I am so ready for my hair to be even this long. I miss it.

I just want to be able to have the option of putting it up. 

I love Hans. He is such a blessing to me.

Bike Trip Part VII

 After meeting Tony and getting SO much help from him Hans and I worked at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center as volunteers for a day. It is a really cool place and I would absolutely encourage you to call and see if you can volunteer for them if you belief in what that camp is all about. I'm sure it's googlable. Yep it is.  Any ways. I think that was fun. It was also great to get time with my grandparents. From there Hans and I biked to Tillamook where there is a fantastic Cheese Factory!!!! Also they have amazing ice cream. I would visit that town just for the cheese and ice cream. Truly.

Bike Trip Part VI: Tony

Tony

Tony was so cool. He helped Hans and I in such a huge way. He saw Hans and I when he was driving home from work. What was so funny is that Hans was pumping my tire at the time and so Tony only saw me with my thumb out (I might add that this was the first and only time that I ever successfully got someone to pull over for Hans and I) and Hans was down pumping my flat tire and so Tony said that he "saw this little boy with his hand out and I just couldn't figure out how that little boy could carry so much luggage." Haha he thought I was a little boy and that Hans was part of the luggage. SO funny. Any ways, He came back got Hans and I then took us to tacos and beer "better atmosphere in the bar" and we had tacos as Toni told us about his life then took us to get slime before taking us to an old friend of his who had owned a bike shop. The guy was so nice! He went above and beyond any expectations Hans or I had. Then his friend who had owned the bike shop did the same thing. Above and beyond my or Hans expectations. He figured out what was wrong with our bikes and set us in the right direction! We got to Astoria that night and figured out that a ride to Cannon beach would cost the same as a night at a hotel so we took a taxi ( That was a first for me) And stayed the night with my amazing grandparents who were spending some time there for fun :) That was such a great day and it was such a gift that God sent us Toni. Also, Praise God that Hans and I are so blessed that we ran into Tony and got to see the grandparents that night!

Bike Trip Part V

When Hans and I woke up the next morning our assumption was that since we had already had all the flats we would be able to make it to either Astoria, Oregon or Cannon Beach, Oregon. We really wanted to stay in Cannon Beach because we wanted to spend time with my grandparents. On our way we rode along a really pretty road. We wanted to get to this ferry at a convenient time but unfortunately we did not know what time the ferry would leave so we just had to guess. We guessed and ended up being a little late and waiting about an hour. It wasn't bad though because then we got a chance to hang out on an island that was about 3 miles long. It was a pretty cool place. It's called Puget Island and is really small and full of fields and horses. I am not sure if I would live there of not. The two ways off are a ferry and a bridge towards the Washington side. The town seemed like it was not exactly thriving but I only biked through the town so perhaps that was just it's off season. Who knows. ANY WAYS. I am glad that Hans and I were able to see that area. I had never seen that area before.
We kept riding and I had like 3 flats in a row. That was not so fun. Hans and I were pretty bummed and started hitch hiking. We got picked up by this big truck. The guy didn't get out of his truck and at first I wasn't sure what to think. But then I prayed about it and felt fine. Hans and I loaded our bikes into the back of his truck then went and hoped in the truck. We met the man driving the truck whose name was Toni. He told us that he just got off work and that we were lucky because he wanted to take his motor cycle to work today but then changed his mind at the last second. We told Toni about our bike troubles so he asked us if we knew what slime is. I DID NOT. I thought he was asking me if I knew what WD-40 is... HERE is what slime is:

So that is what slime is. Toni suggested that we get some slime so that our bike tires would stop popping. Then he asked us if we liked tacos and were over 21. To both we answered YES and then Toni took us to Tacos and beer in a bar. It was VERY nice of him. Also the Tacos ROCKED!

I am going to have to talk more about Toni soon. He was such a cool guy... VERY Gracious. 

Bike Trip Part IV

I hope that I did not forget too much about the bike trip in the time that I have been away... So here is my attempt at continuing in sharing about Hans and my bike trip. The next day when Hans and I woke up and Hans changed one of my bike tires from me. It had gone flat in the night. I don't think I really shared this but the day before when we had all those wrong turns and everything THEN we went through this strange area where it seemed that there was a lot of sharp metal. I got some in my tire and then after Hans and I changed the tire we were SO convinced that everything would be fast and that we would make excellent time that day. Unfortunately where Hans changed the tire we hadn't seen some broken glass. We dropped off some unnecessary items at the post office and sent them to ourselves. From there we headed out and stopped part way into the foggy day so that we could buy some coffee/chai tea at a cute little coffee stand in Centralia. I ended up getting around 2 flat tires that day and it was so nuts because we had already changed it that morning. Because of all the flats we got a ride for about 7 miles from a really cool dad and son. They were on their way to help their father in law and grandfather fix his jeep. They were so nice. It was very helpful for Hans and I to be able to get the extra 7 miles. We just needed that extra boost to help us emotionally get through a day with that many flats.
We finally got to Kelso after meeting a guy who travels about as many miles a day to work and back as Hans and I would do on one of our little adventures. We were in a town when it started to get dark.  Hans wanted so badly to eat pizza so that night we went to a pizza place and both ordered a pizza we in no way finished the pizza but we had a good time and stayed in a little hotel that night. Hans and I hadn't had a shower in our journey yet so we found a cheap hotel room just to be able to get a shower. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. I think I took around three showers in the time that we stayed there. That night I slept so well.

Finally my cookie Idea!

Okay so here are some pictures of my cookie idea I mentioned a while back. It is a cookie banner! YAY! So I used a chopstick to poke the holes and then thread to string the cookies together. I'm sorry the pictures aren't better. In the future I will perhaps get a better picture of the cookie banner. I want to make one for my sister's birthday. At least that is what I am considering. After making the cookies and frosting them if you choose to do so make sure the frosting has time to harden before trying to string things up. Alright enough of my typing here are the pictures:

New Hair??

Ever want to try out a different hair style before taking the leap and getting it cut or dyed? WELL I do fairly often and I found this wonderfully fun way to do so on InStyle. Here are some pictures of me* trying out different do's without actually doing them. I hope you enjoy and are able to try some out on your own. If nothing else it's just fun....

*I didn't take a lot of time to edit the photos and since my hair from the original picture was an updo it sometimes sticks out with the new looks. Oops!

Bike Trip Part III

When we got dropped off it was still day one... this is just day one continued. We were biking along and talking when we noticed this incredible trail! It was nicely paved. Cracks were generally marked. Slopes were gentle up and down. The view was amazing. At the end of the night we were in Tenino WA and found this nice little camp sight. Unfortunately there were no showers so Hans and I went to bed in our tent pretty gross. It was nice to get to rest at last though. We went to bed very happy for a place to sleep and very wishful for a shower. Note: If you do happen to take this trail, learn from my mistake and have your camera out!

The above pictures are at the end of the trail and at out campsite.

Bike Trip Part II

Hans and I woke up nice and early on the morning that we were planning to leave. Unfortunately we had stayed up until like 2am chatting with cousins. Unfortunate because of the time NOT because of the cousins. It was great to see his cousins. One of them actually got engaged recently. I'll have to post on that sometime soon. BACK TO THE SUBJECT THOUGH... Hans and I woke up bright and early and had a super yummi turkey bacon breakfast. Then we rushed down to catch a train that we thought we were running late for. Silly us. In our rush we forgot the back lights to our bikes. We opted not to go back and get them because we thought we were late for a train... Then we got to the station and the train was running late. We sat there for quite some time and took some beginning the adventure pictures... we thoughts we were tired then.

So here are me and my fantastically wonderful husband. Anyways on the train ride down to Tacoma Hans and I met some really neat people. We had planned to spend that time sleeping but obviously that didn't work out. From there getting out of Tacoma was painful! It was SO hot. SO many hills. SO many stop lights. SO MANY BUMPS! Anyways I would night highly recommend going through Tacoma on a bike trip if it is in any way avoidable.
We took so long to get out of Tacoma but once we were finally out I was a pretty happy girl. We biked for what seemed like forever in one direction and then realized that we had hit something on the GPS and had gone about ten miles in the wrong direction. AH! Okay so that might not seem like a lot but try to consider that it takes 20 miles to get going the right direction again. Also we had a HUGE hill that we had to go up because of going the wrong direction. It also meant that we had bike/hiked up one very large unnecessary hill. LAME. I was so exhausted... I kept reminding myself, "You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength." I had so much time for self reflection on this ride. I kept praying and sweating and working my muscles over and over and over again. I almost cried when I realized we'd gone the wrong way. Hans suggested as we went up a steep hill that we try hitch hiking. I don't think either of us thought that anything would come of it but then one really nice looking truck pulled over helped us load our bikes and took us back to where we had gone the wrong direction. WHAT A BLESSING! Praise God! Also, I had really wanted to try hitch hiking someday. I thought it would be a fun thing. Anyways. The guy who picked us up just so happened to be the Senior VP of a store that Hans and I very much like. The guy never went to college he was just a REALLY hard worker. I was so impressed by his story that I heard. He was about to retire but in his life he had worked a farm, named an impressive company, rode bulls, drove race cars, raised some kids that really, really loved him.... I mean that is the kinda thing that you want to be able to say you've done. I so appreciated that man's help. Hans did too. From there we kept riding but I'll have to continue explaining day one in my next post.
There was a lot more going on 

Bike Trip Part I

Okay so first of all let me be clear.... I am NO Lance Armstrong. Hans and I took this trip on mountain bikes which makes things slower (as opposed to a road bike) and on top of that I will pack VERY differently for my next biking adventure. Here is a picture of our stuff from the morning we left Everett...
Second piece of advice: Do your trip with less of a time constraint than Hans and I did ours. We felt crunched for time and then I got a LOT of flat tires... I'll talk more about that in another post. BUT I just thought those two things were worth mentioning more quickly.