Oden Adventures

After our week at camp, we packed in many more adventures into three more days in Oregon, including...

...the ever glorious Mt. Hood...

...a visit to Oregon's oldest retail store, in Butteville, where we had delicious ice cream...

 ...a worship concert/book & CD release party...

This was our first "event" together as a couple, promoting Patrick's second book (now available on Kindle!) and my new recording project, and Two Rivers was kind enough to host it, and many friends & family were kind enough to attend.  As always, it was a great pleasure to play with Jeff Warren, Rob Classen, and Dave Brown once again!!

...the Two Rivers Annual Church Picnic...

 (Patrick was a good sport and participated in a game where you had to hold an Alka-Seltzer tablet under your tongue, drink 7-Up which you also held in your mouth, without swallowing.  He tied for first!)

 I always love getting to see baptisms of people who are committing or re-committing their lives to God!

 ...and the night before a very early flight back to California, a birthday party for my brother Geoff!

All in all, a wonderful, wonderful time!!

For the third week of July, I had the enormous honor of being invited to lead worship for the week of Family Camp at Black Lake Bible Camp in Olympia, WA, where I went to camp as a kid/teen and worked three summers on staff.  But I couldn't be that close to Oregon without also spending time with my family & friends, so I tacked a long week onto the front end of my trip to be able to see (most) everyone.  Unfortunately, Patrick had Latin class, so he couldn't come up 'til mid-way through the second week so we spent ten days apart.  This was the longest since we've been married and we hated it and don't plan to do that again.  But despite that, I (at least) still managed to have all sorts of fun in my time there.

The absolute priority upon my arrival was meeting new niece Margot (about 7 weeks old while I was there), and secondly bonding with her big sister Beatrix so that she remembers I exist.

Bea & Daddy (is this the cutest picture ever??)

Much to my delight, it was a baby-themed visit.  Other babies met for the first time: Avalinn Brown, Grace & Emily Chaney, Mia VandenBos...and I'm sure I'm forgetting some!


Other highlights: visiting Grandma Gustafson, fun with Rebekah & the Hsiehs, celebrating Vera's birthday, hanging with Mom & the Storeys, Saturday Market with the Blairs.





Then it was up to Black Lake for Family Camp, where I got to lead 8 sessions of worship over the week for a very kind & gracious group of fellow Black Lake fans.  It was a privilege to work with the speaker for the week Jerry Huson, from Irvine, CA and who's up to all sorts of cool things.  It was great to see familiar faces & meet some new people & to sing praises to God in the Tabernacle (one of my favorite buildings), as well as to see how God continues to sustain this place, sacred for so many.