Leingangs' Christmas Letter: November 2010

11/30/10

Christmas Blog Instructions

This year we did so many things that it would be impossible to tell you about each one in this Christmas blog. So instead of boring you with ALL the details, we included a link to some blog posts in some of the “letters”. If you are interested in seeing more pictures or hearing more details of our “adventures”, just click on the word or words that are highlighted in blue or green.

Only 9 posts show up on the first page. :o( So to see #10, push the Older Posts link on the bottom right of the page after you’ve scrolled to the end.

Cannon Beach

One of our favorite winter time vacations is staying at Ecola Creek Lodge in Cannon Beach. We wander the shops, explore the beach, play in the gym and generally have a relaxing time. This year, my parents came down and joined us for the last couple of days.

picnicking on the coast

Exploring the tidepools at Haystack Rock

Sharing a dessert at Mo’s

Then in November, Chris and I got the opportunity to go again for a free 4 day Pastor’s Getaway at the Cannon Beach Conference Center. What a blessing! We spent four utterly relaxing days enjoying the nothingness and the GORGEOUS sun and 70 degree temps that God gave us!!!

Love this shot of Haystack!

The Girls

In January, the city of Longview changed the zoning laws and made it possible for us to have 8 hens on our lot! So as soon as the chicks arrived at the feed store, we brought home 12 new babies. Before long, four of our “girls” woke us up at way-to-early hours crowing and had to go and live with friends out in the country. Our two surviving roosters are currently living in our basement freezer…

This summer they started laying and provided us with 6-8 beautiful brown eggs every day. Needless to say, we ate a LOT of eggs this summer!

If you want to read all about our chicken adventures, you can check out our farm blog at The Backyard Farmwife.

They were so tiny but they grew FAST!

By March they had to move to their own place.

This is the closest our farm will get to a little red barn.

Theresa painted this for my birthday

Our first and second eggs

Brand New Band

This year both Andy and Zack upgraded. With new cymbals and a new guitar, it sounds like we have a whole new band! In fact, Andy trucks his cymbals to church every Sunday. Once you’ve heard the new ones, it’s really hard to go back…

They are both getting better and better all the time! They even have a couple of little groupies at Family Nite at church. Now if they could only get a couple of roadies…

The new cymbals also seem much LOUDER!!!

She is a beauty!

Sister Day

On the first Thursday of the month, Chris gets together with the other South-end pastors for lunch. So the boys and I started going with him and spending the day in Portland. Then I began spending the day with my sisters, having lunch and doing fun things together. And Sister Day was born…

We have done all kinds of stuff on Sister Day! We’ve eaten at some great restaurants, shopped at some hip little shops, dug through Goodwill rejects at The Bins, gone sight seeing in Oregon City and experienced other cultures. I LOVE my sisters!!!

First trip to The Bins

Pho soup. Yum!!!

Theresa and I rode the Oregon City elevator

Ada is checking out the good deals while waiting for lunch

Bob’s Red Mill has the best bulk food section!

Trying to keep cool in the shade while waiting for our waffles

The wall of herbs!!!

Treats from the Russian market

Deep Creek

One of our favorite places to go on a hot day is my parents’ place on Deep Creek! We always have so much fun down there just splashing in the water and have picnics!

This summer we decided to camp down there for a week… It was a blast! We kicked off our week with a tubing trip down the Clackamas River with Amy and Amy! Later in the week, Amy and the kids joined us for a night. Camping next to family is great!!! Especially when you’re only 3 minutes from your parents… :o)

The picnic shelter is so nice!

Ready to go!

Pancakes in fun shapes just taste better!

The water slide we built was the highlight of the week!!!

When the weather turned bad, Jarts was a fun way to pass the time. Dangerous, but fun! LOL

11/29/10

Family Bible Camp

This year’s Bible Camp was extra special because our friends, the Volds, came so that Justin could be our speaker. With Chris being the director, it’s kind of a crazy week but we have so much fun! The boys played in the talent show again this year and all the Leingangs played a whole lot of soccer…

We were also blessed with great friends who gave us a blessing! We are so thankful for the mighty things God does through this ministry!

The sunset was pretty even if the weather wasn’t the best!

Chris did find time to play some pretty intense soccer

The band

Creation

For the first time ever, Creation NW was not at the Gorge. I have to admit that we were all pretty disappointed but having it a bit closer to home was nice. But the best part was getting to stay in group camping with friends from the churches up north and seeing friends from home while we were there!

While the scenery just wasn’t the same, the fellowship was terrific, the worship was powerful and the music ROCKED!!! God is good!

hangin’ with friends

A view of the stage

The sun did eventually come out!

a view of our camp

Skillet ended just like it should have been!

Great Escape

This year Chris and I again got to help chaperone the youth group’s Great Escape trip. This year’s destination was the Old Ranch at Silver Falls State Park. It was spectacular! The falls were beautiful and it was so much nicer to have the entire place to ourselves by the lodge. We played lots of fun games, explored, swam, went to the coast and ate LOTS of food!

The kids matured a whole lot on this trip! LOL

playing soccer at the Ranch

Seattle

In August we got to spend the day in Seattle visiting some of Chris’ favorite old haunts (Lincoln Park and Alki Beach) and having dinner with his family to meet his Uncle Bill and Aunt Jill from Tennessee. What a fun family day!