Radiating Adventure

Good morning friends!

Please forgive the delayed posting--we have had quite an adventurous week! I'm going to attempt to capture it in this post, however I fear it may not do a justice--but that's okay!

Let me see--today is Friday and we are in Spokane, Washington about to check out my soon to be alma mater for my graduate degree--Gonzaga University! This past Sunday we pulled into our good friend's home near Tacoma, Washington right outside of Seattle from Olympic National Park.

Prior to Olympic we stayed with some awesome friends in Portland, Oregon, Zach and Catherine. Justin and Zach shared their Williamsburg phase of life together, and Catherine and Lori we're both added to the mix the same time a few years back. Zach and Catherine graciously invited us into their wonderful home allowing us to catch up on being clean, laundry, and REST. They also hooked us up with awesome meals, tastes of Portland, amazing views of the coastline, good laughs and conversation. Catherine's wonderful parents were also in town, and we had a blast of an opportunity to be with the whole fam. We spent our first evening with them over Catherine's wonderful fajitas followed by Dairy Queen (of course) and a movie. (*NOTE: Apparently Zach has the same degree of sugar addiction as Justin--it's quite impressive--and I feel I understand their friendship so much more now after encountering its solid foundation of sugar.) The following morning we headed out to various viewpoints including one incredible panorama of Rainier, Helens, and Adams, a few of the impressive Oregon coastline, and closed the day with what I think was the best beach day we all had ever had. It was GORGEOUS! We enjoyed an excellent lunch, games, more conversation, the Pacific Ocean, starfish, waterfalls, and occasional naps. After the beach, Zach and Catherine shared one of their favorite seafood spots where we were filled with the tastiest of all clam chowder. It was delicious. Thank you thank you thank you for sharing!

We are so grateful for our time with Zach and Catherine and the whole family--we love you guys and we hope to see you again soon!!!

Following Portland, we headed up to Olympic National Park where we had a good hike to see Hurricane Ridge, a bear, and Canada--and then we drove to the Grauman's!!!! The Grauman's are an incredible family that Justin grew up with during his time in Washington State. Words cannot express their generosity, hospitality, and love shown to us. We are so grateful. We arrived on Sunday with plans to leave Thursday morning for Spokane. Their generosity in allowing us to stay for such a good chunk provided us with quality rest, excellent fellowship, and quite the provision for one of our most radiant adventures yet. We offer the most sincere shoutouts to the ones who started it all: Jay and Sallie, and their three kids, their spouses, grandchildren and the rest of the fam--Jaymie and Davis (and their wonderful, adorable little ones: Taylor, Ethan, and Carly), Jayson and Mandy (and their little one on the way!), Jennifer and Brandon--and Sallie's brother Jeff and his wife Julie (congrats!!!). Our week was FULL of cookouts, great food, healthy breakfasts (juice and eggs of course!), amazing conversation, fun games with the kids, and some adventures at Rainier!

Our first adventure at Rainier was a trip to Sunrise with Jayson. We had a good (and quite strenuous) hike to see a peak called the Skyscraper, which put us in an incredible spot to be overwhelmed with Rainier. I always say I did not know what the word "majestic" meant until I encountered Rainier. Words still cannot express the way terrifying power and awesome beauty are so intimately and simultaneously reflected in that insane mountain. It's truly WONDERful. We are so grateful to Jayson for joining us both for the fellowship, adventure, and also for driving--specifically in light of the adventure that would await us the next day.

The truth is--Tonto (our affectionate term for Justin's 1998 Honda Civic coined by my wonderful Dad--hi Dad!), has been experiencing bits of fever throughout the hotter portions of our trip. Two fever incidents to be exact--one in the hottest part of California towards the end of a 10 hour driving day going up through mountain passes--yeah, to be expected. The other was a few days later in similar conditions. When I say fever I mean threat of overheating--both times in which we responded appropriately with not a drop of evidence of overheating to be found. Following these bits of fever we had the car checked out, oil changed, and everything was truly banging on all cylinders (and WELL!).

Then the ultimate "radiant" adventure took place. The day after our hike with Jayson, Justin and I headed up to Paradise on the opposite side of Rainier. About a mile from the top it appeared the car in front of us hit a puddle or shot their windshield fluid or something shooting droplets of fluid on our windshield--only it wasn't the car in front of us. Upon arriving at the visitor center at the top, we exited Tonto and observed that he had...explosively thrown up. That's right...the radiator blew. Bummer. Fortunately, God is SOOOOOOO good, and put us in the PERFECT circumstances for this to take place. We had unloaded all of our belongings at the Grauman's, we had Triple AAA tow us, and we were able to be near air conditioning as to not overheat ourselves. Further, we had great friends on the ready to pick us up from the quality auto repair shop that they had us tow Tonto to. It was the PERFECT situation, and we praise God for His protection and provision!!! As soon as we saw Tonto's issue, we called my amazing Mom to confirm the Triple AAA number, Jay for the auto place suggestion, Triple AAA for the tow truck, and Cleon's Auto Repair to inform them we were coming. We were informed the tow truck would be there in one...and then two...and then three hours, which was really the only thing that bummed us out considering we could have hiked had we known the original time from the beginning--however!! all in all--NO COMPLAINTS! The tow truck got us, Tonto, and took us to Cleon's where we were picked up by Sallie and taken to another delicious cookout of Jay's burgers and Sallie's delicious guacamole and pasta salad. SOOO GOOD. Further, Justin was paid for an extra week of work we had completely forgotten about on THAT SAME DAY Tonto got his new radiator--which almost exactly covered the cost. WE PRAISE GOD! We cannot proclaim His timing, protection, and glorious will enough in this one--and its such a little thing in life. He is so good - all the time - no matter what. He is real, He is good, and He LOVES us. This we know. Thank you Lord!

Now, Tonto has a new radiator, we made it to Spokane, and...WE'RE HEADED EAST!!!! (That's right family--get excited--we're COMING HOME!!!). We're off to check out Gonzaga today, head to Glacier, and then to Yellowstone (don't worry all--we're staying in a hotel for bear-safety purposes--we do pray for the families of those recently attacked). That may be a downer of a note to end on--but please know we're safe and protected and we continue to exercise wisdom and caution as we move throughout our journey.

Again, we thank Zack and Catherine, Jay and Sallie, Jayson and Mandy, Jaymie and Davis, Jennifer and Brandon, and TAYLOR, ETHAN, AND CARLY for a WONDERFUL TIME in the Northwest!!!


We love you all!!!


in His glorious and faithful love,

Justin and Lori

(we'll post pictures and more ThroupeCam stuff soon!)