Camping Trip

We had a great camping trip (Ok, maybe GREAT for the kids, BEARABLE for the adults).

It was a long 4 1/2 hour drive from Bend to Cape Lookout State Park. We met Anna & David + boys, and Israel & Allison + kids at Tillamook Cheese Factory for lunch. The lunch was fine but the icecream was the best.

After that, we drove to Cape Lookout State Park and started setting up.

It was about 70 degrees and a bit cloudy, but definitely nice for camping weather. We all had sites very close to each other and shared meals and talked alot...

We did the usual roasting marshmallows and lots of playing around the campground... we managed to not lose a single child and this year, I didn't get sick! Anna, Allison & I went running on the beach on friday and what was supposed to be a 30 minute easy run for me ended up being a very painful 1 hour run (Thanks, Anna :)). It was easy for the first 30 minutes but when we turned around to head back, the wind was against us and I nearly passed out... ofcourse, I wasn't about to walk, so I kept running... or maybe a very slow jog. Thankfully, I only suffered a minor knee pain and am back to normal.

Some of the interesting topics of conversation included... Andria & Michael's new beach house, our upcoming adoption and the timeframe, talks about our babies and what they are doing now, how much we LOVE camping, our workout schedules and what we're doing, God talk (what God is doing in the church, evangelism,etc.) I had a talk with David about some of the things he's written in his evangelism blog. I had some great conversations with Aaron's parents also over the weekend... things I've been struggling with lately like why we take it so personally when someone doesn't listen to us or ignores us when we share them about Christ... I tend to be a little bit on the "quiet" side around new people, and I have always been a bit scared off by "evangelism"....but listening to David and talking with Aaron's dad really helped me to re-focus WHY I want to share Christ and why it has to be about HIM and not about how bad I look if they don't agree with me :) I still think God has gifted us with a certain "bend" toward various giftings, but I gained some valuable tools in helping me be a little more Christ-focused when I share Him and less ME focused and the results...As David said, we are just planting seeds and the outcome is up to God. The bottom line of the message was, we really need to just be who we are in Christ and when He gives us an opportunity to share Him to others, we should obey and leave the outcome up to Him.

The lastnight of camping, our tent kept collapsing in the night due to wind... it was also raining... (I LOVE camping!)... Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep and the next day, we woke up to more drizzling, non-stop RAIN... we had to pack up everything in the rain and we were SOAKED! We headed to Portland for the rest of the weekend and were so glad when we arrived home and it was SUNNY!