Just Because - They're beautiful

Thankfulness

This post is a little different than what I planned. I’m sitting here after a crazy day, listening to gorgeous music and contemplating. I had planned for this to be a picture post, but since I’ve realized how grateful I am for being able to think, and my imagination, it’s going to be mostly words.

I'm thankful for:

being a big sister – making muffins while helping my little sister with her math problems

Silver linnings in clouds

Beautiful voices

Snow

Close friends

Family that cares so much about me

My parents

The twins

Sunrises with friends

Traveling

Love

Change

Stars

The ocean

The journey

Grace

Tears

Rest

Health

Hands

Body

Sight

Sounds

Thoughts

Words

Breath

Joy

Worship

And the most important in my life:

Christ. And How He Loves Us.  It’s the most gorgeous thing that I’ve ever experienced, the most awesome thing that has happened and is happening to me. Thank you Jesus for life. Thank you for Your life, and for Your glory and Your everlasting love.

An Adventure - Roughing it on Rose

The day after we got to the Bahamas we went out to another island to go camping. It's about a 20 minute boat ride out there, and we packed all our food and clothes into waterproof bags and took two trips out there Wednesday morning.

We started out the morning [after unpacking the boat] snorkeling on the reef. THAT was probably the highlight of my *whole* trip. It was insanely gorgeous! God *knows* what He was doing... He saw that it was good. :-) It was a really sunny day out, so the reef was really well lit and there were a lot of fish and crayfish and even a pipe fish, which is a closely related to the sea horse. Poor Brett probably got sick of all our questions!

{Fire coral and a purple sea fan}

{Me and my brother and friend Angela}

{Brett speared dinner!}

{Being towed and looking for sand dollars and Conch}

[all these snorkeling pictures were taken by my friend Kara :) ]

{The boys making a campfire for our hotdogs}

{The ocean was only a couple hundred feet from the pavilion that we slept in the first night. It was windy and cold, but gorgeous at the same time. We didn't get much sleep, but we had some good laughs about it the next day. This is our "bedroom window" when we woke up}

{The girls}

{The guys slept in hammocks}

{This rainbow was gorgeous... too bad it wasn't a double rainbow "all across the sky" ;) lol }

{ Machete + camera + us = some pretty amazing pictures}

{ The Lizards were everywhere}

{The third day, when we were supposed to go home it got really gusty and started to rain. The waves ended up being too big for the boat we had taken out there, so Brett's uncle and dad came to rescue us :) It was pretty much an adventure. [This is probably one of my favorite pictures from the trip, it was strange how fast the ocean could change] }

{Amy and Kara walking up to our little house that we stayed in the second night. [no windows, no doors, plus rain and playing Mafia and squeaky shoes = some creeped out kids ;) ]

{ A Jungle trail - Take by Angela}

{ waiting to be picked up and staying outta the rain} 

{After being rescued we went through this canal thing to dock, and got to see a bunch of gorgeous houses}

[For you photog friends... you might be interested to know that all these pictures I took with my friends $200 underwater point and shoot. =) I'm almost wondering why I carrying that honking thing around with me. lol]

I have a few more pictures from the rest of the trip... but Rose Island was one of the biggest highlights! 

Two for One - The Twins

Some "just because" portraits of my little siblings.

{Showin' off her "pretties"}

{Kate is *the* most girly girl in our family. She's in love with purses, shlip-shops [aka. flip-flops] and raids my make-up drawer consistently. Funny thing is... she actually knows that lipstick goes on your lips [granted it was on the top of her lip.. but it's the right place] and that eyeshadow needs something to put it on your eyelids [like a q-tip!] } 

{oh, and hair things... ponies, headbands.. clips, you name it, she loves it}

{Now Elijah... He's the very opposite. He loves any kind of animal, moos [cows], bock-bocks [chickens] or doats [goats], and helping dad with the chores}

{ I mean seriously, look at those muscles from carrying that pitchfork around! :) }

{ The two of them together... just too cute. This picture is just a classic. I love it. }

{Both personalities comin' out...}

The Bahamas!!!

Ok, I am sorry blog readers!!! I promised that I'd keep you caught up on my trip... but it didn't end up happening that way, for one thing for five days of the trip I was without internet... :D Anyway... I'm back at life in cold MN... {and realizing how much I love jeans, a sweatshirt and a stocking cap, I can't believe how much I missed it!}

The first day we pretty much hung out and recovered from getting up at 2am.

{Frangipani flowers - Susan's favorite :) }

We went snorkeling that day, and hung out at the beach...

This house is an old drug dealing place, and it was fantastically creepy... wish we could have explored it :)

Touching a sea urchin... It was so amazing!

Then we went back for some snow crab biters... mmmmm, yummy. Seriously all the food was amazing.

Annnnd the view from my bedroom.

The other view :)

{all these pictures were taken with my friends underwater point and shoot... with the exception of the last two. more to come......}