fall.fellowship.friends.

So California only has two churches from the Apostolic Christian denomination. Many people from the mid-west don't really understand the distance between these two churches...or that california is a state that is 770 miles from top to bottom. So when you visit Sacramento, chances are, we won't be seeing you in church in Altadena on Sunday...just sayin'.

So the two churches are Altadena and San Diego. We are roughly two hours apart and our attendees have known each other the better part of our lives. But crazy thing is, we don't see each other all that often. Living in Southern California is awesome...and time-consuming. we all have our own fast-paced lives and months pass before we see each other.

But this past year...drumroll please...

we decided to change that.

That's right. San Diego and Altadena are combining forces and actually spending monthly time together. We hang out, do Bible Studies, sing, eat and generally just bond. It is so much fun!

This past weekend, us Altadenans went down to San Diego (last month they came up here) and this is what the weekend became.

Saturday morning, Jonathan, Andrew, Joseph, Aly, Leslie (Aly's former roommate from Biola) and myself all packed up in my family's trusty white astro van and headed down to the southern most parts of southern california. (seriously...it was so far south that we could see Mexico from a tall building).


This is me and Britt Wag in Seaport Villiage. we had yummy Greek food. Me and her are very similar in that we are both talkative, social and generally free spirits. She is one of my bosom friends.




Here is part of our group mingling after lunch in Seaport Villiage. It was a gorgeous day...cool, crisp, clear and pleasant in the sunshine.





Then we walked over to this fantastic aircraft carrier. (I cannot quite remember the name...but it is a HUGE water-craft and had probably a dozen different kinds of aircraft parked on the top.)





Then we climbed to the top of this really tall Hyatt Hotel or something...(40 floors) and looked out the lounge windows at the top. they overlooked the ocean, harbor and downtown San Diego. SO beautiful.





This was the other side. See the little mountains in the distance? that's Mexico. i love Mexico. just a random tidbit of Suzy trivia for you.





After checking out the awesome views, a few of us decided to walk down instead of taking the elevator (remember, 40 flights of stairs). And then everyone else (well except for a few softies) decided to walk down too. It was loud, echo-y and made for a great calf work-out.





Our next stop was Point Loma and the lighthouse/tidepools there. It was beeeeeautiful!




The California Coastline. It really is a beautiful state. Whether or not you want to admit it.





This is me and Breana. She is getting married. But she graced us with her presence anyway. good to know the engaged folks can still have fun ;) It was a bit bright out, hence the squinty-ness.





This is Linda. She just looked so movie-star-ish that I had to post this picture. When we were little, people used to say we looked so much alike. We never could really see it.





These are some of the girls from the group. (L-R: Kassandra, Linda, Me, Brittney and Breana)
Yes...I know I'm the shortest. It tends to happen a lot. But these girls really are such sweethearts. I love them a lot and really enjoy spending time with them.





Group Shot!

Overall the weekend was such a blast! I love spending time with all of these kids. Even though I've known most of them my whole life, I feel like we've really bonded these last few hang-out times. And even though Breana is getting married and moving to Bluffton (!?) and I'm moving to Minnesota, I hope that we can all stay good life-long friends.

My church denomination provides a unique fellowship that I have not really seen anywhere else. I LOVE that we can capitalize on it and really benefit from it.