JKR Rocks!

I'm not talking about a Jelly Kick Race, or a Junior Karate Roundup... nor is it a Jolly Kringle Rally, a Jumping Kite Race or J.K. Rowling that I'm talking about...no, it's none of these things. What I'm talking about is a couple of girls who have made my day.
Miss J.R. & Miss K.R. - you two ROCK! Thank you very much, you've made my day! Busters is one of my all time favorites!

"Can you watch my purse?"

Consider it watched Miss K. ;) I hope you get as much of a laugh out of this as we all did.






Full size pictures can be found here. Other pictures of the night can be found here.

Japan in 6 days!

I'm going to be in Japan in 6 days! I'm pretty excited and really looking forward to meeting Mr. Huggins, his family, and the rest of the members of Grace Bible Chapel. There are about 12 of us from Trinity & Hillcrest who will be going to stay with Mr. Huggins at Grace Bible Chapel in Japan. The exact location we'll be staying is right here.

Image from Mr. Huggins Picasa Web Albums

Today, in preparation for the trip, I bought a new Point-and-Shoot camera and a new laptop... then I finished the day off by heading up to Green Peter with Ben & Melissa and Paul & Becky (and all their kids) to play around on the water. We did some water skiing, knee boarding, and tubing. Aside from a few electrical issues it was a great day.

As for the trip to Japan - Keep an eye out here for pictures! I'll try to post a daily update with a few pictures each day we're there. The dates we'll be gone is August 1 - 15.

Bike Trip - 2008

I went out and visited the Hillcrest/Trinity bike trip a couple times this last week. My camera is on the fritz, and so I didn't get too many pictures. However, to see the few I did snap click the picture above.

Happy Birthday Gage!

Gage's birthday party was at the Family Fun Center in Willsonville last Friday. Dad & I rode our bikes up to there to partake in the festivities. It was a hot day, so a good day for a ride.
Gage seemed to be having a good time at the Fun Center with his family and friends. Everyone was off playing video games and collecting tickets when they wern't eating Pizza & Cake. There was also a game of laser tag: Boys vs Girls (I hear the Boys won).

Cassie and Dan also came up to Gage's birthday part. Brent really had a lot of fun on the Frog Hopper ride. He kept going on it over and over, even when all the other kids got tired of it.
I had a good time too. I got to hang out and enjoy my time with family.

Once the party started breaking up, Dad and I took off for Stub Stewart Campground, which is where the Hillcrest bike trip group will be camping at. He wanted to check out the site to get an idea on what things will be like. Also - they're headed up there a day early on Sunday to begin getting ready.
Overall things looked pretty nice, if a bit lacking in shade. However, the showers did look pretty nice. So nice in fact that Dad just jumped right in and started showering!

New Prop!

Ben on Water Ski's, originally uploaded by Aftershock76.

A while back I was on the Willamette with Ben and decided to do some exploring...

I found a gravel bar!

So.. Yeah.. my prob was pretty much toast. Fortunately I was able to find a used on locally (apparently the props for my boat are pretty rare and hard to find). The new prop, which is in better condition than the old one was before it hit the gravel bar, along with some fins Ben added to the out drive have really helped with the pulling power of the boat.

Ben has no problem water skiing now. Ben, Daniel, Juliah and I went up to Detroit and did some tubing, skiing, and fishing. We had a great time - but won't be going back to Detroit for a day trip any time soon. Every launch site requires a fee, it's just a bit too windy/long of a trip for a day trip.

We still had a great time though!

4 Pound Smallmouth Bass

4 Pound Smallmouth Bass, originally uploaded by Aftershock76.

I went fishing with Ben & Family up at where the Luckiamute connects with the Willamette. This has become our (Ben & I) favorite hole. We've had pretty good luck there and it seems like the ideal location for smallmouth bass. The 4lbs smallmouth bass I caught seems to prove that. I caught it on a yellow/white/red spinner. It was nice to catch it on a spinner because up until now all the big ones Ben has caught on worms.

I cleaned the fish and brought it home for Dad. He filleted and pan fried it and seemed to enjoy it for the most part.

July 4th, 2008

Melinda and I spent the fourth of July together this year. First we went to a church picnic in the afternoon where we played some Bocce Ball and beat Will's team. Later we listened to a few words from Mr. Wierson and sang some hymns, along with the national anthem.

After that we played a bit of volleyball (I took pictures).

Once things began to break up at the picnic Melinda and I headed off to Aunt Linda's. We visited a while and had some BBQ. Dad's uncle Ken was there so we got to visit a bit more with Uncle Ken and his wife Fran.

We then headed over to Fort Vancouver for fireworks and fellowship in the evening.

I then ended the night by giving the Ray girls a ride in the 'stang. I'm pretty sure they kinda liked it.

A Photography Landmark

The night of July 2nd (morning of July 3rd) I heard some rumbling outside at about 1:30am. After about 30 minutes of it I finally realized that it wasn't the neighbors rolling their trashcan up and down the driveway but instead was most likely thunder and lightning.

Since I was having a hard time sleeping I grabbed my camera and went outside to check things out. I'm glad I did! I was looking forward to some great fireworks on the 4th, but God was there to remind me that he puts on the best fireworks show around!

Ultimate Frisbee - Monday, June 30th, 2008

Hillcrest & Trinity got together for some Ultimate Frisbee on Monday and I was there to snap a few pictures. I found it is difficult to watch a game and take photos at the same time, however, I did manage to get a few keepers.

I thought this one of David was a pretty fun shot. He sure can get up there! (Click the picture for more photos)

I also took a few short video clips. Like this one of Matthew's stellar attempt at defense in which he finally managed to foil the scoring throw.