"My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: He believed in me."
-Jim Valvano
Father's Day
I truly am grateful for my father. He sincerely believes in me. I can vividly remember him helping me not quit the basketball team when I was in middle school. Some of the girls were not kind to me and I can remember coming to my dad in tears telling him I wanted to quit. How easy would it have been for him to say, "Alright Brooklyn, no problem. One less thing I have to worry about!" I am so thankful for him helping me push through that experience and it turned out to be a great one. I played basketball all throughout high school and my relationships with my teammates became positive and supportive! He really believed in me, even in the moments I did not believe in myself. That was a powerful feeling to experience and I still remember it to this day.
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| Daddio and baby me |
Can I just say Randy and I are beyond excited to start a family of our own! I feel it in me: this growing desire to be a mother. Randy's potential as a father is easy to sense and I know he is looking forward to this next stage of life too--whenever it may come. He takes on a fatherly role with nieces, nephews, and kids from church that I love to witness. So although we are not biological parents yet I celebrated Father's Day with Randy by cooking him his favorite breakfast: spam, eggs, turkey bacon, and waffles. He didn't have to work on Father's Day so we were able to spend it together.
Girl's Camp
From June 9-12th we had 14 young women come to camp at Bellows in our branch! It was an amazing experience for the girls and for myself as a leader. We hiked the Lanikai pillboxes with the girls, and everyone got to stay in cottages on the beach--talk about spoiled! As leaders, we did devotionals with the girls each day and on one special night they got to go through a sensory experience that walked them through the life of Christ--it was so cool! We also had a testimony meeting at the end that really strengthened me. These girls are so special and it was such a joy to feel of their spirits and see them through God's eyes with so much potential. The testimony meeting was by far one of my favorite parts.
They also got to do a bunch of other stuff like swimming at the beach, ride Surrey bikes around the base (they almost gave me a heart attack a few times with their driving skills), play games like Werewolf, Spoons, and Bananagrams. We did one craft, and went out on kayaks and SUP boards. However, there was a shark siting and we had to get out of the water for a little bit. The girls were helpful with meal prep and even had the opportunity to do service on the base planting indigenous plants near the beach. Randy even came the first day and half as security with his buddy Jeremy.
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| Girl's camp service project |
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| Working hard :) |
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| Kayaking at Bellows. |
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| Crazy girls! |
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| An intense round of Pens--aka: Spoons. |
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| Playing Werewolf was hilarious! |
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| Napping under a paddle--at least her face didn't get burnt |
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| Playing in the sand |
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| Yes--there was a shark siting! |
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| Aren't they kind of adorable?! |
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| The amazing leaders I get to work with! |
Connexsh Roomies Reunite
Stephanie, one of my roomies from college was visiting Hawaii and stopped to see me! It was so good to talk with her and to see how much she has grown since we were little, crazy, college kids living in this ghetto duplex called the Connection we coined the Connexsh (I don't really know why). I met her and her sisters at Ted's Bakery, they got some goodies, and we walked to Sunset Beach, plunked ourselves down in the sand and talked about life. In a sense, my college life seems SO long ago as I try to recall memories of what my life used to be like, but at the same time I find myself thinking I am still a new college grad until I do the math (it's been 4 years since I graduated--that's a whole other college degree worth of time).
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| Reunited and it feels so good--who knows that song? |
The Price's Visit Hawaii
Randy also had an old roommate from college visiting Hawaii with his wife. We were able to meet up and hang out. Randy thought it would be fun to take Josh and Kelli to Laie Point and jump off. I was pretty nervous, but determined to beat my time (the first time I jumped off the point it took me about 15-20 minutes--this time it only took me 1-2 minutes). It was pretty exhilarating and thankfully, Randy jumped with me. The Prices also came to church with us and helped double the size of the congregation--we are in a small branch!
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| Josh and Kelli |
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| Randy and I taking the plunge |
Hiking with My Girls
Randy and I decided to do a little hike with some of the girls I work with from church. They are out of school and since many of them had never done the Sunset Beach pillbox hike we decided to take them. It had been raining recently so the ground was muddy and slippery at times but we managed.
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| View from the top |
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| Working our way up the muddy trail |
Happy Birthday to Me! (thanks mom for doing all the work)
I turned 27 on the 6th, but I had to work that day: I took my elderly residents to Oceanfest at Turtle Bay. I didn't really mind because Randy had to work too. Randy and I celebrated later by going to Kahuku Farms Cafe (one of my favorites) and surprising me with a sweet gift--a long sleeve spring wetsuit! Ok, you may think, "You live in Hawaii! Why on earth would you need a wetsuit?" But just trust me--I do! I have always been a sissy when it comes to the "cold" and since I have used the suit, it has really helped me enjoy surfing in windy or rainy weather. My work also sent me free movie tickets and I surprised Randy on another day by taking him to see Mad Max with Wendy and Jacob. Needless to say, he was in man heaven.
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| Getting ready to make my debut into the world. Photo taken April of 1988 |
Work Update
I have a new recreational therapy intern working with me for the next couple months and I am loving it! She helps me so much and it makes a big difference to have an extra set of hands. For work this month I helped plan an LDI (leadership development institute) for the hospital leaders. I really enjoy arranging events like this. From figuring out the venue, the food, and helping decide on what will be presented it was pretty fun. We had a guest speaker, but my favorite part was going to Waimea Valley and hiking to the waterfall with our group at the end of the day.
Randy is continuing to work at the Aikahi Fire Station (HFD station #19) in Kailua and gets along with his crew (he works with 4 other firefighters) really well. His captain is an amazing cook and sets the bar pretty high compared to the average fire station. I have to say that I LOVE his job! I don't love that he has to be gone for 24 hours at a time, but his overall schedule is amazing.
