end of summer

I had an incredible weekend!



Dan was invited to go play at this Christian music festival at a rafting resort near this small town in B.C. called Lytton. Kumsheen, which means "meeting of the great rivers"(the Thompson and the Fraser meet at this very spot where Lytton is located) was the name of the resort.

We drove for 9.5 hours ... ROADTRIP! and arrived in the evening in this awesome place that I never knew existed in B.C. It's like a desert with a beautiful canyon and the river flows right through. I have never seen so many trains! The railroad is built all a long this river valley.












Anyways. We spent an amazing weekend, with 30 degree weather, relaxing, swimming, hiking and enjoying live music.


check out some great teather ball action, haha. So Napoleon Dynamite!

There were great live performances Rachelle Kostelyk (check her out!) and Ill ProFhetz (this hiphop/rap group from Kelowna). And on Saturday night, Dan performed ..myself and Karen were his band, hehe. I was on back-up vocals and Karen was percussion and back-up vocals. It was sooo much fun! We had a great time of prayer before we played, singing and talking with God in our cabin tent. When we were on stage it felt like we were in our living room with friends.

I am so excited for what God has in store for my bro. Please check out his awesome songs( I'm so proud of him! ) and buy a cd! lol. He's getting started... He sold a few cd's and we made some new friends.



The best part of this trip, was that it was FREE! YES! that's right! in return for performing an hour set! isnt' that SWEET!!? God is so good. I was praying at the start of this summer ... really wanting to go to B.C. on a road trip, and I was disappointed when didn't work out during my 9 days off.. but then along came this awesome opportunity! what a GIFT! Praise God!


So, lets get to one of the many highlights of the weekend.... RAFTING! WE decided to go power rafting, instead of paddle rafting since we've all done the paddling before..MAN IT WAS INCREDIBLE! We spent about 4.5 hours on the river and had a great lunch. The rapids were awesome and the scenery was just breath taking! Our guide was this really cute Aussie (what can I say, i'm a sucker for adventurous boys with accents, lol), he had some interesting facts to share about the surroundings, as well as some b.s. stories, to entertain us. Anyways, it was awesome! so many great rapids. Next time (and i'm def. planning to go back there!) i want to paddle them. Unfortunately I don't have rafting pics, cos I didn't take my camera on the river, but I added some other pics of the weekend.


We stayed in these great cabin tents with the most comfortable beds/bedding. The food was delicious (one night we had salmon steaks! and the first night I had the most delectable creme brulet I've ever tasted). The hot tub was great too.


o, now that summer is pretty much over... I am looking back and thinking what an amazing summer it has been!

I went to Fairmont hot springs twice! Had a chance to go hiking, Go on an overnight trip to a condo in Canmore, I went rafting, took a road trip and was able to do most of the things I planned to do back in May when I wrote down some goals for the summer.
Some of these goals included going somewhere, and I wrote in brackets (B.C.), lol. Getting a guitar and playing more, getting a tattoo, learning to spend more quiet time with God ( was able to have an amazing silent retreat and it was so sweet to be there in His presence for a whole day) and I am learning more and more what it means to walk with HIm, praying unceasingly. Join a gym and exercise (although, i can definetely do more of that!). the only thing I didn't do on my list, was paint.

I read quite a few books as well...
one of them was the Shack. A REAlLY good book many people were telling me about and I finally read it. It really helped me see some things with a fresh perspective.

Paul Young, the author, spoke at Ambrose (my school) last night. He is an ambrose alumnus, something I didn't know!. He had some awesome things to say. Very humble and real guy. He was just able to share about his journey with God. And one of the things that struck me most, was how God's grace is such an incredible thing that we often misunderstand, and we don't live in it fully. I think that is one thing I also learned from the book. My prayer is that we will come to live more freely with every struggle, hardship, joy, big or small change, every mistake and its concequence, that comes into our lives... to live freely in this grace God gives; this love that God is.

like this flower in the desert :)