Well, it's been a summer filled with hiking, camping, singing, preaching, mint s'mores and broccoli cheese soup. I wanted to share some of our fun camping & hiking pictures and stories.


July - Ethan finally got his birthday present in the mail - I had ordered him a new GPS unit and he loves his gadgets! That night we went tromping around the foothills in Eugene, trying to find Geo cache spots that other people had marked as good views.















August - We reserved a campsite on Orcas Island and my brothers came & camped with us for a fun weekend on the islands! There were some bikers camping next to us and they recommended that we go to the Saturday farmers market on Lopez island. So we drove down to the ferry dock, walked onto the ferry, and disembarked at Lopez. We started walking up the ramp onto the island, turned the corner, looked at what we thought would be the downtown/market area, and all we saw was a long paved road stretched out ahead of us. As it turned out, the market was not near the ferry dock - it was on the other side of the island! We walked for about a mile with our thumbs out until a nice woman in a truck picked us up and drove us down to the market. Once there we ate wonderful vegetables grown by a horse-drawn farm, and had gorgonzola & raspberry crepes for lunch. It was a fun time with my brothers!















One Saturday morning at the end of August, Ethan and I decided to be spontaneous. We called his brother Graham, told him we were headed out to summit Diamond Peak, and that if he wanted to come along we'd pick him up in 30 minutes.

So I packed as many sandwiches as we could carry and we drove out to the trail. After hiking along the trail for a few miles, we decided it would be a lot quicker to head straight up to the peak. Ethan got out his GPS and we blazed a trail over rocks, through woods, across scree and past a mini-glacier to the top of the peak.

It was grueling and very steep, but we made it past two false summits and to the top! What a fun adventure!

September - The first day of September was a lot of fun for us! We traveled up to Seattle to pick up our friend Lori and the three of us drove to Sequim, WA to attend our WU friend Sara Reichner's (now Schafer) wedding. We camped the night before at Sequim Bay State Park, and got all sorts of strange looks as we put on dresses and makeup in the camp bathroom! Their wedding was on a lavender farm and it was beautiful! It was so fun to see many of our Willamette friends there and the ceremony was wonderful.














That same night, crazy people that we are, Lori, Ethan & I changed into hiking gear, donned our backpacks and hiked out in the dark into the middle of the Olympic Mountain wilderness. We camped at the second of three mountain lakes, with ridges and forest surrounding us on all sides. Sunday was spent exploring, cooking, and teaching Lori how to play Texas Hold'Em. It was so fun to spend time with Lori, and the area was incredible - we'll definitely be back!