Esperanza

What's this? A new blog post? Hooray! This last week a group from my church (plus some friends and relatives) went on a missions trip to a remote camp up on Vancouver Island called Esperanza. This is my 8th or 9th time there and I just love it! It is so incredibly beautiful! It is about a 12 hour trip to get there including a two hour ferry ride, and 40 mile dirt road and a 20 minute boat ride into the actual camp. It is so fun spending a week there and just getting away from everything. While it feels like a vacation, a lot of our time is spent working. This year we had a group working on remodeling one of the old houses, another group building an equipment shed and another washing, scraping and painting the dining hall. I was with the scraping/painting group and it was quite the chore! There were two of us who scraped the majority of the building. It took us three day! Finally on the fourth day we got to do what we wanted to do all along and paint! I don't think it would have been nearly as bad if we weren't being swarmed by horse flies the entire time. While we worked hard, we also played hard. They have a big dock which people love to jump off of. The weather was so nice that there were people jumping off everyday! At night it is so dark that the bioluminescence is so bright! One night people jumped into the water at night and their bodies just glowed. It was so cool to watch! On our last night there a group of us took kayaks, Nucanoes and a real canoe and went to a waterfall about a 45 min canoe ride away. It is amazing and the water is so clear and cold! We got there right as the sun was setting and it was so beautiful. Anthony, Andrew and Justin were crazy enough to jump in! I put my feet in and that was more than enough for me! By the time we started heading back it was dark and the bioluminescence was so pretty on our paddles and in the wake of our boat! The stars up there are also unbelievable and we were lucky enough to see some pretty cool shooting stars during the meteor shower. The week went by way too fast and I am already looking forward to next year!

Long Overdue Post....

So maybe I should have kept up with the picture a day, at least it gave me motivation to post! Here's a much needed update...

4/24 - Quilting Lesson
My quilting group had a special quilting night. My aunt taught us to make these really neat complicated looking quilts. I have a lot more pictures but I haven't gone through them yet. I'll do a longer post later with more pictures from the night. Here's the one I made!

4/28
My friend Corinne came home for our friends Yen & Wades wedding. I took a ton of pictures that night but my card was being a stinker so I had to put them on the home computer and haven't gotten them onto my laptop yet. Here's one that I got of Corinne. She, Lauren and I went and got pedi's before the wedding. It was fun spending the day with Corinne since she lives in Ellensberg now and I miss her like crazy!

4/29

We went to St Edwards park for a picnic with the neighbors and some friends. I had never been to that park before, I love it! It is such a pretty park with tons of trails and huge fields. My plan is to spend a lot of time there this summer. 

5/4

Heather and I hosted a gel candle making party for the youth girls at Heather's house. It was really fun and all the candles turned out really pretty! 

5/5
Every year our church does a work day at Lake Forest Park Elementary. This year it was a beautiful day for it. I spent the whole time weeding a little garden with my friend Betty. I think we did more talking than weeding though. I love her and the way she challenges me!

Rita tried to sneak into our spot at the end and take credit for all our work!

5/11 - 5/13
My friend Heather won a trip for two to Yosemite and I was her plus one! It was a BLAST! We kept saying how grown up we felt being in California by ourselves. Even though we are 20 and 21 and have been "adults" for a few years, it still felt weird to fly on planes and stay in a hotel just the two of us. This trip also deserves its own post so hopefully I'll get around to that soon.

4/19 - 4/23

I think this blog is turning more into a "try and use your camera more" rather than a "take a picture everyday". I was stressing out and taking really ugly pictures when I would forgot to take a picture one day. Since I started the blog I have been taking a lot more pictures, and that was the goal. Here are some pictures I took the last week or so. I have more too I just need to get them off my memory card.

4/19 - I spent a good chuck of that day cutting out squares for my quilt! I almost have enough. I need about 70 more green and about 50 more blue. I ran out of fabric so I need to go raid my aunts stash! I'll do that tomorrow and hopefully I can start sewing either tomorrow or Wednesday!

4/20 - My fried Heather and I went downtown to the waterfront to put up posters for Kony 2012. It was really fun! If you haven't hear of Kony 2012 here's a website that tells you more about it! http://www.kony2012.com/

4/21 - Heather turned 21! We went out to dinner to the Macaroni Grill to celebrate and it was so fun! We had a really strange waiter who sang happy birthday in Italian by herself. It was really awkward and I nearly started cracking up in the middle of it. I love Heather and love how excited she gets about cupcake spatulas:)

4/23 - Anthony came over and since it was Andrews spring break, the three of us played with the bb gun! We also spent a large part of the day watching the Avatar tv show because Emma and Andrew insisted we would love it. I wouldn't say we loved it, but we didn't hate it. This day makes me miss the sunshine. Where did it go?

4/12 - 4/15

4/12 - Cool, fluffy clouds

4/13 - Saint James Cathedral. So pretty!

4/13 - These people love pirates

4/14 - I went to the youth girls' glass etching party and made an alien glass. Such a fun craft!

4/15 - We had fair food night at Young Adults. Corn dogs, fries, mini elephant ears, pretzels, caramel apples and cotton candy! 

4/10 - 4/11

Yesterday was quilting day! I worked on nothing and even took a little nap! I love relaxing Tuesday nights! Sally loves them too.

Today I was watching TV and really wanted something to do while I was watching so I decided to go to Joann fabrics to get stuff to start a quilt! I got some really pretty fabrics and decided that I am going to start a great big quilt and hand quilt it! I probably won't be done for years and years and will be tired of it by the time I'm done, but right now I'm excited!
I also got some fabric for a quilt my aunt is going to teach our quilting group how to make in a couple weeks. I love them!

4/6 - 4/09

I'm back! We didn't have internet over the weekend and I was just too busy yesterday to update. Here are pictures from the last four days. I have one for today but am too tired to upload and edit it so I'll try and get it up tomorrow. 

On Friday the neighbors hosted a Seder dinner. It was fun and Anne fixed some super delicious food for the dinner! Matzo ball soup and lamb! I also went and saw the Hunger Games on Friday. It was alright but I was still disappointing. It was a lot different than what I had pictured in my head. I guess I'll just have to read the books again to try and make up for it!

Saturday I got to play airsoft again! This was by far my favorite day of it yet! I usually play defensively and am afraid of getting shot, but this time I tried to play more offensively and suck up the pain of getting shot. It was a lot more fun and I can't wait to play again! It was also the first of several sunny days! It is finally feeling like Spring!

Sunday was Easter! It was a GORGEOUS day and I sat outside almost all day long! It actually felt like Summer!!! Easter was really fun! There was an Easter egg hunt in the morning at church for the kids which was fun to watch. After church we went over to my aunt and uncles and ate lots of yummy food and just sat outside enjoying the sun! 

Yesterday was really busy. I had school in the morning and then babysat and then headed to Edmonds beach to take pictures for my photography class. My documentary photography class is going to push me a lot this quarter I am realizing. Our first assignment was to take candid pictures of strangers. It doesn't sound too bad but when you are far from being a people person, it is really hard! I decided the beach would be a good place to take them inconspicuously without having to take to the people.(I felt so creepy!) Our next assignment is to document a neighborhood we are assigned. We'll have to see how it goes! 

4/2/12 - 4/4/12

I've been a bad blogger. I have too semi good excuses. One, I have been really uninspired and not in the mood to take pictures. Two, I have been reading the Hunger Games trilogy and it has soaked up every ounce of my free time. I love them! Anyway here are the pictures I have from the last few days.

My eggs didn't turn out as well as I hoped. The blueberry and the curry are the only ones that turned out really well. The carrot didn't work at all. I'll have to experiment to find more foods that will work!

Blue- blueberries, yellow- curry, grey spotted- cranberries, orange/brown in the middle- coffee, light cream on the right- cucumber, ground sage and dried parsley flakes, white- carrot 

Yesterday it was pretty nice out all day! I started classes on Monday but my fun ones were yesterday. I am really excited for my photography class! My art history class is going to be interesting. I hope it is better than my first day makes it seem like it's going to be. Oh well, at least it was sunny!

I started reading the Hunger Games on Saturday. I ordered the first one on amazon and couldn't wait to start the next one so I went to the bookstore and bought the second and third book. I couldn't put the second one down! I started it right before dinner last night and finished it this afternoon. I'm sad to only have one more and know I will probably be done in a couple days. At least I have a movie to look forward to seeing!

04/01/2012

Yesterday was a really fun day, even despite the rain! Usually rain just makes my day terrible but in this case it made it better! A bunch of us went out yesterday and played airsoft in the woods for a few hours. It was a lot of fun and a lot more tiring than I thought. That combined with frisbee today means that i'm already tired and it's only midnight (still early for me!). I saw on pintrest that a lot of people were posting about naturally dyed eggs so yesterday I decided to give it a try. I made six colors. Red - cranberries, blue - blueberries, brown - coffee, yellow - curry powder, orange - carrots, green - ground sage, cucumber peel and dried parsley. I checked them today and only the brown, green and yellow seem to have changed quite a bit in color. I put them back in and will check them tomorrow. 

Today I had a little free time but I was feeling completely uninspired so I didn't take a picture today. It was sunny out a lot of the day and that got me really ready for summer (not that I haven't been ready for summer since the last one ended)! I'm glad that it's April and that we are getting nearer to warmth! This picture was taken at the cabin last summer and it makes me feel happy, even when it rains.

Day 51

Today I spent 30 minutes thrifting at Goodwill! I went looking for t-shirts to turn into skirts and I left with two t-shirts, a pair of shoes, veggie seeds and a couple sheets. My friend Corinne made me a bag using sheets from the thrift store and I loved that idea so i'm planning on making something with the sheets I found.

I was so eager to try out the t-shirt skirt that I started it at 12:30am! It was really easy except for winding the bobbin. The top of it is shirring and you have to wind the bobbin with the elastic at the right tension. Once I got it down, though, it was simple! I'm going to try and make the other one tomorrow and try and make it a little longer. I like how this one turned out though and it is really comfy! 

Day 50

I love this dog. I can't even remember what it was like not to have a dog and we have only had him for a year and a half. He is the greatest dog ever.

Day 49

This has really turned into a birthday week! I got another present today. This may have to be the coolest present yet! It's pretty hard to top a cotton candy maker but a bb gun is just way too cool! And it's bright pink! It even came with matching pink goggles. I'm so excited to use it!

Day 48

Today I sat around watching tv and eating cotton candy. It's only day 2 of official spring break and i'm already bored! Andrew brought a giant bag of popcorn home from school today. Perfect timing because I needed some salt to offset all the cotton candy i've been eating!

Maybe I'll start a project tomorrow...

Day 47

Today we went out to dinner for my birthday to Red Robin. Yum! It was a lot of fun and super delicious too! I opened the rest of my presents and got some pretty awesome gifts! Walking out I turned to Anthony and said "People who see these gift probably don't think they are for a 20 year old" but I love them! Sense a theme?

Days 45 & 46

Yesterday was my birthday and I got a couple of really fun hand-made gifts! The first was from my friend, Corinne. She made me the cutest bag out of sheets from the thrift store. I love it!

The other craft was from Emma. She has been into making secret book boxes. You take out the pages and then use the the cover of the book and some thin wood to make a box. The one she made me has a bunch of compartments for jewelry. 

Today at church Kaia and Ari were baptized! I love being a part of all of these special moments in these girls' lives. 

Kaia

Ari