30-Day Blog Challenge: Day 8

soo i definitely thought i posted my blog yesterday, but apparently i was wrong!





here is day 8 and i'll hold off on day 9 until tomorrow :)  thanks for reading!

Day 8 - A moment you felt the most satisfied with your life.

this one was such a hard one.  i feel extremely blessed thinking about this because there is no way that i could pick a moment.  there are many, many moments i have felt truly satisfied.  i listed the ones which stand out to me the most, and i even had to take some out because my list was far too long :)  these are in no particular order.





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hiking and catching crawdads with my dad at donner lake.





summer afternoons at my grandma’s,  swimming until we couldn’t handle the chlorine anymore and playing card games with the cousins over pizza.



my14th birthday.  i got surprised with a birthday cake and a handmade poster from 2 of my closest friends.  kathleen and i ran through the church sprinklers that night in our clothes.



everything about camp every year.  the early morning smell of pine trees, afternoons of recreation, evenings of worship and tears and repentance.  nightly devotionals with the youth group, surrounded by all the people i will love my whole life.

world changers in wyoming.  7 days spent in the blistering heat to paint houses for the less fortunate with people from across the country, who would soon become friends and then more like family.

an 11pm decision to drive to tahoe with joel and kate.  winding through the pitch black roads, with joel hanging out my sunroof and kate and i inside the car, singing dashboard confessional at the top of our lungs.





the summer of 2007 i got to spend with will.  swinging on swings at parks.  driving up the hill just to look at the city down below.  spontaneous road trips out to san francisco.  reading old notes.  laying on his floor, eating ice cream and giggling with movies playing non-stop on the tv.  not a single night that ended earlier  than 4 in the morning.

trips up to tahoe with the family to barbecue and play board games and spend days on the beach and evenings watching the sun set.

teaching Vacation Bible School for the kindergarteners at church.





getting out of a really bad relationship...feeling the sun on my skin and knowing i was going to be okay.





splashing around in the ocean for hours, collecting sand dollars.

breakfast on Sundays with the family.  sitting around the island in the kitchen, talking and laughing and enjoying each other’s company.





eating shaved ice in my cowboy hat while watching the demolition derby with my best friend.

jamaica.  swimming in the warm, blue water.  playing with kids at the orphanage.  hearing each of my team members give their testimony under a warm, starry sky.

talking to people at the Proposition 8 protest about God.

evenings at my apartment with all my best friends, swimming until they kicked us out of the pool and playing Apples to Apples until 2 in the morning.





ethan telling me he loved me for the first time in a rose garden in the middle of downtown sacramento.





getting to visit the wonderful world that is the east coast!  getting to see ryan again and going on adventures together.  laughing a lot. 

this past Christmas 2010.  sharing special moments with my incredible family.

bringing in 2011 with kyle, frank and kate, 3 of my favorite people.

ethan holding my hand after 3 months of being apart.