travelin' north

time with Joani and Mark in Albany, OR


Allison (Joani's little girl)


Ed and Becky Hultgren (my aunt and uncle)


Erick and Jennifer Hultgren (my cousins)


Bart and Amy Horton helped us finish packing and loading the Uhaul Monday afternoon

We're on our way back to Alaska and have enjoyed staying with friends and family along the way. Monday night we crashed at Becky and Ed's house in Walnut Creek, CA (my aunt and uncle). Tuesday, after a 12 hour day of driving we crashed at Mark and Joani Curtis' house for dinner a quick catch up on life and good night's sleep and now we are in WA with Ben's family for four days before we hit it hard through Cananda. Above are some highlights of our first great road trip adventure together. :) Thanks to everyone for your awesome hospitality! It's been great to visit along the way.

Branson, MO

Ladies day out shopping


Aimy, Brittany, Allison


Jennifer, me and Beth


Silver Dollar City Amusement Park. . . can you tell we're together??











Girls G3 lunch, we made 7 different kinds of panini a little time intensive but DELICIOUS!





Guys G2 lunch, BBQ on the grill

This past week was the 10th triennial Burdine family reunion. The "Burdine family" is my mom's side of the family. This year we met up in Branson, Missouri for the week. Reunions vary on location being that everybody lives across the country from Washington DC and North Carolina to Ohio, North and South Dakota, California and Alaska. My grandparents started the tradition the summer of 1980 when I was two in hopes that our family would commit to meeting once every three years and stay close despite the distance we've always had. Thirty years later and years after both grandparents have passed away we are still going strong with the Burdine family reunion tradition. It is something we all look forward to and enjoy.

wAteR tiMe!!

. . . and there were cannon ball, diving and belly flop competitions


Jim's Chou mien noodle pose


Aimy and Allison


Jennifer the toughest jet skier, she flipped off hers had a bloody nose and got back on the rest of the afternoon!


Ben and I

One "stipulation" to hosting reunion is to always have it near a body of water, an ocean, lake or river. This year in Branson we had it on a huge lake that was WARM. We soaked up every minute of water time we had! Two days we rented a pontoon boat to see sections of the lake and one afternoon we rented 3 jet skis to play around on. We had a BLAST!! It was super refreshing and relaxing!

Burdine Family

Ed, Becky, Erick, Beth and Jennifer Hultgren (Becky is the oldest Burdine sibling)


Jim, Lynda, David and Aimy Eller, Ben and Anita Mosier (Lynda is the 2nd Burdine sibling)


Jim, Lynn, Allison, Katherine and Frederick Burdine (Jim is the 3rd Burdine sibling)


John, Tammi, Alex and Brittany Burdine (John is the youngest of the four siblings)


Burdine G-2 (four siblings)


Burdine G-3ers (generation 3) grandkids

anniversary get away . . .

Last night I planned an early 1st anniversary get away for Ben and I since we will be on the Alaska Highway driving during our real anniversary (June 27th). It was SO fun, so relaxing and the perfect break in a crazy busy end of the year with work and moving. We went to Santa Barbara to a quaint B & B a little over an hour from our place in Castaic. Some ladies I asked from church recommended this place the Tiffany Country House Inn and it was wonderful!

The B & B we were in had 8 room inside and then a few cottages out in the back yard. The house was built in the late 1800s and had lots of character. It reminded me of a house from Anne of Green Gables (that's for all the ladies reading this that know exactly what I am talking about). To top off the character guess the title of the room we stayed in . . . "The Darcy Room" yes just like Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. It was one of two rooms that had a KING size bed, private patio, and huge jacuzzi tub all to ourselves!

We spent the night Friday night, toured around town a little and spent the afternoon today at the beach one last time before we leave So Cal. Sunshine, warm weather, and beaches have been some of the perks to being in California. This morning after an amazing breakfast we spent an hour or so out on our private patio in the sun journalling.

Mark and Merry Doner gave us journals last year as a wedding gift to use to document each year of marriage. Merry shared this with me years ago and I always loved the idea. Each year for 25+ years now they go away for a night or two right around their anniversary and journal to each other highlights, events, and prayers answered throughout that past year of marriage. After they finish journalling they read what they wrote to each other. And so Ben and I have started, what I hope to continue for decades to come, a tradition of getting away for our anniversary and remembering all we have learned, laughed about, loved, and grown through each year we are together. Thanks for the great idea Mark and Merry!

All in all it was a memorable and perfect weekend together reminiscing about our last year together. We've had a GREAT first year!

P.S. I added a picture of a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu sign b/c it is one of the actual training gyms that Gracie Barra coaches at. Weird I know but Gracie Barra is knows for dominating the sport (the whole family does) in MMA and all over the world. No I am not an MMA fan club member but I know a little about it.

farewell party

Little Miss Mehringer


Darry and Cathy Duhm (neighbors and one of Ben's bosses at Cragoe)


Molly, Emma Grace and Ben


Darry & Cathy with their happy foursome


Teri White (Bob and Teri did our premarital counseling)


Jason & Tammy (seminary friends from Mississippi)

This weekend we had a going away open house at the Gillespie's house (seminary friends) to say good bye to people we've met while being here in So Cal. There were just a handful of people that stopped by, a lot people were out for the holiday weekend, but it was fun just the same and nice to have time to chat with those who did make it. Thanks Jason and Tammy for opening up your home!

We are going to miss the sweet fellowship we have here. God has blessed us with several life long friendships during Ben's four years and the year and a half I have been here. It's exciting to think about how our paths may cross again in future years Lord willing.

Shag

Yesterday at while we were spending time with our friends the Gillespies and Duhms I met a new and rather interesting friend. I was standing at the kitchen counter getting something to drink next to Molly who was perched on a bar stool at the counter. Molly is the token girl of four Duhm children, two older brothers and one younger brother all a year apart. Yes a busy house of preschool/kinder children. Just to set the stage a little Molly can rough house with the boys but she is the princess of the bunch. She loves to dress up, wear barretts and tiarras, paint her nails and be . . . a girl.

Standing next to Molly at the counter I noticed a pretty pink sash around her shoulder and looked down to find a strategically tied harness, if you could call it that, where her baby doll was hanging. I was a little taken aback at first sight, partly by the harness and party by the war paint on the baby. Not sure whether to laugh or be horrified I asked Molly about her baby.

She looked down as I asked like she had forgotten the baby was there at all, "Oh yea, that's Shag my baby." Shag for those who are confused by the gender neutral name is a girl. She explained that Shag likes to go places with her. Shag's legs are kind of soar (they are hanging on by a thread) but her arms are okay. I inquired about the fancy war paint (black sharpy) all over Shag's face and foot thinking it likely was one of her three brothers that got a hold of the doll and disfigured it but no it was make-up and the big circle on her forhead was a bruise. I'd have a bruise on my head too if I was drug all over the yard and up and down stairs. Molly's mom Cathy told me that Shag one of her favorite dolls and she takes it everywhere. Funny the things we love to pieces (literally) when we are little.

counting down . . .

Today is the three week mark. In exactly three weeks from tomorrow Ben and I will leave for the Burdine triennial family reunion . . . Ben's first of many to come and my 10th, yes that makes me 30+ now, still not sure when that happened. So the craze has begun, or maybe just continued. :)

Our days are filled to the gills and life is good, very good, but very busy. Ben is finishing a two week summer class tonight which is the grand finale of his seminary career and we are SO glad. He has worked crazy hard the past four years. I am wrapping up three more weeks of work before we leave on June 12th for Missouri for family reunion. Ben is also finishing up a part time job with Cragoe, a pesticide company he's been working for for the past couple of years. In the midst of all that we are packing up the house here and there and soaking up as much time with friends as we can before we leave.

We are hoping to sit down sometime this weekend and solidify our hypothetical drive to AK a little more. The general plan at this time is . . .

* May 28th Ben finishes work with Cragoe and starts prepping for youth ministry in AK
* June 11th I finish work with the Saugus School District
* June 12-20th family reunion in Missouri (yes we are flying, yeah!)
* June 22nd load the Uhaul and drive to San Fransisco to spend a night with the Hultgrens (my aunt and uncle)
* June 23rd drive to Oregon and spend a night with Mark, Joani and Allison
* June 24-? Spend a few days in Washington with Ben's family
* Get to AK by July 3rd but sooner if possible
* July 4th Ben leaves with Faith Bible youth on their first summer trip (I crash and unpack a little)
* July 18th we both leave with the youth for a week long VBS in Eagle, AK (the trip we went on last year right after our honeymoon)

Ben is going to hit the ground running literally full speed ahead so I am hoping he can soak in some down time before we leave my last couple weeks of work. We are excited for the move and sad at the same time to say good bye to close friends down here. A positive is that we will likely be back occasionally for the March Shepherd's conferences at Grace when we can see people here again. We are so thankful for God's provision, provision in giving us both jobs in Alaska, provision in providing finances to get there (Uhauls to AK are not a cheap endeavor!), and provision in blessing us with sweet fellowship all along the way, here in CA and back up in AK. God is faithful.

fun girl time

a belated birthday tea











an over cast day in Santa Monica






Last week Thursday through Sunday one of my good friends from Alaska Carrie Lambing stop through for a visit on her way to a photography workshop in Newport Beach. I took Friday off and we soaked in a full three days of girl time. It was a fun weekend filled with sleeping in, shopping, going out for tea, admiring fine art at the Getty, strolling along the beach, and laying out at the lake. Thanks for making the time to stop through Carrie it was refreshing and a great excuse to put off packing!