Hawaii (june 23-july3)

Well, coming back from France, Colorado, and BootCamp I felt a little overwhelmed; but after Hawaii I felt like I couldn’t do anything exciting at all for at least the next year! But, there was a pretty good reason to this visit. My best friend in the whole world (literally at times), who I have known my entire life and is totally awesome, lives there. Her mom is in the Air Force, and they have always moved around for as long as I’ve known them. Now, while that has been a not-so-positive thing for her in the past, really, how can moving to Hawaii not be the best thing ever?? Especially from Alabama….that’s another story… But all this to say, this summer will be their only summer in Hawaii, and so my family’s conclusion was that there was no possible way that we could NOT go visit them; I mean, I visited her everywhere she’s ever lived, even in Alabama, and plus I am her best friend, so however awful and uncomfortable it might be to take ten days out of my summer for her, even the money and all that stinkin sand, I mean, she is really worth it. The only logical conclusion. But you see, my brothers decided that they had lukewarm feelings about going to Hawaii – even slightly negative! I have NO idea how their brains work sometimes, but I wasn’t going to complain – my mom and I went and it was awesome! So our trip was amazing. It surpassed anything I’d ever heard about how beautiful Hawaii was, and that is saying a LOT. It was more amazing than any pictures, more like paradise than anything I could imagine, more isolated and surrounded by more water than I could fathom. Megan (my friend) and her mom planned things for us to do that were awesome – having friends that lived on Maui for a year before we came rocked!! We went hiking up to a huge waterfall through a bamboo forest; went horseback riding down to cliffs that overlooked the ocean; went on a helicopter ride and saw parts of the mountains that you can’t see any other way; went snorkeling and saw fish that made you realize God had fun making stuff (and I saw two eels and two trumpet fish – 3 footish long needle-like things) ; explored a cave on a black sand beach; drove up a volcano through clouds and watched the sunrise and sunset and saw more stars than you could imagine; and when we weren’t doing any thing else, hung out at the beach that was a 5 minute walk from her house. I would have fun with Megan in a jail cell, but we had a blast and it was incredible to see so much of God’s creation that you just can’t see in Austin, TX. And we ate gallons of ice cream, made cookies, ate at awesome restaurants, saw a sailing ship, wore flowers in our hair, and dug a huge hole on the beach while singing the entire song of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Plus, I got a tan! Haha. The best part was probably meting Jack Johnson and some of his awesome friends(;))! One of my favorite things about our trip was getting to watch so many sunrises and sunsets. It made me stop and realize that to God, it’s never “just another day” – and it’s NEVER, in the words of Napoleon Dynamite, “the worst day of my life, what do ya think?!” (this might only make sense to me, but hopefully someone else gets it.) Everyday God is living and active, and he showed it to me by his magnificent works of art that he paints solely for our enjoyment twice everyday. (It reminded me of Ro. 1:20.) My trip to Hawaii was another one of my favorite memories ever – it was awesome.

Boot Camp (june 18-22)

Now starts a part of my summer that I looked forward to for a long time! Every summer my church does something called the Great Adventure (maybe my faithful church homies have heard of it?). The Great Adventure is the main outreach HCBC does – it is mission trips and ‘back yard bible clubs’ (our version of VBS). I have gone to a Hill Country Bible Church for a long time, and I even became a christian at a bybc; and I have an older brother that has done the GA for 3 years now. So I was looking forward to my first year of bybc’s to say the least! Pretty quick after my family got back from France at the end of April, we started talking and thinking about and preparing for it in the youth group! And in June, we headed out to Waco for our week of training.

BootCamp was an eye-opening and life changing experience for me. It was all new to me, and there was about 150 teenagers that look forward to getting to teach BYBCs all year, at one camp for almost a week. We were pumped. It was also, on top of the bonding and teaching and practice for the actual clubs, my first time to stay at a camp at all (I know, I know, I am so deprived, haha). The girls from my youth group and Krista were all in a cabin, and it was like the 8 of us were a family of sisters. Every day we got closer, and every night we stayed up talking until at least midnight even though lights-out was 11. Krista and I shared a room, and our late night conversations, (whether I was conscious or not, apparently) were so cool. It was fun for me because I have three brothers, so it was cool to get to be girly all the time in our cabin. Learning the material was fun, and the practice was a blast. When it got to the last day…..Boo! At the night meetings, the skits were hilarious, the teaching was awesome, and the worship was indescribable to me. It is amazing to me that so many teenagers could and would come together just to worship God – through singing, learning, and going out to tell kids all over Austin how much God loved them. BootCamp was a blast, but it was intense at times. One of the most amazing times I can ever remember was on our prayer day; as our teams, by ourselves, and then ending up with our whole youth group we prayed for about 3 and a half hours. After we had prayed as teams for almost all of our time, my youth group ended up on top of this hill that had a trail for hiking it. It was no mountain, but the view was beautiful, and there was a good breeze up there. And all 18 of us just got in a circle and started praying, one by one. When we were done, I think all of us were so charged; we knew that God WAS going to do incredible things, and we were so ready we could hardly wait! By the last night of worship, the whole room was jumping to “Undignified”, and that was awesome. BootCamp is one of my most favorite memories ever.

I Am A Loser

Well, that is really all that need be said. I haven't updated my blog in several weeks if not months. I feel like a dumb quitter - oh wait, that is what I AM. Ahhhhhh. Well, I am sorry. I have been a little busy lately, what with Colorado, Bootcamp, Hawaii, and then BYBCs. I have been happy, sad, joy-filled, troubled, discouraged, uplifted, blown away, amazed, and refreshed. OK. An overview of my summer.

Colorado (middle of june)

I am a Texan, through and through. Period. Four generations of my family have been born in Texas. But there is in me a small part of Colorado (Coloradoan?) – it has grown there from a deep love my parents have for the state. They lived there right before I was born; in fact, I was born in Colorado Springs, CO, before they moved back to Austin. For quite a few years, my father has dreamed about moving to, starting a business, opening a coffee shop, going into real estate……ect…..in Pagosa Springs, a town close to the southwest corner of the state where we have been going every year for as long as I can remember. Finally, my dad decided to invest in actually buying a house there – so we set out for a trip that would result in us getting a pretty sweet house that we will be spending as much time as my dad can manage at in the next few years. It was a trip that was comprised (for me) of long hours in the car; seeing around 20 houses; hanging with Stevi and Troy (who stopped to be with us for a day on their journey north); marveling at the mountains; wandering around Durango; joking and singing TobyMac with our real estate agent to stay sane; and wondering why so many rich people decided to sell their personal dream homes, (in the most beautiful town I can think of), at the same time. But it was fun! There is something about driving for long hours, being somewhere that is not your home, and seeing parts of God’s creation that you can’t always see that is worth the annoyance and discomfort of road trips. But usually, it is much more obvious when it’s all over! And we did end up with a house, so it was worth it.