Valentine's, V-day, Vanessa

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Since it's Valentine's Day and everyone is probably giving a shout out to their loved ones, I figured I'd give a shout out to my favourite, most faithful Valentine: Chrystal!

Chrystal is one of my oldest friends (not age, but rather in time that we've known each other) and the date at which we "met" is debatable.

I joke that we've been friends since we were babies, because we were dedicated together on the same day in the church both our parents' attended. Of course, we didn't become friends until years later, but I love the fact that in some wonderful way, God knew we would become wonderful friends and it's like that moment was a glimpse into something that would come 16 years later.

Quite a few years later, our families were both at the same church again, but a different church this time and we went on a missions/student equipping trip together but didn't interact much. Finally in our grade eleven year of high school, we were locker buddies. Our lockers were side by side and we'd chat every morning. At a friend's birthday party in November, we somehow became instant friends by making lists of why it was better to be the other person and hanging them in each others' lockers. From that day on we were inseparable.


I have loved having Chrystal as a friend and cherish our years together and the many to come. I love that we have grown together and watched each other grow and change through life's journeys. What I especially love is that we are opposites in almost everything. But I am continually encouraged and challenged to see life from another perspective unlike my own, but that is so good and refreshing.

Thankfully we do have some things in common such as our love of musicals, games and movie theater popcorn. (Well there are other common things, but those are some of my faves).


Chrystal has always been there for me and has been such a good friend along the way. She is loyal and kind and cares and loves for others with all her heart. I love that we can watch movies together, play board games for hours on ends, giggle about silly little things, have good long chats, go for random car rides together and study for exams in the pool. There are so many memories and things I cherish about our friendship of 10 years and I'm excited for the many more to come.


So since we don't have an exact date of our friendship beginning, we decided we would make Valentine's the anniversary of our friendship and so we'd always have a Valentine. Unfortunately, I'm the worst Valentine ever and somehow am always away on that day. But we celebrate from afar nonetheless. If we were together every year, we'd probably get deathly ill from all the cinnamon hearts and message hearts we'd consume.

{no idea what we're sad about in this picture, but Chrystal doesn't actually look THAT sad}

So here's to an amazing 10 years of friendship! Thanks for always being there Chrystal, and I look forward to where our journeys will take us and to many more laughs, talks and random fun we shall enjoy together. Happy Valentine's! :)

Hope you all enjoy your hearts day and take time to really appreciate people you love in your life!

Bahamas, Bathing, Beautiful

Well I was going to wait until I got a comment or two on my last post, but now I realize that might be years in coming, so I will just post again. :) But who knows after that...

So on Saturday I got back from a trip to the Bahamas with Lindie and Chrystal. WE had a great time! We stayed at Atlantis on Paradise Island where they have incredible aquariums and water slides and it is all pretty fun. The beaches were beautiful as well. I think one of my favorite things about going to hot places is standing on the beach at night, looking at the stars and listening to the waves crash.

Anyway, the trip was a lot of fun and I had some good moments of breakthrough and perspective change which has been really refreshing, but I will perhaps talk about that some other time. Enjoy the pictures!

Our row of flip flops!

Flip flop models











One of the water slides






















The tube ride we frequented far too often!

They had a conveyer belt so you dont' even have to get off your tube!






So I think my favorite part about having an underwater digital camera is to watch other people's reactions who apparently haven't heard that such a thing exists.

Here's some favorite comments:
"Um.. you realize your camera might get wet on this tube ride, right?"
(overheard by Lindie) "That's a really nice digital. I wonder if she knows that if it gets wet, it will wreck it"
I had fun playing it up by taking pictures while standing in the water and then pretending to drop it. haha.. Always an entertaining moment.








Apparently there was still a water spot on the camera.. conveniently blocking my head



The ride that goes through the shark tunnel. dun dun dun. that's Chrystal going down the slide.



Favorite moment on the tube ride. There's this massive guy really uncomfortably trying to lie flat on top of the tube. He floats by me and proclaims:
"Man! I thought I was top heavy! Wow!"
Um.. thanks. hope you do that to a lot of strangers. Anyway, I replied that he could sit in the tube no problem then if I could. So I told him to scootch his butt down into the hole and as he did, his bathing suit proceeded to slip off his butt completely, leaving it entirely exposed hanging in the tube and meanwhile he couldn't get out or move because he was kind of stuck. HAHAHA.. I think I died laughing then as we kept floating down the river with the full moon. :)





And that's all for now! No more trips coming up for now-I'm home for a while (we'll see how long that lasts!). I have decided that March will be my most insane and brutal month in all my years of university. Sounds like fun!! :) More updates to come!