Cupcake Shop in Paso Robles

I was astounded this week to see a cupcake shop in Paso Robles - just 15 minutes from my parents house! What a treat!

We only found it because Trudy decided that she, my mom and I needed an afternoon treat time ... sounded great to me!

We stumbled upon a delicious bakery that had just opened its doors 3 days earlier! We felt a bit shamed to not get a cupcake, but there were so many other delicious looking treats to try ... cupcake on the next visit for sure!

The Dirty Thirty

Jason had the pleasure of turning 30 on August 7th - quite exciting for him ;-) ... It was a slightly different birthday than last year as we spent it with my sister and her family which includes my two very active nephews(aged 3 & 5) who completely adore Jason!They were very happy to be hosting his birthday this year and we made quite the day of it!

A Few Friends

At Montana de Oro with Randy & Sarah ... do you like how we are standing in descending height order?? Pretty awesome, right?













With Gladys in Azusa ... she was my discipleship leader my senior year at Azusa Pacific - in 1998! I have been blessed to continue a friendship / mentorship with her in the 10 years since then!









A mini-PCV (peace corps volunteer) re-union in Ontario ... with William, Jeff and Jamie. We realized what complete nerds we are when we found out that we are ALL still carrying around our Peace Corps ID cards in our wallets!










With Claudia and her family in Pasadena ... my co-worker from Unum, Masters classmate and very special friend!









And, with my older sister and her two boys - we stayed with them for our week in SoCal ... she is an incredible mom and her boys are quite a handful, but A LOT of fun!












Some of my favorite photos from our beach day with the boys...

Catching up!

After spending a week in L.A. and another week up at family camp near Santa Cruz, we've finally landed at my parents house for a few days. I should be able to catch up a bit over the next few days with what we've been up to in August so far ...

In the meantime, we had a great family dinner tonight! Probably the last time that we will all be together until Jason & I return from Palau next summer...

Happiness is ...

... my first In-N-Out burger in 13 months!!!

YUM!!!

Yes, we are finally back in wonderful California.

We are fortunate enough to get to spend a week in Los Angeles to visit with family/friends there, then spend a week at a family camp near Santa Cruz and a final week with my parents before heading back to Spokane and onto the great unknown...

Hangin' with Jeremy & Krista

Those of you who attended our wedding will mostly likely remember this very striking couple - Jeremy & Krista Sandin. Jeremy & Jason grew up knowing one another and we were blessed to be able to spend some time with them last weekend at a cabin owned by Krista's family which lies between Spokane & Seattle (where they live).

Saturday morning, we decided to go for an "easy-to-moderate" hike (as defined by Jeremy!). What I soon learned was that hiking Sandin-style meant driving this 4-wheel drive vehicle until it was no longer feasible, then heading out in the general direction of where a waterfall was known to be. There was no trail or path at all!

The reward for our efforts was this fantastic, untouched waterfall!!! So beautiful! Can you find Jason in the picture on the left?

Before leaving on Sunday, we took a quick walk up to the top of the dam just minutes from our cabin.

Krista & Jada walking the dam wall while Jason goes for a quick dip in the resevoir.

Views from the top of the dam.

One last photo at the Preszler cabin before leaving on Sunday ....

Angaur!

We have made our decision ....

We will be traveling to Palau at the end of August and will live on the small island of Angaur for 10 1/2 months. We are quite excited about the prospect of returning to the South Pacific for what may be a Peace Corps type experience without the bureaucratic headache. Woo-hoo, tropics here we come!