The Princess in the Dalles (part I)

Exploring.

The princess and the pastor have been in a state of constant exploration and discovery. You need not brace yourself for any wild adventure tales, our exploration is really pretty mundane, yet its taking a lot of focus and energy from us! We have had nine days in our little orchard town and have managed to find little gems such as...

the library (great children's section and story time, the Princess loved it there!)

the grocery store (I can get there AND back without my GPS!)

corner coffee spot (that passes out suckers to children, score!)

playground with a beautiful overlook of the whole city and the Columbia River

the oldest bookstore in Oregon happens to be in our town with a vintage record store next door

our backyard, this seriously might be my little slice of heaven

While the gems we have found might not seem like anything very exciting, these discoveries have made our day-to-day life easier and is starting to turn our little orchard town into home. However, when so much mental energy goes to things like finding the grocery store and trying to remember where things are kept in my own home, I find myself EXHAUSTED at the end of each day! It probably doesn't help that we really haven't sat still for more than a day or so :) There is so much to see, do, find, and learn!

The princess has had some good times out west. This past weekend she met the Pacific Ocean for the first time – that was pretty fun to see happen! She also is loving the little preschool she'll be at for July and August (in the basement of the Lutheran church I'll be working at ¼ time). Its small and family run so I think that will be a nice change of pace for her in-between seminary preschool and full fledged kindergarten. Perhaps her most favorite thing is the fact that she can conquer any set of monkey-bars that stands before her! For some reason we have been at a lot of playgrounds lately (there is also a playground with monkey bars at the Methodist church I'll be working at ¾ time) and she loves to go back and forth and show off her “guns” and sweet monkey-bar-swingin'-skillzs. It is impressive...for a princess :)

Monkey-bar Princess!

I realize I have said little to nothing about my internship site. I'm still in the “orientation” time and after we return from a little jaunt to the east coast for a family reunion I will begin officially on July 10^th. So, many details will come once I've actually started. For now I will simply report that the people are wonderful, the communities have rich histories that I'm very honored to be a part of and both congregations seem excited about where this next year could take them!  

Princess, meet the Pacific Ocean!

Ocean, meet the Princess (and all her sass)