Catching Up!

Wow, I sure do have some catching up to do! Can't believe it has been almost a month since I wrote on here last...where did the time go?! We have been busy, that I do know! So I will attempt to give a run-down of the last month without writing a book!

Right at the beginning of October we were surprised with our first snowfall! We were all hoping that since we had such a cold summer that maybe we would be blessed with a warm fall and a slow start to winter...but alas no such luck! We even got snow that stuck around for a day or two. We don't have any snow today, but it has sure been cold. The temps haven't gotten above freezing for the last several days. Ethan regularly checks the depth of the ice on our pond...he can hardly wait for the ice to be thick enough to go ice skating! With the first snowfall out comes the boxes of hats and gloves, winter boots and snow pants, and winter coats. Takes us quite awhile to find what fits this year and make a list of the things we will need. Looking through the boxes is like looking for treasures!

Ethan's birthday was October 2 and he turned 13...oh my, can't believe he is a teenager! He was most excited about the fact that now he only has one more year until he can get his driver's permit...yikes! Ethan and Tyler got to celebrate their birthdays with their friends Brandon and Jordan last month by having a camp out. It was a cold night, but they had fun building a fire and watching the sparks dance in the dark. (In the Alaskan summers we don't get to enjoy the camp fire in the dark!) In the morning they cooked their own breakfast outside despite the cold. What a bunch of true Alaskan boys!

Last week Steve and I had the privilege of attending a workshop at ECHO in Fort Meyers, Florida. The workshop was about community development in both health and agriculture for use in overseas missions. It was an incredibly full week of classes each day from 8-5 with fellowship and homework each evening with our class of 12. The other participants are also headed out to the mission field around the world. It was a great week of connecting with other people who are also pursuing God's call on their lives to take the Gospel to unreached people of the world. We learned so much from our teacher, Dr. Daniel Fountain who was a missionary in the Congo for over 30 years. God has taught him so much and he has an amazing wealth of information that needs to be taught to every missionary. We came away from our week challenged and encouraged! This is our class with Dr. Fountain...
Another wonderful aspect of this trip was that we got to be in Florida and enjoy the warm sun! We did spend the majority of our days inside in the classroom, but it sure was glorious to step outside in the morning to walk to class in the morning warmth. We spent several hours each afternoon walking around the ECHO farm and learning about different agriculture ideas for both rural and urban areas. We learned so much and can't wait to get the opportunity to use what we learned!

After our week of classes we spent Saturday just relaxing and driving back up to Orlando for our flight home on Sunday. We stopped along the way and hiked around a national park and just enjoyed the sunshine. One evening we did get to go to the beach with our classmates. We had a fun picnic dinner on the beach and enjoyed watching the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean.

The kids had a good week at home with Steve's mom staying caught up on school. Doesn't sound like they ran her too ragged! No, actually we heard lots of good reports of how much fun they were having, and all I've heard since we got home is, "...but that's the way Oma did it!" We arrived home on Monday and dove right back into school and work...phew what alot of work!