Top 12 of 2016

     This is something that I've been doing to look back at the year behind me and sum up what happened in a list. I've been doing it for a long time (okay, like four years at least). By going through my calendar I pick out on event from each month. When I'm done I have 12 things that I did in the past year that I enjoyed. So, without further ado, here is my list for 2016:

1. J & T's Wedding
     One of my cousins got married last year on New Years Day! It was really cool to get to see them joined in marriage and to see family members that I haven't seen in a long time.

2. FOCUS
     This was my last year of going to the FOCUS retreat with my church youth group, since I am no longer in high school. It was a weekend full of good memories, like not having adults in our cabin (even though we love our adult leaders, it's good to know that they trust us to not light the building on fire) and showing everyone our lovely acting/dancing talents at our last Talent Show.

3. Day trip with Mom and Grandma during Spring Break
     We took the day and drove to a town 45 minutes away for a relative's wedding shower. We also stopped by a nearby zoo that housed local species of animals, some of which I was not aware existed.

4. Day trip with one of my best friends/Jr.Sr. Banquet
     I dragged my friend to the same town I had visited the previous month for a 'cultural fair' of sorts. If you want more details I'll let you read about it on her blog (Lama-Leah). We would have stopped by the zoo again, but it was too cold.
     Jr. Sr. was a blast! It was really nice as a senior to not have to worry about making sure the whole thing came together. The juniors did a stupendous job! Overnight, they transformed the school gym into a high-class art gallery, complete with original paintings, a string quartet, and shrimp (for more see my post: An Artful Weekend).

5. Graduation
     I graduated high school! I mean, that's pretty cool, right?

6. BAK/Neighborhood Garage Sale
     What is the BAK you ask? Well, I am happy to tell you. At least me past self is. ;) For more check out a post I did about the BAK. As for the neighborhood garage sale, go here.

7. Czech Republic Trip
     Anyone who has read my blog should know everything (almost) there is to know about this trip. For those of you newcomers, I will suffice to say that this summer I went on a mission trip to the Czech Republic with my mother and two other couples from our church. We partnered with a local church and put on an English summer camp.
     For those of you curious to know more, check out the entire month of July 2016. ;)

8. Started College
     Pretty big landmark, if I do say so myself.

9. Mini-vacation to Silver Dollar City/Branson
     For a fairly detailed description of our excursion please see my post.

10. Pumpkin Patch Outing
     Just messing around with some friends, pretending to be kids in a pumpkin patch. Guess what! I wrote a post about it!

11. Attending Various Art Performances
     Because of scholarly requirements I went to more social events than I normally would have this semester. Included in this list are several plays, a concert, and touring a local house that was built by a famous architect. To hear about one of the plays go here,

12. CROSS conference 2016
     The post detailing my winter adventure out of state at a missions conference is the one just previous to this one, but I'll give you the link anyway (Fun in Indy - not the post title).

CROSS conference 2016

     Back in September I learned of an opportunity to go to a missions conference that would be held over Christmas Break. The goal of the conference is to equip and mobilize students for the missions field, similar to Urbana conferences. This conference is called CROSS and was held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Many of you know about my passion for missions and my question of whether I am a 'goer' (leaving the country as a missionary) or a 'sender' (staying to support other missionaries while living a mission-minded life), so it should not surprise you that I decided to take this opportunity.

     In order to get to the conference in time for the kick-off concert we needed to leave at a very early time in the morning. After being on the road for a few hours we stopped in a major city to pick up two other passengers. That brought out party number up to six. Two more members would join our group once we arrived in Indianapolis.

     The conference boasted several big-name speakers, David Platt and John Piper for example. In addition to attending several lectures and panel discussions through out the day (held in the auditorium pictured above) we also went to three smaller workshops on specific topics. In addition to gaining these resources for missions our group was able to build relationships - not only with each other, but with our host families. We were also able to do a little sight-seeing. This occured mostly on the culinary plane because the conference did not include meals.

     All in all, I am glad that I went. I enjoyed the experience as a whole and I learned a lot. If anyone has the chance to go to this conference, I would recommend taking it!

I immediately recognized this statue as one by Tom Otterness. 

My first visit to a Hard Rock Cafe.