Baby and the Beast

Isn't this the cutest little Baby Goat. I took this picture hiking at the Continental Divide while we were in Glacier National Park. He (She?) was about 5 feet away from me. So soft looking and clean and white. I just LOVE the look on it's face. A little innocence with a lot of spark!...reminds me of my nieces and nephews. Notice the "Beast" behind the Baby..... that's it's Mom. All scraggle-e, with matted fur (where she has fur) and a few dingle-berries. She has horns too. Reminds me of myself, at times, when the kids were little. The kids looked great but I looked like I hadn't showered in a couple days, heck, I hadn't showered in a couple days...or shaved...or did my hair...or de-horned! Who am I kidding?

Beautiful Bethanne

Beeps...Beepers...Baby Girl...Bethy...Bethanne...Beautiful. I am astonished with your creativity and appalled at your messy room. Your eyes are so big and bright and highlighted but your painted nails always have chips. You have your own sense of fashion and your not afraid to show it. You have accepted your big feet. You have your struggles but you're the best giver I know, the first to offer someone something that you have. You are excited to plant your own flower cutting garden. You hate P.E. class, it's the only class you have that makes you nervous. You said, "If boys ask me out, I'll say, "I'm not the Droid you are looking for."" You crack me up. You are always the life of the party, you don't mind making fun of yourself, you have a hilarious sense of humor. You don't take yourself seriosly. You fight for what is fair and you don't take no for an answer. Sometimes both of those get you in trouble. Often you forget to brush your teeth but you almost always have a necklace on. You are protective of your Mom. You are an amazing cook, breakfast being your speciality. You talk with your hands like your Dad. You love antique glass and old movies. You'd sing like an angel if you only stopped goofing around. You want your independence, to be your 'own person', to not be lumped in with your sister. You are tender to the Holy Spirit and to your Dad, you are a truly repentant girl. You read 2nd grade books because you like them and you love cross word puzzles. When you get scared you want to be close to Dad, and yet you are the first of your siblings to say..."Come on! Let's do this thing!" You eat onion slices raw with nothing else but you hate grapes...weird. You love donuts but they don't love you back. You love lattes like your mom.
You are our Beautiful Bethanne. There is none like you.

God's Beautiful Handiwork: Glacier National Park

Words can not express, nor these little fuzzy photos, the majesty that is Glacier National Park. If you ever have the chance to visit you must. You will not regret it.

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead..." Romans 1:20a

Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery 'I Give for Kids' Phon-a-thon

Thank you to everyone: our friends, our family & our community for your support of the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. During the evening of the phon-a-thon we (all the volunteers) were able to raise $42,015!!!

And this being our first year, we did very well too. Our team came in 2nd for total number of pledges during the evening and Dave came in 3rd for total number of personal pledges during the evening. Go Team!!! (I like exclamation marks!) Many thanks to Leslie, Jose, Ilene & Jack too!

www.vanessabehan.org

Gonzaga's 75th Anniversary Dinner for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

GO ZAGS!

Ellie Boo

Here is the news on the newest member of the Ruff Family; Ellie Boo

She was a stray, visiting the homes in our neighborhood, being fed here and there. She is black but in the sun light looks as if she has dark brown stripes. Our neighbor Shelli said one day she saw Adam in the backyard and "that black kitty jumped the fence and went and sat on his lap!" He'd carry her around like a football and she would just hang there. The girls gave her a little food and from then on she wouldn't leave our yard. We spent the next week and a half trying to find her owner. We scoured the Internet for lost pet postings, put up a sign at the local grocery store, and even went to the Vet to see if she was micro-chipped. At one point we thought we found her owners, but that turned out to be a dead end.
From the moment she first came over she began to woo us with her charms. She was very attentive and cuddly; like a dog. You'd call her and she'd come. (By this time the girls had already named her) She'd roll over and let you rub her belly. Most precious of all; she would jump up, keeping her hind legs on the ground, grab your hand with both paws and rub her face on your hand. And when you hold her in your arms, she takes her paws and puts them on both sides of your face. She knew what she was doing! She was picking us to be her family! I finally asked Dave to make the decision to keep her or not. I am allergic to cats so she couldn't be in the house, but having her be an outside kitty in the elements made me sad. What made me even sadder was the prospect of taking her to the pound. He made the final decision and now we have a cat.
The last two weeks we have been taking care of her and setting her up to live a healthy life. We found a vet and had her vaccinated and micro-chipped. Poor thing, being a stray we didn't know her medical history, so she had like 6 shots that day. She had tummy worms and ear mites too, so we took care of those. This last Monday she was spayed...it seems she had a litter of kittens earlier this year...luckily we got her spayed in time. My kind-hearted husband spent all last Saturday making her two cat houses; one for outside on the back porch and a heated one for in the garage. The girls painted them to match the house and we placed an "E" above the door- ways.
Ellie finally has....a HOME

Black Kitty in box #13

She was very attentive as Dave made her homes.

"A righteous man regards the life of his animal..." Proverbs 12:10a

Double Dip

As the girls have grown, in stature and maturity, Dave and I have witnessed the birth of their relationships' with the Lord. Though they accepted Jesus at a younger age, we put off baptism until they were older, for obvious reasons. Even though they couldn't fully understand what it meant to be 'saved' at 6,8 & 10, we encouraged them to ask Jesus to be their Savior. (Do we ever fully grasp salvation?!) As their 'brain gets bigger' they have been able to understand more and more about what it means to love the Lord and to serve Him. Baptism on the other hand is usually something you only do once. So we asked them to wait until they were older so that it was forever locked into their memory; a defining moment in their Christian walk. This winter, as they have sought ways to please the Lord, they individually come across scriptures that say...get baptised! So that, coupled with their growing maturity in the Lord, we gave them permission to get baptised.
O what a Grand Day(....other than the blasted hornets! Both Dawson and Adam were stung) We were surrounded by family and friends who witnessed their personal testimonies & will continue to be an encouragement to the girls as they continue on in their faith.

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words I command you shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children..." Deuteronomy 6:5-7a

Wildflowers of Glacier National Park

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Matthew 6: 28 & 29

Wildflowers and WILD kids!

Wild Chives (purple tops, very yummy too) and Orchids

This photo is special to me. I took it because of it's symbolism for our family. This plant with it's 5 leaves was growing out of the crack of this huge chunk of rock. This huge rock is situated right next to this massive waterfall. The leaves reminded me of the 5 of us clinging to our Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. "The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18:2

Indian Paintbrush (pink/red)

Fields of Alpine Daisey and Balsam Root (yellow)

Monkey Flower (pink)

Bear Grass. This flower was taller than me!

Yellow Columbine

Huckleberries, Hikes & Handle Bars

Rachel & I

We spent 3 days up at Schweitzer Mountain as part of our family vacation. It has become a favorite winter destination and now a summer one too. One day the girls and I hiked the whole mountain. We spent the morning hiking along the base searching for Huckleberries. We hadn't done that before so it was pretty fun. We laughed a lot, frolicked along the trail and stopped to take LOTS of pictures. The girls rightly observed that they were happy the guys hadn't gone with us...they'd be complaining the whole time that we were moving to slowly or taking too much time stopping. We took the Snow Shoe Trail. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get to Upper Grr but only 20 minutes to get back. Tells you how much lollygagging we did! Next we took the chair lift up the mountain and headed back down taking the Nature Trail. It was a spectacular day with views into Canada, Idaho and Washington.
While we were hiking and picking 'power balls', the guys went extreme Mountain Biking. We brought our bikes with us, but the off-road trails would have trashed them. So the men rented bikes and took off. Of course there is no photographic evidence, but they said they had a blast! Dave flew over his handle bars 3 times! Luckily, he said, his Camel Back full of water softened the hardest blow to his back! I can't imagine flying over my handle bars and landing smack on my back and then getting back on and doing it again?!?! Adam never fell...he is obviously very proud of that. They went down the mountain 4 times with a round of disc golf on top of the mountain in between. At 4 pm we all met at the bottom of the mountain. Dave and Adam were the dirtiest I had ever seen them. Dave had to SCRUB the dirt off his body. He also had some serious road rash to once again prove his manlyness.

On a side note: Bethanne took all of these photos.

Named Upper Grr for the sounds the bears make when you try to pick their Huckleberries on Huckleberry Hill!!

Those stains took a while to come out of our hands!

Wild St. John's Wort

My Beautiful Daughters...