Lighthouse Park

On Monday, Matt and I went hiking at Lighthouse Park in West Van.  We saw some pretty views and some HUGE trees.  Here are some pictures from our hike.  Enjoy!

Skype

Skype...who doesn't love it?  Such a great invention and a great way to keep in touch with our family and friends back home!  Here's some fun we've had along the way....

Walrus Cat

Tribal Lion Cat

Cat and a scary Robert

And you thought he couldn't be any creepier?

Liz's Dad
If you didn't already know,
the Schultz's have family roots back to Transylvania

Liz's Mom

Kristi

Liz's Grandparents

Laughing at a story from their trip to the Beach

Grandpa Kodell offering us some popcorn through the computer

Oh the fun!  Please feel free to Skype with us sometime! We'd love to hear from y'all!

Semester Two is FINISHED!!!

About a week ago I (Matt) submitted my last assignment of the semester, a sixteen page assessment of Reformed Baptist perspectives on the Lord's Supper.  And since then, life's been pretty good.  We've eaten several meals with friends and I've gotten to catch up on slacking off.  In fact, I'm actually building a giant foam bean bag chair to aid my new effort.  Pretty soon I'll be slacking in style.

Actually Liz and I have gotten to spend some good time together since classes finished.  This past weekend we traveled south of the border to a little town called La Conner, WA for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.  Basically, there are several very large tulip fields which you can visit, snap photos, and buy tulips.  It was quite a site to see so many beautiful flowers.  As you can see from the pictures, the weather was perfect despite there still being quite a bit of snow on the mountains in the distance.

 well. ok. these first mountains don't have snow, but others do.

 Liz tricked me. Tulips don't smell. I guess that's why nobody ever says stop and smell the tulips.

Liz being Liz.

As for life updates, a few fun items of note. Just before school ended, I was elected to the Regent College Student Association (RCSA) as a Member at Large. My role will be to help with a few of the programs that the RCSA organizes every year. Also, I was hired to work in the Dean of Students office to help coordinate Orientations for incoming students throughout the year. I'm really looking forward to this job because it is so similar to my career goal of coordinating discipleship, small group, and assimilation ministries in a local congregation. Since Liz and I had kind of a hard time transitioning, I think I'll be able to provide some good advice and a welcoming presence to next year's new Regent students. Liz also was hired by Regent to co-coordinate the Regent Spouses Network with one of her friends. She's perfect for that role.

For the summer we have a couple of things lined up. In the decidedly un-fun category I'm taking "suicide" Greek, so named because it is a year's worth of Greek crammed into 6 weeks, as well as Biblical Exegesis with a professor who's nickname is the Velvet Hammer. On the fun side we have family coming, plus the Seattle Color Run, the Celebration of Light fireworks competition, a trip to Vancouver Island, kilometers of hiking trails and an entire city to explore. phew. Lots to do. Gotta run.

Cat Visits Vancouver! (Part 2)

Spanish Banks Beach

Skiing and Snowboarding at Cypress (Where they hosted the part of the Olympics and XGames)

The view of the city on the way home from a day of fun in the snow!

That's Regent! Where Matt goes to school!

Poutine

Cat Visits Vancouver! (Part 1)

We had our first guest/family member visit us last week! We started our visit off by picking my sister up in Seattle! We went to the Public Market where they "toss" the fish, drank a latte at the first Starbucks, visited a troll under a bridge, and met up with our old college friend Brad for drinks and dinner!  Here are some pictures form the trip!

Check back later...more pictures and details with Cat to come! 

End of February Update

Hi friends and family!  Between working two jobs, taking a class, and hanging out with friends I've been neglecting our blog! Oh no! Just a few updates from this past month....

1. USA Women's National Soccer team!!  We had the opportunity to see the USA women's team play against Canada in the CONCACAF Championship game! (Olympic qualifiers)  It was so much fun and we get to see Wambach, Alex Morgan, and Hope Solo play soccer!  Here are some pictures from the game. 



Rueben, Ester and Sara

Crowd

Game

Score: Canada-0  USA-4



Mounties



How fun! Mounties presented the trophey!

2.  Full time job:  I now have a full time job!! The retirement community where I've been working part time, offered to make my position full time!  Super exciting!  Mostly because now I don't have to feel so torn between two work places and I'll feel more like part of the work community there.  With the new position at work, bittersweetly I had to say goodbye to my teaching position at Jump.  I'll miss working with my students and teaching them gymnastics, but overall it's a good change! (I'll still be on the sublist there, so not all is lost)

3.  Matt update:  He's working hard, studying hard, and enjoying a break from Hebrew this semester!

4.  Cake Contest:  I entered a cake contest at Regent and my cake won 1st place overall!  (Meredith, Shelly and Kelly-I hope I've made y'all proud!!)  Here's a picture of my "Hummingbird Cake" I made for the contest.  I'll post the recipe I used for it later this week if anyone's interested.

Thanks for the picture Sara!

5.  Cat visits!  Last but not least, my sister is coming to visit next week!  She's our first family/friend to visit since we've been here.  We're super excited for her visit and can't wait to show her around Vancouver.

Overall we've had a great month here in Vancouver.  We've been really feeling the effects of the rain and clouds and are treasuring everyday we see the sun!  It really gets to you after a while, so c'mon Spring and Summer!  We're also still missing everyone back at home. (And y'alls 70-80 degree weather this winter!)  Please feel free to send us an email and let us know how y'all are doing! 

End of January Update

Hi everyone!  Not too much excitement going on here in Vancouver.  Just lots of rain, cloudy days, and a little bit of snow!  Last week we had about 3 inches of snow!  It was so pretty to look at!  Wish I would've taken some pictures.

When it snowed in Wilmington, the whole city shut down.  Actually, when they are even calling for flurries or snow, lots of things close down.  Not here though...I guess that's why they call it the Great White North.  I had to go to work on our "Snow Days".  And since I did not even want to think about driving in it, I walked and took the bus. 

While walking I had several thoughts running through my head...
1.  The falling snow is soooo pretty, this isn't so bad.
2.  My dad used to tell us stories of when he was in school in Erie, PA.  He had to walk miles and miles to school in several feet of snow! (uphill both ways too).  I feel I can now relate to him and have a story for my kids.  "I used to have to walk to work in the snow!"
3.  Rainboots make awful snowboots!