2012 SUMMER VACATION PART 1: The Log House Lodge and Silver city adventures

We spent a week away just in time for the new semester to start- it was such a  wonderful time to relax and enjoy our little family and for visiting our darling Dave and Mary Gillies...

This post will just feature our first days, we spent the first couple of days in Three Rivers, which is  a little town close to the Sequoia National Park. There is a couple (Tim and Mauriene Landry) who own a bed and breakfast and allow seminary couples to enjoy two nights there for free every year! What a blessing! Typically children can't really stay there (in the upstairs rooms because there isn't really space for them to play and there are steps etc but Jonathan was just small enough to make the cut since he isn't mobile yet! We were so thankful.)

Here are some pictures of our road trip up to Three Rivers- such beautiful areas and our lovely car!

Here are a few pictures of the Log House Lodge: (well of the room we stayed in...AND the rocking horse is the actual horse from the Mary Poppins movie!!! The husband (Tim Landry) works for Walt Disney company as an Imagineer and that is how they got the prop!) and a link to their site for more of their pictures: http://www.loghouselodge.com/

Each morning before heading out to explore the Sequoia National Park, Mauriene served up a delicious homemade breakfast and we got to share breakfast with other couples who were staying there at the same time. 

On the first morning that we set out to explore Sequoia, we took a 'slight' detour! hehe- actually we ended up all the way up the side of this mountain which was in fact in the park, but it was a side of it that had no roads that joined to the other parts of the park and it was verrry 'out of the way' and for the serious campers.

(There are major bear warnings in Sequoia- you are not allowed to leave any food in your car- or even scented things because bears will literally rip your car open looking for food! Eeeek- give me lions any day!) Anyway, so this side detour looked like BEAR territory to my over-active imagination!

After following this very windy, steep (Taryn=carsick) road, we finally discovered that we were in fact on the wrong road but enjoyed this little campsite called 'Silver City' pretty high up the mountain, where we had a coke, which helped to ease my intense feelings of motion sickness and took in the sights!

The entire road up was beautiful, but very steep and there were several parts which only one car could drive on at a time. I am glad that we went off the beaten path and discovered a different part of Sequoia that we would never otherwise have found! Here are some pictures from our time:

 I'll do part two of our trip in the next post, but it was such a blessing to get away and I wanted to share some of it with you in the meantime. Before we left I honestly had no idea how we would manage to start a new semester after such a busy summer, but by the time we got back, both Izak and I felt recharged and ready to get the show on the road! Praise the Lord for His grace. He knows our frame and provides for our needs- Matt 6:8b, "...your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." I am truly relieved by this truth.

Well, I hope to write part two soon! Leave a comment and please pray for us to have a productive and less stressful semester!

Lots of love,
Your Bakkes trio!

Blessings and farewells...

This summer has been so busy! With Izak working at his summer Greek classes and also with the Grace Advance Academy, things have not slowed down very much at all. In the midst of this, we had to bid farewell to our dear friends, Polly and Brian who left for Canada. Before they left, we got to share two fun meals with them.

The first place that we met them at was 'The Hat' in Pasadena- which Brian loved and wanted to experience before he left LA... Here are some pics from our time there: (It apparently has world famous pastrami)

Then, here we are at Porto's- an amazing bakery in Burbank for our last lunch. We will miss our dear friends, the Rabies.

As many of you know, we have had 'Dodge' car problems for as long as we have been in Los Angeles. I decided to write an obituary for our Dodge, since she has died.

Dodge Neon:

- The Bakkes family's vehicle which enabled us to get from A to B for 2 years (still no idea how it even happened with all her 'health problems'
- A powerful tool of sanctification when she refused to start and needed jump-starting and when even jump-starting failed to resuscitate her
- Loved water to the extent that she gathered it in puddles on her floor and in her boot/trunk
- Was a little scatter-brained and often forgot to keep track of speed, heat and the frequent indicator functions
- Sometimes liked to play tricks on us and make it sound like her bottom was going to give way and no longer be able to hold us up!
- Was a little frightened of bumps and would squeal away to remind us whenever we needed to make our way over one
- Ever the forward thinker, she hated having to travel backwards (reverse) and thought the perfect solution would be to refuse to shine her reverse lights
- She had a definite 'bounce in her step' and never let us forget it with skipping up and down with even the smallest bump on the road
- Quite the avid musician, she would rattle away her percussion's (dashboard and windows) on every trip convincing us that the radio was truly unnecessary
- She had a very healthy appetite and would truly enjoy guzzling fuel and oil as often as possible

All in all, we will think of her and be so thankful for the experience but be very grateful for our new Honda civic...
We are so thankful to the Lord for His provision. He has given us far more than what we needed! It makes such a difference to feel safe in this car when we travel the roads of LA!
Meet Magic Car 2 (friends of ours have the same vehicle and Blue would always fall asleep in it leading us to refer to it as the 'Magic Car' and now we have the same car and it also works it's magic on Blue and helps him sleep!) :)

Recently, Jonathan and I went to visit a sweet South African friend called Megan (who took most of these close-up pics of Blue in the sand) in Santa Barbara and he got to put his feet and hands in the sand... and sand in his mouth... (In that order and all for the first time!) It was such a fun trip and amazing to finally see Santa Barbara!

Here is one of Megan and Blue:

 

Here are some of Santa Barbara:

Well, we hope that you have enjoyed reading our news! I will definitely try to put more up soon.
Closing thoughts, from Psalm 145:8, "The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."

 

Descanso Gardens and Red, White and Blue festivities...

A friend took Jonathan and I to Descanso gardens for the morning a while ago and I have been meaning to share pictures for ages- this is a link to the Descanso Gardens site: http://www.descansogardens.org/ 

This is a picture of our friendly 'tour guide'- Caroline (she is in our Bible study and it was such fun spending time with her.) 

We didn't go everywhere since the gardens are about 160 acres big- but I have added a 'few' snapshots from what we did get to see.

Here are two pics of the entrance area:

Here is a picture of a walkway area and also a shot of some barbel/catfish for my dad!

Here are a few of the Japanese garden area:

This is a lilac field but we missed the major blooming time... but you can see some blossoms in the second pic

Here are some pretty scenic ones from on our way to the rose gardens:

Some of the rose garden area:

Note Jonathan's exhilaration reflecting on the roses in this pic:

Then... we saw some Egyptian geese, a crane and even a tortoise while he napped!

Here are some last ones of us relaxing under some beautiful trees at the end of our walk:

Well... I planned to share so much more in this post, but it has gotten to be a book once again... so I will work on getting the rest of our news up asap-

Blue just had his first 'red, white and blue celebration' 'Fourth of July' and here are two pics from our day!

Yummy red, white a blue cupcakes and we all dressed in red, white and blue too! It is so fun to just join in with the festivities!

I am so thankful for this life and the beauty of places like the Descanso gardens... plus fun days like 'Independence Day', where we got to have fun times with friends- but it is all so obviously a foretaste of what is to come. I long for heaven- where we will be in His perfect presence and everything will just make sense. 

I love this quote by CS Lewis which really summarizes what I am trying to say- "If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world."