While Ruth was away with the ladies, I (Tom) wen to the MLS Cup that was being hosted here in Seattle.  The game was amazing.  Real Salt Lake beat the LA Galaxy in penalty kicks after a tied over time.  Beckham played well, so did Landon Donavan and Beckerman.  However, Donavan's shank during the penalty kick over time proved to be the fateful blow by which LA lost. 

The Seattle soccer fans are by far the best in the country.  They came out by the thousands to support the game and make it all that more exciting.

Thank you also to Jonathan for the free ticket.  :)

I got a few sweet pictures and for the first time uploaded some video as seen below.

Ruth spent the weekend with the women of Grace Seattle at a lodge about an hour outside of Seattle.  As the pictures evidence, there was a lot of snow.  She had a wonderful time snow shoeing around and spending some quality time with the ladies.

I have not posted on here in a long time.  I apologize to all (8 of you) who read this little blog of ours. 

A lot has happened since we moved up here to the great state of (rainy) Washington.  It of course has rained a ton.  These past two weeks, in particular, have been especially yucky.  Cold, wet and rainy.  One of the things I've been surprised by, however, is that a rainy day here doesn't mean it will rain all day long.  While this is often the case, many days consist of rain in the morning, a good 5-6 hours of no rain, and then rain at night.  Thus it isn't as bad as it could be.  We've been told in all of this that going outside and being active is the key to surviving the wet winter months.

This weekend Ruth heads out of town to go on a winter retreat with the ladies of Grace Seattle.  I will be home by myself living the bachelor life for a few days.  More than likely I will have an inability to feed, bathe and clothe myself.  I will probably stay up late every night with a Doritos high.  And on Sunday night I will be heading to the MLS Cup being played here in Seattle!  (A friend has given me an extra ticket that he has.)  If I remember to take photos, I'll post them next week.

Other news:  We've signed a lease on an apartment!  This means we will hopefully be moving in within the next week or two.  We are super excited.  It is a small basement apartment, extremely well built and well taken care of.  Our landlord is a kind lady who is also a pretty well known photographer (without her consent, I won't post her name here).  It is also about a mile away from the church office.  This will be great to give our lives a some rhythm and routine.   

Ruth has applied for about 150 different jobs of various levels of interest.  Most recently she has been offered a job at a law firm in town to function within their support staff.  It is a good job, in a quality firm, with kind and generous lawyers (not meant to be an oxymoron).  This weekend we will be praying through whether or not she should take it.

We've flown across the country to see my cousin Lauren get married to Andrew.  It was extremely nice to see family, both immediate and extended.  The flight, however, was a bear.  Thank you Dad Galpin for helping us do that.  We are greatly appreciative.

I think that is all for now.  Please keep us in your prayers and do not hesitate to call and/or email.  We would love to hear from you.  Below are some random photos from the last few weeks.  And again, I will try to do a better job taking more pictures and posting them on here.

Ruth and I arrived in Seattle just a little over two weeks ago!  We have been working hard to get our feet on the ground in the church (Grace Seattle) and the city!

David and Brenna--friends of ours from seminary and St. Louis--are our gracious hosts for the next month or so as Ruth looks for a job and thus we can afford to rent an apartment in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle, near the church.

So far I (Tom) have enjoyed meeting many different people in the church.  Our pastor, Michael, has been an amazing mentor/guide through my apprenticeship.

Please remember us in your prayers as Ruth looks for a job and we get settled into the city, the church and the community.

Portland:  On the home stretch!  Spent two relaxing days in Portland with Peter and Jack.  We did a lot of walking around, ate some great homemade food, destroyed a homemade pizza, saw the swifts (which were amazing!), were impressed by the extremely bike-friendly road ways, road our bikes to church, and finally hit the road for Seattle.

The Redwood National forest was amazing.   We probably should have stayed two nights in the Redwood Forest (despite the ridiculous $35 per night camping fee at the parks!), but alas we didn't want to miss out on the Oregon Coast.

Our camp was in LIncoln City, OR.  Like most nights sleep wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.  What was unique, however, was an attack by a bunch of hooligan raccoons.  Without much fear of us, they invaded our camp and even mounted on the car to try and get into our food there (pictures below).  Sheesh.

Next stop is Portland for two nights with Peter.

Last night's camping--the first of three--was a bit of a better success than our first in Colorado.  Unfortunately the fog had settled in, so our view was pretty limited, even though we were camping basically on the beach. 

After an early morning start we addressed the Pacific Coast Highway again and drove up to Redwood National Forest.  I (Tom) think this was my favorite part of California.  Our pictures and picture taking do not do justice to the beauty and majesty of these trees.  Standing under them, or driving by them, made one feeling as if we were in a magical place similar to what an elf-run forest of Narnia or a forest in Tolkien's Middle Earth would make one feel. 

After two days and three nights in San Fran, we made the slow trek up the California coast along the Pacific Coast Highway.  The view was amazing.  Over and over again, we had to stop our book on tape to point out some breathtaking view. 

After a very long drive from Salt Lake City, we arrived safe and sound in San Francisco.  Our hosts for the next three nights were Julie, Erik and Kathy.  Thank you so very much for your unexpected kindness and hospitality (and the amazing food!).

While in San Francisco, we toured the Golden Gate Bridge, road our bikes across into Sausalito, rode the ferry back across, walked all over the place, ate in Chinatown, searched for parking, walked up the steepest paved road I've ever been on, got our oil changed, did a lot of people watching, and enjoyed the company of our hosts.