Picture post

Well, yes another long awaited picture post! Hopefully I will be able to show some pictures when I come home in a couple weeks, but here's some anyway.

Here are some pictures of when I went bear hunting with my friend Hunter. We went up Baromter Mountain on a Friday night (this is a couple months back) and slept on the top of the mountain. We found one bear but it was too far away and when we tried to get closer we lost it. It was fun though. We had a view of Mt. Baker (when the clouds were gone) and of Table Top Mountain as well.







Here are some pictures of a couple days when Kevin was here before the conference. As usual, I didn't take as many pictures as I would like to see after and they never look as good as they do in real life. We went to the Capillano Suspension Bridge (picture 1), Stanley Park (2,3), Hell's Gate(4,5,6), Bridle Falls(7), and Deception Pass(8,9- it was foggy).












After that was the conference. Here's a couple pictures. I don't have any group pictures right now, but I'm supposed to get a couple from Nicole. Here's some pics I have though.






Here are some pictures from around the house and me with the kids.






Brian and I went to a Vancouver Canuck's game (they lost :()We had a costume party at Dave's house, and I took Nic to "Disney on Ice".




Well, that's my pictures so far to date I think. I'll try to write more some other time! See you all in two weeks!

Col. 3:12-17

Here's a passage which I have come across a couple times in the last month and I thought I would share it.

12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Col. 3:12-17) [Bible Gateway]

Imagine how much easier it would be to get along if we could all obey verse 12 and how much of a better witness we would be to the world?
Verse 13 reminds me of Rev. Reutger's (spelling?) sermon (in Burlington) from a couple weeks ago when he said how often we forget the part of the the Lord's prayer after we ask for forgiveness of our sins - "as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12) [Bible Gateway].
Verse 16 - sing more - Grandpa (Harry) VanDyken (my second name is named after him) was nicknamed happy partly becuase he was singing all the time. Lately I have remembered that and I try to sing more...I don't think the guys at work like that so much though :) Usually I can only remember the tune and so I whistle it instead.
Verse 17 - Grandpa Enter wrote some little business card sized notes which I remember were tucked in places around their house to see them and they said "Is God getting the Glory?"

A quick picture post.

Well, it's been so long since I've posted and I'll never be able to catch up on everything, so here is a quick post with a few pictures I rounded up. I've forgotten to take pictures a few times at things I've been at and so I'll just try to mention them, but I won't remember the most of them probably.

Here's a picture of a snowman we made way back in December at the Lynden church. Brian backed his truck up to it and I had to climb part way up the snow man to get the last ones on there. That's the tallest snowman I've ever built I think.

We went dirtbiking sometime in June. I drove Brian's quad around the track a few times and then I took a bunch of pictures.
Quin, Marina, and one of the neighbors Tristain. If you click on the picture you can see the giant slug that Quin caught. It's on the left side at the back of that insect 'farm'. The farm was thrown out afterwards because the slug was so slimy it ruined it.

We (Brian and Kayla and I) went to Brian's work one day to walk around and see what he does. I took a bunch of pictures of flowers and this is one of my favourites. Below are most of the tractors that they have (one is gone). Plus they have offroad dump trucks, excavators, rock picker, a chipper...and other machines. They do land clearing.
Happy 4th of July! I know, I'm Canadian, not American, but the only fireworks I saw were on the 4th of July. These are at Darin's house. It was a great show and I made a new friend - Darin's 2 (or 3) year old neice. I must not be a good friend though, cuz I already forgot her name! Terrible. She was really cute though and she sat with me through a bunch of the fireworks.
Later in July I went on a hike with Brian's family to some old Gold Mines. Tim and I went into one that was half submerged in water and we're pretty sure that we could see gold flakes in the walls. I guess it wasn't enough to make the mining worth while though. I believe the hills are now being logged...possibly as you read this.
Also in July, I went camping at Ross Lake with a whole bunch of guys from Lynden and surrounding area. We went boating, swimming, had a big rope swing, went in FREEZING cold water (one side of the log jam was warm and the other must have been slightly above freezing), saw a coupe eagles, and cooked over the fire. We had a great time. Some of them got there Thursday morning, we got there Thursday night and left Saturday evening and the rest left Sunday evening.
If I thought my view from my cabin back in May was good, beat this one! It was awesome to open the tent in the morning and see this!
I guess July was a busy month. Here is the only picture I took while camping in Osoyoos State Park. It also was great fun. With about 20 or 30 people we rented two Jet Skis for a whole day. In the end it cost uner $25 for me and I was out on it twice for about 10-20 minutes each time.

Besides this what have I done? Well, I went to the beach a couple sundays ago for a couple hours, I helped at a fundraiser garage sale/car wash (we had a competition and the guys' car wash sorely lost to the girls' garage sale), worked on my car (the exhaust doesn't rattle anymore and almost all of the interior is back together), spent time with my friend's and their families, helped put a room on the Schut's house, helped Laurie & Steve with some moving and a bit of cabinet work (they're almost into their new house!!), dug up our back yard (to improve the drainage), played soccer, oh and I guess I worked a lot in there too.

I miss you - family and friends back east! I'm not sure when I'm coming back, but I'll see you all again sometime! You know my e-mail and some of you know my phone number.

News, old pics and new pics.

I haven't posted for a while so I thought I should post some new pictures. These are some pictures of the family I'm staying with. We were going to the Capillano Suspension Bridge and I was playing with my camera. The kids seemed a bit annoyed, because Quin got a little red in the face

and Marina felt really blue.
I just have to remember when to use those settings to make good pictures.

When I came home from work a while back, Quin and Marina were having a picnic under the tree across the street. The food for the picnic? Cheerios (dry)

There is a forest across the street as well and we go hiking in there every once in a while. Sometimes I take the neighbour kids. Several times I have had a group of four kids and we just walk through the forest to see what we can find. We have found an old fort (which the kids are sure used to be the home of a hobo) deer tracks, coyote tracks (which I didn't point out to the kids in case they got scared). We also found a bee hive in an old tree stump. I put Jake and Noah up on the stump and all of a sudden Jake noticed a couple bees and asked me to take him off (this stump was about 5 feet up in the air and about 3 feet across). I took both of them off and then noticed a swarm of about 15 bees near the top. So we promptly got out of there. I was envisioning a big swarm of bees kinda of this sort and was kinda worried!Well, it happened more like this (besides the running)

and it got me right in the leg. Thankfully I was the only one to get stung. I looked at the forest via google's satellite images and saw a field. So I headed towards it when I was with Quin & Marina. It was pretty neat with long grass and a big open spot in what we thought was just a big forest.

As I was saying earlier. We had gone to the Capillano Suspension bridge, and here's a picture of the family I live with (I try to avoid names sometimes since other people can view this blog...just some privacy). We were standing up on some boardwalks up in the trees. Here's a picture walking across the bridge. Here's another picture from their website gallery.

There are a bunch of old cars and a truck for sale on 16th Avenue and this one in particular I think would be really awesome to have as a project car to hot rod. Some people commented that it was a really cool picture and so I cropped it a bit and posted it here.
Here's a truck. It looks partially restored (the frame seems new) and it's got an engine in it. The Model T in the background is $3000 and electric start is available (there is a crank sticking out the front bumper :))
And here's a picture of my BC miata with the top off. I thought I was too early for church one Sunday morning. I was headed for Burlington and there was a huge border wait. So I was way too late to get to Burlington, so I decided to go to Lynden instead. Well, it used to start at 10:30, and I got confused and thought it still did start at 10:30. Well, it was about 10:05 when I passed a field and thought it would be a cool place to take a couple pictures of my car since I was so early. Well, I took a couple pictures and then drove on to church. When I pulled up I realized that I was wrong, since all the cars were there. So I was a couple more minutes late :O
Well, the soft top is almost on, so that will be nice to be able to have the option. I was at Brian's one night and it rained with the top off (I had left it in Langley).

On Tuesday I went down to Burlington to watch a movie at Josh's and I got a little bit of a surprise when I tried to cross the border. It had been a particularly busy week and I had gone to the states every day for a week. The border guard didn't seem to like this very much though. Apparently if you spend a lot of time in the states it's called an 'intended immigrant' and I don't have a visa, so apprently that's illegal! Who would have thought? Well, he said to consider it a warning. If I was found guilty of being an 'intended immigrant', I could be banned from entering the U.S. for up to 5 years! So that evening, on my way back into Canada, I stopped in the border office and asked them some more questions. Apparently, all I need is proof of employment and residence in Canada for the last 6 months and I will be fine. So now, not only do I have to carry around my birth certificate and driver's lisence; I also need to have pay stubs and proof of Canadian residence.

The U.S. isn't the only ones giving me a hassle. The Canadian border guards don't seem to like that I have a Ontario Lisence after living in BC for over 6 months. So now I've got to get a B.C. lisence too. And I should apply for a passport.

Yeesh...maybe I just need to move to the States. Anyway, I've got more pictures, but my camera is in my car and I need to get more sleep.

Happy Birthday Dad and Mom! Hope you both had good days. I'm still trying to get a hold of you, Mom! I hope you both had a good vacation for a couple days! I hope I can see some pictures of it and hear your stories. I need some birthday lists too! :)

You all know my number too, I think, so I think yous could call :) I will try to call a couple of you this week as well. It was good to talk to you for a bit the other night, Kevin. Good night all!

Visit to Ontario - May 17-23

Thusday morning I left from Abbotsford, stopped by Calgary, and then landed in the Kitchener Airport!! WestJet just started flying into Kitchener Airport on May 14th, so it's right in my back yard. Speaking of backyard, I all of a sudden recognized some of the streets from the air as we were going down and quickly snapped some pictures. Here's a few pics.

It's the one right in the middle of the picture with the off-white siding and dark brown shingles, just past the grey roof.

When I got there, Tim & Jeanette and Dan & Jolene, all their kids, and Mom & Dad.
Dad, can you send me some of the pics you took at the airport? Thanks.

Afterwards, they all came over for dinner. Amy took some pictures, I guess that's why she's not in these.

Laura

Josh (he will not give a normal face on a picture if he can help it).
Nathan
Emily
Friday I went shopping in the morning, and then to Nate & Beth's for dinner and a visit. I guess I never took pictures there. They've got a nice place in Brantford and Nate's got a few projects on the go there. Lord willing, their family will have an addition in September! Congrats!

Afterwards, I went to Brian & Holly's and slept there and visited them in the morning. I played with the boys and helped with a bit of work in the garden. They also are expecting a new family member. Come December I think?

Jordan, me, Andrew.

In the afternoon, I went to Nik and Andrea's wedding. Apparently I didn't take any pictures there either!

Sunday was the baptism of Owen Josiah Enter (Rob & Liz's new born) That's #11 nephew/niece for me.

Mom and Owen

Dad playing with Kylie, Amy, Jenna, Emily, and Caleb at the baptism.

After church I went to Rob & Liz's for a couple hours. The kids were taking a nap most of the time, but I did get to see them for a little bit.

Kylie after her nap.

Caleb after his nap.
When Rob & Liz left for church in the evening, I went to Dan & Jolene's church. It was cool to see all the renovations they are doing there. THe kitchen looks like it will be awesome, Dan and Jolene! I wish I could have helped a bit with the construction. Here's their family. They also are expecting a new one in July.
Nathan - he co-operated with a nice smile :)
Josh finally kinda co-operated with a nice smile...he was kinda laughing. :)
On Monday, I went to Brampton and played sand volleyball, and then about 3 hours of barefoot soccer. If you're playing barefoot soccer...make sure you take your shoes off. Some guy decided he wouldn't and...well my foot is still swollen a week later. After that everyone went to Dikshei's and then we went home.

Tuesday I went to Grandma's and had a nice visit with her. I was glad I was able to visit her as well. Grandma is always a great encouragement to continue walking in fellowship with the Lord first and also very importantly with other believers - even if they do go to a different church. It's so easy to get caught up in our own little circles. Here's what we read in church this morning:

44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:44-47[Bible Gateway]

Says alot about the unity of the church in the early days, doesn't it?

After Grandma's house, I went to Tim & Jeanette's for the evening. They had a micro-burst or a small twister at their house about a week ago. It destroyed a trailer they were trying to sell and threw it in a ditch down the road, destroyed the kids playground, and Tasha's doghouse. It also blew over some trees and took some shingles off the shed.

Here's Tasha and Lady.

Amy being a mama (nice assortment of outfits Amy :)
Their family (also expecting an addition in ...December?)
Amy and Laura were taking some pictures with my camera while they were in bed/sleeping bags. There were some glamourous pictues, huh Jeanette? Here's a cute picture of Laura. Amy took this pic from the top bunk.
Wednesday I spent the day with Mom & Dad. We went out for breakfast in the morning, I went shopping with Dad, and then we sat and played games for the rest of the day. It was a nice relaxing day. I'm glad you took the day off, Dad. Here's a picture of our house from the ground, just as I was about to leave.
Here's Calgary Airport on my way back. Those spots are snow! It was about 30 Celcius when I left Ontario, snowing in Calgary, and then about 15 Celcius when I got back to Abbottsford.
Here's a sunset in the airplane above the clouds.
It was a great vacation! I'm so glad I was able to see all of you that I saw - especially family. I was able to fit in a wedding and baptism, and even though I never actually made it to Cambridge for church, I was still able to see many of my friends at the wedding.

God be with you till we meet again!