Thursday, July 30, 2009

4 days and counting...

a cute bird :)
me and the cows right outside my dorm!(wisconsin??)
Alright quick update!
So heres my day:
6:30 wake up and run with some girls, shower
7:30 breakfast
8:00 worship then 2 lectures with a few breaks in between (the lectures have been REALLY cool. I've just been absorbing them and such. Some of my homework is to memorize Isaiah 61, do my own Bible study, and yeah more to come.)
10:30 Morning tea then another lecture
1:00 Lunch
then after lunch it kinda changes from each day...we have duties like cleaning each day and spending time with other students in groups called family groups, and devotional groups.

Yesterday we went to where the ABS campus is and all stayed there overnight. During the days we did all these crazy games and just bonded. The ABS place is in a valley kinda with cows around and also a lake, but its so beautiful. Mountians in the background too.

Everyone is really nice :) All the girls and guys and returning students are really helpful. The food is great so far...we have cerealy stuff for breakfast, pastay stuff for lunch with fruit, and same kinda stuff for dinner. 
um thats it for now, I know I'm slacking on the pictures, but I'm still warming up to people so I wanna be creepin on people. 
ps thanks for everyone looking on here I love you all!!

Monday, July 27, 2009

I'm HERE

Hello,
Just a quick note, but I'm here-tired-info overload-happy. Alright thanks for all your prayers.
Its beautiful here, not too cold (yet) and yea I didn't take any pics or anything, this is really boring, ummm i taught someone how to play cribbage today! yea idk we eat soon. Oh and thanks to Joan Riley for picking me up from the airport, she was awesome and a sweet heart. :) 

Friday, July 24, 2009

Pictures from the hiking day(that I forgot to post)

GLACIER! 
sweet pic showing the path up
a great view...but only at about the middle
straight up hill
dog sledding

The Last Few Days...23

Travis and a sea otter (3)
"Elephant Rock" and my parents in their kayak (3)
A silly picture :)  (3)
View on Kayak Trip (3)
All the families in the Backroads group(1)
Holly, erin, River guide, Mom and Dad(1)
Dad me and anne in our river gear!(1)

(1) Alright back to July 22: We woke up early and got right on the road for a rafting trip on the river. Our tour guide was awesome and while we were out there we saw tons of eagles and and 5 bears...yeah thats right 5 brown bears all together, just lounging around in and around the river. It was great :) After I bought some really cool earrings that are made from a bonsai tree. After that we went on a 5 mile hike (and kinda run on the way back) but at the end of the hike there was a waterfall that had salmon trying to swim up it... straight Discovery Channel! 

(2) July 23
I was crazy today and woke up early to go on a 4 mile run with Holly, Erin, Travis, Nathan, and Kendall. It was so beautiful out though and definitely worth it. Then packed up in our buses for a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to a park in Homer. Heres where the real craziness begins... I did a 32 mile bike ride and there was a lot of up hill areas...only 6 people out of the whole group did the 32. It was really hard but the views were AMAZING and it felt good to work that hard and succeed. We ended at our hotel on Homer Spit. (I forgot to mention that we found an alive starfish on the road while we were biking in the mountains ...so we put it in a bag with water and let it loose in the ocean later! ) Later we went and ate dinner "down town" and saw Captain Jonathan from the Discovery Channel show, "The Deadliest Catch". We talked with him for a while! Christian was super pumped, because he really likes that show. We checked out the shops too and I found a sweet wool sweater to keep me warm in NZ. (I also didn't really have my camera today...sorry)

(3) Today July 24
We woke up and went out for a sea kayak trip around an island near Homer. We took these little boats out to the island then went halfway and stopped for lunch. Right before lunch 2 boys tipped in the water...whoops! Lunch was great tho. Then back on to our kayaks for the rest of the island. Throughout the trip we saw a lot of wildlife: eagles, otters, jellyfish, anemone, and seals. All the guides and boat drivers were awesome too. Tonite is kinda our farewell dinner. It went so fast. Im off to NZ soooo soon. yipes, keep praying!


Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Hike...

Could have been one of the toughest things I've ever done, but super worth it! An 8 mile total hike up a mountain right next to a glacier. When I say up I mean steep! :) It was also raining and windy the whole time, plus at the top part there was 40 mph winds... yea, crazy. I think we were around 3, 000 something elevation. It was nice to talk with people tho on the way up and down, we even sang the "Boom Chicka Boom" song(in a million different ways). I think it was a little over 6 hours total. I forgot to mention before that adventure we went on a sled dog ride. Now considering it is summer here there isn't really any snow, so we were in a cart with all these dogs pulling us. They were a little different than the Disney view of sled dogs...pretty scrawny mutts and bred for speed, they were super hyper. After we saw the puppies! What a dream :) Later we go out to eat... I'm going to upload pics later:)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

DAY3

view from the river
fireweed flowers in the scenic route
Fifi with the boat in the background
sibs being silly
DAY 3:
We woke up and went on a river tour and fished a little for Salmon...although no one caught anything, bummer. But our tour guide was super legit and it was a great time even though it rained a little and I waded too deep in the water and got a wet butt. Then we packed up in the B&B and walked around town a bit then headed back to Anchorage. We took the scenic route which was a gravel road through the mountian...kinda crazy! We went to dads friend's house for dinner (halibut and burgers with a salad, then apple pie for dessert, yum!) His friend was someone that climbed Mt. McKinley with dad 25 yrs ago! They had a great family :). Now we are in the hotel and our adventure starts tomorrow!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Before New Zealand...Comes Alaska :)

beach in talkeena
in airplane


DAY 1:
Arrival, we flew from Milwaukee to Dallas (whaaat?!) then arrived in Anchorage, Alaska around 8:00, which was about midnight our time. We drove 2 1/2 hours to Talkeena and stayed the night in a B&B.
DAY 2:
We, woke up and went on an air plane ride...not just any airplane, one that went over Mt. McKinley and other Mt.s and Alaskan terrain. Crazy. Can I just say God is an amazing artist :). Once we got back from that we walked around down town, where I am now at a restaurant using their Wi-fi, enjoy the pics!

*in airplane and Anne and Chase in front of the plane

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Good days

ok. wowo. 1st of July=emotion. Great, joyful, POWERFUL emotion. I am soooo loved and soooo taken care of and God is just amazing. Tears. 1. Great sermon this morning about trusting in Jesus and His knowledge and following his waysand what he does and it just applies that I need to trust Him with my life. 2. An Invisible Children video was shown by my friend Laura who is super passionate about the movement and her passion is just moving in on its own. 3. Every little anxious thought/worry about NZ is being blown away and I have just this crazy realization on how much God loves me and the power He has and that He has a plan and I am His and wow life is gonna be ok with God.
=emotion. So I'm sitting in my car journaling this to be put on the blog(right now :) ) but God is good.