Shadow Hills house-sitting, Christmas concert with the Gillies and Ventura with the girls!

Well, we are back in our little house but we had a fabulous time house-sitting for the Stein's. As I mentioned before, being able to take hot-tub study breaks worked very well for us and having an extra room really helped facilitate studying too!

Here are some pictures of the beautiful house:

The beloved hot-tub:

 A place to read and relax outside:

 A view from their garden reveals the beauty of the area- Shadow Hills. Who knew parts of LA looked like this???

 We met up with the Gillies (their son was playing in the orchestra for the Grace Baptist church in Santa Clarita and we were invited to go to a spectacular Christmas concert!) I wish I could post pictures, but I was fairly useless at pulling the camera out that evening, so you'll need to take my word for it! Here is a picture that I found on their website: http://www.gracebaptist.org/christmas

Since all the guys had loads of studying to do for the finals this week, only the girls got to see Ventura. Vicky, Whitney and I went exploring together. (Whitney actually works at the Ventura hospital...) We had breakfast at the Hausers house before setting off, it was French toast on raisin bread- what a winner!- Meet Jason and Whitney Hauser. They are also a seminary couple.

I truly put on my Bakkes cap (Almost all the Bakkes' I know are avid photographers!) and I took Izak's canon and tried my hand at capturing Ventura on 'film'! Needless to say, I used the incorrect setting for many of them, but you may just get to see some of Ventura after all!


Here are some glimpses the our walk down roads near the ocean:

We stopped by at an old Catholic mission: (And I tried to be fairly artistic with the water fountain!)

Then, something else that I have noticed is that California has a flag too, and so people will sometimes have both the American flag up plus the State flag. (I actually spotted this in Shadow Hills for the first time...)

Whitney took us to a look-out point and you will get to see Ventura from above:

 The above picture is of the lookout point- the cross was planted by the same mission- if I recall correctly. (If you go into this image, you will see islands in the background. I have no idea which ones they are, but it was great to see how clear the view was!)
Here is another one of the cross:

Ventura reminded me quite a bit of Port Elizabeth... I think it may be the pier, but there was something else about it too. Here are some pictures of the pier and beach:

A surfer in the distance:

Andrew and Vicky are leaving on Friday! We can't believe that they are off! And Izak has his final exams this week. Theology 1 is on Tuesday and the Hebrew final is on Thursday. We plan to go and see the Gillies during the Christmas break and are really looking forward to some relaxation even though Izak has to work for Grace Books and also work ahead for next semester! Pheeew! It is amazing to see that the semester has drawn to a close and the Lord has enabled us... one day at a time. Thank you for reading our blog and we look forward to being in touch!