Where we are right now...

Well hello little blog of mine.

Has it really been so long since we've talked?

And yet, life won't hold still for a moment.

The school year came to an end and with it welcomed another Kookie into the ranks of Junior  High.

Seriously?

Ben was more than excited to join the Tuesday Night Grandma's Bus Ride into Salem for Youth Group.

And our little woman now sits proudly as "Queen of the Roost", preening her eight grade feathers.

Gasp.

Next Year we will have a High Schooler.

Which left the evening to the seven year old and mommy.

Oh, I forgot to post that didn't I?

The baby turned seven last month.

But we've really been having too much fun with all of this living to stop for a little moment and record these memories.

These days gone by.

And now we find ourselves just about mid summer.

In between the then and now there was another trail marathon for me at Timothy Lake at the base of Mt Hood.

Oregon Splendor. That was a run I would do again.  But a story for another time.

There was an anniversary for us. We celebrated our 15th year of marriage. And I will never forget the way my love reminded me of what we have...his voice filled with emotion as he read pages of memories and milestones that we alone have shared, the valley view stretching before us like patchwork quilt of future adventures waiting to be shared, hand in hand.

What we have is precious.

We know this.

It humbles us really.

Because we haven't earned it.

We've messed up way too much to brag about this beautiful life being something we've earned.

It's about Grace.

Grace is the mainstay around these parts...

by Grace we run, and ride, and laugh, and love, and cry, and fall, and forgive.

I pray that it be the anthem of our home and the song that these children take with them.

 Fifteen Years

 Seven Years

 Twelve Years

 Eleven Years

 Miles and Miles

 Healed Grandpa

 Our Kookies

My favorite.