21

I am an adult!

The most surreal, bizarre, exciting, troubling, dangerous, intriguing, awesome sentence I have said to myself!

20; you have been the best year of my life. Thank you!

21; I hope you contain more ice cream. I really, really like ice cream.

I really could go more in detail about how turning 21 feels but honestly 

1. No one wants to hear it

2. I have to catch a flight in 8 hours 

3. I'm apparently making a list now

4. Which gives me and idea to make the list to 21

5. Coconut is the best flavor ever

6. I love wearing long sleeves: Winter, spring, summer, or fall

7.  I've been bit by 2 scorpions. I now see in the dark

8. I hate this number 

9. I am currently reading 4 books 

10. I enjoy homework and studying

11. I secretly wanna be a florist or astronomer 

12. My favorite thing about today was hanging out with my younger brother in my room doing nothing but eating Runts, packing, making stupid videos.

13. I just hand washed a load of my clothes. Outside. In the cold. I loved it

14. I am addicted to chocolate 

15. Listening to family sitting around the table telling jokes 

16. This list is getting to long

17. I invited all my close friends to a dinner at my house for my birthday

18.Every single girl (minus 2 not able to come) have impacted my life immensely

19. Did I mention every single girl has touched my heart deeply

20. We lost about 20% of our blood supply on this night; mosquitoes, touche 

21. I have to go get my clothes out of the dryer

And thank you Jesus for all you have blessed my life with and all the victories you have given me this past year. I owe it all to Him!

Doris: This girl gets you, and if she doesn't you wouldn't know because she's there to cry and laugh with you when you need it. She tells the funniest stories and she also is the best impersonator ever! 

She has the sharpest memory. The most majestic hair. And she  fixes her eyebrows when she talks.

Love you (: 

This is Becky: Don't let me start talking to her because we will be there for HOURS. She is one of the best persons to have a conversation with. Me and her are in a "survivors of anxiety" group. 

Shes my bible buddy and  shes pretty funny. 

Love you (:

This is Mary: If she cries I cry. If I cry she cries. She is my crying buddy and we have had more tears of joy than sorrow. She is my ex-group leader. When she started wearing tank-tops under her shirt, I started wearing tank tops under my shirts. She used to be funnier than me. I caught up (:
Thanks for giving us marriage advice now hahah 

Love you Mar (: 

 This is Nici: This party would have not happened with out her. She has this biggest heart she really does.Always putting people in her life before her and is one of the biggest peacemakeers in my life. Thanks for keeping me balanced!  Shes also my ride or die partner! Any stupid ideas we've ever had we pretty much have done it. She is the only one who didnt care to embarrass herself with me.

Thanks for letting me wax your armpits. 

Love you (:

 This is Andrea: We share a brain. We share the memory of the best mission trip. We share bedbunks. We share chocolate. We share the same seat on car rides. We share toothpaste. We share food. We share a friendship. Her heart is huge as well! This girl constantly puts others before her and amazes me with how much joy she willingly helps people! This is our signature pose 

I love you (: 

 Meet Dennisa and Lorene: This picture explains exactly what they have done for me. Picked me up and carried me through my 20th year of life.
Dennisa: It amazes me how the longer we are friends the more we find out how much we are alike. She is tough on the outside yet soft on the inside. She has one of the biggest hearts for people and it amazes me how much kindness can flow from inside one person. Thanks for chasing cowboys with me!
Lorene: This girl. This girl keeps up with me. And I sometimes am a difficult person to keep up with. She is one of the most free-spirited person I know and she is so full of content, happiness and love that there is no room for anything bad in her. I am amazed that such a person could exist!
 Thanks for heading north with me!
.

Love them (:

 Meet Betty: She is God sent from above specifically for me to be the greatest friend ever. I have never fought with someone as much as I have with her. She lets me play her piano every time Im over even though I know she secretly hates it. A group of 20+ cute bikers just asked for her number at a redlight last week. It wasnt the best night of our life.
Thanks for being my anchor though it all! 

Love you (:

This is Lorena: She is the sister I never had. People ask us every time we are together if we are sisters. Happened 2 days ago again. We spent 80% of our lives together. For fun we get in my car and blast music and eat ice cream while driving in circles around the city. Yes we call that fun. Our moms our best friends. We are best friends. Our brothers are just friends.

She has been my fighting warrior through many of my battles and has had one of the biggest influences on my life. 

Love you (: 

This was the after party/cleanup crew. 

  

The Art of Celebration

You'r probably thinking what a clever title. 

I didn't come up with it. 

But God bless the Irish! 

Tonight I celebrated! Tonight I rejoiced! Tonight I PARTIED! 

At this point I just wanna jump smack dab in the middle of my story and tell you guys how AWESOME GOD IS! 

I wanna skip past my intro, past my explaining, past my build up and just yell from the top of my lungs

GOD IS AMAZING!!! 

Tonight I learned the art of celebration. 

So I guess that was my intro. One down few more steps to go haha

So yes let me explain why I am celebrating tonight, why I am celebrating for the rest of my life!

 Rend Collective is a really awesome band from Ireland. I've listened to their music for a while now, I've also been obsessed with Ireland for as long as I can remember, and tonight I saw them in concert for the first time. 

I really wasn't sure what to expect. I like concerts but then I also don't. 

This concert definitely wasn't what I expect. 

I didn't expect for the lyrics to touch me, but they did deeply. 

I didn't expect for God to show me the victory has brought me to, but He did. 

I didn't expect to make a fist pump and raise my hand in victory  while signing " Nothing is impossible, every chain is breakable, with you, we are victorious"  but I did. 

I for sure didn't expect to fall in love with one of the cute lead singers but- haaaa just kidding. His accent was just to much to handle haha 

I sure didn't think I was gonna learn a lesson on celebrating, but I did.

I turned 21 this week. 

I am pretty sad about it. I don't wanna grow up. 

My 20th year has by far been one of the hardest years of my life. I have faced trials I never thought I would. I have walked valleys deeper than I thought could exist and felt pain deeper than I ever thought I could handle. 

But my 20th year of living has probably been one of the most amazing, thrilling, beautiful, changing, growing, blooming, victorious year! 

I am so sad to see that season of my life end. 

And I cant believe I'm saying that!!!

God has given me undeserving love. 

God has given me undeserving victory. 

 The Lord has helped me  overcome one of my biggest trials that I have faced in my short lived life.
A trial where my only enemy was my own heart, my own attitude, my own mistakes. 

I don't know when this victory came. Maybe when I was crying on my knees. Maybe when I was staring blankly at the walls, silently. Maybe when I was worshiping with my brothers and sisters. Maybe when I shut myself and refused to speak to anyone. 

It doesn't even matter.

VICTORY IS HERE! 

And this victory I have found in Christ was worth any pain, any trial, any depth, because it is the most beautiful feeling and experience I have ever felt in my life! 

I thought I have felt Gods joy. No not like this. 

Not the joy that God gives after he raises you from the ashes. 

There is nothing I did and  nothing I will ever do to be able to achieve this JOY!
It is only in God, through God, and from God that I have received it from.

So what was tonight?

Tonight was the greatest celebration. Tonight I rejoiced in all that He has done. Tonight I sang with a child like heart, and rejoiced in a child like joy. 

I wish my words were enough. 

I wish everyone could feel Gods joy. 

I wish his joy was explainable but its not. 

I just don't wanna forget this night of celebration. I want to forever remember this party. 

And I want to be forever reminded to celebrate God daily. Even when more trials will come.

Tonight I learned the art of celebration. 

I hope some of these lyrics speak to whoever has their heart opened. 

I hope these lyrics point you guys north just as it has re-pointed me back to head towards my target. 

REJOICE! 

"We are more than conquerors, through Christ

You have overcome this world, this life

We will not bow to sin or to shame

We are defiant in Your name"

"The pain will not define not us

Joy will reignite us"

"The dark is just a canvas

For your grace and brightness"

"In my wrestling and in my doubts

In my failures You won't walk out

You're great love will lead me through

You are the peace in my troubled sea"

" This is the art of celebration

Knowing we're free from condemnation

Oh praise the One, praise the One

Who made an end to all my sin"

Just like Jesus does

   

             It's quite ironic that the minute I decide to start a "travel blog" I stop traveling. 

Just like that life decided that I could use more homework, more work, more responsibilities. 

Starting at the beginning of this year I took off to California for a few days and since then I found myself almost every weekend heading somewhere new, somewhere where adventure awaited me. I could almost say that I was on a roll with heading somewhere north every month. That alone was just as ironic because at the beginning of this year I began my two year school program that had me sign my life away before I began. Yet somehow I found time on the weekends to get out and head somewhere. The busiest year of my life somehow also became the most relaxed. 

             I love traveling. Anywhere; anywhere you go in this world you will encounter our beautiful creator. Wether if it's starring out into the vast sea on the California coast or simply marveling at a tree down the street; God is present. So heading somewhere every weekend was really an escape for me; and escape from a busy school week, and escape to meditate on all God has done that week, and escape to recharge for the following week. With that being said, you can only imagine the crazy withdrawals I have been having these last few months from  going absolutely NOWHERE!

      I've opened this post multiple times these last few weeks, wondering what can I possibly update it with. But each time I've been reminded that I haven't gone anywhere and that I should probably get off and go finish my pile of homework or editing that I have screaming my name! I'm actually sitting in a cafe as we speak, drowning at a table all by myself in a pile of papers haha. Until I realized... 

      Until I realized I have been traveling! I have been more places these last two months then I've been all year. Not physically but spiritually and mentally. 

        

       It's been a crazy few months full of some highs and lows. I might have not always headed straight ahead on my path, my compass might have not always pointed north but that's the great thing about north. The gravitational pull will always bring your arrow around to point north, just like Jesus does. He always draws us back to him, to his love. So here I am back from another "adventure". I really wish I can sum all that has been going on in words. Maybe sometime this year I will find the words to  reflect back on this season of my life. The season of harvest. For that is all that I have been doing lately, harvesting Gods goodness, His undeserving goodness to me. If I can sum up all my rambling and leave you with one thing is that GOD IS WORTH WAITING ON. And even that alone sound absurd because who am I to say, God was worth my time. What value do I have to give to our all Mighty God? For it's in him alone that I find my value. 

So I rejoice in my victory I have found in Christ alone! 

The victory that has been brought through waiting and resting in Him. 

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he turned to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 40:1

Thank you Jesus for always pointing us back to you!

May your compass always point to Him

(: 

Watson Lake, Prescott | Arizona

That's right! 

Back to Prescott this weekend!

I really wasn't planning on heading up north a 3rd weekend in a row due to a busy school schedule but, when a friend asked me if I wanna come along on their day trip to Fossil Springs there was nooooo way I'd refuse the invite. 

If any of you have heard of Fossil Springs or Fossil Creek you know that its just about the coolest place in Az! 

However... I've never been there! 

I know... how can an Az lover not have gone to the coolest place in Az?! 

Well sadly, I still didn't make it to Fossil Springs this weekend :(((

But this trip made me realize that it doesn't matter so much where you go but the  people you go with. And I know this is something we all know and have heard but sometimes it is nice to have a reminder.

So what did we decide to do?

Visit Watson Lake in Prescott! 

THIS PLACE IS AWESOME! 

So beautiful, so rocky yet so green, so..majestic! 

So we put our water shoes to use, hiked down to the lake and took a nice cool swim. 

Oh summer.. you are so good to us (: 

Then of course some dark clouds rolled in and the rain began.

So we began screaming like little girls and running from tree to tree trying to find cover from the ice cold rain! 

It was an awesome day! 

Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera since  originally we were going to Fossil Springs and were gonna hike though the creek but, I did manage to get some iphone pictures of our fun adventure this Saturday. 

Bring your Kayaks and long boards if your heading to Watson Lake! 

Hope your week is full of adventures! 

and always head north (: