Turned 2! (several weeks ago)

Today I realized I made this post for Elise's birthday several weeks ago and left it as a draft and never actually posted it.

Elise wakes up on her birthday.



She's come a long way in two years!

"You're acting like a two year old!" used to be a compliment for Elise. Now it's par for the course. Elise turned two last Saturday (December 11) and we had a very special party with family and some friends.

By the end of the day Elise was pretty drained. She fell asleep in Mommy's arms well before bedtime.



We are so thankful for the sweet little girl God has given us. These two years she has provided us so much laughter and so many memories!


Last week (early December) Heather and I were very blessed to have a visit from our good friends Daniel and Joy. They are also with MAF, and heading to Papua Indonesia like us. They were driving back from Boise to the east coast after finishing their training and stopped by for a couple days.



Walking by the Missouri River at sunset

(update to the post)....Incidentally Daniel and I are both here for the training in Spokane while our wives are back home :^(

Where's the Line for Jesus?

The airport in my hometown of Payson Arizona has a beautiful view of "The Rim" that our town is famous for. This morning I joined our pastor and fifteen or so other men to study the Bible at the airport restaurant. We were treated to this view as the sun came up and shown on the Rim.



And this is looking in the other direction over Payson



What a beautiful town I grew up in!

I was touched by a true story that Pastor Kraig shared, and I wanted to share it with you. I don't know where or when this happened, but I do know somebody wrote a song about it.

A father walked into a mall with his little son to see Santa Clause. Of course there was a line to see Santa Clause. The little boy said to his father "Daddy, where's the line for Jesus? Santa Clause gives me presents, but Jesus died for my sins. Where's the line for Jesus Daddy?"

Elise and Isla

We took a ton of pictures of those cute cousins, Elise and Isla on Thanksgiving. Oh and one or two of us adults!

And a video of the girls for good measure!

The other day Heather and I got a good laugh after we pulled up this next video on the computer. I guess at the time we were used to it, but since it's been a year since Elise did the scoot, we've forgotten just how funny and odd it looks! It now makes sense to me why there was a little crowd gathering around in the airport when she was doing this. God sure gave us a funny, unique little girl! She adds so much laughter and fun to our lives.

Drive to Utah

Yesterday we got in the car with my sister Kelly, her husband Joe and baby Isla and drove to Utah to visit family on Thanksgiving. Here's a few pics from the beautiful drive through northern Arizona/southern Utah....

Isla hangin' out in the front with Kelly and Joe

One funny thing that happened was the directions Kelly and Joe printed from google maps took us right through Zion National Park, with no warning. It would have been a pleasant surprise except for the 25 dollar fee to drive through there! That poor park ranger gets to break that news to people quite often. To avoid the fee we would have had to backtrack an hour and take another route. Thanks for the warning google maps! We definitely enjoyed the view as we drove through Zion though. We are planning to come back on Friday to Zion, so fortunately our fee is good for one week and we would have had to pay then anyways. Here's a few shots from zion. I notice that pictures don't really capture this place.

In Zion we ran into a family of big horn sheep right off the road, where the road enters a tunnel. Above are the kids hanging out on the cliffside right above the tunnel. Can you see them? They blend in pretty good! The parents (below) were right next to the road, paying no mind to the cars driving by, stopping and watching them!

Today is Thanksgiving, and I am very thankful to get to spend time with my Dad and stepmom Penny together with Heather, and my twin sister Kelly and her husband Joe and baby Isla. We get to meet Penny's sons Tim and Brian this Thanksgiving too, and our half-brother Scott is here too. Thankful to see family that we don't get to see very often.