Since our last post, lots has happened that I will try to summarize. I had a birthday and was blessed with cards from my family (including my adopted little sister Stephanie Brown), some presents from my parents (rain gear for Sacramento winters), a phone call from Tim, an e-mail from Daniel St. Elie, and a wonderful letter from my wife.

My wife was recently published in Archives of Dermatology (do a pubmed search for her article...)

Philip and Ruthie arrived at Weimar and we spent the day helping Philip and his roomate get closer to heaven by building them lofts for their beds to maximize space in a very small room. Mom Mills and Ruthie had tearful farewells but since then, phone conversations with both have indicated things are looking bright...

And Rachel and I took a much needed vacation! The picture above is one of the many hikes we took in the Mt. Shasta area courtesy of the Guthrie Family. Sabbath we met a fellow Sacramento Christian on the trail that Rachel and I hope to get in touch with in the future. And Sunday we met a group of 8 SDA pastors on a retreat. One of them just happened to be related to me...



Pastor Larre Kostenko is the son of my grandpa's brother. Not sure what that makes him. Anyway, hadn't seen him in at least 15 years. He's pastor of two churches about an hour east of Sacramento. In talking, we found we much in common. Hope to visit he and his family sometime!

We had an excellent time at the Guthrie's home. Excellent food, company, hiking, scrabble games, music (we did special music for church on Sabbath--7 violins!)....and hats. What follows is a photo documentary of the hats of the Guthries... Enjoy!