Yes, I'm Alive

Yesterday I received an email asking this question!!! It's nice to know someone was wondering! We have had a busy, but good week. I thought I would post some pics. We are really trying to do a good job of taking a Sabbath for our family. We really need it after the hard weeks that we have. So we have been trying to do Sunday afternoon through Monday morning or all day Monday or something. It is going to be more complicated when school starts, but right now it is working well. Often we are so tired on Sunday afternoon that we (Brent & I) just sleep, but this week we decided to go and see the Kern Canyon. We have heard it is beautiful, and it begins at the northeastern part of town, so there really was no reason that we hadn't seen it, so we headed up there, and ended up driving through the whole canyon up to Lake Isabella. We got some good pics of the day.
This is one picture of the Kern Canyon and the Kern River. We have heard that it is one of the steepest rivers in the world, as well as one of the deadliest. It is beautiful, though!
Jason on top of some rocks on the beach of Lake Isabella.
All the guys on top of some rocks that were actually out in the lake, but not very deep.
James at the base of those same rocks.
Here are the kids playing on the beach.
Our intention was not for them to swim. I looked at a map before we went up and did not see any swimming beaches, but people were swimming when we got there, so plans changed. The kids all got in in their clothes. Sarah traveled home in her carseat in only wet panties!!! We wanted to stop and get ice cream - we ended up going through a drive through! It was fun, though!




We finally had approval from the insurance company to fix the wrap on Kaleo's ice cream truck, so Monday we had to take the truck down to LA to be left there for the install. Brent drove down in the truck and we followed him to pick him up and decided to spend the afternoon at the beach. Jason reminded me a couple weeks ago that he hadn't been at all this summer. If we are going to live that close to the ocean, we should be enjoying it, right? So we went to Santa Monica. The water was pleasantly warm for the Pacific Ocean. Even Brent and I swam. Sarah did not really like the waves, so she spent her time on the beach in the sand or cuddled under a towel. We ended the evening with dinner at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Hollywood - a popular little dive. It was yummy!!! Here are a few pics from the beach.





We had something interesting happen at Santa Monica - there was a family swimming next to us. We noticed that the little boy was in his underwear, but we just figured he had forgotten his trunks (and probably he had). But when the parents got out of the water, they changed out of their wet clothes and into dry clothes, right there on the beach in front of everyone!!! They were not quick about it either. They took their time air drying and such. We concluded that they must be from Europe because they did not seem to think anything of what they were doing. There are some beaches around where that would not be unusual, but Santa Monica is not one of them!!! It was interesting. Amazingly enough, though they were right next to us, the kids never looked that direction. They never even knew it happened until we talked about it later.

It was a fun two days.

As for the earthquake, we did not feel anything. We didn't even know about it until Brent's dad called to check on us. Apparently some of our friends did feel it, but not us. My one friend who said she noticed it, said she did not really feel it, but she noticed her lights swinging randomly in the house. For those of you who wondered, thanks for thinking of us. Brent has felt an earthquake, but I have yet to experience one. There was one late at night one night when Brent was awake, but I was sound asleep and didn't feel a thing.

Brent, James and Jason are going overnight tonight on a day long mission trip to help build a house in Mexico. I am excited for them. You might say a prayer for their time away if you think about it!!! This is Kaleo's Gone for Good for the month! Pray for a friend who is going with them. It is a person who has really been asking lots of questions and seeking the Lord but who does not know Him. He wanted to go on the trip, though, so Brent will have some time with him. It's pretty cool. I have to go and work on getting things packed for them.