Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Tyler and I visited his brother Myles at Woodland Park Zoo on Tuesday. We somehow just missed the rain so we counted our blessings for that. Myles is working on the construction of the new penguin exhibit so we saw the progress on that. We both hadn't been to the zoo in years, it was good to see the new work.

How Many of Me?

Interesting! Go to this website, type in your first and last name, and see what you find out!
There are 16 people in the U.S. named Laura Hauck.
There are 779,394 people in the U.S. with the first name Laura.
Statistically, Laura is the 57th most popular first name.
There are 6,419 people in the U.S. with the last name Hauck. I wonder how many are related to me?
Statistically, Hauck is the 5640th most popular last name.

I want to be back on retreat

The silent retreat was refreshing and amazing! I can see now why there are so many people who return each year, one woman was on her 17th straight year :) The location was Palisades Retreat Center on Dash Point in Federal Way. Absolutely stunning views of the sound and surrounded by a peaceful forest and gardens, as you will see from my pictures :) It was great to experience a community in silence. The weekend was filled with prayer, reflection, journaling, reading, lots of good sleep and food! I can't wait for next year and I am sure you can tell why!

Silence

Tomorrow afternoon, I leave for a weekend silent retreat. Yes, I will spend the weekend in silence; definitely a step outside the box for me. I have a hard time with silence. I most always feel like there is so much to do and talk about. The large majority of my silent time is spent sleeping. So, I think this will be a rewarding experience for me. I look forward to the time for reflection – away from the cell phone, internet, chores, and business of daily life. I’ll let ya know how it goes. :)

Yay!

Election day began with a very important message from my pal, Noah! And ended on a very inspirational note. There was much celebration in our home as we were joined by Garin to watch the election unfold. Here are a few shots of our celebration.



Here's to hope and change for our future!

Double date

We teamed up with Beth and Dave for a fun double date on Saturday. First stop: Cactus, one of my favorite mexican restaurants. Green enchilades--Yum! That's all I have to say about that :) Next stop: the Showbox at the Market for Vince Mira, the young Johnny Cash. Little did we know, there were eight other bands playing as well so it was a fun (and very late) night of music. Highlights besides the food and great company: wearing my red boots, excellent music, old country classics, trumpet lit on fire, dancing, supporting up and coming musicians, extra hour of sleep, seeing older couples on a double date wondering if that will be us in 20 years and last but not least, did I mention great music? :)

Saturday morning in the park

The SU Young Alumni crew teamed up with EarthCorps in a park cleanup effort Saturday morning. Thank goodness for Fisch, Lindsey, Nibitu, and Allie...very entertaining partners in this not-so-fun project!



The task: remove non-native ivy and blackberry plants from Dr. Jose Rizal park.


President Fischer did an excellent job of setting the vision for the day and providing supervision for each task!

What a beautiful view, eh?

Twin Falls

You may be aware that I don't like hiking. I do, however, like beautiful scenery, photography, and feeling good about exercise. Tyler suggested a hike to Twin Falls, near North Bend. I agreed and was pleasantly surprised. That doesn't mean I didn't complain about the hundreds of stairs and steep hills that we climbed ;) Or, freak out at the snakes that we saw. Yes, snakes! I suppose it was better than bears or cougars. I particularly wish I would have video'd the first part of the trip when I was going on and on about how beautiful and relaxed the hike was and how much better than going to the gym it was. Then, I look up only to find the first of many steep hills to climb. Good thing there was never a shortage of beautiful scenery. Overall, it was a pleasant experience, especially once I caught my breath!

I figured out how to add slideshows so I hope you enjoy my photos. For those of you who want to check out this hike, click here. I am a bit offended at this site which calls the hike an easy, late afternoon hike. I guess I have a ways to go before I become an avid hiker.