yay for kayaking!

ok, so i love kayaking.... i absolutely LOVE TO KAYAK. when we come to mammoth is the only time i get to kayak... once a year. i make sure to enjoiy it as much as i can. by the way, did you know kayak is a palindrome? well, it is.
every year we go to gull lake because we have made it a necessary part of our trip. we have to go kayaking at gull lake, and meanwhile the rest fish in a little motor fishing boat (psh, forget the motor, it's all about manual labor).
so yesterday was gull lake day; jenny and i kayaked and paddle boated. normally we have a two seater kayak, but that one was broken so we each rented a one seater. it was a bit of a bummer because the two seater helps with teamwork. however, the seperat kayaks proved to be VERY fun. we kayaked for two hours and paddle boated for one hour. what a work out! that paddle boat was impossible to get moving, it was crazy! i have never felt that kind of burn in my legs before. the paddle boat was red and glittery... it looked like an oversized version of dorothy's red slippers. : ) in the kayaks we had a lot of fun... we even went backwards for a while. we crashed into eachother quite a few times, and the wind was SO strong. kayaking (an paddle boating) was so hard going into the wind. the water was super choppy and we got soaked. i made the mistake (twice) of turning my kayak sideways so that the waves in the water nearly tipped me over. one time, a little water got in when i almost tipped... anyway, towards the end of our kayaking sessions, we just laid back and floated around in the kayak (that's what the pic of me laying in the kayak is from). and of course, being on a lake for multiple hours means multiple tan lines, including the sunglass tan. jenny got some good shorts tan lines, as did i (mine was on purpose though, you know, with tennis season coming up). after we got back from dinner, we looked for a few shooting stars. i found that the best spot to search from was from atop my car, even though i didn't see any.
so today, we will be going to convict lake where i will be fishing for my first time ever... yup, never even held a pole.

dress-up and climbing

i see things, and i want to climb them. i saw a tree with a branch that was extending over and across the path about 15 feet above the ground, and i wanted to climb it. so i did :) the very bottom picture (haha, no pun intended) was when i first got on the branch. i was stuck for a bit just hanging there on my stomach, but i eventually made it into the sitting position, and then the laying position which was most comfortable. it was so much fun!
the pics from the post before this are from me and jenny dressing up in this one store. don't we look awesome? speaking of stores, on of my favorite things about the stores out here at this time of year is that everything, EVERYTHING, is on sale. i got some shoes that were on clearance for $25, and they are normally $60. all clothes and jackets are on sale too, it's crazy!
so ya, that's it for now! enjoy the pics!

i'm growing

this is totally unrelated to mammoth, but i figured i would just say it anyway... i am totally growing taller. i'm having growing pains like crazy... it doesn't really hurt, it's just an ache. anyway, i am growing.
we just got back from dinner. we ate at this place that's on a ranch where they have a petting zoo and what-not. we didn't pet any animals this time, but jenny and i will definitly go back and pet a few goats. while we were eating, i happened to turn and look out the window only to see a guy 20 yards away relieving himself in a bush. not exactly what i wanted to see while eating dinner. it was really embarassing. otherwise, the food was great, and the atmosphere was fun. unfortunatly, i didn't have my camera at dinner tonight.
here are some pictures from earlier today... we got to ride a trolley for free!!! isn't it great when things are free? especially things like trolley rides.
Jenny thinks the sky is falling.

made it to mammoth!

well, we are here at our condo in mammoth, and i have got to say, it's awesome to be back up here, and it's amazing how easily i get back into the swing of things here... it's like i never left. i'm sitting on my bed, watching andy roddick win a tennis match, and knowing that the mountains are outside. It is so beautiful out here.
The drive up took over 6 hours... it was my first time (and my car's first time) going that far in one day. we made a few pitstops, but otherwise, it was a lot of driving. i enjoyed it, and i got to see more than usual. it was my first time ever not sleeping on the drive to mammoth (it's a good thing i didnt sleep). on the other hand, jenny did a lot of that, and so did my dog. here are some pics. the pic of me is from when we got to the condo... i wasn't really that tired. Jenny took some serious napping time, as you can see. And my dog can be a bit rebelious. The sign was as far as he went though.

later!

last adventure

well, not the last adventure forever, just for the summer... besides, life is an ongoing adventure, right?
anyway, we will be leaving in about 30 minutes to go to mammoth ("we" being my parents, grampa, raija, me, and my frienbor jenny... that's friend and neighbor combined). this year, the traveling is being done a little differently... i think i have already mentioned it in multiple other posts, but i will say it again, cause i am excited. me jenny will be going seperatly in my car because i get to come home early so i can catch the last day of tennis try-outs. so, we will be following my parents on the way there; but on the way back, completly solo!!!
first taste of a road trip... 6 hours of driving with a few fun stops.
well, i will be posting pics and what-not while up in mammoth, so be sure to check!
did i mention that my little dog will be going to mammoth with us. well, actually, he'll be staying in bishop, which is about 45 minutes before mammoth, but we always spend a day in bishop, so we'll get to check him out and take him around town. it'll be tippy's first road trip as well (he'll be in my parents' car.

that's it for now!!!

hooroo :)

my last until after school starts...

i've been noticing that a lot of things have been coming up where i find myself saying, "this is the last time i {blank} until school starts..." for instance, today was my last guitar lesson until we start school and start playing in chapels and practicing before school. today was also my last tennis lesson until my first day of school... it's crazy how many "lasts" there are. it's crazy that it means summer is pretty much over.
here's the thing. i don't think i am too bummed summer is over; in a good way. i have had a filled and busy summer... filled with good and healthy things... not like summer homework. i feel that it has been good and i don't feel that i have wasted much time, and i don't feel that there is anything that i didn't get to do. we still have our mammoth trip yet (we leave friday) and then right when i get back, i have tennis tryouts. unfortunately, my family trip is the same week as tryouts, so i am driving home early to get back in time for the last day. i am so excited for this tennis season. then i have week after i come home, and on the 6th of september, i begin my senior year... CRAZY. I believe i started this blog back when i was a sophomore, and now i am a senior. man time flies, or shall i say the TP roll goes fast (if you don't understand the toilet paper refrence, look in an earlier post around the time of school ending to see an explanation)

now for some fun facts:
these are tennis world records... the first 4 are all held by the same guy... i believe they are up-to-date.

-LONGEST RALLY (regular tennis rules apply): 15,674 hits. it took 9 hours and 45 minutes to complete this task.
-LONGEST RALLY WITH TWO BALLS IN PLAY: 2,789 hits... it took 35 minutes
-SERVING RECORD: hit 8,017 in-serves in a row within 10 hours and 7 minutes
-MAN VS MACHINE- 5,792 shots in a row
-SHORTEST PLAYING TIME: the match was 3 hours long, but the amount of time that the ball was in play was 9 minutes. this shows that tennis isn't all about the strokes... there's a lot more that happens the other 2 hours and 51 minutes (this was a match that becker played)
-SHORTEST MATCH: 45 minutes... rod laver won in straight sets (3 sets since it was wimbledon)

well that's it for now!

time for bed!

hooroo

quick pic

my brother came home last wednesday, and he is leaving tomorrow... time went sooo fast. anyway, i just wanted to put up a quick pic from the day he came home, and i will have more later from tonight (a going away party).
i will post tonight...

bumper stickers, tee-offs, and mentos

well, the bumper sticker is from hawai'i, but the tee-off and mentos are recent. I liked this bumper sticker because "tita" is my mums nickname that her dad calls her.
I went golfing with jenny on sunday... no, it was not my putting-tribute to my nonna, but it was kind of like a stake out, you know, to see if it was a good course for it... and it definitly is. so, i believe this sunday will be the day of my putt-putt challenge. anyway, these pics are from the 18 holes jenny and i played... twas quite fun :) my caddy wasn't pleased with my club choices i made at times...
now, these last pics... well, it was the first time i have ever done something after the tv told me "do not try this at home". it seemed harmless enough, so i did it. you all should try it some time... buy a 2-liter thing of DIET COKE... must be diet... and a box of original mint mentos... not the fruity kind. go home, go on your lawn, open the diet coke and quickly drop in two mentos ( i prefer to use more than two, but the pic is from when i used two). the result will be awesome (as it was on tv :) less than half a bottle was all that was left...

So, on a rainy day, Dr.Porter told us this story about his friend...

His friend (lets call him Bob) went skydiving in Hawaii for his first time ever, and managed to drag this other friend (lets call him Joe) with him because he didn't want to go alone. Well, after going through all the safety classes and lessons, Bob and Joe finally got suited up and on the plane.
So the plane took off, and they had a little while before they were up to jump, so they were just sitting, no parachutes on... just hanging out. Now, Joe was a little curious (maybe we should have called him George) and he wanted to go look out the plane (there was no door, just a big opening that they would jump through). So Joe went up to the instructor that was there with them and asked if he could look out. At first the instructor was against it, but then he said that as long as Joe was careful, held on to the hand holds, and was super careful since he didn't have his parachute on, he could.
So Joe made his way over to the door, and grabbed hold of the holds, and leaned out and saw the amazing view. And, just as he did so, the plane hit a pocket and the plane jerked a bit... just enough to knock Joe out of the plane without his chute...
Now, as Joe was falling from this plane without a chute, he had two options with the end of his life seeming to be inevitably close:
1: Get angry... why did I let my friend drag me in to this? If I hadn't gone, I wouldn't be in this situation... What kind of instructor was this guy to let me go to the door without a chute? What a terrible pilot, can't even read the turbulence. I can't believe these people!
OR
2: Enjoy the view... Man, Hawaii looks great from up here! I never imagined how beautiful this looks... i can't really do anything now, so i might as well enjoy the view.... wow, the ocean is really blue!

Although option one seems more likely, our friend Joe chose option 2. How do we know? Well, the moment Joe fell out, the instructor put on his chute, and dove out of the plane. Knowing how to sky dive well, he went very fast and caught up to Joe, strapped himself to Joe, and pulled the string, opening the chute, and landing them both safely and alive.

As you may have guessed, there is a moral to this story, and there is a connection. First, the moral: when things go wrong (not always life and death like this story) or when things seem too much, or even when things just don't go your way or how you planned, you have a choice... get angry, start blaming, start saying all those "if onlys" and so on. Or, you can find the good, the bright, the "view" that can be enjoyed. It's certainly tough, and I learned how to have some patience tonight in relation to computers... it's funny how even though computers are the ones with the keys and buttons, it's the computers that always end up pushing my buttons. I had this video project that i am supposed to have finished tomorrow at 10 in the morning, but ever since i got back from hawaii, the computer has been broken (hard drive nearly crashed and had to be replaced). So it is just now (11:20 pm) fixed and ready to use. I am avoiding option 1, but it's hard to find how option 2 can work... we'll see... some flexibility will be needed tomorrow and hopefully i can turn it in later on in the day, because i need to sleep.

on that note, i will end...
well, one more thing:
"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Romans 8:28

nobody was harmed (badly) in the happening of this VERY embarassing moment....

okay, so i will let you all in on an embarassing moment that just happened about 15 minutes ago...
so, i went on a bike ride this morning with a friend to the beach. after we got back, we went our separate ways, and i had about half a mile to go home. i decided to take sidewalks since i was just cruising along. i get to the side street that takes me to the street that my house is on, and i see someone i recognize about a half a block ahead of me. then i realized that i was being whacked in the face by these untamed vines that were growing on the wall to my right... so what do i do? i go on the grass, and then when i go from the grass back to the sidewalk... i completly ate it... luckily my feet weren't clipped in because i had unclipped in case i would fall... which is exactly what i did. i fell straight into the vines, scraping up my knee and only my knee... nothing else was harmed. but embarassing as that is alone, it gets worse. remember that person i recognized???? my honors chemistry teacher and his two grandchildren. yup. that was embarassing.
i immediately got up and on my bike (it didn't hurt, it just looked really bad. honestly, it just stung a little). so i biked up to my teacher and when he saw that i was fine, he was laughing, i was laughing, his grandchildren were... well, i don't think they were laughing, they actually looked a little confused. anyway, i exchanged a few humorous words with him and he swore himself to secrecy. I completed the 20 yards i had left between the crash zone and my house and laughed a little more.
life would be way too long if i couldn't learn to laugh at some of the stuff i do :)
here's a pic after i cleaned up a bit

...the final pics

Well, that's all from Hawai'i. Our last day (yesterday, monday) we went exploring and ended up passing the spot we were looking for and ended up on a one lane road with an 8-passenger van on the side of a mountain. since we couldn't turn around, we kep going... we ended up in a little unknown village at a banana bread stand. since we were there, we decided to buy some... it was he best! after getting correct directions, we turned around and made our way to some awesome tidepools and blow holes. i jumped off some rocks into this pool that was about 20 feet deeo and filled with fish. it was awesome!
i was very sad to leave hawai'i... after standing in the check-in line for an hour, i said my goodbyes to some of the coaches and a few players. i had a few friends on my flight to LA, so i was glad to postpone those 'good-byes'.
i go about an hour of sleep on the red-eye flight because we found a way to get all of us in the same row so we could hang ou a little more. after landing, everybody was off to their connecting flights and i was off to the baggage claim... i was sad to say bye, but i know some of us will keep in touch.
it was such an awesome experience in hawai'i... it was hard to come home, but i know that i had to some time :) i already miss the rainbows and sunsets, the refreshing mist during a tough tennis match, and the fun we had in the villa and around town.
thanks for reading my blog and checking out the pictures... that's all for hawai'i!
ALOHA

...continued... with more to come

Luaus, narrow roads, and stacked rocks