Post of Pasts

So I went through old pictures today. So, for your enjoyment, I share 2000-2009, best Fuji Pictures.

2000- Visit to California 

Anna, Grandma and me

2001-Ev's always had great fashion sense

2001-Aw, partial family picture

2001- I've always loved kids

2002- Me and Ian at the zoo

2002- Siblings

2002- Ev "cooking"

2002- Sporting Hawaiian dresses

2003- Ian and Ev

2003-cooking

2004- Ian and Allen

2004- first time at Fort Casey 

2004- my baby brother

2005- Ev and Jane

2007- visit to Hawaii

2007-First ghillie suit

2008- oldest girls

2008- me and Jane

2009- Corn maze 

August

I've neglected this blog horribly in the last few months. Mostly because I was busy, partially because I have very little internet as far as evenings and being in my room (the trailer) where I like to work and partially because I keep getting self-conscious about my writing. Starting now, I'm hoping to post a little more frequently. I won't always share to social media, so check out other posts as well...


To catch you up on August:

August was, without a doubt, the best month of my entire life. I never thought I'd say that about what is usually a crazy and exhausting month. I think the two back to back summer camps of previous years wore me out. This August only had one summer camp. My favorite summer camp. The one where the days were long, nights were short, filled with happy memories, good people, new friends, old friends, hard work, sickness, stargazing, traditions, talks with God, laughter, stare-downs, letter writing and pranks.

Amazing stargazing with friends.

Pranks and initiation rites.

Ian's first year! It was awesome!

I came away with such a happy heart, carefree, stress free and incredibly thankful for the people and opportunities God has put in my path. I could have been more content.

But then the post activity sadness set in. Everyone either lives far away or has a busy life. Then, at 2am after a movie, we threw around the idea of a road trip. At first, it was one of those eventually/I wish trip ideas, but then schedules and calendars were pulled out. A little under two weeks later, three friends, my brother and I headed out on a fantastic road trip down to Crater Lake.

Never before have I felt so comfortable with a group of people. It was natural, peaceful and fun. We got to explore Cannon Beach/surroundings and Crater Lake. We saw the most amazing display of stars we have ever seen, sang songs, played Jeep Beep and sat through traffic, ate veggie chips and gummy peach rings. We told stories, laughed and took in God's amazing creations (seriously, Crater Lake, Diamond Lake, Cannon Beach and stargazing had breath-taking views). Saying goodbye was hard to do, but plans for future adventures were talked about and friendships grew stronger.

Between those main adventures, mini things happened all over. The volleyball nights (I'm in love with playing volleyball), afternoon at Kayak Point, surprising my twin at her work, cleaning my bedroom and making it my home, cooking and going to the fair are among many happy moments from this month.

Kayak Point with friends

Surprising Gracie at work

Fair day with Jane

Memory book with Gracie

But it wasn't all happy. I had a couple super challenging days. I had things that were hard, decisions that felt impossible and where adulting became harder. It was all good, I learned some valuable lessons and felt like it drew me closer to God.

And that, folks, sums up the craziest, most peaceful, fun month of my life! I'm excited to see what all September holds!

Zucchini

Today was a great day. I went to the J. family's house at noon to hang out with the younger kids cause Mrs. J. had something else going on. It was fun, we talked, they showed me their shell and rock collections, their trophies and ribbons and other things they thought I'd be interested in. They're sweeties. We went on a walk in their neighborhood, the boys picked me gigantic handfuls of dandelions and clovers. On the way back, this sweet couple offered us some produce from their gorgeous garden. They gave us mass amounts of ripe pears, plums, tomatoes in different varieties and zucchini. It was quite the 1/4 mile walk back with four kids and bags full of produce. An adventure!

We spent the rest of the afternoon eating lunch, doing dishes and chatting about random stuff before I left. I seriously <3 those kids.

Got home and almost immediately started making zucchini bread with Jane. The kids had been dying for more since they ate the last of the previous 12-16 loaves we made (okay, we gave away quite a few)... Jane and I settled on making x6 our recipe, a total of 12 loaves. Everything was going great until I counted out the last of the eggs. The recipe called for 18 total. I had 17.

1 egg short.

I could have made it work. I don't think it would have ruined the batch of bread, but I wasn't willing to risk wasting 6 cups of oil, 6 cups of chocolate chips and a multitude of other ingredients. So not worth it.

I grabbed my wallet. I would just head out to Walmart, just a five minute drive away. I stood stupidly in the driveway, the only car there was Dad's car. Jane wandered over to Craig and Janay's house and borrowed an egg with the promise of a loaf of zucchini bread tomorrow.

Crater Lake

It was a rather spontaneous plan, made in the parking lot of a movie theater at 2am. A plan that none of us actually thought would happen. A little less than two weeks later after much planning, some challenges and lots of excitement, we got in the van and began to drive. We kept looking at each other. Eyes lit. Smiles wide. Hearts happy. We were on a road trip. It was immediately comfortable, like being with family, we had talks and silences, serious and jesting conversations, we sang, danced and snacked away the 476 mile drive down to Crater Lake, Oregon. Best weekend of my life.

We stopped off at Cannon Beach to have lunch and to see the beach. It holds fond memories for the majority of us, but now it has even more fond memories of getting drenched by misty rain. Of frolicking in the waves. Of soggy hair and cold feet. Of homeless chic and delicious warmth from Insomnia Coffee.

And then more driving. Warming up under blankets, snacking on peach rings and figuring out that veggie straws are way more fun to eat when you blow out as you bite. Crumbs were everywhere. From Oregon gas stations and an overly flirtatious attendant to pulling over for yet another bathroom break (yes, I lost the game the most) we drove. The excitement of realizing that in just a few short hours were were out of state. 

We set up camp, including not bringing a proper second tent, which meant the boys suffered a bit as far as the sleep department... Ate dinner and literally hung around the campfire for hours until it became dark enough to see the stars. The adventure to find a "good" stargazing location in and of itself was fun and entertaining, if not a little scary as we drove down construction roads in the black of night around Crater Lake. We found a glorious field (a dessert, actually) that was dark and perfect. As far as looking up. It was so breathtakingly beautiful I can hardly describe it, but I will try.

The view was vast, we lay, heads together in the center, blankets, sleeping bags and towels keeping us warm and laying on a tarp to keep up dry. None of us knew that apparently Crater Lake is among the top ten dark sky locations in the National Park System. We could see so many stars. We laughed at the location of the big dipper and how some of us couldn't see it. We held our breath, then burst out laughing, but that was the only sounds. There was no constant roar of the highway, so sirens or dogs barking. Pure, blissful silence with the only sound being the peaceful breathing of these friends. We lay out in that field until we were gibberish with exhaustion, or in some cases, fell asleep. We could see so many stars, layers upon layers of stars and breathtaking shooting stars. We were also extremely lucky to have had a new moon that night, so it was even darker! It gave me perspective and made me appreciate God so much more. 

The next morning I was up first. I walked down to Diamond Lake and sat on the dock. I made hash for breakfast and we packed up the tent and campsite. We took our time. We drove to Crater Lake and the first sight of it in the day light was mind blowing and made me unreasonably excited. I had wanted to go here for many many years.

We drove around, stopping at many of the outlooks and taking pictures or hiking past fence lines. We hiked up to a lookout tower and sat on the edge just looking at the magnificent view. It felt so unreal.

The drive home was more or less dreaded, not because of the distance, but because none of us wanted this short little adventure to end. None of us wanted to recognize that we were going different directions within a few weeks. Our conversations skipped between serious and giggly. Friendships strengthened. Sure we've known each other for ages, some, up to eleven years, but in that particular, short weekend we became true friends.

Since then, we've gone on other adventures, expeditions to forts, watching sunsets and starry nights, late night talks and near constant Facebook chats. Then it happened, life got in the way. I left first, making the 2385 mile journey to Tennessee. Another left a week or so later to begin his 1500 (ish) mile drive to Arizona and closely following that, my best friend made the 5239 mile journey to Peru for a missions trip.

And that is my little story of one of my most favorite weekends of my life.

Who's Idea was it to Hike?

Ian borrowed my laptop for the time he and Ev are in Alabama for two weeks. I didn't think it would be a problem. I just wouldn't be able to watch anything, write anything or do much by way of computers. That being said, I've done a lot of dishes, cooking and hanging out with Jane....

We've watched a lot of movies, but mixed it in with an equal amount of work and errands. I kept hearing from people how cool the Lime Kiln hike is and how we should do it. So Jane and I decided to give it a go. Mom has so many people in so many different directions, she didn't seem at all concerned about two of her girls going hiking. Rosie, not so much. So loaded with pepper spray and directions not to get kidnapped or mugged, we set off. 

The hike itself was okay, a little boring besides the cute little butterflies everywhere. The destination was pretty cool. The Lime Kiln was awesome and huge, but I have to admit we loved the river even more (it was about a mile further on). We spent a good half hour eating lunch and enjoying the river view before we stacked a couple more cairns and heading out. 

We finished the day off with fish tacos with Gracie Hacking, watched Champagne for Caesar and The Village (once Jane was in bed)... After all that, Gracie and I talked until nearly two before falling asleep. It was an awesome day!

Cascade Falcon XXI

Wow, I haven't posted for ages! Mostly because I've been gone. Again. This time, however, at least I was in the state of Washington....

Four days after I got back from Louisville, Kentucky, Ian, Ev and I left for Camp Casey to work at Cascade Falcon XXI, Civil Air Patrol's basic encampment. Camp Casey has ZERO internet, so naturally, I went the entire time without it. It was only partially missed... The day we left, Ev gave me the wrong time to arrive, so we were there two hours early. I really had no problem with that, however, Whidbey Island and Camp Casey are gorgeous and it was easy to kill time in conversations with the other cadre members who arrived early.

For the next 9 days, I was a training officer for the encampment. Which meant...

During the day: I followed around my flight (Bravo flight) making sure everyone was okay, hydrated, healthy and not hazed. I had 17 people in my flight, plus two cadre members and another two who were in and out between Alpha and Bravo. I passed out a lot of sunscreen and cough drops during the week. I gave my advice to cadre and dealt with students who were emotional and homesick, dealt with minor injuries and took pictures of my people.

Bravo Flight touring Fort Casey

During the night: I had 22 girls in my barracks to take care of. I had one girl working under me, kindly referred to as Dormlord (although Dorm Chief was the official name). Anna (my Dormlord) got all the girls efficiently through showers each night (45 minutes to get them through the three showers we had). It was a fairly hard job at first, mostly because the water pressure sucked. It was a mist. I had to wash my hair in the utility sink... Anna and I did foot checks, asked how each was doing, if they were hydrated, answered uniform questions, handed out snacks and news letters and made sure the lights were turned off on time.

All the girls from Cascade Falcon XXI

After lights out was almost always entertaining. I would shower and get a few personal minutes (usually spent watching the sunset from the edge of the field) or the even more rare times of going to the staff barracks to talk/hang out with the seniors (which was hilarious), but by the time I got to bed, all the girls were deep asleep and that was what was amusing. A lot of my girls snored, a few would groan, one coughed almost non-stop, a couple rolled restlessly, I'm pretty sure one cried in her sleep and my favorite... sleep-talkers.... it was hilarious. They talked about food, apologized to one of the officers, mumbled and went back to sleep, but it happened almost every night from at least three different people.

Inside the female barracks

I got to work with a great group of senior members. We had fun bantering back and forth, making up fake awards for the annoying people, taking care of students, eating meals together and being overly-critical about the food- perhaps that was just me- and taking naps.

There was one particular day where three of us training officers took an hour long nap on the parade field while the cadets were doing parade practice. It may or may not have been the best nap of my life. I had my first cup of black coffee thanks to a senior member. Not something I'll get into, but I can definitely handle the bitter brew (it was Army Strong)... 

There was drama. Cadets wanting to go home, multiple knee injuries, nausea, dizziness, the occasional vomiting, the cadet who passed out after PT and some other things worse than that, students faking injuries to get attention... The list goes on, but at least there was like no senior member drama like the year before... When the cadets complained of stomachaches or headaches, the fix-all cure was to drink water. It almost always worked. 

Did I enjoy my training officer job? Yeah, it was fun. I walked an average of 7.2 miles a day totally more than 65 miles during the duration of my stay. I learned a LOT about the cadet program, mentoring people, dealing with students and cadre, problem solving and so much more I couldn't write it all down. 

Basically, I am beyond proud of my flight and the cadre running it. They did an outstanding job. And, I can't wait to go back next year, although I'll probably be doing some better shoe shopping. ;-)

Back Home

Well, we're back in Washington again. Ian and I spent the majority of yesterday in airports and airplanes. The second flight and the drive home were rather grueling because of how exhausted we were. But we got to sit together on every flig
ht, which is pretty awesome!

Yesterday wake up time: 9:00am
Bedtime: 4:00am (But we were 3 hours ahead... so) 7am

Exhaustion.

I can't measure my experience against Ian's. He traveled 2,369 miles to compete against 44 other kids in a program he spent 2 years studying. I can't imagine all the feelings and thoughts going through his head for the entire week.

On the way back from the award's ceremony, Brent and Chef Becky are talking up front and Ian leans over and whispers "Dude, I got sixth place!" and we high five. 

We had fun together. A lot of fun. We both learned lots and made memories that will last a lifetime!