More Catching Up

I have been spending too much time on Facebook and not enough time blogging... and so now it's been almost two months since I've posted here. Where do the days go? I will be an old woman before I realize it.

Since Mt. Carmel in May, Lou and I have been to Hillsboro, to El Paso for 4 days, and 5 days in Montana . That is a lot of travel in a month and lots of theology in just a couple of weeks!

-- Hillsboro: Lou's 6th grade teacher (Amy Slatta) celebrated her 100th birthday on July 8th and there was a reception for her at her church on July 19th. We exchange Christmas cards and so went down to celebrate with her -- Lou's brother Chris, Pam, and Kit; Lou's dad; and the two of us. She was thrilled. For 100 she is going strong; too bad her eyesight is gone and her hearing almost gone now. But she can still play the piano as always and played a wonderful piece for the offertory at church that day.
There were several "old students" in attendance, and also the old HS track coach, Eldon Kellar, shown here talking with Lou's dad. We spent a night at the beach just north of Tillamook while we were down there. The sun was out but the wind was cold. I didn't take any pictures this time.



-- El Paso: We attended the 9th annual gathering of the Augsburg Lutheran Churches, a small group of confessional Lutherans we've hung out with for about 8 years now, at the end of July. It was hot there, but not any more so than it was in Moses Lake that week (105-ish). We had a good time as usual, with these old friends and some new ones.



-- Montana: Lou has gone with his uncle George to Flathead Lake for an LCMS continuing ed program for 3 years now, and I went along on the last two trips. Many of the pastors who come consider this their family summer vacation and have been attending for 15-20 years together, so it's like a big family reunion. We enjoyed our time there even though we aren't LCMS and not officially "pastor" status. Lou does enjoy hanging out with the pastor types, though, and we learned about church mission work. The weather was beautiful until the last day when it even rained some, making it easier to pack up and head home. These photos are from last year but you get the gist.

I never seem to take too many pictures on these sort of trips... which is too bad since we saw big horned sheep and lots of deer in Montana... but since I was driving about 5o mph when we saw the sheep by the road, taking pictures was probably not advisable. Uncle George and the group they were with picking huckleberries even saw a moose.

-- At home: I bought myself a hummingbird feeder this summer and got it hung up last month. I have been surprised at how fast they found the thing -- I didn't even know if we had hummingbirds here, but they've been quite consistent at "pulling up to the bar." Yesterday there were two out there at the same time. I managed to get a photo of one today.
While I'm at it I think I'll add some photos to the last post too, so check that out once more.
I hope to be back before another 2 months passes!