so much like ours. I'm looking forward to seeing their family at the next Home school Conference that both our family's will be attending. We then said goodbye, and continued our long trip home. Once home at last, we unpacked and settled ourselves in. After we had settled, I posted on my blog. Ta-Da! Fun, fun!! Better be off now, Bye!
(Here are some pictures of what our Lodge looked like, from the outside, and on the inside.):
Our Lodge, called Trail Head Lodge, was HUGE




This is the table we did all our Bible Bee stuff at.


My bed is the farthest. (the one that's not made yet :)


Here are some pretty daisy pictures I took, just for fun, and because I like the daisy flower:
A multitude of daisies...

A single daisy


The hills and blue sky behind the daisies

And more daisies

July 3rd: Day Three of our Family Leavenworth Trip

Today was the day we got to go horseback riding!!! I was, (and am still), excited!! I LOVE HORSES!!!!! (In case you hadn't noticed that before... :P)  So, after a delicious breakfast of waffles, we went out to our ride.

Doesn't that look good?
Do we look ready or what?
The tail was beautiful, and my horse, Moon, (named for the star on his forehead being in the shape of a crescent moon), was a very good horse and did exactly what I asked of him.

 Me on my horse, Moon
We had a fun trail guide, who's name was John, who had been professionally working with horses for 15 years. It was nice to be able to talk with a real horse expert. My horse had one bad habit, he liked to eat, so he was trying to get a snack in every five feet or so. Thankfully, he stopped it as soon as I asked him to, so I didn't have to do anything drastic. The ride did eventually end, (sadly), and we all said goodbye to our horses. Oh, I almost forgot! Here are the names of all the horses and who rode them:
Dad: William
Dad on William, a massive, muscular draft horse


Maxwell: Honey and Tabitha: Jupiter
Marta: Snickers and David: Pal
The Guide: Cherokee
And of course, I was riding Moon.
After that main event, we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon with more resting and visiting. Dad, Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa all went out for dinner that night, so us kids had mac & cheese for dinner, and watched a movie until they came back. When they did, David, Max and I walked down to where the horses were pastured, and watched them graze for an hour.
The big wagon horses

the other horses
 
One of the big horses came right up to me and we did a little staring contest. I must have won, because it hadn't been standing there for two minutes when it just turned around and walked away to continue grazing.
So I got to spend my evening in my favorite way, with family and horses! :)  On the way back to the Lodge, we stopped at a little bridge,
I had some fun with my camera, taking pictures of myself,
A self taken picture

"What is THAT??"

Oh, quick, pose for the camera!!
 
and of David, my younger brother.
"Oh, yeah, I am so cool."
 
Well, tomorrow we go home, but we're stopping at a creation museum on our way, so I'll keep you all posted! G'bye! :)

Thursday, July 4, 2013

July 2nd: Day Two of our Family's Leavenworth Trip

Ah...today dawned bright, clear, and very hot! (when I say hot, I mean at least 97 degrees F.) Today was our day for shopping, so as soon as breakfast, showers, and cleanup-after-breakfast, was finished, we gathered in the living room, got into our van, (Grandma and Grandpa decided to stay at the Lodge for some rest.), and drove to Leavenworth. We stopped at several different shops, including, a fudge shop,

a cheese shop, 
David Clayton in front of the cheese display

the Australian Store,
I tried on one of the hat's. (it was HEAVY!)



Marta, looking at knives and cards.
 a candy shop,

I see you, William! Don't even think about it!


The candy shop...yum!
a couple different hat shops,
and a toy store.
                                                                     Max at the toy store
                                                            Tabitha at the toy store
                                                       Tabitha again... choices, choices
A wall of...HORSES!!!! :)

I got a horse hat and horse mug at the Australian Store, and a bag of candy at the candy shop. We stopped for lunch at a bakery, and everyone ordered fresh pretzels, and dipped them in cheese sauce. (this was very tasty, thank you Mom and Dad!)After exhausting ourselves with shopping, Dad and us three older girls, (Sarah, Margaret, and I), went to Starbucks and ordered cold coffee. It was so refreshing.
Me at Starbucks, waiting for our coffee.

Looks good, huh?
 Mom picked us up with the van, and we went back to the lodge.
Later in the day, we sampled the fudge and cheese Dad bought, and it was really, really good. Dinner was soon after that, and dinner was grilled chicken for the adults, and hamburgers for the kids. Yum!! :) Once dinner was finished, our family did a little "grandparents appreciation" thingy, and all of us kids shared something about our grandparents that we were thankful for. Oh! One more thing before I go, tomorrow is our horseback riding day!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!! :D See y'all then, Bye! :)

July 1st: Day One of our Family's Leavenworth Trip

Well, today was the first day of our family's trip to Leavenworth Washington. Marta's eight-year-old birthday was in April, and it is a family's tradition to have a big family vacation sometime during the year of the certain eight-year-old birthday. So, this was why we went to Leavenworth along with Grandma and Grandpa Eddy, my Dad's parents.
The guys...

...and the girls
Of, course, this being the first day, it was mostly traveling, but we did stop at a shopping mall outlet in North Bend and I bought a really pretty, long skirt.
We finished shopping, and had lunch in the same town at Los Cabos, a Mexican restaurant, and I ordered their Super Nacho's, which were delicious. (no surprise there, right?) Marta got a free dessert on account that it was her birthday. Guess what the dessert was...fried ice cream. Interesting? Yeah...
Once lunch was over...more travelling...*sigh*. We did finally get to the Lodge, and unpacked quickly, leaving the rest of the afternoon and evening to relaxation and visiting. I played Maxwell my younger, (although taller), brother a game of pool, and won! (BTW, I wouldn't have won except for the fact that he accidentally hit the eight ball in before it was time :). Alright, I'd better go, since tomorrow is going to be our shopping day!!!! (and I love shopping!!!)

Blog Tour for Project Canvas!! *cue intense celebration*

GUYS, I couldn't be more excited to share about this incredible book that is going to be available for you to get your hands on in just ...