2 months old and on top of the mountain!

okay, that title was really referring to 2 seperate events. :)

today is ava's 2 month birthday! she is doing great and trying to get little naps when she can. we are in washington all this week visiting family and having a great time. ava really seems to like the state and even started being able to roll herself over the past couple of days.

i want to thank each of you who prayed for good weather and safety during my climbing trip to mount rainier the past couple of days. with God's help, my bro-in-law Tom, my father-in-law Jim, and I made it to the top around 1:30am yesterday morning! It was about 15 hours of climbing to make it up and then back down and was definitely one of the hardest things I have ever done.

there was a strong weather system that was scheduled to come in, so it looked like we wern't going to get to summit. i was a bit bummed about that, but figured there must be a reason or the Lord would change the weather. I knew people had told me they would be praying. So we decided to give it a shot and climb up to a certain area and see if any clouds were forming over the mountain. but the more we climbed on monday evening, the more clear the sky got. we climbed up during the sunset and climbed back down during sunrise. as we looked out over the cascade mountains we could see mt. adams, mt hood and mt. st. helens.

as we got to the top of the mountain, we went down into the crater, which was covered in snow cups. we layed down, turned off our head lamps and looked up at the tens of thousands of stars. they seemed so close and so clear when were laying there over 14,000 feet up.

we didn't struggle with much altitude sickness, so were happy for that. even though, just to walk a few steps would cause us to breathe heavy. we had below freezing temps and the wind was probably blowing at around 40 miles per hour towards the top. brrrr.... the trip didn't start off on the best foot, since tom was throwing up on the hike up to camp muir on sunday. camp muir is about 10,200 feet up and thats where we camped. then in just about 20 minutes of hiking on that trip up, i too realized that my rented boots wern't very good and i had already developed blisters on my feet. but all in all, it was an awesome trip and i'm so so glad that we made it to the top! i'll post some photos when we get back home.

well, were getting ready to go to the thurston county fair with teressa's family!

flying to washington tomorrow

well, were so excited to be flying to olympia, washington tomorrow night to visit teressa's family. ava is really happy to see grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles... and of course, mountains. :)

we'll be up there for a little vacation til next sunday. if you are reading this and you live in washington, we want to see you next week! :)

and also, the reason i trained for the 5K race at the beginning of the month, was to help get in shape for an adventure coming this monday.

Lord willing, i'm planning to hike to the summit of mount rainier, along with my father-in-law jim and my brother-in-law tom, as well a few other friends that jim knows. please join us in praying for great weather, safety and a great trip. i would really really appreciate the prayers.

i included a few photos of the mountain below. the elevation is 14,410 feet. i believe with the ascent and descent, we will be hiking about 18,000 vertical feet. the plan is to leave on monday morning and hike up to camp muir, which is about 10,000 feet. then we'll camp there on the glacier and hang out there, as well as practice things like crevasse rescue the next day. we'll go to sleep around early evening and start hiking for the summit around midnight. by God's grace, we'll get to the summit around sunrise on wednesday morning. then we'll head back down the mountain on wednesday. i'm already getting excited to get an ice axe in my hand, put some crampons on my feet, strap a head lamp on, and start the hike.

For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind And declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness And treads on the high places of the earth, The LORD God of hosts is His name. Amos 4:13

48 days old

laughing after the bath

crazy eyes :-)

hanging out with her aunt christina

daddy's girl

one of the top ten ways to know you don't have rock hard abs: "your infant daughter falls asleep on them as if they were a down pillow."

cute lil smiley baby

ava wearing her royal robe

ol' blue eyes

erika (gfa intern) working at the book table at the renewing your passion conference

jessy and renee showing off their very neat book table

finding creative places to change ava's diaper during the conference

no sleep, but still smiling

the dr. suess hair-do

butterfly in our back yard

tummy time

play time

some photos mommy took during an afternoon nap




ava sure has some long eye lashes

friday night video time

heres a little clip of ava after we had some mexican food for dinner tonight. she looks like she is going to be wide awake for awhile... i better go find a good book. :)

photo of the day

if your baby gives you this face, does it necessarily mean that your doing something wrong?

mid-summer in texas

just wanted to put up a few photos of ava lately. it's been nice to play with her as she learns to smile. but she is also learning how to cry and scratch. ha ha. i guess we take the good with the bad.

i pulled something in my back pretty bad recently. i'm hoping that heals up really soon.
the gospel for asia renewing your passion conference went great this past weekend! it was great to hear about the tremendous harvest that is happening in asia right now. i'll put up some photos of that soon. ava did really well and since there was a family room set up off to the side, we were able to watch most all of the sessions along with her. the fellowship there was such a blessing too. having about 1,000 people gathered together to give praise to Jesus and who are encouraging each other to live for eternity.

been reading a lot of thomas a kempis's stuff lately. heres a section that i have been thinking of lately. "as long as you find suffering a burden and try to escape it, things will go badly with you, and you will always be running away from trouble; but if you once accept that suffering and the killing of the old nature are what you have to face, your state will soon improve and you will know peace."

yesterday, we went out to dinner with some good friends from ohio. the mother asked teressa if she thought ava looked like me or her more. tress said that ava probably had her mouth and chin, and the rest was mine. their young daughter, i think about 7, then asked, "what do you mean, 'she has your mouth?'" after teressa explained, she said "i think ava's mouth is cuter." ha ha. kids are fun.

enjoy ava's mug. (a.k.a. cute face)

big girl yawn

grandma mary last week

blue eyes

if you give her car seat a little wiggle... you get this face. thats what i learned last week. :)