Ringing in the New Year

2009 is finally here! Another year to be about the Lord's work. Last night the pastor of our church had a special Bible Study which focused on Bible Prophecy. If you have never heard of Bible Prophecy it is truly fascinating and a excellent thing to study. One-fourth of the Bible is Prophecy. According to Bible Prophecy and all the Prophecy which has been fulfilled so far, we are definitely living in the "Last Days" as the Bible calls it. This is exciting to me as I think about the future. It also really encourages me to be living my life for Christ and not for myself. Now is not a time to be selfish but to be loving others the way Christ calls us to do.

After Bible Study last night, our really good friends Jon and Laura (their getting married in Aug!!!) came over to chat, play games and ring in the new year with us. We busted out the Sparkling Cider and ate yummy pound cake and chocolate, hazelnut brownies.

Laura and I stated that at midnight you are suppose to kiss your significant someone. The guys had never heard this before, but they were all down with the kissing :-).
Watching the Ball drop
Playing a very competitive game of Fill-or-Bust

Got to get in a game of Pig

Fun times in Leavenworth, WA

The day after Christmas we headed up to Leavenworth, WA for some Family fun. The above picture is Multnomah Falls. It was sure pretty. I snapped this shot as we were driving by on our way up north. The waterfall was so pretty in fact that my cousin's boyfriend proposed to her there on Christmas day. Congratulations Evie and Michael!!!!
More pretty Columbia Gorge shots
Walking to the town of Leavenworth from our Condo
The town is very small and quaint. It looks like a Bavarian village. We ate lots of sausage and pastries. Yummy!!!
This is the main drag through town
Matthew and Rachel eating lunch at a outdoor restaurant which served all kinds of sausages.
Anna and Jason
Mom and Dad Gault
Rachel eating a yummy Kelbasa
The city lights up at night. Every where you looked there was beautiful Christmas lights.

Me being viciously attacked by a bear. Ok, he was really harmless.


Crazy Sarah :-)
We traveled to Steven's Pass to go skiing.
The little pick snowball is me skiing down the mountain
Mom Gault and I coming down the mountain. Since I have only been skiing three times before, I decided a good goal for the day would be to go down a blue run before the day was over. I ended up going down a blue run 9 times that day. I was pretty proud of myself. I tried to do a little bit harder run, but I ended up on my butt a few times. I guess I will have to practice some more.

This is Matthew skiing down the Mountain. He is a great skier. He did some double black diamond runs while we were there. I was impressed but even more, thankful that he came back alive!!!
Yes, I know my nose is bright red. I kinda look like Rudolph the red nose reindeer.
The town of Leavenworth has a lot of pretty pictures. I took a few pictures so you could see what they looked like



This was a nice little cafe' and bakery in town.
My brother-in-law Jason getting some coffee before we started traveling home
And this is what Matthew did for most of the 7 hour car ride home. I couldn't help it. I thought he was in drool/dream land :-)

Christmas with our Family!!!

Christmas Eve was spent with my family this year. We packed all our stuff my parents house and then all piled into one car to travel to my Aunt Gail's apartment in downtown Portland. We had a great time visiting and opening up some presents. We wish we could have staid longer but the traffic was not pretty. We did spend some quality time chatting and laughing in the car on the way there and back.
After visiting my Aunt we drove back to my parents house in Butteville and ate a wonderful dinner of home made mac and cheese, yummy salad, rolls, peas, and olives. Then we opened presents and finished the evening with our very own Christmas Eve Service since ours was canceled.
We then got stuck in the snow right in front of my parents house. We pushed the car back into the driveway and put the chains back on so we could make it out to the freeway. What an adventure. Since the freeway was pretty clear, but the back roads were not, Jason and Mom Gault came and picked us up in the Costco parking lot. We unloaded all our stuff into Jason's Blazer and headed to the Gault's house.




Matthew got a nice new BBQ for Christmas. When the weather gets nice we will have a BBQ party!!!
We played lots of games. Jenga, Settler's, Fill or Bust. We had lots of fun.