Family Dinners are BACK!

 

We have not hosted a meal with Sikose for quite a long time due to crazy summer schedules but we are back on track. Our wonderful guests tonight were Ben and Christiana Childers along with Lily and Sherif. 

First Day of School Picture

 

Internship at First Pres Bellingham - Day 1 :) 

it's the little things

 

my greeting when I got back from my trip last Wednesday night: 

Jason left Harry out on our bed with a t-shirt on I'd found at the bins with Taylor along with a letter he'd written to me... 💙

flowers still blooming on 20th - walk with Erika on Thursday 

Farmer's Market flowers 

(with Sophia and Maria) 

Vision 16 mentor breakfast to kick off the year - this is the 30th year of Vision 16! 

Awe and Wonder

We often use “awe” and “wonder” interchangeably, which makes sense because as you can see, the experiences share a lot in common. But there is a primary difference between our experiences of these incredible emotions that’s worth understanding. I love how researchers Ulrich Weger and Johannes Wagemann explain it. They write, “Wonder inspires the wish to understand'; awe inspires the wish to let shine, to acknowledge and to unite.” When feeling awe, we tend to simply stand back and observe, “to provide a stage for the phenomenon to shine.” 

Awe and wonder are essential to the human experience. Wonder fuels our passion for exploration and learning, for curiosity and adventure. Researchers have found that awe “leads people to cooperate, share resources, and sacrifice for others” and causes them “to fully appreciate the value of others and see themselves more accurately, evoking humility.” Some researchers even believe that “awe-inducing events may be one of the fastest and most powerful methods of personal change and growth.” 

-Brene Brown, Atlas of the Heart 

the Northern Lights Anna got to see on her drive to Fairbanks yesterday 

Anna had a friend in town last weekend so they went on the Bomber Traverse that we did but added a section and did it in the reverse direction from what we did earlier before Labor Day. 

Leg 1: Gold Mint Trailhead to Mint Hut

Hike the Gold Mint Trail across the valley floor (expect mud and wet terrain).

Ascend steadily as elevation increases toward Mint Hut (~4,300 feet).

Leg 2: Mint Hut to Bomber Hut

Climb out from Mint Hut up and over Backdoor Gap (around 5,717 feet), a steep and unstable loose-rock pass.

Descend toward the Bomber Hut (~3,853 feet) near the Bomber Glacier and B-29 wreckage site. 

Leg 3: Bomber Hut to Snowbird Hut

Navigate from the Bomber area up toward high alpine passes (such as Bomber Pass or connecting route areas).

Cross boulder fields, moraines, and the Snowbird Glacier up to the Snowbird Hut, which sits high in the peaks near Snowbird Glacier. 

the birthday cake that came with us last year when we drove Anna to Alaska came with Anna on the hike 

Behold! 

one of these things is not like the other...

 

Wednesday view 

Thursday view 

Aloha- Day 7-8

 

While the photos from this past week might look like a classic Hawaiian vacation, it’s been so much more than swimming in the ocean and sipping guava juice. Again and again, we found ourselves in conversations with generous, wise people—about Hawaiian history and culture, about faith, about missions, about who gets to tell the story, about aloha, ohana, and āina.

I’m so grateful for this week—grateful to be in a place of such beauty, yes, but even more grateful for the chance to learn, to listen, to grow. And what a gift that all of this unfolded while we soaked up the sun, got sand in our toes, and let the islands teach us what they hold.

snorkeling with Katie at Kaanapali Beach on Tuesday 

snorkeling at Black Rock 

🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴

the following pictures are not my pictures as I did not have a camera while snorkeling but these are glimpses of what we saw...

needle fish 

angel fish 

yellow zebra fish 

black triggerfish 

magical turtles 

plumeria blossoms 

Haiku from Tiffany 

last sunset :) 

Mickayla, Bianca, Katie, Debra, and Tiffany (dance party crew) 

Katie, Tiffany and I pulled our beds outside Tuesday night as the cabins were hot and it was fun to sleep under the stars :) 

Aloha- Day 6

 

the presentation was amazing at the library learning more about the legacy of Kalaupapa 

https://www.kalaupapaohana.org/

lunch at the Molokai Pizza Cafe with Chris (where we went 3 times while we were in town) 

Our flight got delayed until 7:40 pm to go to Maui for our next stop (and our group that was on that flight had 5 hours of waiting at the airport), so instead of passing the time in the tiny Molokai airport, Chris, Bianca and I rented a car for a few hours and went to this amazing beach about 20 minutes away- what a way to spend the day! 

Papohaku Beach 

We saw two other people off in the distance at the beach--- so we basically had this glorious place to ourselves! 

soaking up the beauty of this place...

it does not get much better than this! 

Camp Olowalu where we are staying for the next two nights