Who Is Erika Anyway?

Family vacations are one of the best because they bring you closer together, for instance the 10 hour drive from Latah to Long Beach we did today.  What I mean is, everyone is together doing adventures. Billy's not a soccer practice, Mary isn't at dance class, Mom isn't trying to shuffle kids around and still get to work on time, Dad isn't going to work every morning and then coming home and helping fix the things on the house or rush off to the recital or parent meeting. All of these great things that make our lives, adventures get put to the side for a week or however long you may be gone.  We all need time to breathe, relax, reset and forget about the stress of life for awhile. For my family this year it was escaping to the beach cabin. My great grandmother owns it and was kind enough to let us use it for our vacation since all of our other plans went up in smoke (literally my entire state is on fire)   I love the memories here the cabin was a wedding present from ...

Last week my Dad and I were able to attend the Northwest and Pioneer League all-star game at Avista stadium, we were excited ever since we decided to go and reserved the tickets. After driver's ed Dad picked me up and we headed the ballpark. We got our tickets from will call and went to get food. At the stand we ordered a hot dog, two soft drinks and I ordered a corn dog. They vendor at the stand told us we were out, but they were finishing up the next batch. We told her that it was no big deal, so we slid over to wait. I enjoyed watching the people shuffle about and do the pre - ball game activities. After some awkward silence the gentlemen working in between the two cashiers, stared at us for a moment and said " I hope this is the best corn dog you have ever had." Dad and I have been laughing about that for a while it was a great way to handle a awkward moment.  Getting our food we headed to find our seats, on the way there was a clown handing out tickets, like the on...

I have been blessed to know many people that hsve touched me in big or small ways. Some have passed and probably never known the memories I have of them. Lile the neighbor my great grandparents had who gave me stamps to play with one time, I remember when dad said she had died. As for great grandparents I have lost two, and as painful and saddening as that is, I can't help, but see how blessed I am to have known them and have them be apart of my life and to have one still living who I visit and write with. There have been others who I have known through church that have always been there that have gone and I think about. Those we meet impact us. We also have our living family that surrounds us and goes through the time with us. Family forms a wall of protection around itself and we grieve and work together. Even though the time is sad I can't help but smile, because of the memories I made and the relationships that grew because of the time. This is like  church family. A f...

This summer I have had the fun of babysitting three sweet kids, that I hsve been watching for a few years now. It was one of my first real jobs and it is so cool to see how the kid's and I's relationship has formed. I get so excited to come see them and hear what they have been up to. They tell me about their camping trip, or how Silverwood went and tell for the 100th time what grade they are going into because I forgot.....again. We have had lots of adventures this summer like scavenger hunts (the picture below is of the scavenger hunt), baked sugar cookies, colored, made clay paper weights, q-tip painting, hand print wreathes, face painting, built forts, and so many other things I have lost track of. I love it when the come up with their own game. It reminds me of playing with my brother and the things we would do. This summer the game they came up with has been an animal hospital. They created a entire hospital in the garage with beds and cages, then got all of their stu...

Back on the first week of summer break, my mom and I did a 3 day, music day camp for kids. We did it as a fundraiser for my plane ticket to Trinity, when we started we thought "Okay, so we will have maybe 4 or 5 kids  that want to come." However, before we knew it we had 19 kids signed up! We quickly arranged to host it at our church seeing as it was now too large to have at our home. Mom was a saint at planning the curriculum, getting instruments ready and making themes for everyday. I wasn't much help in the prep stages, which I feel bad about. It was cool to see everything come together though and the kids loved it. We had drum circles, snacks, stories, games, crafts, and dances. Because we had 19 kids and only mom and I running it, I worked on setting up all the stations and taking pictures, while mom taught the classes. Each day had it's own theme, Tuesday was Hawaiian day, Wednesday was Mexican day, and Thursday was Cowboy day. (That day was my favorite! ) ...

Another adventure I have been up to is driving, I started driver's ed about 3 weeks ago and what and adventure it has been. Between navigating the DMV for my permit, learning to deal with teachers and classmates that are different from what I am used too. Not to mention the actual driving, hehee that has been entertaining. One of my first times out, there was an incident involving a Zip's parking lot, a turn lane and a learning what a drive thru lane is. Moral of story I now know what a turn lane is, everyone lived and I am sure that the guy in the drive thru wasn't in shock for long, whoops! Last night's adventure involved a car trying to cut me off, driving in too close at the gas station,  a imaginary person in the road and hitting a porcupine. (Which I actually cried over) What I am learning is that I am never going to be instantly perfect at something I am going to mess up. The important thing to remember is I have amazing parents here to help me learn, a class ...

I have been meaning to blog a lot more than I have been, there is so much I want to share with you lovely folks. So here is the first one. Back in the middle of July I flew to Seattle to help  out with a VBA (vaction bible adventure) the church I went to has been putting on a VBA here for around 14 years and the last year was the first year I went to help with theirs. Having known that VBA might not even happen this year made me even more thankful for the opportunity to do this trip. So back on July 4th I flew out of Spokane on my own and landed in Seattle. After a bit of a confusing navigation out of the airport that took a security guard, two travelers who realized I was lost, and a man who noticed I was trying to go down the up escalator I finally made it out of the airport and to my host family. For 4th of July I went with my friends Tori and Hannah to Camp Baracca and enjoyed go karts, a potluck with more VBA related friends and fireworks. On this trip I got to do a lot...