Critique Club (Part 2)

These are the final three pictures which I submitted for the IPS critique club. 

Assignment 4: Mood, using texture.

(This is a door in the unrenovated building at the back of the Academy property in downtown Vancouver.)

Assignment 5: Sound, using color. 

Assignment 6: Taste, using shape and line.

Colville 2012

Our final adventure in July was participating in MTW's annual missions trip to Omak, WA, to serve the Colville Indian Reservation.  At least two people from our family have been on every July trip since 2005. All four of us got to go this year, which was fun. The MTW team this year included members from the Vancouver/Portland area, the Seattle area, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Most of those individuals had been on previous trips. It's always a joy to work with this group.

My photo documentation seems to be decreasing in recent years, but I still have a few shots to share. Again, Facebook friends, you probably have seen these pictures already.   

The traditional Sunday morning after-church picture. 

Also after church , some of us visited the top of "Suicide Hill." This is where Omak's annual Suicide Race takes place.

And what is the Suicide Race? Horses and their riders race down this steep hillside into the river below. They cross the river and run into the arena you can see over on the right.

The view from Suicide Hill.

While Sunday gives us some time to rest and recharge after traveling up to the reservation on Saturday, Monday through Friday are generally pretty full with various ministry activities. For me, that meant a lot of painting on Monday through Thursday.

The first house I helped paint.

Finished!

The second site I was on included installation of a ramp, which you can see some of our hardy guys working on here.

Another (almost) completed project.

 Painting wasn't the only thing we did that week (just the only thing I have pictures of). Other ministries that week included singing for seniors and inmates at a couple local prisons, construction, Vacation Bible School for the kids, and just visiting friends from past years. We had an exciting opportunity to host a women's gathering on Wednesday night to share "Stories of Hope." The biggest night of the week is Friday night, when we host a meal for all our friends from the reservation.

Through all of those diverse activities, our purpose is to show love to the people of the Colville Reservation, just as God has shown his love to us through Jesus Christ. We hope to show that we care for both their physical and spiritual needs. God blessed this year. Like every year, it wasn't without challenges, but we had exciting opportunities as well.  

Group shot on Saturday morning, before heading back home. It was a great year!

Cape Disappointment Again

Here's part two of our July adventures...

After our hike and before we headed up to Colville for the mission trip, we took a family camping trip to Cape Disappointment State Park. It doesn't disappoint. :-) I think this was the fourth time we've gone there to camp. There are some really nice camping sites we enjoy using--lots of space, surrounded by trees, and just couple minutes' walk from the beach. It's a great place for pictures, so here's a selection of things that caught my eye.

We had a lot of fun with this piece of driftwood.

Something new this year was seeing a nest of baby swallows in the cliff side. It was fun to watch them come to the edge for food, then go back inside their little "cave."

The campground is surrounded by lots of evergreen trees. The ground below them is just a continuous carpet of thick moss.

The last night Christina and I took a walk on the beach after sunset. We could see lights from several boats on the horizon. 

One thing we really enjoy about Cape Disappointment is North Head Lighthouse. It's fun to see it shining at night.

Hiking Lava Canyon

Hi there! We've had such a busy July and I haven't blogged about any of it yet! I'll try to make up for that in the next couple days here. I had a problem with uploading pictures, but I think I've found a solution. If you're a Facebook friend you'll recognize the pictures in this post. But, here I'll give more complete commentary. :-) 

So the first big event of July was a much anticipated hike to Lava Canyon, on the south side of Mt. St. Helens. We had wanted to hike this trail for several years and never gotten around to it; this was the year to complete that goal. It has some pretty interesting features that had attracted us, as you'll see below. However, until this year, the fact that some parts of the trail take you right on the edge of a steep drop-off above a fast river had escaped my notice. *gulp* Praying for safety, we went ahead with our plans to hike it with a group of friends.

I didn't take any pictures for the first half of the hike, so this picture finds us at our lunch spot and turn-around point. This is the Muddy River, which the hike follows. I know, it doesn't look very muddy, does it?

The story of Lava Canyon--as I understand it--is that the canyon was filled with mud and debris by a previous eruption of Mt. St. Helens. All of that was washed out by a lahar from the 1980 eruption. So, in a way, it's a relatively new canyon, I guess.

Having fun with some slow shutter speed.

Our lunch spot, and the bridge that marked our turn-around point.

Group shot :)

 Heading back up-river, we came to the Ship, a huge rock formation that stands in the middle of the canyon. We took a steep little side trail up to the top of the Ship and were rewarded with this view!

Looking up the valley to multiple waterfalls.

 To get onto the edge of the canyon, you have to climb a 30-40ft ladder. 

Then comes the scary part (at least, scary for me). The trail gets very narrow and takes you right past the edge of the canyon. 

Beautiful view of a waterfall, just off the edge of the trail.

Definitely out of my comfort zone.

Looking over the edge.

The final excitement on the hike was the suspension bridge. We had already crossed it earlier on the hike. We didn't actually need to cross to get back to the car, but some of us went back across just for fun. 

For me, the suspension bridge was fun, because I knew I was fairly safe, despite the view straight down to the bottom. I didn't feel so safe on the trail.

The shadow of the bridge cuts across the canyon.

The view down river.

And up the river.

Lava Canyon was definitely an exciting hike! It wasn't terribly long, but it does have some interesting features. I'm thankful for God's protection as well! It was a great time spent with friends.