Butterflies at Sunset

Monarch Butterfly Reserve, January 2011. Monarch butterflies migrate from Canada to Mexico every year for mating purposes. They're here on the Central Coast as they do every year to enchant our coastal euclyptus trees. This was my first time visiting during the right time. It was spontaneous and random to stop here this day with my brother. I am SO glad we did this!!! It was enchanting and beautiful to see endless fluttering above our heads. It was silent in sound, musical in illustration as we watched the little flutterers hang and soar and visit from tree to tree. David and I enjoyed our beautiful, peaceful, sunset butterfly watch.

David and I sat in the last rays of the day on a bench underneath the trees and looked up and stared, and two butterflies soared more heavily together to the ground, and David and I were able to walk closely up to them to get some photos. :) How funny!

It was Lizzy's birthday desert celebration, so with my last photo I captured here before blowing out her candles. Beautiful!! Here's to a new year! :)

Santa Barbara Zoo

I went to the zoo this week! It was an absolutely beautiful day! I met Mike, Dia, Noah Joy and Joshua Courage in SB first. I got there earlier than we could leave, so I walked to the shore and bought a delicious coffee. The rain has cleared and the sun was shining so beautifully and made the ocean sparkle! It wasn't hot and it wasn't cold. It was still and perfect. Thank you Jesus!

I have actually been wanting to go the zoo for a very long time. Maybe a year... maybe a little longer. I think about it every now and then and think, yeah man, I really want to go!

So this was a fun treat! And Noah and Joshua were ever so precious and fun!

I got this shot of the giraffe, but wish the colors and lighting turned out better. I must learn from this! I definitely enjoyed my time, and it was splendid to catch up with Mike and Dia. Thanks, guys!!

Noah and Joshua (and Mike and me too) had fun sliding down this "Ant Hill" on cardboard pieces a young kid was passing out to everyone!

He said, "Do you know how many adults I have made happy today?!" haha

I learned in the gorilla section that there is a national board of gorilla experts who choose what happens to each individual gorilla in zoos in the United States! The gorillas in Santa Barbara Zoo are "Batchelor Gorillas." It was amazing and a little nervousy to see gorillas make eye contact with you, and to be so big and muscular! They were so exquisite to look at as they chewed on branches and sat. hehe

It's absolutely amazing to observe the beautiful creatures there are in the world. It makes me sad, though, I have to admit, that the zoo animals are caged from the wild. :( But I do think they're beautiful!

I even saw the largest species of rodent in the world! That was the first thing I said when I looked at it! I said, "That looks like a ginormous rodent." Dia said, it is! It's the biggest in the world!

January 1, 2011. So pretty!

New Year's Celebration!

Ashlynd, Lizzy, Kate and I rang in 2011 together! We dressed up, went to dinner, and stopped at Kate's work for a delightful time of Kareoke.

Ashlynd and I, and two close talkers in the background! haha

Kate and Lizzy watching the ball drop. haha okay, okay, they were looking at the Kareoke lyrics on the wall.

Kate's New Year contemplative face. haha Just kidding, she just posed!

Wintery Contrasts

It was nice and deliciously warm here on the central coast recently, so I decided one Saturday night in December that I was going to go to the beach after church the next day. So I put on my bathing suit, packed my towel and book, and went! It was still and warm, and I even made myself swim. Part of me feels that I have not actually experienced the beach 100%ly unless I actually get wet all the way!

I sure did delight in it!

Another day, I was driving home from work in Santa Ynez and passed this wind mill. I decided it was too pretty and classic to pass. It stood out to me, so I tried my best to capture it's country glow in the Wintery day's end.

Ice Skating

Last December, Ashlynd, David and I went ice skating right here in Santa Maria! Our closest ice skating rink is about two hours away, so this temporary Christmas gift to our community has been super exciting to talk about, watch, and participate in!

In fact, it even hit our local news.

Big event for a small agriculture city such as our's!

This rad rink played muzak like the old times I had as a kid at the roller skating rink! So I tested my dance skills on this ice-- I alomost fell. But David's pro at ice skating and lapped Ashlynd and I plenty.

Ashlynd and I took it easy sometimes!

Ashlynd and David rippin up the ice. oh yeah.
Although we have seen a lot of rain this season, this particular night we merrily celebrated the festivities in the warm night!

It's a New Year!

I'm so totally stoked that it's a new year! I'm renewed, praise be to Jesus and my Father in Heaven, in hope. I have struggled these past six months with a certain discouragements. Forgetting that God is my number one. I am reminded to trust in Him for everything.

I am encouraged to seek Him in everything. That I can trust he has my back when I think of what steps to take next in life. I'm so excited. He has not forsaken me.

I spent Christmas watching my sister and brother in a Christmas play at their church. I was moved to be with family at a time where I was so in need of love. And surprisingly, I found myself comforted in the presence of my real father in church, in the presence of Love. I traveled to San Jose with my mom and stepdad and dog, and we visited for three nights and ate a big family dinner, opened presents, spent much time chatting and bonding. And then we traveled home with my step grandmother.

New Year's was spend with my friends and sister, eating a lovely dinner.

And it was literally New Year's eve, visiting with Mindy, that I was able to see with clearer perspective a renewed hope in the ways I was replacing God with idol-like expectations and hopes for myself in certain things. I am so glad for His ability to lovingly replace my fears and insecurities with the reminder of Himself and peace.

I am overjoyed for mutual friendship and encouragement. I look forward to this new year and have resolved to be on time-- and to work on this! I want to make an effort to walk more.

And I hope to push myself to try new things in the career world, and to be willing to search. I am hopeful.