Yesterday we celebrated our President’s Day Holiday by being in the great outdoors. Drove up the coast to Topanga Canyon and went on a gorgeous hike. I looooooove it that we are in this stage of life….having kids who are excited to trek 4 miles, able to carry their own water bottle and just beautifully content to converse on the trail and observe the small and big of all God’s creation.

I’m thankful that after all these years of college that we are still in touch with the Hardgraves. Steev and Teo are real quality people! It’s just so amazing getting to share life’s stories, be able to pick up in conversation where we last left off a few years ago, and have our kids enjoy each other’s company. We are so stoked we got to spend quality time hiking together before they head off to India for a few years.

And my favorite part of the day, besides soaking in the nature, was when we reached our highest point and we decided to focus on one kid at a time. We began with Katia, their 13-year old, letting each person in her family tell us something about her. Then we focused on Jacob. It was beautiful to see each of them soak up the solo-time with radiant smiles of joy, glad to be known, glad to be talked about, glad to have amazing attributes of themselves highlighted in front of others. That was part 1 of the kid focus time. Part 2 was yet to come…

I love it too that my kids are old enough to take incredible pictures. Love it that I got this cool photo of Teo and I. 🙂 She and I held back and walked the trail behind everyone, having incredible conversations together. Oh that just delights my soul to no end! 🙂

We trekked back to the car and headed to downtown L.A. There we met up with the Yees. Also, amazing quality people- Tim & Kati. I can say that hands down Steev and Tim were incredible instruments of the Lord’s during the formative years of my faith. They were pivotal people in the direction of my life and the choices I made that point forward in how I wanted to live for the Lord. God used them mightily to teach me, shape me and cause me to lean my ear in close to listen to God’s calling and God’s charge to us as Christians. I thank the Lord…..wow…..actually I’m tripping out as I stop to calculate that I met Steev and Tim 20 years ago at the Bel Air Pres college group. I am thankful to God that after two full decades we are still in touch and our families know each other. But above all, thankful that God continues to use both of them to be leaders in what it means to be a modern-day Christian. God has and continues to use both of these men mightily.

In the play room at the church Tim pastors, we had Part 2 of ‘kid focus time’. It was time for Chelsea, their 11 year old and our Natalie to receive the spotlight praise time. They too soaked it up and were beaming with delight as they took turns sitting on the tiny white bench for the kid-sized miniature piano.

And then off we trekked to the Yogurtland in Japan Town, where we focused on Avery Yee (2 years old) and Natalie Hardgrave (age 12). What a treat to be in the company of dear friends while also eating amazingly scrumptious yogurt land. A perfect day.