One day a few weeks ago when we were both home for the holidays, Jules and I decided we both needed to get out of the house and do something outdoorsy. Snoqualmie falls is pretty close, its beautiful, and it was the perfect thing for us to do that day.
If you would please ignore the fact that I was a pose-less gray blob of a person this day while Julia was (as usual) a beautiful splash of color.
Panoramaaaa
Still awesome even on a very wet rainy Washington day!
So there is a hike down to the lower lookout to see the waterfall. But the view wasn't quite satisfying enough for these chicas. What did we do? We (with some convincing from Jules) climbed over the fence, down the hill, and then scrambled over the rocks to get as close to the waterfall as possible. With the rain and the splash from the falls, the word "soaked" is an understatement for how wet we were!
TOTALLY WORTH IT.
Maybe someday she and I will live in the same place again and we can go adventuring all the time.
What a dream that would be!
Missing home and the PNW today.
So blessed to have my roots in such a wonderful place.
All you extra lucky kool kats/sports camp counselors/ultimate frisbee CHAMPS (heh heh), this is for you. It was an honor to be reunited to play Heads Up and Catch Phrase with you all this weekend. Not to mention the dancing in the kitchen, cheetah blankets, weirdly entertaining ceiling fan, and adorable mini ping pong paddles. Let us have more fun like this soon, yes?
This is a post in which you will become familiar with the top of my head. So... enjoy? I don't know, telling you to like the top of my head seems kind of weird. But whatever. It's happening. When I returned to school in September, I cannot tell you how many times I was asked if I dyed/changed/highlighted my hair. Over and over and over again I gave the same answer: no. I didn't really think there had been that big of a change... until I looked at pictures comparing the difference in my hair color over a six month time span. See, the thing is, I had a very outdoorsy summer with quite a bit of sun exposure. And maybe one day I noticed some of my hair lightening up a bit, and so maybe I encouraged it a bit with a little homemade lemon juice concoction. Who knew that this would spur my peers/family/friends to think i'd gone to the blonde side?! Not that there's anything wrong with the blonde side. I've just never belonged there.Anyway, the point i'm trying to make here is: I DID NOT DYE MY HAIR. I NEVER HAVE. I NEVER WI... okay well who knows, I might rock pink or blue streaks someday haha. I promise not rip the head off of next person to ask me about it in person, despite that fact that it will be the 1459th time i've answered questions about my hair in the last 4 months. But if my own father asks me about it one more time... there might be trouble.
This is Jannette's natural hair color. Pre-Tonga. Pre-sports camp counselor. Pre-two weeks in Texas. Pre-spending every possible moment outdoors soaking up the best Summer of my life.
This is also Jannette's natural hair color. Post-Tonga. Post-sports camp counselor. Post-two weeks in Texas. Post-spending every possible moment outdoors soaking up the best Summer of my life. And yes, post-homemade lemon juice concoction.
I'll be honest. I don't hate it.
I even went so far as to crop my loved ones out of pictures just so you could focus on close-ups of my ever-changing hair color. Don't worry, i'm very much aware of the vanity required to do this.
Sooo my newest issue is that my winter hair color is coming back in. ^^
The hair that is dark and lacking sunshine and loving the bitter cold and winter snowfall. And yet... it does nothing to add to my argument that I did not dye my hair. Whatever, i've said my piece... peace? Shoot I don't know which of those is actually right haha. You get the point.
Welp, there you have it. A full blog posting for which the subject is focused on nothing but the hair that comes out of my head. Oh boy. Somebody better hurry up and give me some homework to do or something.
For the last time ever, I had to leave home to come back to school.
The weightiness of that statement hasn't really hit me yet, but i'm sure it will. Next time I go home i'll be a college grad and when I leave there i'll be returning to work (hopefully!) instead of school. I'll be living who knows where. For the next four months and beyond i'm sure i'll be saying this in some form or another over and over and over again because man, I just have to make it sink in. Because its not sinking in. It doesn't seem real. So i'm going to talk about it a lot. Get used to it.
Anyway. Leaving home. It is hard. Because it means no more of these things:
No more putting Christmas puzzles together in the basement all Sunday afternoon while I watch Seahawks dominate on a nice big TV.
No more watching my dad crack up over the fact that the Christmas tree just fell over.
No more watching Amelia watch her Grandpa.
No more skipping Sunday School to sit in the hall and talk at church.
No more seeing this beautiful girl whenever the heck I want :(
No more passing these knockout sibling missionary plaques on the wall at church.
No more laughing at dad trying to entertain dog and granddaughter simultaneously.
No more reading to sweet little baby girls who I love so much.
No more watching Paige roll the pizza dough tool of death all over herself.
No more funny faced pictures with these wonderful parents of mine who make home such a great place to come back to every Christmas.
Meanwhile, between Sea-Tac and SLC:
Yep, that's my name. Nailed it.
The gloriously rich caramel apple cider inside makes up for all wrongs.
It's always exciting to find a fortune cookie.
But come on, what the heck is this?!
My work is never finished. So I suppose i'm about to have very complicated relationships with the computers in my life.
Break is over. Time to get back to real life with schedules and appointments and homework and jobs and yes, even going to the gym regularly.
Living in the Pacific Northwest means being constantly surrounded by outdoor adventure potential. Did I take advantage of this beautiful fact while I was in high school? No. Instead I hiked Rattlesnake Ridge more times than I can count. Its a great hike. But I could do it with my eyes closed now (I mean thats pretty much the same as climbing it in the dark like we did last summer right?).
Now that my friends and I only get to venture home to the PNW on holidays and such, we're getting better at doing more and seeing more than we ever have before. Several times in the past we've said, "Hey, lets go hike Si sometime." No, I don't mean Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty... But "hey," I like that guy. Well yesterday was Julia's 22nd birthday. And she got a new hiking backpack as her big gift. So what did she choose for us to do on her special day? MT. SI BABY! It was chilly and rainy and foggy. But hello, we are from Washington, that is our element. And it was perfect.
I'll be honest, it wasn't easy. But with a fun group who kept us moving at a quick pace and appreciating our surroundings, it was a blast!
Scattered snow patches made their first appearance as we neared the top. Thats when the coats started to go back on.
And at last, we reached the top! Alive and even smiling, I might add :)
What awaited us at the top was unexpected and also pretty dang cool. It was like attack of the birds... but in a good way. As my best friend sister missionary Hermana Thompson would say: BIRDEMIC!!!
Step 1: hold some lunch in hand.
Step 2: make eye contact with bird.
Step 3: invite it to come sit on hand.
Step 4: exchange formal introductions.
Step 5: tell new birdie friend they are welcome to eat the food you've lured them in with.
Step 6: bird flies away until you invite it back for seconds. and thirds.
Step 7: Get really super excited about the whole thing.
Step 8: Start to get brave and comfortable with new mountain peak bird friends and try stupid things. Like kissing them. Totally worth it.
Slo-mo action. Pretty legit.
I can't take credit for this one, but its too cool not to share!
In case you missed it, he's giving you the bird.
Birthday girl makes a generous offering of bread and peanut butter to the bird.
Happy birthday to this beautiful chica.
She walked into my life 8 years ago and changed it for the better.
So much love for you Jules!
Thanks for making me hike a mountain on your day. I wouldn't have had it any other way :)
Okay but seriously it was so hard and I barely got out of bed this morning. I didn't know I even had the muscles that are screaming for me to remain bed bound today. Feeling like 100 bucks today, people. Yes, I said 100. It's an accurate number.
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