A great day to be at the beach.

It was overcast but warm as we headed to the island.

We were greeted by some playful Harbor Seals.

The tide was in and the water fun began.

Then the tide went out, the sun came out and it was time to start the digging and sandcastle making. I think they were actually Volcanoes and Mount Olympus and there may have been a magical river in there too, because a simple sandcastle is not what this group is about.

It was also time to run in the shallow water and splash in the puddles.

One last dip in the water...

...and we headed home, happy and sandy.

Climb every mountain...

Ford every stream...

Follow every rainbow...

Away we went camping, to be with family and see the beauty of Mount Rainier.

We crossed a bridge

Went on a hike and took some rests along the way

Another bridge where we ate our lunch

Happy to have made it to the end of our hike.

The whole group at Narada Falls

Matthew was an excellent rock collector.

Check out that bulging pocket!

So many beautiful sights

Yes Alia, you are funny.

Measured a giant Cedar with ourselves.

And looked at giant twin Douglas Firs.

Crossed another bridge.

Loved every bit of it!

Ashlie's baptism

Ashlie looked forward to this special day for weeks. She had a smile on her face the entire day.

It was so neat to see her take this important step. 

We're so pleased with your important decision to be baptized Ashlie!

Jam and Bread

It was jam making day. We made a lot of it.

Matthew helped taste test the final product and as you can see by his smile it passed inspection with flying colors.

Then we went on to make some homemade bread to go with our jam. This was Matthew's first time.

Everyone was happy to help out.

Matthew was so pleased with his own little loaf.

That also passed the taste test.

Success!

Chivalry

Last Saturday we met two of the Knights of Veritas. These knights took us back to the year 1300 a.d. and taught us real fencing techniques vs. Hollywood style sword fighting. We learned about Johannes Liechtenauer, a fencing master who wrote one of the most influential fencing manuals of his time, a manual from which real knights studied. We now know what the "plow", "roof", "ox" and "fool" stances look like in sword fighting. We were given the German names for these stances, but alas, those I have already forgotten. 

And of course we learned about the code of chivalry for Knights. 

We can safely say that chivalry is not dead.

Now the question we have for you is: How much does a Longsword weigh?