Hikes, Lakes, Thunderstorms, and MISSION PAPERS.

I seriously cannot believe that I've been up here for two months now. It feels like I just barely got here.. and then again, it also feels like I've been up here forever. Funny how life is like that.

But the faster that time flies, the more I realize how much I want to do up here! So I'm trying to jam pack my time with tons of adventures. I want to do all the hiking trails in Skagway, I think there's 13 or something... I've done a few, and last week I did Lost Lake. KILLER hike... super steep and it mostly made me realize that I need to get in shape haha. Incredibly beautiful hike, though.

Also, we have been having the most bizarre weather lately. We had a THUNDERSTORM... completely unheard of in Skagway. I think the whole town stayed up all night watching and listening to it. Didn't get any pictures of the lightning but it was pretty awesome. It was all the town could talk about for the next three days...

Yesterday morning a friend and I hiked down to the most violent section of the Skagway river. Most people don't even know this hike exists but we found it... well mostly. We did spend a lot of time forging our own trails haha. But we did eventually find it and it was INCREDIBLE. Probably my favorite hike so far. There is something about water- especially rivers- that is incredibly soothing. I could sit by a river/lake/ocean for hours, just letting the sound of the water clear my head. I also got to see the train pass by up above me, which was cool... definitely a different angle!

And to top the day off we went zip-lining. It's hard to impress me with zip-lining tours, after the zip-line I went on with my family in Mexico... so this one didn't even come close to that haha. But it was still super fun! And this is Skagway, so it was astonishingly beautiful, as always. Pretty cool stuff.

AND GUESS WHAT. 

I had my stake president interview today for my mission!!  I've just been waiting for this interview because the Skate Pres lives in Juneau, so he had to fly up here. BUT all he has to do now is submit my papers. Mail up here is slow, but my call should come within the month. 

CAN'T WAIT. 

The church is so true. The more real this whole mission thing gets, the more I want to share that fact with the world! It's incredible the amount of happiness the gospel brings you. I want to give everyone the grounding knowledge of who they are and why they are here. I can not wait to put 100% of my efforts into serving the Lord. 

Are we INTERESTED

So. Not that I want this blog to become a boring rambling of all the insights I have on life, but sometimes you just have to get them out! So here's my latest.

Its better to be interested  than interesting. 

Think about this for a second. What kind of people are the ones you want to be around the most?
The ones that CARE. The ones that are interested in YOU. We all have had regular contact with people who are seriously awesome- they are funny, cool, and outgoing. But you don't have a real desire to be around someone unless they have a desire to be around you. Am I right?

And here's the thing. Everyone is interesting. Really. I have never met someone who doesn't have a story, and no one ever will. So honestly, we don't have to worry about that. We don't need to worry about being someone worth meeting, because we already are. We are all interesting. BUT are we interested? 

Are we interested in those around us? Personally, I know I'm not always as thoughtful as I should be. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own interesting lives that we forget to invest our interest in the lives of those around us.

And I believe that we are drawn to interested people more than we are drawn to interesting people.

So instead of spending our time worrying about ourselves and our own self-image, why not spend our time thinking about others. What if when others talked, we actually listened,  instead of thinking of the story we are going to tell next. What if we took the time to really get to know everyone we came in contact with.

What if we focused on being interested instead of interesting. 

So there you go. Kylie's daily insight. Enjoy.

Can I stay here forever?

So. lots and lots of adventures lately :)

1. Last weekend I got out of Skagway for the day... Andy and I rode the ferry for the first time over to Haines, and went on a 4x4 excursion. So fun! 

This is Haines- a tiny little town just nestled into the mountains. Still bigger than Skagway, though....

Absolutely beautiful day. And its been awesome meeting lots of people up here who want to go do all this stuff...  I seriously have to pinch myself sometimes, this summer is unreal! I have access to all these awesome excursions for free.... So there will be a lot more to come :)

2- We got a puppy. Well, Allyson did, and I live with her... sooooooo yeah. CUTEST FREAKING THING EVER. His name is Clifton and I've already taken him hiking, and I'm going to start taking him running with me! Having a dog up here is awesome because there's tons of stuff to do with them, and you can take them everywhere.
I'm already in love with him.

3- Worked, worked, worked. Usually 6 days a week, 10 hours a day. I really enjoy it though, and I haven't gotten bored of it yet!! BUT it has been freaking HOT up here..... over 80 like every day. Which is great, unless you work with tourists.. on trains... with no AC. Lots and lots of grumpy people the last little while... but its okay. Even on the most beautiful days people will find something to complain about... but really, that's no way to go through life! I'm learning a lot about people through working this job....

4- WAITING. My mission papers have been finished for almost two months now, and I can turn them in ANY TIME NOW..... which is awesome! BUT my stake president lives in Juneau. 2 hours away. Sooooo i'm waiting for him to come to Skagway so I can have my final interview and then turn in my papers! He was supposed to come last week, but I think now he's scheduled for the end of the month. I understand that there is nothing I can do at this point... but I'm still going CRAZY. 

5- A lot of the waterfalls are starting to dry up now.... but now we are starting to get WILDFLOWERS. gorgeous. Who would have thought that Alaska would have so many flowers? 

Seriously this place is so easy to fall in love with. It makes me want to stay here forever... but it also makes me want to travel more. Go everywhere. There are so many things out there to see and experience! 

Loving life and feeling blessed. 

Fathers

See this handsome guy? That is the world's greatest dad. 

Now, I know almost every girl thinks her dad is the best. And really, I want to say that mine actually is the best.... because I feel like that..... but. I love the fact that we ALL feel special enough to have such amazing fathers. Think about it. How lucky are we. How lucky am I??

My favorite thing about my dad is that I know he will ALWAYS be there for me. Right next to me. We don't have to talk every day, or even every week, for me to know that. I think God gave us fathers so we could have a little taste of the love HE has for us. And I do feel that through my own father. 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADDY!

Thanks for teaching me how to work hard, be patient, and never give up. Thanks for showing me exactly the kind of man I want to find for myself one day. 

This Tops it ALL

So, I've had some pretty amazing adventures up here. Small ones, big ones, and THIS ONE. 

This was easily the most incredible thing I've ever done in my entire life. Today I rode a helicopter over the most breathtaking glaciers and mountains, hiked on the Chilcat glacier, and flew back into Skagway. Oh and it was all free...... perks of being a White Pass employee.

This was one of the main things on my summer bucketlist.... and it exceeded every expectation! Sometimes I just have to pinch myself to remind myself that I'm actually LIVING this dream.

Brace yourself, more pictures.  :)

 This is the three of us and our awesome tour guide/pilot. Seriously slipping into cliche tourist mode.... taking pictures with the guide. 

And here is the Skagway harbor. In one of my earlier posts I said I would get a picture like this... and here it is! How can you not be completely in love with this place. 

I am seriously on a high right now. Today was incredible. 

Just an update on my daily adventures- I've been doing pretty well with my adventure-a-day goal. Lots of times they are really small, but they make my day a little brighter. I did my first tour to Fraser, BC, and it went well! The other day I spotted my first eagle up here, and I also found a new running trail. Sometimes its the little things that make the biggest difference. 

Along with that, I've found that its the extra little things I do in my job that make it the most enjoyable. Obviously, I get paid to be a tour guide, answer questions, sell things...... etc. I don't get paid to take people's pictures, un-fog the windows with paper towels, learn people's stories.......... but those are some of my favorite parts. Well I don't really love un-fogging windows, lets be honest. But people are SO appreciative when you go the extra mile for them. Even working, there are always acts of service you can perform. And I absolutely love getting a little peek into people's lives. Pretty cool stuff. 

Well that's all for now, folks. See you next time. 

Just Another Train Ride

If you guys haven't noticed, I'm a little obsessed with the beautiful landscape up here. I think people get sick of me ooing and ahhing over it all the time, so I have to learn to keep it to myself... and then talk about it on here!

THIS PLACE IS FREAKING GORGEOUS.
Its the weirdest thing, but I feel like I'm about to burst when I look around me. Like I can't handle all this beauty in one location.

So I had a day off today. AND guess what I did.........
that's right, I rode the train. a little pathetic. But I had a friend who hadn't rode yet, so I rode it with him. The best part of this whole thing was that I finally was able to take pictures of everything I see on the train everyday! So. here's some of my favorite views from the train.

This is a view of the Skagway harbor. That's right, I live right down there :)

 highline section of the railroad...

 Glacier station....

Wooden trestle bridge! Such amazing views all around at this part of the trip. 

Inspiration Point- another view of the Skagway Harbor. 

Steel Cantilever Bridge. We no longer use this bridge, it was retired back in 1969. Pretty amazing though.

 Lake Bernard at Fraser, BC.

THEN I got to sit in the coupola! The coupola are seats where you can look out over the top of the train. so cool. 

And then I rode the rest of the way on the back platform, easily the best place on the entire train. 

Lots and lots of pictures today. I love it here. 

Beautiful RAIN

The last couple days on the train have been really rainy and foggy. This is pretty typical for Skagway, I've been a little spoiled with the sunshine lately....
So at first, I was kind of disappointed... mostly for the tourists riding the train. I want so bad for them to see the beauty that I get to see when its perfectly clear outside! BUT that was before I realized how much beauty there is on a foggy day.
First, the fog makes all the colors POP like you wouldn't believe. The greenery is incredible.
And not only does the fog make the greens look greener, but the greens actually GET greener because of the rain.
The Steel Cantilever Bridge in the fog = the most amazing thing ever. It just appears out of nowhere and looks like its floating. Pretty incredible.
Going into the clouds you feel like you are flying... I'm like a little kid, I know, but I love it.

I wish so badly I could take pictures of all of this, but I'm working! I'll sneak them somehow and post them soon....

Anyway, I have discovered how BEAUTIFUL a rainy day can be....

So, today I walked into a car and started talking to the group.
"Hey, how are you all doing in here?? It's an absolutely beautiful day today."
And they all laughed, thinking I was sarcastic or joking... even though I was being completely honest. I thought today was breathtaking. But their laughs were understandable, because it looked so gloomy outside. For some reason, though, this really got me thinking.
Why, when its raining or foggy, do we assume the day is ruined? If you look hard enough you can ALWAYS find good.

In our lives there are many many many rainy days. More than we would like. And at least for me, on all these days all I see is the fog, and the rain, and the gray. Usually we forget to look at the greener colors, or the way the sunlight lights the valley as it peeks through the mist, or even the feeling you get when you are flying through the clouds.

We should strive to find beauty and goodness even during our hard times. Even though we may not be able to see because of the fog, there are a million things around us that keep our days beautiful, we just have to look!! OR, maybe the fog is bringing out other things that we may not notice otherwise. We feel like the fog is blocking our view and we don't know which way to go, when in reality it could be SHOWING us a new, better, more beautiful path for our lives- just as it makes new colors pop on the mountainside, and makes a valley look like a whole new world.
Heavenly Father gives us trials, yes. Bad things happen to good people, yes. But there is always beauty in our days, sometimes we may just have to change our PERSPECTIVE.