Oh, What A Night!

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to celebrate my birthday, Jersey style. I can't really describe BAYA birthdays without mentioning Pinatas, but musicals are also a fun way to go if pinatas are unavailable. The show was awesome! I highly recommend it to anyone who likes music...so that's pretty much everyone, right?!

Diablo and Trish, thanks for my heartfelt birthday card- but we know it was Seth using Photoshop on himself for the front of the card ;-)

S&S, thanks for my diner dinner. It was superb. And djjazzy, you're pretty awesome for driving all the way in to the city for the celebration! Thanks for coming.

Hope you're all (most of you) having a blast in Bend. If you're not in Bend, Happy Thanksgiving where ever you are in this world. BAYA, I want pics of what we're missing this year...you know, Smith rock with Ernie, watching the classic music videos...you know what one I'm talking about..and ladies, enjoy your R&R at the spa. (so jealous!)

Love,

GASR

Halloween 2007!

Last weekend about 30 neighbors gathered for a community Halloween Party in Novato.

We played games...

carved pumpkins...

dressed in costume (princess di saying hello to the 'sleeping bag')


and had superhero wrestling matches with the 'sleeping bag'.

Good times, BAYA! All the hard worked paid off and it was a great event. Well done!

BAYA & the Scoop

BAYA & the Scoop
Originally uploaded by TreeBed

Being in Iowa I have had to be a distant member of BAYA the past year or so... but I never feel very far away from this group of people. I have played with them, worshiped with them, and been in service with them (sometimes all at one time). Tonight I got to celebrate my 30th Birthday with them. There are many transitions going on in the BAYA universe right now... and that is both scary and exciting. It is scary because what has been so good to me over the past few years is changing. However, it is exciting because the strength that has been created out of the BAYA energy is feeding so many different things. We have each been given a beautiful gift that is ours to hold, use, lean on, and cherish for ever. I love that, and feel so blessed by it. I am such a better person because of these people... I am so thankful for each unique gift that has been given to me because I chose to be a part of this group (and give my own energy).

BAYA... you have blessed my life... and I thank you.

BAYA on the Bay

Some of us were enjoying the beauty of the Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay area while on staff at a senior high/junior high youth retreat last weekend.

Retreat activities included meeting new people, eating yummy food, pinic on the beach, The Power of One movie, camping, kickball, pingpong, SHARK/Sasquatch (See Kori for rules), elbow tag, brown bag yoga challenge, and more random games. (thanks Superstar!)

Our main activity was kayaking on Monterey Bay with the sea lions, jellyfish, kelp garden, sea otters, seals, and dolphins, (yes, we saw dolphins!)

Great weekend, BAYA!

SPEC 2007

I must admit, when I first signed up to be on staff this year I wasn't super excited about it. Hot, muggy, Iowa in July didn't sound that appealing for my week of vacation. I wasn't sure what to expect as a staff member on Calizonia. I loved being a camper when I was in high school, but I didn't know if I'd like being the "adult" at SPEC.

But, Wow! I should have been way more excited! It was a great week. The days were full of snapshot memories that overshadowed the Iowa weather (which wasn't that bad). The kids' lives changed this week. I know because they told me towards the end of camp that they didn't want to part their separate ways. It was so cool to see teenagers live out a loving community. I am so glad I was able to go and be a part of such a positive week.

Here are a few snapshots of the YA's involved at SPEC last week. Go BAYA- and adopted BAYA members, Mr. Fletcher and Bear (Matt).

Benefit Concert Part II

Here are a few photo highlights to go along with the top 10 list from GASR. Pictures compliments of Skippy and Sweeney.

BAYA Benefit & The Concert

Here we go, Scientist...in no particular order (I'm purposefully leaving out the camping trip, which needs a post!)

We held a concert on June 9th, in Sonoma. Top ten things that were awesome about the benefit concert: photos (add if you have some!) and links to come...I just had to get the post out there because Scientist's techiness inspired me!

10) The Sonoma Community Center rocked as a venue for our benefit.

9) GASR made her radio morning show debut to promote the event. (recording coming soon)

8)The Yost Foundation proved to be the most amazing source of yummy food, thoughtful advice, a true workhorse who never sleeps (or naps), and generous donations.

7)Made our presence known at the Sonoma Farmers' Market by handing out toothbrushes with info about the concert.

6)The music at the concert was just awesome, Scott Giles and his long time friend Dan, opened with some great music (we never knew Scott could play like that!) Then Storyhill rocked the house!

5)Over 80 people showed up for the concert from Sonoma to Pennsylvania & Australia! Wow! Thanks for coming, Anne & Adam!

4)We created awareness of a great home for children in Honduras, El Refugio. We also had a beautiful display of photos at the concert to share about GASR's recent trip to provide dental care. (and the display was donated!)

3)From the marketing aspect, Country wide Home Loans donated the entire back page of the Sonoma Sun's ad space for our benefit concert. Wow, way to work it Skippy and Sweeny.

2)The moment after the concert, the satisfaction on the faces of BAYA showed that the planning, running around, sleeping in Sonoma, staying up late, calling random newspapers, emailing all day, tracking the website, and shopping for extras last minute was ALL WORTH IT!!!

and the #1 most awesome thing about BAYA Benefit's Concert on June 9th (drum roll...)

We raise over $4,000 to send to El Refugio, which will cover about 25 kids' clothing, food, medical/dental care for a year! So cool.

Way to go BAYA!

Long Time No Post

Well, tonight I got a crazy idea...I decided it was time to post something on the blog. Okay, so I'm not part of our techie group, but really how tough can it be right? Well, being that the last time I tried to post something here's what happened...after I wrote it up, added pictures, and then tried to post it and it disappeared into the magical arena of cyber space...well, let's just say I had some doubts. So, after some mishaps with trying to login using my old account (non-gmail, which is the reason why everyone received the random email in their account tonight, sorry about that) Sweeney came to the rescue and just deleted me out and added me back in with my new gmail account. Yeah, I'm back in the blog and ready to make a real post. So, here's wishing for the best. Oh...and I'm hoping this will inspire other BAYA members to make some new posts.

Pt. Reyes Backpacking 2004-2006

SF Ballet

In typical BAYA fashion, the beginnings of an event fell into play at about 4:45pm today when I received a voicemail about 4 San Francisco Ballet tickets for tonight's 7:30 performance. Our friend, Ruth, is a cellist for the SF Ballet Company and has mentioned before that she gets complimentary tickets for shows, but we have never been able to go in the past. Within 30 minutes we had organized and planned to meet for dinner and the ballet! Thank goodness for cell phones!

We arrived at the entrance and the bell chimed, telling us to hurry up and scarf down the dinner burritos because they were closing the doors. Soon we were seated in the balcony watching dancers gracefully glide across the stage and point their toes in a manner that didn't look humanly possible! (see photo)

This was the perfect ballet performance for me to watch because there were three ballets in one! The first one was a jazzy little ballet with great music and choreography titled Elemental Brubeck. The second was Concordia, in its World Premiere, which I think is a big deal because the dancers were given these huge bouquets of flowers when they took their final bows. This ballet had contemporary dancing contrasted with the traditional ballet which was very cool to watch together. The third, and most AMAZING, was Symphony in C choreographed by George Balanchine. This ballet seemed to have every dancer from the company on stage dancing their buns off. What a unexpected and wonderful evening in San Francisco! Thanks, Ruth!

BYOBW Race 2007!

What do these two things have in common? Well, they came together on a beautiful, sunny, warm City afternoon this Easter in the form of a RACE! The 7th Annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race down Lombard Street in San Francisco was a sight to see. Lombard Street is the crookedest street in the world and one of the many tourist attractions here in the City.

Skippy and I were there as BAYA representatives to scout it out in order to make this a BAYA Annual Easter Event. It was so entertaining! Hundreds of Big Wheels and other random plastic toys, including a recycling bin, lined up at the entrance to the famous crookedest street at approximately 4pm. We maneuvered our way to the midway point of the curvy street and settled in behind a cement wall (for our protection) while the last of the tourist cars drove down. The race began with some excellent skaters (skateboards, not ice) flying down to "clear the path" then came the Big Wheelers. They wore helmets, knee pads, and face masks. Most wore some sort of costume like Mario and Luigi , the Easter Bunny, a couple of Beekers , Lego Man, or just something random found at the Salvation Army. For this race, like other famous races here in SF, the goal is not to win, but just to get to the bottom/finish in one piece.

I have to say, in the past 6 years I've lived here in San Francisco, this ranks on the top of my list of things to see. If you are planning a trip to the Bay around Easter Sunday, be sure to catch this Race! So, BAYA members, 2008 here we come! For a video of BYOBW click here. - Look closely in the first 25 sec, and you'll see even Jesus was there!

Eggs! Eggs!

Eggs!
Originally uploaded by ginelledds.

Colorful eggs from our Annual Easter Egg Hunt (5th year running). BAYA coordinated the event, which was a rousing success (in my book) with approximately 80 people including 50 egg-hunting children ages 12 and under.

Based on conversations with the Easter Bunny, over 350 eggs were found and only 20-30 remain hidden around the church grounds. I guess we'll find those next year.

Thank you to everyone who helped run and coordinate this fun event.

Salmon Spotting

Growing up fishing for salmon and steelhead on cold, wet, winter mornings in Oregon helped be develop a sense of awe for these fish. This is partly due to their long journeys to spawning grounds and also because all of those days out fishing I never caught one. So now, I go fishing with my eyes. Salmon spotting. There has been a big push recently in Marin county to restore some of the salmon runs of the past and the fish have returned slowly, but surely.

This past Thursday, after teaching, I drove out to Shafter Bridge on Lagunitas Creek for my first salmon spotting this year. I saw 6 fish (3 Coho and 3 steelhead, my best guess) and happened to get a picture of 2 of them (3 if you enlarge the pic) :
Today, Deb came with me and we saw 5 more fish. Two great days of salmon spotting!

A local non-profit called SPAWN has led the charge with creek restoration and by raising local awareness. It is amazing to see what a small group of people can accomplish.

It makes me wonder what possibilities BAYA could pursue in 2007. Any ideas???

Christmas in Mexico

Just a quick blog post about the family Christmas trip to Nuevo Vallarta in Mexico. It was our first trip to Mexico and we loved it. The weather was perfect (80 and Sunny) every day and the ocean was beautiful. The resort we stayed at was right on the beach and we enjoyed the nightly sunsets on the Pacific. I think the whole family had a great time and we are considering a return trip in a few years. I look forward to that.

One highlight for me: On the last night we got to release baby sea turtles that had hatched on the resort property that morning.

Here are a few pics from the trip: