"A goodbye isn't painful unless you know you're not going to see eachother again."

And that's just the thing; we don't know when we will see each other again. Hopefully next summer, God willing. But sometimes the hardest thing to do is to say "goodbye." Especially if you aren't quite sure when you'll see each other again.

That's just how it was for me and my kids at the end of my missions trip. My two favorite boys, Simon and Elijah were having the most trouble with this. Well, Simon in particular.

First thing you should know was that these kids were the most loveable kids. Whenever i saw them they would always come up to me and give me hugs.



But on this night for example, after the service which ended our week, Simon came up to me and just wouldn't let go! Literally, he was glued to me for 10 minutes, if not more!! No lie!! :) He also wanted to keep taking pictures of us. After awhile, i was getting tired of it b/c i looked oh so silly (Inna, Julia, Kels, forgive me...) so i just started making it all the worse, by making weird faces! :P (actually, they are pretty scary- you can see my nose hairs!!)lol

Simon would, at some points even have his head buried in me, and i now wonder if he was crying b/c that's what he did when i walked past him in the car. But in the midst of our hugging other kids had to come up to me and give me hugs too....they ended up hugging part of Simon as well b/c he just refused to let go. Then, Elijah joined in on our hug and he was doing that for quite some time too as well as this other little boy(who's name i hate to say i forget...) and this little girl named Faith.



It was truly sooo priceless...and made me feel like crying, but i held myself in...not for too long though.



On my way walking to the bus, i saw Simon and Elijah in their van, waiting for their foster mom to come. Holding my breath i walk past them, deciding it would be best not to go over there and make them all sad and have to go through saying "goodbye" again. I couldn't help but look back as i walked by and i realize some other kids from the youth group go over to them to say their goodbyes. Realizing how silly i was being, i stopped, turned around and decided to back there b/c these kids knew me more than they knew the other youth kids who were saying goodbye. I walk over there and Elijah shouts out to me "Miss Briana, you'd better come give Simon a hug..." I peek in the van and i see Simon in tears. Face beat red, rubbing his eyes. I just wrapped my arms around him!! But to make it all the worse, as i'm hugging him i look to the back seat and see the little boy Clay crying as well as the girl Faith; Elijah with the saddest, most sincere look on his face.

I lost it....

I started bawling. And still, up to this day i can picture in my head each and every one of their sad, precious faces.....heartbroken, with the words goodbye on the tips of their tongues. I reassured them that i would be back next year...

I just hope that i can keep that promise-once again, God willing.

I miss all my kids sooo much and i think i would give about anything to be around them and see their bright smiling faces.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." ~Psalm 37:4

!!!MISSIONS TRIP!!!

Finally, now since i'm done w/ my vacation pictures, i'm getting a chance to post about the missions trip. Well, not rly about it b/c i'm not gonna say much other than about the kids in my pic....detail about the trip is what Kelsey's blog is for b/c i believe she went into a tremendous amount of detail. It only took her like 2 weeks to make the post....but hey, she still got it up before me, so what am i complaining about!?lol

Let's begin, shall we??? :)

me and Kelsey w/ the 3 Soto sisters, Ariana, Brianna, and Kayla. They were sooo cute! (as were all the other kids!)

Simon, me, Elijah

Not to sound conceded (as usual...lol), but these 2 little boys had crushes on me along w/ 3 other of their friends!! I was surprised b/c the whole week i was truly a mess, (evidence lies w/in the pictures; just take a look!) But maybe they justified their likeness of me just b/c i was blonde...;) haha. Or maybe they just took a wise piece of advise from a very wise cousin who once said "beauty is w/in the eye of the beholder." Ahhh...soooo true!!haha.

me, Simon, Terell, & Clay.

I'm not sure how to spell the boy's name in the middle, but is pronounced (b/c i kno ur dying to know!) "TER-ELLLLL"
All these boys along w/ 1 other and a girl had the same foster mom who apparently had 5 other kids at home!! Man, God bless that lady!! And they all were in tears when i said "goodbye" to them for the last time! :( And seeing as how these kids were crying b/c i was leaving them, i, in return, began to cry!! :/ But it was still sooo precious!!

Selena and me-she was sooo cute too!!

Melissa, Ariana, Selena, me and some boy who decided to join the picture!! Oh, and since i taught the Bible story one day, i got to know kids from all age groups so after it was hard for me to choose one age group over the other to help out in the rest of the week. But, there was no reason to fear!! Being the smart, intelligent, blonde girl i am, i decided to stay in the Bible story room the whole rest of the week. That way, i was happy and so were the kids since in each of the 4 different age group classes there were several who would just cling to me!! Literally!! :)




Me and Kels once again w/ the Soto sisters, but this time beautiful Daniella decided to join in! :)

I kinda felt bad for the other leader sitting to the far right here, this was her class and all the girls were surrounding me and even fighting for my lap....:( :)



Eunelise, me, Terell, & Jacob.

Ryan, me, Eunelise

Me and Daniella

Me and Eunelise. This girl was totally adorable!!! She loved me, and i loved her!! Everyday she would sit on my lap, and follow me around, wanting to hold my hand and just always be by me. One day, while sitting on my lap she asked me "can i come home w/ you???" In just the sweetest, cutest, voice!! I wanted to cry. I told her i didn't think that was possible, but that she can come visit me. Naturally, she loved that idea!!
Then another time, while walking around, she looked up to me and said "I wish you were my mommy!!" My heart just sank...and i began to look forward even more to having kids; i just hope they like me as much as she did!! :)

Silly group pose here. I remember here, this day i was leaving the class just as this group was coming in. They were all upset until i told them i'd be right back and to save me a seat. A minute later, i come back in and i had 4 kids telling me "Miss Briana, sit here!! sit here!!" I maneged a way to sit by them all, with Selena on my lap as you can see. But she said my lap was super comfy....so that shot up my self esteem!!lol



Daniella, Eunelise, and some other random girl who wanted to be in the picture.....and can you guess.....yep; once again, fighting for my lap!!



They loved to jump rope during their hour of recreation first thing in the morning. They would form endless lines....and even get sooo upset if someone was jumping for too long....or someone they weren't too fond of was jumping w/ them!! :/ But it was cute seeing them over the week improve quite a lot on their skills!!:) haha.






















Eunelise and Daniella and me during lunch one day.









Super super cute!!! One day during rec. some of the girls were feeling very happy and decided to go around hugging different ppl while Mrs. Haden would take pictures. All i heard was them screaming "MISS BRIANA!!!" and the next thing i knew, i was being flooded by this group of girls....trapped in a loving hug!! :) Soooo precious too!! :)

We did not plan to dance; but it soon became hard to watch everyone else have a ball w/ the kids while we were just sitting there!! We couldn't help but to join in! :)

Me and Simon...don't ask how we were dancing, we just were!! Silly stuff-yet fun- while spinning in a circle, and spinning each other in and out!!

Me and Kelsey had fun dancing together....ahhhh!! And holding hands....haha-don't ask!

I like seriously had to bribe Elijah to dance. Now remember, he is one of the little boys who had a crush on me. Brennan (the guy i'm holding hands w/)came over and told me i should dance w/ him (meaning Elijah!) but every time i would go over to him he just dashed away!! It finally took some convincing, and he saw how much fun me and Simon were having dancing.....Elijah soon felt like he didn't want to be missing out anymore!! :)

Still dancing...

Here we were just catching our breath from all that hard core dancing....it only looks like we were posing for a picture....really, we weren't!!lol :)

I love this one!! It was still at the point when Elijah wasn't too crazy about dancing. Once he realized how much fun he was having, he couldn't help it!! Then later in the night he actually told me that he had such a blast dancing and thanked me for it!! Sooo cute!! :)

According to Simon here, he had the "best spot for the picture!!" yea, leaning against my shoulder!!haha. Elijah behind him, (a boy i can't remember! :( ) Melissa, and Ariana to my right.









Eunelise enjoying sitting on my lap at the end of the day.

And this little boy int he red, he was making "worms" come out of his plum!! He got the biggest kick out of it and i just had to capture the moment!! :)








Check out our sweet dancing movie!!:) :) :)

Ok, one more post to go for the missions trip!! :)

"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received. ~Ephesians 4:1

Vacation movies! :)

Watch them all!! i did not upload them ALL for nothing!!!lol And trust me, you will want to, there is smthing interesting in each one!! Not to mention you get a little taste of what Yellowstone was really like!!! I mean, come on!! How much better can you get?! :)

Black Opal Springs....beautiful in this whole area! :)

Beautiful HOT HOT HOT water chemical stuff!

Amazing water thing

Old Faithful!! :) (listen to everyone's reaction int he background!!)haha.
I'm pretty sure we were all mad at each other here...hence, the silence! :P

Cool...yet crazy

Even more crazier...listen to that horrible sound it was making!! I'm not gonna lie, this thing was kind of scary....:/ haha.

Another weird, creepy thing...spouting out redness!!

Listen to my mad chemistry terminology!! :) lol

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." ~Matthew 7:7-8

But remember...

"You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." ~James 4:3

Grand Tetons!

Ohhh....soooo lovely. Even more lovely than Yellowstone. It reminded me of the Swiss Alps in Europe; a mini Swiss Alps. Man, if this sight alone was breath taking, imagine what the Alps will be like!! (Inna, Julia, Kelsey, are you ready for that!?) :) :) :)

Here, (ABOVE) we were not quite ready for this jumping picture, we weren't suppose to jump yet actually, but Kelsey messed it up...and then down me and Kirsten started....:(

This one worked out much better! :)

Me and Kirsten bought a new car for both of us to drive! Now, of course i'll be driving it for quite many years before she even gets her temps but i could not afford this nice, cool, sporty, amazing, wonderful, little, red Ferrari by myself so she was totally willing to chip in as long as she got her share!! :)

While walking around me and Kels saw this sign of this guy who was apparently "Father Elk" and we just started cracking up! How weird, right!? I mean, i've heard of "Father of the Country", or even "Mother Nature" but "Father Elk"...you've got to be kidding!! But if he truly was the "Father Elk" then me and Kesley must be his daughters..i mean, look! We fit right in!! ;)lol


And yes!! There were even little prairie dogs around!! As i'm sure you can tell from the picture they were sooooo cute!! :) There were like literally 12 running around, jumping in and out of their holes in the ground! We had a blast cracking up and watching them. I take it from Jasper's whining he enjoyed it too!! :)

Well, this was actually my quickest vacation post i think!! (yeayyy!! Be sure to leave me a note of congratulations!!)lol And there is one more to come.....and then a post w/ some movies!! Then the rest of summer pictures which mainly includes my missions trip and NYC then off to another (and final!) :( year of skool pictures!! yeayy!! :) :) :)

"You are my wittness" declares the LORD, "and my servant whom i have chosen, so that you may know and believe in me, and understand that i am He. Before me no god was formed nor will there be one after me." ~Isaiah 43:10

YELLOWSTONE!! :)

Ahhh!! sooo many pictures from this place, and i am going to try to make this a short blog post, like i always say...so, we'll see how that works. Wow, i am trying to copy some pictures on here now and i am realizing that they are just endless. I mean, there are too many pictures i'm not even sure if this post will be organized and formatted; yea, it's that bad!! :0 (but then again, when are my any of my posts ever organized and formatted!?)lol

Ok, enough stalling, let's begin, shall we?


Yellowstone was beautiful. If you are looking for a nice vacation spot, away from the beach, and palm trees, (like away from Florida for example) i highly suggest going to Yellowstone National Park. (haha-how do you like that, i was staying away from "Florida" this summer before i even knew the whole of it!!)lol If you're catching my drift (Inna&Kelsey!)... :0 haha. But anyways, Yellowstone was just an amazing place to see God's wonderful creation and His variety of taste in nature i guess you could say. Seriously, not a day passed by that i was not in awe of my Heavenly Father. :) He is amazing, and seeing His creation brings a little more perspective of what heaven might look like! (emphasis on the little!)

Here we are, the very first day driving through and we just had to stop by the gorgeous Yellowstone Lake to take pictures!! :) Lovely, lovely, lovely!

The water was freezing though! :0

FEET!! Hey, actually, i think i might make a whole blog post on feet/shoes!! I think i did that on my old blog, but obviously we can't see that anymore...but we can replace the old w/ new, right?! ;)

And here, Kelsey decided to take a surprise picture for me...not realizing that the camera was upside down!!haha! That is just like our Kelsey!! :)

Pretty view driving by

Even manged to get a picture of my parents...awww!! How sweet!! :)

Yes, there was much wildlife!! It was really neat to see, as long as it wasn't blocking the road! :)

But Yellowstone had one major downer, it smelled horrible!! Now, only certain parts of it did...like the parts where the volcano was at it's strongest and where it would be most likely to explode i'm guessing!!lol Actually, i'm not totally sure what made it smell sooo bad,(smthing to do w/ the steam!) but there is a chemical explanation to this, so rest assured! But, remember how much i payed attention in my chemistry class!? Yea, me neither!!lol ;) To tell you the truth, if you don't know much about Yellowstone i suggest googling it up or smthing, (i think i have said that before) it is quite fascinating and extraordinary to learn all the details about the park. But if you are the Tiraks, don't even bother googling it b/c you guys are the ones who informed us of some important, life changing information before our trip! :) (ex: like how the whole park lays on a massive volcano, the largest in the WORLD!!)ahhh!!

Although it smelled we are a tough bunch of Conrads. We endured it, no matter how much our noses were burning!

It was also pretty cold at times b/c of the altitude, but all the views were worth it, are they not?!

















Check out some of this color!! Sooo pretty, and breath taking! :) Who would have ever thought that God can make a massive volcano look this good!?huh!?





And check this out!! This was what they call a saphire pool i believe. It was totally amazing b/c it was flat, grey ground, then all of a sudden it dropped off into this cray hole in the the earth, filled w/ water in the most beautiful blue color i have ever seen!

It was a windy day, and hair was not cooperation w/ us! :(

It was really neat going to see Old Fatithful, although, some ppl in the crowd thought it was being UNfaithful b/c it took awhile for it to start spouting water high. In all the days spent in Yellowstone, we were at Old Faithful 3 times when it erupted but saw it go off only twice.

Loving this cute pose w/ the dog!And this, a "candid shot" haha-not too candid actually, i posed us! :) But aren't i good, it looks candid doesn't it!?lol Ok, now these pictures were from our last day at Yellowstone. And it may have been the loudest day due to what is behind us in the picture below. I have sooo many movies of Yellowstone and the loud mud puddles but i won't post them on this post...i'll make a whole other blog post....so be waiting! :)

"For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God." ~James 1:20