A picture is worth a thousand words…and so is a moment.
Teej and I (Lindsey) have had some really exceptional moments over the past few months and we want to share some of those highlights. You see, it isn’t that these moments were anything spectacular (although some did occur in unique, adventurous, and beautiful places)–it is the people that these moments were experienced with that made them exceptional.
There are so many amazing people that journey through life with us–some only once a year, others on a weekly basis. It isn’t necessarily how often we get to spend time together that is so special, but the quality of the moments we have with these different people, family and friends.
We are constantly talking about how blessed we feel to have you in our lives. It is such a joy and a privilege to be shaped by you and to celebrate and journey together.
You mean the world to us and make moments matter.
October 2011: Teej and I headed up the coast for our one year anniversary adventure tour. We spent a couple nights at a great loft studio in Los Osos and took a long bike ride to Morro Bay to explore. Our time was well spent between there and San Luis Obispo finding antique shops, drinking good coffee, going to a local comedy play, and cooking good food at our place. We headed up the coast to Corralitos (outside Santa Cruz in the mountains) and stayed in a treehouse with 3 live redwoods growing through for 2 nights before heading home. It was magical really…minus some incidents with Grey, the local cat…but that story is for another day…
I (Lindsey) headed to Indianapolis, Indiana shortly after our anniversary to attend the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) conference with my real mom and my island mom, Sarah Tatupu. It was an incredible learning experience and such a great opportunity to attend with women that I look up to and appreciate their willingness to celebrate life (like attempted jumping pictures). While there I ran into two of my dear friends from Fuller Seminary who also were in my cohort with me, Bryson White and Andrea Huffman. We had a few opportunities to catch up and share about life and ministry. I was so thankful for those moments we had together unexpectedly! On the way home we had a layover in Dallas, Texas which was long enough to allow me to have dinner and ice cream with my closest friend since 2 years old, Rachel and her husband Scott. Another wonderful moment.
TJ and I have been so blessed by two of our newest friends, Ben and Colby. They moved to Long Beach from Washington state and happened to find Light & Life and loved it so much it has become their home church. This is the first time that we have had good friends that live within minutes of us that we can call up spontaneously to share a good meal or crazy adventure with. We have had many wonderful moments and look forward to many more.
For Halloween, some of our closest friends threw a party in Pasadena. Below are a couple of our close friends dressed up: Master Splinter, Double Dream Hands guy (but don’t be fooled…that’s a girl), and TJ and I in my parents vintage (no offense Mama and Papa :)) cheer outfit/football sweater. As a part of the season, we also visited Tim Burton’s installment at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) at 1am (yes you read that right) and ended it by dressing up for TJ’s work potluck and wore our costumes (Farmer and Cow) to our favorite coffee shop, Peet’s in Seal Beach, to find one of our friends (and barista there) in costume as well…which called for a photo-op (naturally).
November 2011: What a great month this was with friends and family! Our dear friend Stephen’s birthday (pictured below) is November 5th, the day before my dad’s birthday on the 6th (not pictured below because for the first time ever, he completely skipped church to celebrate his birthday with the family…but if there is no photo evidence of that, it can’t be proven…thus…not pictured below). TJ and I also went to San Diego to have a Quadpod/Quintapod reunion (aka hanging out with three people very dear to me that I met in Costa Rica and have maintained friendships with since 2006). One of the guys, Brett, worked at Sea World and got us in for free, another grand part of the adventure and great moments with Yesh, Tito, Peeps, Teej and me (killer sunsets, killer whales, and kids awkwardly walking through killer pictures)!
It was also during November we became parents…of bunnies. Meet Jack (black ears) and Ginger (brown ears). We could tell you all about them, but then that might make us weird bunny people. For Thanksgiving we drove up to San Jose with our friends Molly and Stephen and dropped them off to see Stephen’s family, then continued up to Roseburg, Oregon where TJ’s family recently moved earlier in the fall. It was such a great time hanging out, resting, exploring and being with Mom (Trish), Kari, and Burley (he gave us a tour with his bike…and got muddy in the process).
December 2011: Tradition in my family is too get coffee (or other warm drinks) and go select our Christmas tree together. We all had a great time doing that and celebrating Christmas in other ways (as time allowed) throughout the season. Also during this time, LIME, the non-profit I (Lindsey) works for, had their 2nd (and largest) project–giving away over 200 Christmas Dinner Boxes for families in need in North Long Beach in partnership with Light & Life. Over 2,000 people were fed as a result of the event and over 20 youth came to learn about compassion and then act compassionately by putting together and distributing the boxes. For more on those details, you can read the LIME blog post about it.
January 2012: My family went up to Seattle and Silver Star without us…because we had a wedding to photograph…so the holidays were spend at hom in sunny Southern California with 75-80 degree weather. Being home allowed us to take the parents convertible out for a drive…or two…and to host friends from out of town, like our dear Swiss friend, Thais, that we met at Fuller and went to Canada with us before we were even dating. We celebrated New Years in a low-key fashion with our close friends in Pasadena and enjoyed time just being together…like a New Years Day convertible ride in the glorious sun (Molly, Shelly, and Christina). We spend many weekends with our Pasadena friends and love every moment of it!
Two weeks into January, Rachel and Scott came to stay a weekend with us in which we got to go to the happiest place on earth (and really were happy…until maybe we got soaked and freezing cold after going on Splash Mountain at 10pm…bad idea) and had some great quality moments together experiencing new things. Also, January 11 was my friend (and sister) from childhood/church, Krista’s birthday. It marked 20 years of our friendship (crazy) and we took a picture just like we had 20 years earlier at her birthday party.
February 2012: We headed up to Silver Star for a working vacation for ten days the end of January and beginning of February. Our good friend Joel joined us for a few days, followed by my parents for the rest of the week. Although it was difficult both working, we were so grateful to be away from everything. Our time included great moments sledding with the pastor’s family from the church we go to up there, Vernon Alliance Church (VAC) and hosting them for a Super Bowl Party. Madonna was sure impressive for her age…
Once we got back, it was intramural basketball season which means Anjelica’s freaking amazing team, Victorious Secret is back in action! We’ve been able to go to a couple of her games and cheer on Shabu-Shabu (swish-swish)! The championship is coming soon and we all know who will win…just saying. We also celebrated Molly’s birthday with lots of surprises, the biggest of which was her first surprise party ever–an all-inclusive tropical resort themed birthday with friends and food and fun and dancing that will be remembered for many years to come!
This past weekend was the 40th anniversary of APU’s Men’s Chorale, which led to a reunion alumni concert that TJ and some of his closest guy friends all attended that had been in ‘Man Choir’ together. With the current Men’s Chorale there were around 150 men all singing, and oh my gosh it was phenomenal! They spent the weekend preparing, rehearsing, and celebrating the friendships and bonds that happened as a result of the choir over the years, especially with Harrold, an incredible man of God that has shaped this community of men. It was a really special time. Since so many friends were in town for the weekend, I planned with some of his friends a surprise party for TJ which ended up being a full day of catching up with people that we see very rarely. The time was so refreshing and deeply treasured.
Speaking of TJ’s birthday…it’s TOMORROW! Finally I won’t be 27 alone….
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