DONE!

I AM DONE WITH GOLF!!!!!! WHOOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!! I have absolutley loved this season of golf! I am so glad that I went out of my comfort zone to try this crazy sport. You would think that golf is easy. Ball+Club. Simple forumla... all you have to do is hit the ball. WRONG! It is so hard, but I still love it! Thanks Maddie and Sarah for making this golf season a blast!

Spring Break 2010

Okay, so I decided that this spring break is wayyyy too amazing to journal and take you through day by day. So I am just going to post a bunch of pictures and explain them.

Chapel of the Chimes... it could be the most beautiful building I have ever been in.

My mom is a good photographer...

Talking over some "serious" stuff with Michael at an amazing bakery.

Emily, Michael, and I at lunch right after Chapel of the Chimes

MARINERS OPENING GAME!!!

Michael was rooting for the Athletics.... but who won? THE MARINERS! DUH!

Thomas and I were taking a picture of ourselves... I just think that it is a cool picture from a different angel.

Michael took us to some old arcade place. And they had a "Laughing Sally" you put a quarter in and she laughs. She was so scary.

Emily and Michael are the most competetive people I know.... they competed all week long, but in a good way.

At the Bay!

I had never seen a one-man-band before... quite entertaining...

THE ONE AND ONLY.... IN AND OUT BURGERS!!!! WHOO HOO!

This was my one of the best parts of the vacation... The Golden Gate Bridge was simply amazing.

Pictures can't even begin to explain how breath-taking the view was.

Alcatraz

One of the cells at Alcatraz. Being in Alcatraz was down right fascinating. A little creppy? Yes. But totally worth it.

The "Play Yard" at Alcatraz. It was weird being there cause everywhere you looked there were four walls around you. I dont know how those people lived there. I can see how it would drive a man crazy.

However, Alcatraz had amazing gardens... props to my mom for this cool picture.

We are bad people... Michael's face here cracks me up.

The five of us with the BEST tour guide in town.

Long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long car ride....

The Magic Bullett workin' its magic on our smoothies.

Okay, there is a story to these. So Michael is a VERY competetive person, and so is Emily. So when Emily and Michael first met they started playing games and trying to beat each other. I am not a very competetive person, so Emily was glad to have someone to play with that really wanted to win as much as she did. When Michael came down to visit us this July, Emily intorduced this game; Ten Days in Asia. Michael loved the game. The point of the game is to try and make a trip in Asia for 10 days. And who ever can make a smooth trip first wins. There is more detail, but that is it in a nut-shell. I had played this game before, and I love this game. Michael had been e-mailing me saying that he was really into this game and was excited to play against Emily over spring break. He told me that he had been practicing his skills so he could cream Emily in this game. I thought,"Ok, so he has played it a few times..." And then he told me that he had sheets of tricks for the game... I thought he was joking. HOWEVER! When we showed up Michael pulled out 3 sheets of papers full of all of his strategies. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! I didn't know that this game had strategies! It just made me laugh that he got SO into this game that he would make cheat sheets for himself. And for the record.... Michael beat Emily on every game.

At the Chapel of the Chimes. Isn't Thomas adorable?

hahahahhahahahahahahahahahaha

This building was huge! It went on forever and ever and ever!

BASEBALL GAMES!

Sorry Dad, I really had to post this one. YAWL!

My beautiful mother and I at the Bay

We were at Alcatraz... we had to frown.

This is the face you get when you ask a 7 year old boy to smile for a picture when he REALLY doesn't want to.

So, there you have it. My spring break of 2010! People ask me what my favorite part of it was. My answer: Hanging out with Michael. I had so much fun getting to know him better and just hanging out. So much laughter, so little sleep, so much food, so tired, SUCH AN AMAZING VACATION! Thanks Michael!

SUMMER HUMMER!

I just signed up for Summer Hummer. A VBS that my church does; it is one of my favorite parts of summer, hands down. And I JSUT SIGNED UP! WHOO HOO! I am doing a group with my friend Jake again and I just cant wait for SUMMER!

I just can't wait...

I am still alive...

I promise. I will blog later this week about spring break. I am not dead. I am not stuck in a hole yelling for help. I am not in the hospotial. I am not starving to death.

There, now all of your minds can be at rest now that you know that I am ok. Cause I am sure that is all that you have been able to think about sense the last time I blogged.

My mom and I over Spring Break

Good Friday

     Today I had one of the coolest moments ever with my friend. She is a strong Christian and we were talking about today, Good Friday. The day that Jesus Christ gave up His life so that we could be with Him some day in heaven. Then, she suggested that maybe we should pray and thank God for giving up His son to come and save us. We prayed for about 15 minutes during lunch in a back corner. It was so powerful to be at school, a public school, and just pray and thank God for the most important thing in my life, Jesus, with my best friend. Just had to share that quick little story.

     Anyway, for any of you who don't know. Today is Good Friday; the day that Jesus Christ gave up His life on the cross to come and save us. Pretty amazing. There is one verse that my friend gave to me today and what we mainly talked about. It is Luke 23:34. It is right when they are beating Jesus and mocking Him. And he says one thing..."Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." Of all the things that He could have said, He says forgive them. That just made me think. Jesus was going through the worst pain in the world, and He shows a sign of love and compassion towards those who are causing Him the pain. Am I showing love to those who cause me pain? Of course it will never be the amount of pain that Christ was going through. But maybe I should look at it as, am I showing love towards those who annoy me or those that dont like me? Just something that kept me thinking....

     Ok, this may be extremley confusing and not make any sense. But it makes sense to me, and I always re-read my blog. So basically, if you dont get this next part, thats ok. It is mainly for me to look back on and remember. Ok, here it goes. Sometimes in life when we are going through something absolutley horrible in life, we cant see why God is letting it happend. Why are you doing this to me God? What did I do to deserve this? But what we can't see is the big picture. God has some amazing purpose for it. And Good Friday is an amazing example for this. Pretend you are one of Jesus's disciples. You have devoted your whole life to following this guy. You have taught about Him and trusted Him with your life. And all of the sudden he dies his horrible death and is mocked infront of the whole town. Wouldn't you just be thinking... WHAT!?!?! Was all of this a joke? He said He was God's son, the chosen one. Now he is dead? How can this happen?.... I sure would. Cause Jesus didnt tell them that He was going to die. This was a horrible and devestating and probably confusing day for those disciples. Wondering what was going on and how this could possibly be happening. But now, step forward 2000 years in the future and we see it as a day that is the beginning to the best thing in the universe! So, God has an amazing plan that will end out beautifully. Even if you cant see the beauty in it, He can.

     Again, sorry if that didnt make sense. It did to me.  Anyway, Thank you Jesus for dieing on the cross to take my sins. I know that believing that you died for me is the only way that I can be in heaven with you. Jesus dieing on the cross is the bridge to salvation. I cant even begin to imagine my life without having my PERSONAL SAVIOR in my life.

     Have a GREAT Good Friday and an even better Easter. I wont be here to blog about Easter, cause I will be on my way to San Francisco!!!!

Itsuka

Itsuka- in Japanese it means love. And that name totally describes our Japanese exchange student. She is loving, kind, gentle, patient, smart, a perfectionist, daring, polite, and cute. We love her. She is only staying for a week. :( We wish she was staying for a year, or 2 years, or maybe just forever. Itsuka ( pronounced... Its-ka) arrived on Saturday, the 27 of March. Where she was greeted by clowns at Emily's school. Can you imagine, you get off a plane, you are beyond tired, and then these creepy looking, big footed, crazy make up people are greeting you? If it was me, I would have gotten right back on the plane and said, TAKE ME BACK! Funny thing is, the Japanese exchange students seemed to love the clowns. Also, they had a pot luck.... I am American, and potlucks scare me. I just take little bits of everything cause you don't know what anything is. It is always meat with some sort of soup ontop of it and put in a crock pot. ALWAYS! And somebody always brings chocolate chip cookies. The cookie part is fine, I can handle that part any day. Anyway.... here are some pictures that show our past days with Itsuka.

Emily and Itsuka meeting for the first time.

The pot luck... WHAT DID I TELL YOU! CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES ON THE FAT RIGHT.

The "beloved" clown

We all went to Tolmie State part when she arrived. We walked around and threw rocks and walked the trails. Stuff that didnt require a lot of language.

Sunday, we took her to the Space Needle. :)

It sure was cloudy, but that didn't prevent Seattle from looking pretty amazing.

We introduced her to some good ole' American snacks.... REDVINES!

Itsuka really wanted to have tacos. So, we made tacos. Please, no comment on my apperance, I was sick....

Twister. Japanese people must be really flexible, cause Itsuka would never fall during this game.

I think this is cute. I dont know why. But it is her book about America. And what cracks me up is that there are 2 cow boys on the front of the book. Cause you know... here in America we all live on a ranch and have about 5 horses. That is just how America is.

Our savior....

Itsuka wanted to make us a Japanese dinner one night. She made Teriyaki chicken. When she was telling us what she would need, she mentioned maple syrup. We were all sure that she was confusing this with some other English word. But nope... you use maple syrup. And let me tell you... it was one of the best dinners of my life. I LOVED it! Yummy! We now call this dinner Itsuka's Chicken! Yummy Yummy Yummy!

YUMMY DINNER ITSUKA! And.. bonus, I FINALLY learned how to use chop sticks. Well, sorta. There were times where I just gave up and stabbed the food with my chop sticks. But other times I could sort of use them correctly. But Itsuka, she was the master. I think that she could have picked up a slippery microscopic item with those chop sticks. She was a pro.

Then we took her to Cabelas.

Ya, this is what we do in America. Go to stores, put on weird hats, and look like we just killed something.

She taught us how to do Origami.

We all made Cranes.

More pictures to come. But let me say, this has been a great week and we all LOVE Itsuka.