Schedule

I have been bit A-wall recently. Work has been super busy. After we worked in Portland, we turned around and flew to Denver for another event. Got home on a Sunday evening and the following Wednesday we drove to Las Vegas for JAMZ Youth Nationals. Didn't get home from Vegas until the following Tuesday morning around 7am after driving all night. I think the week of nationals we worked around 85 hours or so? Not sure, but we are still recovering and trying to fight off a cold before we work this weekend and head back to another nationals in Vegas next weekend. We are also working an event in Phoenix the weekend of nationals.

Modesto to Vegas.

Vegas to Phoenix.

Phoenix to Vegas.

Vegas to Modesto.

Oh my. It is going to be exhausting!! I am just super excited to see some family friends in Phoenix while we are there! Well, its off to work for me! I promise I'll post more soon. :)

Simple

Something I have been thinking about a lot recently is simplicity. There is a beauty in the simple and uncomplicated. I believe I correlate simple with pure. Untarnished. Innocent. Free. Calm.

Life itself doesn't ever seem simple. It usually feels the complete opposite. I wonder how much of this is nature, the fact that humans are made of millions of cells, hundreds of bones, and parts of our body that can't even be found. The consciousness. A soul. What our body and mind can produce, emotions. Love. Hurt. Pain. Happiness.

Yet, it feels backwards to me. I believe the reason we were created and live and breath is simple. To love and be loved. To give without expectations. To forgive and not carry fault. To trust without reason. To have childlike faith. If I truly followed those five beliefs, I would live a simpler life.

Not one of those beliefs mentions anything materialistic or of this world. They all deal with a persons character and heart. Then, why if I believe these things do I still continue to have a complicated life? Why do I struggle with things that should not matter? I must find a way to continually remind myself of where I come from and Who created me. He is all that matters and in seeking Him, I should be simple. I hope to find simplicity.

"For God is not a God of confusion but of peace." 1 Corinthians 14:33

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." Luke 16:13

Internet

I know I mentioned this before in an earlier post but I think its important enough to get a post of it's own!

WE HAVE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Not only was moving from Portland and "city" life to Modesto and country life a big enough change but this girl instantly became cable-less and internet-less. AHH! I thought I might die. But alas, I have survived.

I have always been a huge TV addict. I have been paying for cable since the moment I moved into my own place when I was 19. I knew I was poor but I would not give up my cable and internet to save money. That must sound a bit entitled and like a "first world problem" because it totally is.

I would make a list of all the shows I have watched and loved for a long time but I believe this post would be endless so I will give you a list of the "best of the best" and let me tell you, it is still long. I will try to put these in chronological order of my age = when I watched the show.

• Lizzie McGuire
• Even Stevens
• Survivor
• That's So Raven
• TRL
• Real World/Road Rules
• The OC
• One Tree Hill
• Gilmore Girls (all time favorite)
• American Idol
• Heroes
• Desperate Housewives
• Bones
• Revenge
• Glee
• Pretty Little Liars
• How I Met Your Mother
• Parks and Recreation
• New Girl
• All Food Network shows
• TLC Shows
• Any house/home shows
• All Kardashian shows
• Parenthood

I mean, without a doubt, I watch some quality TV. Not only do I watch it but I obsess over it. I love it. I am addicted to it. And now...I finally have it back in my remote loving hand. My couch loving butt. IT FEELS GOOD! Let me clarify though, we don't have cable still and we probably won't ever have cable living here at the ranch. But with internet, comes great responsibility streaming. We have Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Live. All of those combined too are WAY less than cable itself.

It took us more than THREE months to get internet at our place. It has been such a hassle (our car got stuck in the mud because of it and so did the internet installers 10k pound truck) and a burden to our wallets but we. have. internet. I won't lie....I complained a lot. I was impatient (no surprise there!). But ironically, some days I didn't mind. We purchased a digital receiver so we have like 10 over the air channels that I survived with. Watched a ton of the ion channel. Mainly crime dramas that would freak me out but I couldn't NOT watch. It was the only thing on!

I really am so grateful for the internet. I was maxing out my data usage on my phone which is no bueno. And, now I can blog more and keep up with my raging internet life. :)

Yosemite

“The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. ” - John Muir

I really don't even know where to begin with detailing and describing our weekend trip to Yosemite. It was amazing. There are words and descriptions for our activities but to be able to sum up the feeling of witnessing and being a part of the beauty of Yosemite is almost impossible. But, I will try. And to warn you, this will be a long and photo dense post. 

Saturday we worked an event in Elk Grove and got home around 5pm. We packed in about 40 minutes and hit the road at 5:45pm hoping we didn't forget anything imperative. The directions had us going south on 99 until Merced and then heading east on a couple different highways. We basically live on the road now and 99S is a road we are all too familiar with so I was really excited to be eventually getting on a road that we haven't driven yet. It really heightened the sense of adventure and seeing and experiencing something completely new to me. We could tell as we were driving on CA 140 that the drive would have been beautiful to see in daylight. 

We stopped in Mariposa at Sugar Pine Cafe to grab a cup of coffee since we had been awake and going full speed since 4am that morning. As we were walking out of the cafe a waiter in his 20s commented to us to make sure we stayed awake while driving. Then we had a real quick conversation about being new to the area, going to Yosemite for my first time (Luke had been in summer when he was younger), all the snow that was suppose to be coming and just how beautiful it is. The small interaction with this waiter really made Luke and I even more excited about going to Yosemite and just almost felt like the area was welcoming us in. 

We arrived at Tenaya Lodge around 8:45pm. The lodge is about 4 miles from the entrance to Yosemite. The elevation is around 5000 feet and was covered in snow! The hotel was still completely covered in Christmas decorations which was phenomenal. 

We checked in and then made our way down to one of the restaurants to get a drink before we went to bed. Let me tell you...very weird interactions at this bar. There were about 6 people hanging out and talking super loud and let's just say...they do NOT like our current President. It was hard for Luke and I to even have our own conversation because we couldn't focus on anything besides these people. Very interesting. We decided to just head to bed after that, we had been up since 4am.

Overnight it snowed about 3 or 4 inches and the whole day was very overcast. We decided to do activities around our hotel since they had sledding, ice skating, snowshoeing, a bunch of different things to do. The next day was suppose to be sunny and clear and we thought that would be the better day to go see Yosemite. So we got up and had a great breakfast and then started our day in the snow! Here are a few pictures from our snowshoe nature hike:

After our hike we were hungry so we ate some lunch and then took a nap. I love vacations or getaways because you don't have to follow a schedule. You eat when hungry and you sleep when tired. So nice. After our nap we went sledding! There was an unregulated snow park about a mile from our lodge so we decided to go there to see what kind of runs it had. Well, it was definitely unregulated because a ton of them had a bunch of  icy jumps and went straight past trees. The first run I did...ran straight into a tree. haha At least it was feet first so I just put my feet out and slammed into the tree. I was worried I would break my legs or something but I was good. Then we continued down this long hill, dodging trees like crazy. I ran into a few more and got stuck in low lying branches. But it was beautiful. By the end of our sledding, we both had bruised butts and were ready to just lay down somewhere. Here is the one photo taken though:

After our day in the snow we went out to a steak dinner in a small town not too far from our lodge. We ended our night with drinking wine in our room, playing cards and watching TV movies. A very successful day of fun and relaxation.

The following morning we woke up with the sun, had breakfast, checked out and made our way to the Yosemite Valley. I was SO EXCITED! This is the part of the post where I don't know how to explain my day. Beautiful. Stunning. Eternal. Cozy. Active. Fulfilling. For this part I am just going to post pictures. But one note to make, a guy with a super nice camera at the vista point of Bridalveil Fall asked if we have been here before and we said no. His response. "You are so damn lucky today." We got a one of a kind day in the winter. Started a little overcast and then the sun broke and it was indescribable.

Tunnel View. El Capitan. Horsetail Fall. Clouds Rest. Half Dome. Sentinel Rock. Cathedral Rock. Bridalvail Fall.

Bridalvail Fall. You should hear the ice crashing. Amazing.

Lower and Upper Yosemite Falls.

Lower Yosemite Fall.

Sentinel Rock.

Half Dome.

Upper Yosemite Fall from Cooks Meadow.

Valley View.

Valley View.

Sunset on CA 140.

Sunset on 99N.

The weekend was beautiful in every way. God's beauty is astounding and all encompassing. Never have I felt His love more surrounding and apparent than this weekend.

Exploring

This is what Sammie and I did this afternoon.

Happy Friday!!

Weekend Getaway

**We finally got internet at our house! Woo hoo!!! So hopefully I will have more time to blog and keep this thing updated! Look for lots more posts to come!

Luke and I drove home from Oregon this past Monday on New Years Eve (post to come about our Holidays). By coincidence, we are making a new pattern of travel on New Years Eve. Last years was a bit more exciting...Europe!! Which, I still have yet to blog about or even just post pictures. Maybe soon! 

While driving the 10+ hours back to Modesto we talked about what we want to do in 2013. Not sure if we are really making "resolutions" or not. Using that word makes me a little fearful because I usually always fail at keeping them. I like the idea of just making goals (which I know is basically the same thing). :) When we moved to Modesto we talked about all the awesome places we wanted to visit that are close to us. I talked about some of them in this post. California really is a beautiful state and regardless of how much we miss Oregon and Portland, we want to really commit to finding all the beauty around us. 

 

Yosemite National Park became the focus on our conversations. I really wanted to go be cozy in the snow covered mountains and Yosemite is the perfect place for that. I haven't ever been and Luke has been so adamant about getting over there and hiking or just being outdoors in the park. I started researching on my phone and was getting super excited about making a trip. Well, thankfully, our event we work this Saturday is only 1.5 hours away and like a half day on Saturday (rare). So we decided to go for it! We booked a room at a lodge a little outside the park for 2 nights (we have Mondays off). I seriously am so excited to go getaway with Luke for 2 days. I know we just had a week vacation to Oregon but the whole time we were with family and there wasn't really any dedicated time for just Luke and I. 

Anyway, this post is so full of rambling but the bottom line is we are going to Yosemite and I couldn't be more excited! A few things I'd love to do are: ice skating, tubing, seeing waterfalls, seeing Half Dome. YAY! I will do a post next week about our trip.