This will be the last post for quite awhile, so it will be a long one. I need to catch up with my photo albums for the last month. We stayed really busy this last month to fit in everything we wanted to enjoy before we are no longer here!! It starts off with Church Family Camp. We went up for one night and it was a lot of fun... treasure hunt, skits, food and worship around the campfire. And then Sunday service the next day next to the lake and Ben taught through the book of Galatians- the gospel of GRACE.

Strawberry Fellowship Family Camp

Then for the 4th we decided to treat the kiddos (and ourselves) to the Boise waterpark and amazing fireworks. The kids have been so patient with us doing all the house stuff and not getting much of a summer. Boise hasn't had fireworks for a couple of years because of some financial crazyness until this year. And they were the best I had ever seen ever. They had some that I had never seen before...heart shaped and one that looked like an American flag and some that were so BIG. Then the Grande Finally was WOW!! For about 5 min. they let off HUNDREDS at a time.

WaterPark July 4th

So then things have dragged on with our house so we had some time to go on a few hikes. First we hiked up to Strawberry Lake. One of the best hikes I have ever gone on. It is worth it to travel over here to hike Strawberry Mountain!!

Strawberry Lake Hike

Then we went to the John Day Fossil Beds and hiked the Blue Basin where they have found lots of fossils and are still finding them. The area looks like you are hiking on the moon because it is this hard blue-grey ash.

Blue Basin- JD Fossil Beds

And then we decided to go camping at Strawberry and hike the next morning up to the top where the falls and Little Strawberry Lake is at. Absolutely Beautiful!!This was a lot of fun and took from 10AM till 3:30PM I got some great Falls pics. The boys made some homemade fishing poles and everytime we took a break they were fishing.

Strawberry Falls

And of course we have been swimming at our local lake and jumping off the log in the middle of the lake.

Magone Lake

So we have had our fill of fun and have enjoyed to the fullest what God has given us here. Now He is saying its time to go. Our house did sell back in June but it has been one thing after another because of the new owners loan. She is a single mom with little family help and we are SO ready to go that we dealt with all the sillyness. There does have to be one last inspection from the loan officer (7th) and its a federal loan so our house has to be perfect... please pray that this goes well. And then closing is on the 8th early morning and we were told to be out in 48 hours after that. We have our UHaul reserved for the 10th (Ben's BDay!!)YEAH!!
The computer and phone are being shut off so this will be the last news from Oregon. I am jumping for joy that things are finally on there way but My heart is HURTING because I will miss our family and some amazing friends. I feel so RICH because of some of the people that I know and the family that we have gotten to know even more than before. I do not deserve this great love but I thank you!! Thank you for your prayers and your hugs- I am going to get homesick for those.
"I thank my God in all my rememberance of you,always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I HAVE YOU IN MY HEART, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of the grace with me. For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus." Phil 1:3-8
The Knudson Fam.

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

By God's wonderful blessings, I was asked to do an aerial photography job for the city of John Day's Airport (for good pay also!!) Above is a picture of our shadow against the field.IT WAS AWESOME!! I had so much fun and enjoyed every minute of it. I was so nervous... not about flying but about doing commercial photography.But I can actually say it turned out great!!



I took about 200 pictures and narrowed it down to 50 to give to them... these are just some samples.The one is the city of John Day below the airport with the mountain range behind.
The best part was flying though!! One of these days I have to take some flying lessons. We were in a very small plane and it was just an amazingly PEACEFUL experience. And beautiful! And then to have the window open and have my camera... it was just awesome!!
I cant wait to do it again!!

Kiddo Photo

These were taken at Aunty Abby's while visiting with friends we've known for 10 years. Their oldest, Lili and Jesh have been best friends since birth and haven't seen much of eachother for the last few years. But, they are so comfortable around eachother (which is big at this age). I had some fun with a few pics... take a look at the one with Toby in the middle. You know, if anyone ever has some constructive critisizm or encouraging words on my pics. please share!! I like to take in ideas and I have soooo much to learn. Remember though, that I do want to expand my talent in the non-traditional, creative, artist photography (sometimes Ben says, "That pic is really weird or off, I don't like it!")But please email me your input, advice, or anything you may have learned!!

The Kiddos

A True Friend

Frankie has wanted to stay pretty close to Obi since he got hurt.I did a few creative pics of them.

Best of Friends

Our 'FUN' Week

Is this week over yet?????? We have gone into the fiery furnace not just once, not twice, but a few times in a few days this week. But, I still just have to give PRAISE to the Lord!!Let me share a couple with you...
A step of faith brought about a teenager recommitting her life to Christ which brought about a scary, messy situation that put us in a little danger which brought about the teen seeing how much she is loved!!WOW!
And stunt-man Obi broke his arm... but, he didn't just break it like a normal child, he wanted to give Mom some gray hair. In his forearm one bone was broke and displaced and the other was bent(not fractured, just bent) which pulled the ends out of their sockets at the wrist and elbow. Because there is growth material in children in these areas, we were told to goto Bend for immediate surgery or the arm wouldn't grow properly and would begin to twist backwards!We drove 3 hours to Bend a 'little' worried and had the absolute BEST experience ever in a hospital. The doctor and nurses and anathesiologist were amazing! They would come up to Obi and say, "We are so excited to meet you, Obadiah. When we heard you were coming, we just couldn't wait to see who you were with this cool name" And of course, the attention and praise eased Obi as they rolled him away. By the way, that is one of the most horrible feelings to see your child being wisked away on a hospital bed. I had to fight my 'mother bear' in me and trust the Lord. Not much later they were trying to find us... they didn't have to do surgery. The doctor said, "I've never had to use so much pressure on a child before, the anathesiologist had to turn away and not watch. I kept waiting for that bone to break and it never did. But the bone went into place and is straight and I didn't have to cut him open!!" Praise the LORD!! With what did happen was the best-case-scenerio of what could have happened. You see, Obi and Jesh were putting a 2x4 on the brick BBQ and climbing up it. Obi fell backwards, hit his head on our little 4-wheeler and hit the ground. He could have done something worse to his head or broke his neck. Jesus has continually had his hand on Obi, protecting him every step of the way.
Also, in the midst of all this our house has sold!! YEAH!! We actually had 2 offers on the same day. We accepted the higher one. She already has the loan approval and the realator says the loan officer wants things pushed along in a hurry- within 21 days for release of funds!! So we should be on our way to Florida by the end of this month. She told us she would keep us updated for when Ben should put in his 2 week notice at work!!
Here is pics of Obi at the hospital...
I am going to sleep and then ENJOY our weekend that God has blessed us with!!Truly!!

Obi's 'surgery'

Our House is a Very, Very Nice House

So last week we got a call from the realator... "I think this is our miracle!!" An older gentleman and his dog from Ca. saw our house over the internet and was interested. He was asking for pictures of the inside of the house. He was paying with cash from the sell of his house that he was just receiving last week. Now don't get too excited yet, we haven't heard back since Thur. But please pray, pray,pray!! We really need to get on our way... hurricane season has officially started- August is usually the worst month though; Ben is working only one job now so money is slimming down; we gave all our furniture away so we are camping in our house; the kids health insurance ends this month; school starts the first week of August; and we are packed and ready to go. But... I know... God's timing is perfect and He knows when we need to go! Here's the pics. of the inside of our house. Ben is amazing when it comes to building and remodeling on a frugile budget... take a look.

Inside of Our House

Sunday In Sisters

Ben's sister Isha and her husband Bobby invited us over to there home for the day in Sisters,OR. What a beautiful day!! Great day to take photos... so I did, of course. I got some family pictures of them. The kids had a blast with their cousins- check out the pictures. I sure do love you guys. I look forward to every time of getting to hang out with you guys- thoroughly enjoy our discussions. And we are blessed to hear how The Lord is blessing you in abundance, swinging open doors for you, and leading you on to serve Him in Grants Pass!! March on faithful, courageous soldier!! You guys are so encouraging and thank you for a great day.

With Starks in Sisters