I can't believe that August is here already! Time sure flies when you are having fun. One of my passions is to travel. Don't get me wrong, I love Hawaii more than any other place on earth, but I also enjoy getting to explore new places and experience new adventures as often as possible. July 2018 was filled with the opportunity to visit three different places. Washington State, Alaska and Canada.

My adventures began in Washington State. I arrived there one week early prior to the start of the Stampin' Up! Incentive trip to Alaska. Since my husbands family lives there, I had the opportunity to spend time with them, which is always fun.

The day I arrived my Mother in Law, Alvena, picked me up and we went on a road trip. After dropping off my luggage, we drove for 2 hours to Canada.

It was a beautiful day for a drive. Alvena brought a container filled with fresh blueberries and raspberries. It was a wonderful snack for our road trip. I had never driven to Canada before from Washington State, so I really enjoyed the scenery.

The flowers at the border were so beautiful. I loved this Canadian Flag made of flowers!!

The main reason we went to Canada was to go to the McArthurGlen Outlet Mall. I had recently discovered that my favorite store Desigual was there! I had only been able to shop at Desigual Outlet in Spain, so a 2 hour drive to get there was nothing compared to a trip to Barcelona!

We had a really enjoyable time at the mall. It was the first time either of us had been to this mall in Richmond. It was very clean, had nice shops but the funny thing was the location. It was right next to the airport, like basically a few inches away from the runway, or so it seemed. Every few minutes large planes would fly overhead. It sort of made me think that perhaps I could have just flown directly there to avoid the 2 hour drive!!! Oh well, next time.

McAruthurGlen Outlet Mall - Richmond, Canada

Actually the drive was great. I was looking forward to some one on one time with Alvena. I am blessed with a Mother in Law who is a woman of prayer and has lots of words of wisdom. Just recently it dawned on me that she has been praying for me my whole life, before she even knew me. What a blessing!! As we shared she quickly noticed a pattern in my speaking. I began to do something I do often, to talk down about myself. "I should know how to do this better", I said. "I am not very good at that", I declared! Alvena encouraged me to stop speaking these negative words over my life. She reminded me of who I was in Christ and to focus on God and his promises so that I could walk through life in victory rather than defeat.

That evening before I went to bed I opened up a new Bible Ap I downloaded to use on my trip. Guess what the first words of the devotion were, "You Are What You Speak". Ahh, it was one of those divine moments where I just smiled and got ready to receive this life lesson. The devotion went on to talk about how our life is influenced by what begins in our mind and what we believe. I read that if I wanted to receive real transformation in my life I had to change my old pattern of thinking and speaking and replace it with the truth found in God's word. Here are some of the verses that encouraged me that night.

"I am not timid, but I have power, love, and a sound mind", 2 Timothy 1:7.

"I have the Holy Spirit, so I am not a slave to fear". Romans 8:15

I felt so encouraged that God was answering my prayers and helping me to see areas in my life that I needed to change. I was so excited that this was just day one of my July adventure and God was already leading me to the transformation I had been praying for. He is so good.

Time with family was great. I got to meet the newest little Baughman, my nephews daughter, Esther! She is so precious.

I also loved hanging out with my neice Alesha. We discovered this awesome place to go for breakfast called the Woodinville Cafe. The food and service was so great, we went back there three times!

I took Alesha rock climbing at Vertical World. We had a one on one climbing session with this guy named Jess. The night before I arrived I had learned that Jess grew up in Hilo so I grabbed a bag of Primo Popcorn to give to him when we met. Jess was super happy to receive the popcorn and really excited to talk about his life in Hilo where he lived for 12 years. I asked Jess, "if I could have brought you anything from Hawaii, what would you have wanted". He thought about it for a moment and then he said, "I miss Kalua Pork!". Little did he know that the moment he said those words I began to see how I could make that happen. After all, spreading aloha is what I like to do!

The next day I made arraignments to climb again. This time I went with my brother in law Darren and my sister in law, Lisa. That evening prior to our climb, I not only made Kalua pork and white rice but I also made butter mochi.

The look on Jess's face was priceless! When he saw the plate lunches we brought he was so excited. He said he wanted to eat them slow to make them last all week. He opened up the mochi so fast and began to eat it right away. A few minutes later he texted his Mom. He said he told her, 'you won't believe what I have".

It makes me happy to make others happy. Jess thanked me multiple times for this gift of aloha.

We had a blast climbing that day. Vertical World is a really great place. We made up a new concept that day called, "dancing with the wall". Jess even put on some salsa music when I was about to go up to make my climb go a little faster!

Another huge blessing that happened while I was in Washington was that I got to see Debbie! Debbie is my downline from Oregon who drove up to attend a Stampin' Up! workshop that I helped my Sister in Law Jennifer with.

Before she drove back to Oregon, Debbie and I went on a hike at Snoqualimie Falls. It was very beautiful there.

As Debbie and I hiked, I told her about how I was working on making some personal changes and was going to begin to overcome my fears. One of those fears was doing a Facebook live video. So right there in the middle of our hike I decided to go for it. I turned on Facebook live and shot my very first video to my private downline Facebook group. It was fun to celebrate this victory with Debbie by my side!

Debbie then dropped me off at Lynn's house! It was SO good to see Lynn. We had planned a Stampin' Up! workshop at her house too, just like the good old days when I used to hold classes for her in Ewa Beach.

I couldn't believe how big her kids had grown. I got tears in my eyes just seeing how big and beautiful they were. Genesis was taller than me! How could that have happened so quickly??

Genesis was such a great helper! She is a young avid crafter and we often discuss that I will be contacting her on her 18th birthday so she can officially join my team!

Everyone who attended Lynn's class seemed to have a great time. How can they not, she is such a great hostess.

I made some new friends and was reacquainted with friends from Hawaii who just happened to be in town at the same time as me.

Would you like to see the projects we made at these two classes? Here they are.

The first was this gift card holder. This was made out of a note card. I slit the front of the card at 2 inches so that I could create a pocket to hold a gift card. The stamp on this card comes from the Darling Label Punch Box.

Project number two featured the popular Tropical Escape Suite. I love all the "ooh's" and "ahh's" that I get when I share this beautiful new suite. Its not just popular in Hawaii, people all over are loving creating projects with this tropical beauty. I used a little piece of the Tropical Escape DSP to cover the bottom of this Granny Apple Green card stock that had been die cut using the beautiful Tropical Thinlits.

The final project featured one of our DistINKtive stamp sets, Healing Hugs. The sentiment came from the set Accented Blooms, where people could choose the word Thank You or Hello for this card. This card also featured my favorite new color, Lovely Lipstick.

It was fun to share these projects at two different classes in Washington State and everyone seemed to have a really fun time and enjoy every minute.

The last day I was in Washington, Derek arrived. I was so glad he could take a short break from his very busy work schedule to go to on this trip with me. Since he was only in Washington for a day and a half we made sure to visit his Grandmother. Grandma Carol is amazing! She is in her mid 90's and has such a sharp memory. We sat and listened to her tell many interesting stories from her past. It was a precious time.

My adventures in Washington State were so much fun. It was a time for transformation to begin, a time to be with friends and family, a time to spread aloha and a time for gratitude and thankfulness.

I am so grateful for the special time I experienced in the Pacific Northwest!

I can't help but smile thinking of my next stop. It will be on my 16th incentive trip with Stampin Up! where I will be reunited with so many of my special my Stampin' Up! friends! With them it is always fun, always special and this next adventure will be held on a cruise ship bound for Alaska. What a blessing!

It is sure to be a grand adventure! Ready or not, here we go! We're on the road again!

On The Road Again

Stamped With Aloha

On The Road Again

Oh Darling, You Are Fabulous!

Truly Grateful

Stamped With Aloha