someone take me back to pieology, please

kean coffee is amazing. pretty much anything with latte art is rad, but kean coffee is especially rad. pieology is fantastic (minus some of the staff, unfortunately). it's basically like a chipotle, but for pizza. i want to go back every weekend. i also wish i could hang out with emily and jess every weekend. well, pretty soon i will be with jess all the time since we'll be living together! eeek! so excited.

regenerate retreat

my sister and i have been going to a new church now for the past six months and it has been wonderful. natalie and i grew up with the pastor's wife (our families are like families) and it has been awesome to see how God is using her and brenen. back in january, we went on their college retreat up in lake arrowhead and had such a rad time. we even made friends (i'm still so proud of us!). we didn't spend a whole lot of time outside, but the weekend rocked. i hadn't been on a retreat in a while and it was nice to get away and just hang out with some good friends and spend some time with God. and the worship was phenomenal. i loved it!

 it was so great getting to hang out with people i grew up with! the photo above is of a group of us who grew up together and who's parents are still very close. it's so cool seeing us all grown up and those of us who have a relationship with the Lord. we are blessed! i can't wait to go on another retreat and to get to hang out with these long-time friends again (hopefully that happens before next year!). God is awesome!

coffee with tricia

last month i got coffee with tricia. it's always so much fun spending time with her. our three hour coffee date flew by way too fast, so we have another date planned for tomorrow. however, it probably can't be three hours this time since i have too much studying to do for the CPA exam. stupid CPA, can't you just automatically give me a passing score? that would be much appreciated.

hikes, hikes, and more hikes. just the way i like it.

i'm pretty sure me and my friends were on a hiking craze in january. and it's still going on in february. i like it. feels good to get outside and get some exercise. plus, there's even a really nice trail right behind my house. peter's canyon in tustin is always a fave, the trail behind my house is super convenient, and the latest one that we discovered in irvine was pretty good but we had no idea how long it went for so we had to turn around at one point and go back the same way. maybe one day i'll figure out how long it is and do the whole thing. here's to more hikes in 2013!

 

salvation mountain

so my friends and i had been planning to go to salvation mountain for months. it was just so hard finding a time to go with everyone's schedules. so over christmas break we managed to fit a day to go. salvation mountain is located in niland, california, and is near the salton sea (which is HUGE by the way. it's the largest lake in california!). it was created by a man named Leonard Knight, who wanted to share the message that "God is love" and that Jesus died for our sins. 

i was so excited and so happy, i didn't even care that we were leaving at 5 6:30 a.m.! we started the drive down there and only managed to get lost twice (which i partially blame becca for. because she doesn't pay attention. haha. but i also blame google maps because the directions to niland we're wrong. dumb!). eventually we made it to the mountain (some 4 hours after we started) and spent a few hours there. it was wonderful! if you ever have an opportunity to go or live in california, do it! it's worth the drive!

hopefully i'll go back one day. it's definitely a sight to see! and it was such a great day with all of my friends. del taco for breakfast. long talks on the road. listening to stupid songs and singing at the top of our lungs. pretzel m&m's. coffee bean. it was great :)

started out the new year right

i wanted to start off the new year (it was january 1st!) doing something active and out of the norm. so what better way to do that then to go on a hike with my sister and our friend, siaira? gotta start prepping now for our trip to washington in june!!

we hiked peter's canyon (which is about a 15 minute drive from my house) and managed to make it out of there just in time before they shut the gate and locked our car away for the night. we also survived "death hill" (as we like to call it) which basically goes straight up for what seems like an eternity. we're pro hikers, what can i say? i can't wait until we go back! 

quick bear trip

at the end of december, i went up to big bear for a night to see my friend liz (who was visiting from dental school in michigan!). i stayed with my friend mark and his family at their cabin. i've known liz and mark since high school, so it was nice getting together with the both of them.

mark and i went on a hike with his two dogs for an hour or so. then we got coffee and donuts in town (yum!) and headed back to the cabin to watch movies. it snowed a few times while i was there. i love when it snows! [i've only been snowed in once when i was younger. it would have been a much fonder memory of mine if i didn't have to race down the mountain the next morning to take a final haha. but it's still a funny memory.]

we hung out with liz that night. it was great. i don't see her often enough so i'm so glad i got to spend time with her over christmas break! the next morning i headed down the mountain alone. thank God i made it down safely! i can't wait until my next trip up to bear!

  

 

things i did in december!

here is a recap of some of the things that i did in december... man, i'm really good at posting things in a timely matter. you must love that! oh well. sorry!! :)

*i put lights up in my room. which i have been meaning to do for forever. i was so happy when i set it all up! technically, they're seasonal lights and they were considered christmas items when i bought them at ikea. but they will be staying up all year long and they are still in my room. YES :)

*we went to souplantation many times in december. i blame siaira and her love for the souplantation salads. i refer to them as "mountains" instead of salads. because, let's be honest. the girl eats about ten pounds of lettuce & pasta at the beginning of her souplantation meals.

*we had a gift-wrapping event for the accounting club at my school that we all got to volunteer at. it was really fun and a few days later we got to hand out the presents to a couple of hundred families. i wish i could have told them all about jesus, but i wasn't in charge and it wasn't a faith-based event. but still, it was a wonderful few days!

*we went to the mall quite a few times and we made sure to park by the food court to get these sandwich samples. they're so addicting. we get one sample on the way in, and another sample on the way out. ignore my weird face in this photo. i was just too excited to eat the sample. maybe one day i'll actually buy a whole sandwich instead of just eating all the samples... maybe.

*siaira's family made us cookies + cake bites and i wore my favorite new dress a lot. 

*natalie, becca, siaira, and i had quite an adventure one evening. we drove around a few christmas-light-looking-neighborhoods and blasted luke bryan and other ridiculous songs while singing them at the top of our lungs. we also snuck into our old church's christmas party (at an old friend's house) without being noticed and used the restroom... we were successful at the sneaky part until natalie and becca ratted us out accidentally. but it was still really funny! (if anyone of the church people ever asks though, i'm denying that i ever was there. to my death)

*natalie, heather, cathee, jessica, and i had a lunch date at lazy dog cafe to plan out our upcoming trip to canada + washington! jessica made little signs that said "aye" on one side and "nay" on the other so we could vote on things. pinterest has done her well and has turned her into a crafty lady! good job jessica!