Mount Pisgah

We found a neat little baby mountain in Eugene area to hike, called Mount Pisgah. We hiked to the top of this 15oo foot "mountain" and got a great view of the Cascades and a snow capped real mountain.

Scotty and Joei like to hike.

Graduation

Crystal walked in OSU's graduation ceremony on Father's Day. There were over two thousand students walking in the ceremony.

Thanks Mom and Dad!!

It's a family affair really...(l-r, Karen, Cindy, Scotty, Crystal, Charles, Brian)

...the Kelley's (what you don't know is that Brother Brian was behind the camera, hence the funny/scared faces)

Crystal's in there some where...think of it as where's Waldo...only not. (Hint: Crystal is next to the yellow mortar board hat, holding her diploma up for all to see.)

birthday boy!

Scotty celebrated his 24th birthday in style with a man BBQ. The group pitched in to get him a finger board.
The boys wanted to see Scotty in action so they made a make shift pull up station for the finger board.
Men doing what men do best..BBQing and eating.

Mmmm..........meat!!!

Dox at Smith Rock

Doxology took a field trip to Smith Rock last weekend. We were treated with an assortment of weather, a sampler if you will. The diversity of weather was to the point that you could both get a sunburn and struck by lightning.

We enjoyed the beautiful scenery...

...got some climbing in...

...played with wildlife...

...and enjoyed our time together by the fire. (Check out the shade/rain structure in the back of this picture...the ladies made that).

There are more pictures on the DOXoutdoors blog.

Happy Mother's Day

We went camping with Crystal's family for Mother's Day. We stayed at House Rock, just 20 miles East of Sweet Home. We had a beautiful spot by the river, it's still early in the season so it was very quiet.

Crystal's family (mom, dad, nieces).
We found a cool log to play on.
We hiked some trails, one that led to a waterfall. We climbed around on the rocks by the falls, but Joei had a hard time with the boulders so Scotty stayed with her on this ledge.

Resting in the shade.

Awwww, we so cute.

Hanging out back at camp.

Ooooh, coals.

climbing season is open

This was our first time out to Smith this year. The weather was perfect and the rock not too crowded.

Joei knows what to do.

Scotty preparing to rapel off a climb.

Guitarmageddon

Crystal's brother, Brian, competed in the Guitarmageddon King of the Blues competition. He came in first place in the first two heats of the competition and went to Seattle compete in the third round. Though he didn't get first place in Seattle we are VERY proud of him.

G-Dawg's Birthday

Birthday boy and the Mrs.

We threw our attempt at a "gangsta" party for our brother-in-law Charles' birthday. We got dressed up in bling-bling and made him all his favorites for his birthday dinner.

The homies.

Bangkok comming home

Flying home from Bangkok.

Bangkok Day 7

Our last day in Bangkok we spent relaxing and enjoying the sites. We stayed at a hotel (with A/C, and western showers and toilets).

The team enjoying our last meal together in Bangkok.

Scotty enjoying the evening.

A veiw of Bangkok from our hotel balcony.

Bangkok Day 6

Today was our last day with the BJD staff and students. We had a big party compete with Thai kabobs and fresh fruit and special tea drinks.

Celebrating under the newly constructed awning.

Bangkok Day 5

Today was spent doing more prayer walking in the morning, then in afternoon we started a cement project. We build a cement step that went around two sides of BJD. We mixed the cement by hand. It took us late into the evening to finish the step.

Bangkok Day 4

This morning we went back to the university and picked up garbage around the grounds.

First day of the work projects, we built an awning (Tom cutting a beam).

Peter securing the beam.

And repainted part of the outside of the building (Lauren and Jenn prepping the painting surface).

Bangkok Day 3

Doxology team with BJD residents.

This morning we spent prayer walking around the university near where we are staying. This evening we will invite students to come have dinner at Baan Jai Dou (BJD), the factuality we are staying at.

Bangkok Day 2--Temple Tour

Today we spent time touring some famous temples to help us understand the Budhist part of this culture. The first temple is located on a hill in Bangkok, from here you can overlook the city.

Along the steps to the top of this temple there are flowers...

...and statues...

and bells.

At the top there is this golden spire, I do not know the significance, that is surrounded on each corner by smaller bells.

Inside there were these prayer stations, where people could buy flowers and incense. They would kneel in front of this container and pray, then stick their incense in the container to continue burning and their flower in the vase next to it.

We then left this temple to drive to the next.

These "tuk tuk" taxis where all over Bangkok, kind of a three wheeler with a cover.

There were temples all over, you could see many of them as we drove.

These next pictures are from the royal temple and palace, a very ornate temple where occassionally the Thai king will still come to worship or conduct meetings in the palace.

There was a courtyard will several ornate buildings...

...all surrounded by a wall that was intricately painted the entire perimeter of the complex.

This is outside the temple with the famous Emerald Budah, you can't take pictures inside so you will just have to trust us that it was really there.

This is a view of the front of the palace. The king does not live here anymore, but occasionally will hold meetings here. Tourists are not allowed inside.

A lot of the buildings had statues on either side of the entryway. There were these lion things, or elephants, or other figures that appeared to sybolize status or serve as guardians.