Vacation Update and Pictures

24 04 2009

My wife and I got back from our vacation on Tuesday evening.  We had an AWESOME time flying to Miami and hopping a cruise ship to the Bahamas.  Sabrina earned the all expense paid trip through her home based business Tastefully Simple.  She had to sell a certain amount of product and recruit a certain number of consultants.  She met her quota and off we went to the Bahamas.  We got to spend a couple of days in Miami as well due to flight scheduling.  All in all we got to spend 6 days together on vacation, and 3 days prior to that we were together at our denominational pastors and wives retreat.  It was a great way to relax following Easter weekend.  Sabrina’s dad and step mom, Mike and Elaine, graciously came up to Cheyenne to watch the kids during this time.  Most of it was covered by just her step-mom since her dad had to head back to OK for work.  (THANK YOU Mike and Elaine for your help!)  Below is a link to some pictures of our trip.  We were able to do a cool excursion in the Bahamas on Saturday.  We went to a private island where we were able to swim with stingrays and actually fed them out of our hands.  It was amazing to be snorklin in the water and watch a stingray swim within arms reach right underneath you.  So cool!  There were about 700 Tastefully Simple consultants on the boat and many of them earned the trip for their spouses or a friend as well.  Sabrina is well on her way to earning a trip to Cancun next year.  I’ll get back in the blog swing next week.  Trying to get caught up from being gone so long.  Finding the groove is difficult after vacation.

PICTURES HERE

Rested,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, family, personal, pictures

Family Moments

7 03 2009

Friday I had the priveledge of serving with Makalah at the Soup Kitchen.  She LOVES it and was a challenge to me with her great attitude about it.  Here are a couple pics of her serving.  img00176

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Friday afternoon we went to a class play put on by Mariah’s Kindergarten class.  They celebrated Dr. Suess week by acting out Horton Hears A Who.  Mariah was a Who.

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Today, Jonah and I tore up the slopes at Snowy Range Ski Area.  We had a BLAST!  It won’t be long and he’ll be skiing circles around me.  We pretty much took blue runs the whole day (intermediate).  Jonah will be ready to shred some black diamonds (expert) next year.  He was absolutely tuckered out by the end.  The weather and snow conditions were superb.  Here are some pictures.  Click HERE to view all the pictures.

Dad and Jonah on the lift:

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Jonah shredding it up:

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Jonah in the “conquer” pose after taking the blue run behind him:

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Love my family,

Jeff


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Family Night

27 02 2009

We’ve been observing Wednesday nights as our family night since January 1st.  One of our goals for the new year was to protect Wednesday evenings, and do something special with the kids.  We’ve done games, movie nights, swimming, arcade and other stuff.  I wanted to do something different so when the opportunity came to take our kids into an air traffic control tower I jumped at the chance.  Wednesday night after dinner we headed to the tower where one of our Elementers works.  It was VERY cool to go up inside and we even got to see a plane land from there.  The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. Here are a couple of pics.  Mariah wouldn’t let me take a picture and Makalah’s didn’t turn out.

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Serving Together

7 02 2009

One of the things I look forward to every month is taking one of my kids to the Soup Kitchen.  I’ll, be honest, I don’t always feel like going to serve.  There are LOTS of excuses that come up each month.  But I ALWAYS leave, grateful and thanful for what God has blessed us with.  Since Makalah is in pre-school and gets out at 11:30 AM, I’m able to pick her up on the first Friday of each month and head to the Salvation Army soup kitchen to help serve lunch.  Both the kids and I choose (I make them) to eat whatever is being served.  I even ate fish a few months ago.  YUCK!  We go out among the people and sit down to eat our lunch after serving those in need.  Yesterday, Makalah and I sat with a young couple with three little kids.  I was SO THANKFUL for what God has given us.  It is so easy to sit in my 4 bedroom house with my heat on, pantry and fridge stocked, closet full of clothes and bills all paid, only to find myself complaining about what I DON’T have.  WOW, how much do we have?  More than I need to be honest.  I LOVE teaching my kids to serve, but also to teach them to be thankful for what we have.  Here is a picture of my care bear serving by my side.

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STILL learning,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, discipleship, family, personal

Swimming And A Trip To Denver

24 01 2009

Wednesday night we took our family to the city indoor pool for a night of swimming and hanging out.  We had a TON of fun.  The city has a great swimming pool.  It was our first time there.  They had a perfect kiddie pool for Jaydah (and it was warm).  A high and low diving board and an indoor water slide.  They had life jackets for all the kids that wanted them and a very large swimming area.  It was our first time to that pool since moving here and I think we’ll go again.  The kids didn’t want to leave (well, except Makalah who may be developing a fear of water).  img00082

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Yesterday (Friday), Pastor Adam, Amber, Sabrina and I all went to Denver for the day.  We went to the Denver Zoo to film some promo vidoes and sermon intros for our upcoming sermon series at Element.  It was a BLAST!  Two weeks ago when we planned this excursion, Adam and I wanted to make part of the day taking our wives with us and going to The Melting Pot restaraunt in Fort Collins.  Sab has been REALLY wanting to go there.  It is a 4 course fondu meal.  HOLY COW the food is good (and pricey).  We had a great day and fun double date with Pastor Adam and Amber.  In fact Adam has some cool thoughts as it relates to church HERE so check it out.

It was FREEZING at the zoo, but it was perfect for keeping the crowds away as we needed to film in several areas of the zoo.  Anytime you walk around with a big professional looking video camera and a microphone you attract attention.  Go figure.  We saw the lions get fed (never seen that before).  And WAY more of the animals were out than usual it seemed.  Not sure if it was the weather or the lack of crowds.  The zoo NEVER gets old to me.  We ended the night at The Melting Pot with the Flaming Turtle chocolate fondu.  WOW!  I think that is the only word to describe that chocolatey goodness.  lol  Thanks to Adam and Amber for hanging out with us and my awesome wife for spending the day with me.

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STILL FULL,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, family, personal, updates

From A Four Year Old?

20 01 2009

Maybe we can learn a little from a four year old.  The simplicity.  The innocence.  The unbiased and pure attitude of a four year old.  I got home from work today and wanted to see some of what the news was saying about the whole inauguration.  Mariah (5) told me all about watching it and talking about President Obama today it school.  Makalah (4) knew all about the back yard that our new president has from some school material she received.  Mariah was VERY proud to know that he is the FIRST president that isn’t white.  (interesting how she put that.  Not just the first black president, but the first one NOT white)  Then when I mentioned our evening devotions and prayer time Makalah said “I want to pray for Arack Obama (yes, no “B” in the name for her)”.  We talked some more about how cool it was to see the new president inaugurated.  Again the fact that he wasn’t white.  Mariah at one point said “His daughters are so lucky.  I want to live in the White House.”  We got to our devotion time and Makalah had her turn to pray.  She simply prayed “Dear Jesus.  Thank you for President Arack Obama.  I pray they would have good rest and good dreams (she prays that every time).  I pray you would protect them.  In Jesus name, Amen!”

Know what I realized?  7,5, and 4 years old.  Not ONE snide comment.  Not ONE complaint.  Not ONE “end of the world” scenario.  Not ONE “I can’t believe He is president!”  She prayed for him.  Huh.  I wonder if we can learn from that?   The first person she wanted to pray for at prayer time was our President.  It didn’t matter that he was black or white.  Republican or democrat.  Pro-Choice or Pro-Life.   Bail out or no bail out.  She prayed!  She prayed!  Did you get that?  SHE PRAYED!  I think we can learn from that.

From a four year old,

Jeff


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Categories : discipleship, family, kids, personal

Family Night

16 01 2009

Wednesday night is family night around our house.  We typically play games.  We didn’t know if we could take playing Famiy Crainum (with a 4 year old) another week, so we gave the kids a choice.  Stay home and have soup and play a game.  Or go out to eat and go to the video arcade.  (We tricked them)  Of course it was video arcade and eating out.  It was a fun time out as the fam.  Here are a few pics of the evening.  (Jonah lost video games because he lied to us about something before we left)


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Family Fun

10 01 2009

Our fam was invited to a birthday party today of some Elementers.  Their daughter turned 5 today.  The party was down in Fort Collins at a very cool place called “Jump It up” (I think).  They have a bunch of giant inflatable games and a climbing wall for the kids.  We had a BLAST together and wanted to share some pics of the kids.


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Haircut

9 01 2009

I shave my head EVERY two weeks on a Friday morning.  I go to the barber and shave it all off.  Jonah, who has LOVED his long hair for a while now just out of the blue said “I want to shave my head like daddy.”  We actually tried talking him out of it for a while, but he would have none of it.  One of the things we’ve allow jonah to have ultimate freedom on, is his hair.  It’s just hair.  If he asks to shave, we shave.  Long, it’s long.  Mohawk…YEP.  SO, we went to the barber and off it came.  Here are a few pics of the experience.


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Categories : family, personal, pictures

“Hey Dad!”

30 12 2008

Adam and I were out in the worship center talking sound stuff with a sound tech this afternoon when from behind me I heard “Hey Dad!”.  It was Jonah’s voice and it took me a second to realize “My son shouldn’t be here why did I just hear his voice?”  I turned, and sure enough, there was Jonah.  He said “I came to see you.  We were over at Marcus’ Grandpas shop and I wanted to come say hi”.  (Marcus is a friend of Jonah’s, his grandpa has a motorcycle shop across the street from Element)  I LOVED that.  He didn’t need anything.  He wasn’t whining or complaining about something.  He wasn’t hurt.  Sick.  Upset.  Sad.  NOTHING!  He just wanted to see me.  To say “hi”.  To be around me.  Made me wonder.  How often do I just sit and go to my heavenly Father, just because He’s my dad.  When I don’t need anything.  Just to be near Him.  Talk.  Not whining or complaining.  Not hurt.  Sick.  Upset.  Sad.  Just because?  When was the last time you went to God, just because?

Thinking out loud,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, discipleship, family, kids, personal

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