encinitas, CA

encinitas was the perfect beginning to our west coast tour. we experienced rich fellowship, loads of fun, and lots of rest (despite 4 shows in 5 days!). after 6 days cooped up in a car, all of us were ecstatic to have the chance to stretch our legs, play at the beach, and catch a well-deserved break from road food!

tim & gina are expert hosts, and they've been given the perfect home for housing guests. they pastor a community of believers out of their home, and seeing their natural way of ministry in action, and a tangible impact among their neighbors, was an inspiration to us. it not only gave us hope for the trajectory of The Church in our country, but it made us feel like there may even be a place for me & josh within it (again). though our love for Jesus has always been present + growing, we've recently felt a little isolated from a real & celebratory community of believers, and are looking forward to re-engaging in some sort of fellowship in our new home city.

anyway, back to encinitas!

: tim is a surfboard / paddleboard shaper who works out of his backyard :

the croziers had many fun toys at their house. surfboards, skateboards, scooters, bikes. and heron loved them all! she especially loved the bike rides...


we had the pleasure of being crozier guests at the same time as david reasbeck and his friend tamra. we first met dave last year (or the year before?) in florida while we were on tour. he travels around the world preaching, planting skate churches (that is, churches among skateboarders, a subculture close to josh's heart). needless to say, there were many connections between david & josh, and they went out skating together every day.

: josh, david, caleb crozier, tamra, tim :
(the crozier kids, caleb & micah (not pictured), were awesome older brothers to heron)

: david and joshua, the new BFFs :

(david gave heron the honorable nickname of "ducky" during our stay. this is because "ducky" is her favorite word right now, and she says it ALL THE TIME. and, well, a duck is a bird, as a heron is a bird... )

: la paloma, vintage 1928 theatre in encinitas where josh played :

: after the show :

in addition to the encinitas crew, we also got to hang out with our good friends russell and brianna brownley on several occasions. they happen to live 10 minutes from the croziers. we've gotten to know russell through touring & collaborations with "walking on water". he's a filmmaker (primarily surf films), and he's used josh's music for many of his films. (josh recently wrote an original score for his film on surf + culture in bangladesh; the song is called "107" and it's on lost animals, which was just released last week--BUY IT NOW!). and of course through russell we've fallen in love with his wife brianna, too. brianna is a fashion designer (primarily shoes), and i LOVE talking to her about sewing & design. and... she's an anthropologie adorer like i am!


now we're in L.A., a city which i am surprised to say i absolutely love. mostly we are here to spend a few days with our friends greg and julie christman, and greg was able to pull together a show for josh at USC while we were in town (the show is going on right now; heron & i are resting). more on L.A. in upcoming post!