WHISTLER FAMILY VAYCAY

Last weekend we had the pleasure of going to Whistler with James' family...it was AMAZING!! Surprisingly both James and I had never been to Whistler before. Let's just say, I'm a fan.

Except for bears....yes, I saw A FREAKING BEAR ON MY RUN. Thank goodness James was with me, but it was SOO SCARY..I bolted away into nearby townhouses and refused to go running again..ha.

Whistler is crazy beautiful. The mountains, the glaciers, the lakes. And the village is such good vibes...except for the slow, relaxed snowboarder/biker service you receive in coffee shops...but hey, maybe that was the universe telling me to sloooooow down and enjoy vaycay mode.

We stayed at Cascade Lodge. It was perfect. Nice outdoor pool and soo close to the village.

We hiked two days and did peak to peak! It was so glorious. 

Insanely beautiful.

Makes me in awe of God's creation. Those mountains!!! Swoon.

Seriously stunning hey? That last photo is a pic of the guys swimming in a glacier pool...crazy boys.

So other than hiking and staring at majestic mountains, we enjoyed an afternoon at Lost Lake and hung out in the village.

We had ice cream at Cows (honestly, tasted like Island Farms...it had NOTHING on Salt & Straw), family dinner for James' birthday at Dusty's in Creekside (best nachos ever..pulled pork come on!!), dinner date at Mongolie, and lots of coffees. We got to meet up with our good friends, the Normans which was SUCH a treat because we hadn't seen them for ages! Walking through the village reminded me of walking through towns in Europe...people and food everywhere..and accents! It was so nice to hear so many accents.

We also had great family bonding times. I am madly blessed with amazing in-laws!!

I know it won't be our last trip to Whistler!!

Have you been to Whistler before? If so, I'd love to hear what your must see spots are!

Happy Wednesday..I'm off to Parksville for a girls' trip right after work...SOOO STOKED!

xo,

s.s.♥︎.

ON BIKINI BRIDGES & KICKING SELF LOATHING TO THE CURB

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Last month when I was in Redding I was perusing facebook and came across this article on "bikini bridges". My first thoughts were ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!? 

If you're wondering what a bikini bridge is, it's having a gap between your bikini bottoms and your body when you're lying down. The bottoms are supposed to just cling to your hip bones and not touch any part of your pelvic area creating a bridge…aka people are wanting a skinny pelvic area? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!??? Back when I was a teen the goal was having a flat stomach with maybe a line down the middle. Now it's about thigh gaps and bikini bridges. And the thing about bikini bridges that makes me so LIVID is, they are only attainable by starving yourself. You can't just lift some weights for a few months and see results. You have to starve yourself. How is this even a trend?

Heart breaking. 

To be honest, I wanted to find the person who coined the term bikini bridge and give them a real good shake…but then it occurred to me that what they really need is a big hug.

A hug that says you are loved, you are valuable, you are beautiful.

Now I'm going to get a bit real talk up on my corner of the internet…I have faced off with my body for far too many years. Growing up, I was blessed to have a dad who told me I was beautiful and I believed it to be true until I was 11. Some guys called me fat and from there on, that's what I viewed myself as. There were other negative voices too, I just would rather not get into them.

For years and years I was cruel to my body. I spoke harsh, awful words over myself. No matter how hard I tried, I could never be that warped version of beautiful that I so longed to be. For years I was able to hide this self loathing, this unhealthy obsession very well....until I got married. 

After our first year of marriage, James began confronting me about the way I spoke about my body. He started calling me out on the way I was viewing myself and he began speaking truth instead of lies. Although, I knew he loved me and I knew he thought I was beautiful, it still took time for me to shake those nasty shame-filled thoughts. 

Slowly but surely I started taking ownership of my mind. Last May I went to She Loves Conference and at the end of the conference we were given a gift. The gift was this beautiful book called She. (If you are a woman, you need this book. If you are guy, you need to go to that link and purchase this book immediately for a woman in your life. Your momma needs this, your wife needs this, your sister needs this!)

I opened it up when I got home and started to soak in the truth-filled words. As I read the statements, my eyes started welling up with tears. I so needed those words. In that moment, I asked God to transform my thinking and He asked me to start speaking truth over myself. So I did.

I made the decision that I was going to refuse to speak negatively about my body. That's right, I decided I wasn't ever going to speak a harsh or negative word about my body.

I started to counter act every lie that came at me with a truth from God and you know what? My whole mindset started shifting. I looked in the mirror and I was actually happy with what I saw. I actually started praising God for what I saw in the mirror. I started to love my body, the way I was created. My mindset on exercising even started to change! Instead of running to be skinny, I ran to be healthy. If I had a crummy day and ate a lot of sweets, I would plan to eat healthy the next day.

I refused to let shame be my motivation. And to this day, I'm still refusing. P.S. shame is THE WORST motivator.

My motivation is love. Because I love myself and love my creator, I will love my body and inspire others to love theirs too. 

Even though, it's gotten easier, I still have days when I want to let that comfy blanket of self loathing wrap its arms around me. I still have days where I'm tempted to get mad at that girl in the mirror.

But I refuse. As new lies try to creep in, I bring out the old weapons, those old truths with so much power. I refuse to conform to what the media says I should be. Instead I'll believe...

I am loved. I am valued. I am beautiful.

So friends, can we just vow to not even consider thigh gaps and bikini bridges?

Can we stop giving our bodies a beating and instead be kind, patient and loving with ourselves?

This Summer, I challenge you:

...to wear that two piece proudly...no matter what shape you are.

...to look in the mirror and smile at what you see. 

...to stop using shame as your motivation.

...to kick self loathing to the curb.

And to know with all your heart that you are so loved, you are so valued, you are so beautiful.

xo,

s.s.♥.

SUMMER GOALS UPDATE

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It's almost August friends. And fall clothes are coming. My heart's getting excited (fall is my favourite) BUT I have to hold myself back because it's still summer!!! It feels as though summer is slipping through my fingers but I'm ready to hold on tight...even if I'm already planning my fall baking...ha.

Remember when we wrote about our summer goals? We'll I thought it was about time I'd update you on things. I've actually completed some of them and that's a pretty exhilarating thing for this a-type planner girl!

SUMMER GOALS

• Have at least three bonfires with s'mores and singing. (S'mores on s'mores? Yes please.) We've had two bonfires with s'mores!! (Lassen & James' birthday last Saturday) 
• Finish the Pentateuch course and start and finish a new course. (ROMer, I'm coming for you!) I finished the Pentateuch and am almost half way through Pneumatology!! BOOYAH. 
• Complete the half marathon. (One week today, that will be done!!) DONE LIKE DINNER! I wrote all about it here.
• Complete the gallery wall in the living room. (Oh dear Lord, help me.) Ha, haven't been motivated AT ALL.
• Go on one kayaking adventure. James is working on this one!
• Find a healthy rhythm for this blog. (So excited to learn all about this and be so inspired at Alt next month!) To be honest, this one has been pretty hard, but my goal is to get posts to you 3x per week! I'd love to blog full time but I just can't, I just can't. 
• Learn how to make macarons. I'm thinking this is more of a fall thing...
• Have lots of people over for BBQs. We've had three bbqs since I wrote that post so I'd say we knocked that one outta the park.
• Celebrate 2 YEARS of MARRIAGE!! (Booked already, sooooo excited.) Ohhhh, I'm SOOO EXXXCITED. ;)

I'm actually quite surprised with how much I've checked off that list this summer!

I'm curious, do you make goals for each season? Have you made a summer bucket list? If so, are you checking things off? How do you stay motivated in the summer? ha, sorry for the 20 questions but I'm actually quite interested.

Hope you have a fabulous Wednesday!

xo,

s.s.♥︎.

SUNDIAL BRIDGE

When I told people I was going down to California for two weeks, they usually responded, "Ohhhh, lucky!!" I would quickly assure them that it wasn't like that. We weren't going to Disneyland, we weren't going to the ocean, we weren't going to a metropolis.

No, we were going to Redding, California.

Northern California. Inland. Population, 90,000.

Now don't get me wrong, Redding has some things going for it...Bethel (OBVS), In & Out Burger (ok, that's enough for me to consider moving..), Water Works Park (check out James & Tim on the Avalanche!!) and Sundial Bridge. 

I discovered Sundial Bridge on one of my long runs. The scenery wasn't mind blowing (I live in Victoria, so I'm pretty spoiled), but I was pretty stoked to run across it! I knew I wanted James to see it, so we went back on our last night there. Beautiful skies & warm evening weather. It was the perfect end to our trip.

The bugs were a little chaotic so we couldn't stay for long but James managed to catch some awesome shots...including Chenoah and I with NO MAKEUP (and sunburnt, ha!). When it started to get dark, the bridge lit up! Pretty cool move Redding, pretty cool move.

It's good to be home. I'm still processing everything that happened there but I'm also throwing myself into everything that's happening here. I'll definitely need to carve out some Jesus time to go over my notes and reflect on all that God did in Redding.

Hope you have a beautiful Wednesday.

xo,

s.s.♥︎. 

LASSEN

On Saturday afternoon we ventured to Lassen National Volcanic Park to see our dear friends, Luke and Helena who were camping with their kiddos. Once we arrived, we all wished that we came first thing in the morning! It's absolutely gorgeous there. We swam at their campsite and ate dinner together than we drove up the mountain to see the sights. We wanted to hike to the summit but it would take 5 hours and we had 20 minutes until the sun was setting. After snapping these pics we drove back to the Stones' campsite to have a good ol bonfire with smores. Nothing beats smores and a bonfire.

Ok how cute are those little ones! And do you like our cheesy couples photo? LOLZ... but seriously that view..and that lush meadow! Straight out of Psalm 23.

Can't believe we leave in 3 sleeps! To be honest, I'm a little (ok a lot) itching to get home...I miss my cat and my besties and my bed and my church and my non-musical friends....I guess you know you're in the right place when you miss it soooo much!

xoxo,

s.s.♥︎.