Showers of Blessings

Dear and I were up very early on Saturday morning to drive about 3 hours to Nate and Abbie’s wedding at Bridal Veil Lakes in Corbett, Oregon. The setting is east of Portland close to the Columbia River. Umbrellas were a needed accessory for the day. The bride and groom were not bothered by the rain or if they were their faces never showed any concern.

A Beautiful tree canopy led the way to the wedding venue.

Guests were reminded that the wedding venue was outdoors and that because it was in the Pacific Northwest rain was very possible and to be prepared.

This is the mother of the groom, Heidi, with her daughter Nicole. Heidi and I were best buddies in my college years and into our early married years. When Nicole and her brother Nathan were very little they lived across the street from us. This next photo is of Heidi, Nicole, and Nate back in 1984 in Huntington Beach, California where we all lived.

The walkway to the wedding ceremony site. The wedding was at eleven a.m. with a brunch reception following the ceremony.

The setting was so beautiful and peaceful.

The showers would come and go throughout the duration of the wedding and reception.

My cousins arrived via a shuttle bus from the hotel where most of the wedding party and guests were staying. These are two of the couples that we are sharing 40th wedding anniversary celebrations with this year!

Time for the groom, Nathan, to escort his mom and dad to their seats.

Nate’s sister Nicole is due with her and Jason’s 2nd little boy in a month.

Here comes the ring bearer in the wagon with his dad, Jason. Little E. is Jason and Nicole’s firstborn. He was looking dapper in his little suit. Wonder how he’ll react to his baby brother coming soon?

Here comes the beautiful bride, Abigail.

The groom.

The bride’s grandfather and father performed the ceremony.

Parents of the groom trying to stay dry eyed.

Man and Wife

At the reception we were seated with my cousins and their spouses.

Dear was sporting one of his father Rex’s Bolo ties. Fun memories. Maybe he’ll start a new trend.

The wedding cake was actually wedding doughnuts that were provided by a well known shop in the Portland area.

As we were leaving I caught the groom rowing his bride away.

One thing was true for this day, rain or shine Nate and Abbie would be married and start their new life together. They were showered with blessings and we pray that God will shower their marriage with love and stability and longevity!

Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire ~ Hymn

Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;
Prayer, the sublimest strains
That reach the Majesty on high.

Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
The Christian’s native air,
His watchword at the gates of death;
He enters Heav’n with prayer.

Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,
Returning from his ways,
While angels in their songs rejoice
And cry, Behold, he prays!

The saints in prayer appear as one
In word, in deed, and mind,
While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.

No prayer is made by man alone
The Holy Spirit pleads,
And Jesus, on th’eternal throne,
For sinners intercedes.

O Thou by whom we come to God,
The life, the truth, the way,
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray.

Words: James Montgomery, 1818.

June Photo-A-Day Finale

I’ll be headed to Portland, Oregon for a wedding early on Saturday morning so I’ve decided to finish up all of the remaining photos from Kati’s June Photo-A-Day challenge and post them today.

You can click over to Kati’s Little Corner of the World and see more photos for the challenge.

22. Green

23. Pair

It’s always a joy to see this pair of boots in the house when we wake up because we know our son Daniel has made it safely across the mountains to visit us.

24. Hat (oops #24 was Hot not Hat!)

I think a lot of people could describe these young men as “hot”. My favorite branch of our military. I have just a little bias since our son-in-law is a Marine. They always look so sharp in their uniforms!

25. Cold

From my nephew and new niece’s wedding on a Blueberry Farm last summer.

26. Thermometer

Our thermometer showing a very hot day for us here in the Pacific Northwest

27. Fruit

Our blueberry bush last summer. They are at the very green small stage so far this year.

28. Yellow

April Tulips in the Skagit Valley of Washington State

29. Grass

Our son Josh with the green grass of the Cotswolds behind him from September of last year.

30. Looking Up

“…I will lift up my eyes…”

I’ll be coming around to visit your photos later on Sunday or early in the week.

All Aboard!

Judy and I decided to pull together a trip to the Seattle area for the Mennonite Girls Can Cook who live in British Columbia. Judy came up with a plan for the 7 B.C. girls to drive to Bellingham, Washington and hop on Amtrak south. It’s hard to corral that many girls and come up with a good date for everyone but we finally did and Wednesday June 25th would be the day. When the day was finally here one of the 7 had to stay home. Life happens…

I made a sign so they couldn’t miss their tour guide and limousine driver for the day. The car the rental agency gave me seemed as big as a limousine. This photo that Bev took catches the big white ~~limousine~~ SUV in the background. Thanks Bev for the photos I’m stealing from you for this post.

Our first stop was the Queen Mary Tea Room near the University of Washington.

We each had a different china pattern on our tea cups.

The food was delicious and presented nicely. We finished up at the tea room and after checking out the Tea Emporium we drove to our 2nd stop of the day, University Village.

“University Village is an open-air lifestyle shopping center which offers a unique formula of locally-owned boutiques and signature national retailers. U Village is a regional destination for home furnishings, popular fashions and unique gift items with a distinct collection of restaurants and eateries.”

We all enjoyed the beautiful flowers that were blooming in hanging planters and large planters throughout the center. We gave ourselves a time limit and we managed not to lose anyone while we were here.

Next stop before our dinner reservations would be my humble home. A couple of the girls had been to my house before but it was new to the rest.

It was fun to have everyone in my home for a quick refreshment and tour.

We stole Dear away from his bathroom renovation work to take a photo of all of us together on our deck steps.

We made dinner reservations at the Beach Cafe on the Edmonds waterfront which was just a hop skip and jump away from the railway station. The girls wouldn’t want to miss the train.

Several of us chose the different fish tacos for our meal while others had shrimp and scampi dishes. We shared a couple desserts just to top everything off with. By this time in our day we were rather beat and forgot to take some photos of our dishes and desserts.

On to the station and our goodbye hugs.

A lovely day from beginning to end.

I’m already making plans for an Island getaway for the next MGCC girls day out.

Here’s our day through Anneliese’s lens.

Tonight Dear and I are meeting up with Josh and Laura to celebrate a late Mother’s Day/Father’s Day meal together. We will also celebrate the U.S.A. advancing to the round of 16 with our 2nd place finish in group G.

Trains and Automobiles…

No planes were required for my Wednesday tour group.

The train I was waiting for at the Edmonds Train Station arrived at 10:27 from the North. Some of you already guessed the group I’d be taking on a little tour on Wednesday.

Six of the Canadian Mennonite Girls were able to travel by train to my neck of the woods for a girls day out. We missed Kathy who was not feeling well enough for the trip and our Manitoba girls Charlotte and Betty. I will share more about our day when I get a chance to catch my breath after the U.S.A. v. Germany game tomorrow!

X is for…

So here we are at good ole X in the alphabet. This is a letter for ABC Wednesday that takes a little creativity. Thank you to the ABC team for managing this meme and to Denise Nesbitt the founder.

Did you know that X stands for Christ and Cross and other stuff, too?

At Easter I make a Russian sweet cheese spread called Seernaya Paska that we spread on Russian Easter Bread that is called Paska by a lot of people and Kulich by my Russian relatives. In the Russian alphabet X is the first letter in Christ. We decorate the sweet cheese spread with an X and a B. X for Christ and B for arose/risen. Christ is Risen.

If you are a regular on my blog you know I like to wander around very old cemeteries. There are always a great variety of crosses to photograph. Here are a couple.

Windmills have a natural X visible from the formation of their rotor blades.

This windmill is located at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada.

This Windmill is located at Roozengaarde Tulip Garden in Mount Vernon Washington State.

That’s it for my offerings on the letter X. I’ll be curious to come around and see what you found for this challenging letter.

Summer has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. I’m still watching all the World Cup Soccer I can fit in. Our bathroom renovation is progressing. Never a dull moment at this old house. Someone mentioned and I’m in agreement that we don’t seem to have ordinary weeks or days anymore. I’ll have to cling to the verse in the Bible that says…

“This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

Coupeville and Langley

When traveling on Whidbey Island we like to stop in Coupeville for Penn Cove mussels, Freeland for antique shopping, and our favorite town on the Island, Langley, for shops and a nice stroll.

On our trip last week after exploring Deception Pass we headed south to the Island County seat of Coupeville. My plan was to have lunch at Front Street Grill and introduce Lenny and Debbee to Mussels. Coupeville sits on Penn Cove which is known for their mussels. I forgot to take a photo of those mussels. Both Lenny and Debbee didn’t think they liked mussels but after they tried them they became fans.

Front Street Grill offers a whole page of mussels in different sauces that are delicious. This photo is from our trip to Coupeville with my cousin and we had the Coconut Green Curry Mussels. This time around we chose the Rockefeller sauce because someone in the group detests coconut! How can you go wrong with a sauce described like this “Spinach, bacon, Pernod, shallots, garlic and cream. The great thing is that all the sauces for the mussels were Gluten Free.

Debbee and Lenny with Penn Cove in the background.

I thought this was a creative name for this stand located at the end of Front Street.

We headed south again to our final destination on the island, the little town of Langley. We stopped at this garden store hoping some flowers would be blooming on these great trellises. The greenery was nice but we had missed the blooms.

Langley

Langley sits above Saratoga Pass.

My brother in law, Steve, sits on bench.

We got a refreshment here and then headed to the Cinton Ferry Dock.

I think this was Lenny’s first ferry ride.

It was a still glassy day on the Sound. Another great tour behind us we headed off the ferry to meet Josh, Laura, and Dear for dinner on the mainland. After dinner we said our goodbyes to Debbee and Lenny since they’d be headed back to Southern California the following morning.

We had a busy weekend around here and Dear didn’t get as much done as he had hoped to on the bathroom. You know how it goes with projects in old houses you end up finding things that need to be re-done when you open up walls and take a good look at old pipes. I have a couple days off before I put my tour guide hat back on and I’ll be sharing later in the week about the largest tour group I’ve been responsible for to date.

What’s on the list for your first full week of summer?

Deception Pass

On Tuesday of last week I put my tour guide hat on yet again and picked up my group to head to the north end of Whidbey Island. You can access Whidbey Island at the north by crossing a couple bridges and when you travel all the way south on the island you cross the Salish Sea/Puget Sound via a car/passenger ferry from Clinton to Mukilteo.

We stopped on the north side of Deception Pass on Fidalgo Island before crossing over the Deception Pass bridge.

“A group of sailors led by Joseph Whidbey, part of the Vancouver Expedition, found and mapped Deception Pass on June 7, 1792.George Vancouver gave it the name “Deception” because it had misled him into thinking Whidbey Island was a peninsula.The “deception” was heightened due to Whidbey’s failure to find the strait at first.” I thought it was called Deception because of the whirlpools and strong currents that can give boats quite a run for their money.

You can read the history of this Bridge and area if you click here.

We crossed over the bridge and found a parking spot at the State Park property on the Whidbey Island side of the bridge. I was happy I zipped over to Fred Meyer to pick up a Discovery Pass before I picked up my passengers. You need a Discovery Pass to park at the State Park lot.

On this side of the bridge there were several trails you could hike to get down to areas below the bridge with nice beach areas.

We had some fabulous weather and views for our “Island Day”.

We headed up on the bridge deck to get to the center to get more views of the Skagit Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The North end of the island is also home to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor. Oak Harbor is the largest city on Whidbey Island. We stopped in two cities on Whidbey Island, Coupeville, where we had lunch and Langley, my favorite city to visit on the Island. That will be another post.

It’s Sunday afternoon and just about 20 minutes until the U.S.A. v Portugal game kicks off. I’ll be glued to the t.v. hoping for a good result. The bathroom renovation continues, too, around here. I have told you in the past that I’m the sports fan at my house not my Dear. He’s putting in can lights and a bathroom fan and heater today before he seals up the ceiling with drywall. Fun times. Hope your Sunday is going well.

God Holds the Future in His Hands ~ Hymn

God Holds the Future in His Hands

Dread not the things that are ahead,
The burdens great, the sinking sands,
The thorns that o’er the path are spread,
God holds the future in His hands.

Refrain

God holds the future in His hands
And every heart He understands.
On Him depend, He is your friend,
He holds the future in His hands.

We know not what tomorrow hides,
Of sun or storm or good or ill;
We only know His dear hand guides,
And He will be our father still.

Refrain

His hand created earth and sky,
The zephyrs and the storms that rage,
And years to come and years gone by
To Him are but an open page.

Refrain

Live close to Him and trust His love,
Assured that while on earth we roam,
Whate’er may come, He bends above
To guide His children safely home.

Refrain

Words: James Rowe, 1922.

June Photo-A-Day Challenge

Continuing with Kati’s challenge Day 15 thru Day 21.

15. Backyard

16. Bright

17. Stripe

18. Something Old (Wells Cathedral)

19. Refreshing (Cornwall, England)

20. Book (Crime and Punishment – Fyoder Dostoyevsky)

21. Summer (Chilliwack Corn)

This Saturday marks the beginning of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of Winter in the Southern Hemisphere so World Cup will finish up during the Winter in Brazil.

We continue with our Weekend Warrior bathroom work this weekend. We have to use this weekend well since we’ll be traveling to Portland for a wedding next weekend. What are your plans for the first weekend of summer?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Author Archives: Ellen

Showers of Blessings

Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire ~ Hymn

Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire

June Photo-A-Day Finale

22. Green

23. Pair

24. Hat (oops #24 was Hot not Hat!)

25. Cold

26. Thermometer

27. Fruit

28. Yellow

29. Grass

30. Looking Up

All Aboard!

Trains and Automobiles…

X is for…

Coupeville and Langley

Deception Pass

God Holds the Future in His Hands ~ Hymn

God Holds the Future in His Hands

June Photo-A-Day Challenge