Seattle with the Fabers.

Friday night I drove down to Seattle from Lynden (about 2 hours with traffic) to visit with the newest Faber family, Aaron and Jessica. They live in Bellevue, Washington, right across from Microsoft headquarters. There are a large amount of Microsoft buildings in the area also and they say that the company pretty much dominates the culture. That night we had a nice meal at a Mexican restaurant and went to Jessica's sisters place to hang out. On Saturday Aaron, Jess, and I, went to downtown Seattle (just across the Washington lake/river) and did some sight seeing, these are the pictures that came out of it.


-Me and Aaron by Pike's Place.


-Walking in the park by the needle.


-Walkin around by the water/downtown.


-The Farmers Market.


-The place where the dudes sing and throw the fish.


-Jessica and Aaron as Farmers Market Products.


-The space needle.

Some interesting facts about Seattle:

-Called "The Emerald City", Seattle is one of the most livable cities in the world. It actually receives less annual rainfall (36 inches) than New York City and Atlanta. Surrounded by lakes, rivers, Puget Sound, and mountains, Seattle is a recreation enthusiast's dream.

The greater Seattle area is home to 2.8 million people. Microsoft, Nordstrom and Starbucks are based here. Seattle is also known as the birthplace of the crazes for grunge rock and espresso coffee.

Lynden, WA, and Mr. Nibbelink : The new pad and title.

-THe front of the Van Andel's home.


-The side of the house.


-The bathroom is connected to my bedroom! This is entirely handy... except when I eat mexican food.


-Where I am right now...man it feels weird to have the internet again. Oh, there is much much more to their house, but this is all I felt like documenting.

Also, I think I took a trip to Heaven today.

The Lynden Christian teachers retreat was held at Cedar Springs Christian retreat center in Sumas, WA. This place had two ponds, beautiful trees everywhere, and flowers like you wouldn't believe. The temperature was 73 degrees with a light breeze and the sun was shining off the water like a dream. On top of that, the people were in good spirits, all chit chatting like old friends(whom I am sure many of them were), and the retreat speaker, Cliff Bajema, spoke about Solitude, Silence, and Reflection, using wonderfully crafted poems, stories, and music to share his knowledge and wisdom.

In the midst of the day I had some time to think about how amazing the experience really was,

word...

Thank Him.

Paint-a-thon

This past Saturday was finale of the summer for Brothers Redevelopment Volunteer Department, the PAINT-A-THON. This is the event where 60 houses are painted in 1 day, all done by Volunteers. The paint was either donated by Diamond Vogel Paints or ACE hardware(or bought at a discount price from DV). Five Brothers staff others drove around trucks and brought supplies to the volunteers. After about 9 hours of driving around I stopped at a house to pick up left over paint and while I was talking with some people a guy who was finishing up fell of the middle of a ten foot ladder. He was last person painting and the last person to come down from ladder for the day. The ambulance came in about 7 minutes to pick him up and stitch up the wounds on his legs and potentially fix his potentially broken leg.

The paintathon was a success even though there was one injury. Sixty people got there homes painted and were given hope. Hope is something very underestimated by others when looking at the disable, elderly, and poor. I pray that we can all be hope givers where ever we go!



-This is the house that was chosen to be the center of media attention..thus the signs.

Twin Lakes Camp/ Harvard Hike - The Last Horaah of the Summer.

This week we worked long hours monday through thursday in order to get friday off...so we decided to go to twin lakes, colorado (just past leadville) and set up a base camp to jump to the Collegiate Peaks from. Apparently we underestimated the areas coolness because we were all dumbfounded by the beauty of the area, the friendliness of the people, and the action going on at the place. As it turns out we came to twin lakes as the leadville 100 was going on. The Leadville 100 is a 100 mile bike race on the colorado trail. As it goes famous bikers like floyd Landis and supposedly lance armstrong were there. Its hard to tell who's who when the dudes are flying by on their bikes.
Anywho, we went to hike Mnt Harvard on Friday and found that the road was so bad we could not drive up to the trail head. Thus, we hiked 4 miles up to the trailhead..which was actually just as tough as hiking the trail because of the grade and elevation. We ended up going 3 1/2 more miles up to the ascent of Mnt Harvard, but as luck would have it (crappy preparation/unforseen circumstances) we did not have enough water to make ascent. Also, it was 2:00 before we made it to the base of harvard and you are supposed to be on your way back down from 14'ers around noon. Thus, we were a little bit slow. Soo, we didn't summit, but we got a lot of elevation excercise and saw some amazing landscapes.

Truly a great way to wrap up a phenomenal summer. Word.

I hope to see you all soon.


-I love hiking. Too bad its the last time I will be able to do it for a while. Owell...definately cannot complain about the amount I have done this summer (by I...I mean Nate too, of course)


-up to Mnt Harvard a 14er and one of the "Collegiate Peaks". This is actually a view of Mnt Princeton.


-Near the mnt Harvard Trailhead.


-The campsite at Twin Lakes. really roughing it...


-yup..twin lakes is a nice place to be.


-Looking to the left from our campsite.


-Sepia Evening View from the campsite.


-Another amazing view near our campsite on Twin Lakes just 20 min south of Leadville.


-Down by the Lake.


-Independence Pass Yesterday.

Modest Mouse ...Band Of Horses at Red Rocks

This past wednesday I got to see Modest Mouse play at Red Rocks Amphitheatre one of the nicest amphitheatres in the World! The Amphitheatre seats 11 thousand and overlooks denver. The show was amazing...and I really liked Band of Horses as well, though I hadn't heard of them before I saw them. I have to agree with the Coloradians that Red Rocks is one of the best. It also helped that I got there early and sat in the 12th row. Word.


-view from the top row at the end of the show.