Wendy's B-Day Party

Back in early November, Wendy turned the big 30. I know it is hard to believe, we all remember when she was just a little girl running around in diapers. Now she is all grown up, and we are all so proud of the woman she has become at age 30. Did I mention... Oh hold on....

I just had to take a break from writing because Wendy tried to cut her finger off with a kitchen knife (it wasn't a horrible cut, but a bad one) and I had to use my Nursing Assistant skills. I assessed the situation, made sure the scene was safe, identified the victim, and treated the wound to the best of my abilities. Fortunately, Wendy did not need further medical help. 

So anyway as I was saying... Wendy's 30th birthday celebration. I tried to throw a surprise party for her, however details aren't my strong suit (getting 15 people to come to the same place at the same time is harder than it sounds) so I had to pull of a different type of surprise. 

 SOME OF THE GANG GETTING READY FOR TACOS AND BURRITOS AT OUR PLACE.

 So the plan B I had to avert to was telling Wendy " Well I wanted to throw a surprise party for you but you would have found out anyway, so I hope you have a good time anyway." But what I didn't tell her was that eating at our house was only Part 1 of the nightly festivities. She had no idea what was in store for our night. She was expecting a nice relaxing night of hanging out at our house playing a game or two and talking with friends. She did not know it, but she was in for quite a different night...

 JUST WANT TO POINT OUT THAT THERE ARE REALLY COOL PEOPLE IN OUR LIVING ROOM TOO. KEVIN, JASON,TRISHA,STEPHANIE,TROY, AND MYSELF.

The pictures below are of Sky High Trampoline World in Tigard, Oregon. Wendy and I had been wanting to go there for some time. It is basically a warehouse full of trampolines!!! How can you beat this? About a football field sized area completely filled with trampolines, and really bouncy ones too!!! By 15 minutes into our hour of jumping most of our group was already tired. You can't go out too fast and bounce like a maniac for a whole hour, it's just not humanly possible. 

 OUR FACELESS FRIENDS... TROY AND TRISHA WELSTAD

If you want to go there you can find their website online, and I believe other places like it exist around America. It was most definitely a birthday party for the ages. We all left tired, we all left sweaty, but most importantly we all left with smiles on our faces.  

   

Turkey Time!

Just in time for Thanksgiving!! Brian and I wanted to post these pictures before the turkey day since we'll be consuming one of these lovely birds for our dinner. Thanks to Brian and Nathaniel Ewing my mom's two turkeys were butchered and placed in the freezer. 

First up: Brian's killing. 

This is one of the best post-butcher pictures ever!!

Next, Nathaniel gets his turn at a bird! He did a great job, I was glad I didn't have to do any of the killing. 

Anyway, all in fun. Most of us will be eating turkey's on Thanksgiving; lets not forget to be thankful for these wonderful (slightly dumb) animals that God has created.  Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! I am truly thankful for the life God has given me, family, friends, health, job, home... and I am thankful for the challenges and bumps along that way, because they challenge me to love Him more and to live a life more focused on the Lord. 

Ephesians 6:10 "Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Trip to the State Fair

This is a little out of date, however it will still be a good newsworthy post anyway. Last month Wendy, her mother and I all went to the Oregon State Fair. I absolutely love fairs because of all the fun things to do. Having not really grown up with them in Alaska, I find myself getting super excited for the great Oregon State Fair. 

 WE CAME UPON A POLICE DOG DEMONSTRATION. THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE IS WEARING A PADDED SUIT AND ABOUT READY TO TAKE OFF RUNNING FOR THE TRUCK.

GUESS HOW MANY STEPS HE WILL GET BEFORE THE DOG GETS HIM... P.S. NOTE THE TRUCK IN THE BACKGROUND.

 YEAH ABOUT 4 STEPS.

I don't have a picture but Wendy won us some tickets to a Kaizer Volcanoes baseball game by being the fastest throwing girl. She threw into a pitching radar: 64 mph. Oh yeah my wife can throw!!!!

 THIS WAS POSSIBLY THE COOLEST THING WE SAW... HORSES PLAYING A GAME OF SOCCER. I KNOW IT SOUNDS CRAZY BUT IT WAS REALLY HAPPENING.

 THEY GOT MOVING REALLY FAST.

 ALSO A CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTMENT. THEY WERE FIRING  THEIR RATHER LOUD MUSKETS.

THIS WAS IN THE ARTS AND CRAFTS ROOM. YOU MIGHT HAVE A HARD TIME GUESSING WHAT THIS IS... WELL I WILL JUST TELL YOU. IT IS A CAKE.

Fall Fun

Fall time is a fun season. I (Wendy) have had the tradition of carving pumpkins with my family for as long as I can remember. Last Friday, we all got together, and carved all the pumpkins my mom and my nephew had grown in the garden. Sadly there were no Atlantic Giants this year, so the pumpkins were all moderate to small size. But it was a lot of fun!  

JEREMIAH AND KEIRA

THE NIGHT PICTURE OF OUR PUMPKINS ALL FIRED UP!

DAY TIME PICTURE!

And last but not least: Trisha Welstad and I decided to cook a pumpkin. And with that pumpkin puree make all sorts of foods! We made some delicious Pumpkin Curry Soup, Pumpkin Cookies and Pumpkin Pie. We also had a ton of pumpkin puree left over to freeze for our next crazy pumpkin day! A fun day cooking!! I need to get out and take some nice fall colors pictures! I love the color of the trees right now. I feel for my huby who is color blind...what must he see?? Can anyone really explain what the eyes of a color-blind person can actually see?? 

Well folks, I know we aren't winning any awards for most up to date bloggers as of late. I gotta tell you guys it was much easier to blog out in Russia than back here in America. Today's post is about our other camping trip with our nephews up to a lake. We had a ton of fun. Of course they tried to kill fish (without succeeding) and we hiked around our campsite for a little while. 

 OUR BUDDY NOAH SHOWING US HOW TOUGH HE WAS TO JUMP INTO THE FREEZING COLD WATER.

 THE MEN OF THE TRIP WITH ALL OF OUR MANLY GEAR HIKING UP A MANLY TRAIL

 WE HAD SO MUCH FUN WATCHING THIS FROG SWIM. THEY MOVE THEIR LEGS SO GRACEFULLY YET SO FUNNY ALSO.

OKAY... I KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE AND WELL... OKAY WE WERE MAKING THE LAKE A LITTLE WARMER. IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. IT WAS A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO ATTRACT FISH.

Unfourtunatey we had to bail early because the wild fires were totally out of control. The air was really smokey and you couldn't see the sky really well. We climbed up on the top of one hill to look, and it seemed as though the fire was coming our way. So we did the wise thing and took off and found a local camp site to stay in the next night and cooked mac and cheese. Monty (golden retreiver) stole the hot dogs right off my stick. I just turned around and they were gone. We had a great time with the boys.

Camping Mt. Jefferson

Well finally another post from the almost unheard of Felix's. We are so sorry that we have dropped the ball on posting on our blog. We have made a vow to do better. 

Well we went camping with a really good friend from church named Anna. We had a really great time for the little one night trip we took. We went to Mt. Jefferson in central-ish Oregon. Some fires had begun right before our trip so it was just a little hazy, not enough to ruin the awesome views. We ate something that called Gato-Gato, it was Anna's recipe of noodles, curry and peanut butter and soy sauce. It was so tasty, I just kept eating until I was quite full.

 WENDY AND I WITH MT. JEFFERSON IN THE BACKROUND. AAHHH SO PEACEFUL.

 ONE OF THOSE SELF PORTRAIT PICTURES THAT ACTUALLY TURNED OUT OKAY.

The sky at night was so awesome and we stared up waiting to see shooting stars and satellites. It always blows my mind that we can launch big pieces of metal and they orbit around the world. Does anyone (besides astro-physicists) really understand how they do that?

THE VIEW FROM OUR CAMPSITE. WE WERE JUST RIGHT ON THIS SURPRISINGLY WARM LAKE.

Going camping with friends is really awesome because being out in nature just has this feel about it like you are just close with your campmates. And you are all enjoying God's natural awesome creation together.

                                           
Myself and our dear friend Anna Moreshead heading back up the mountain. She had trekking poles which Wendy and I kinda liked. 

What's New?

Sorry everyone for letting our blog slip a little bit. We have been busy (not like that is really an excuse) Sometimes blogging gets put on the back burner. We wanted to do a quick blog part 3 of Kauai and then we will start doing some fun blogs about life back in Oregon. 

 THE SUN MUST HAVE BEEN IN WENDY'S EYES FOR THIS PICTURE???

 PAULS WEDDING DAY BREAKFAST: FRUIT SALAD, SAUSAGE, AND FRENCH TOAST.

 ALL THE GROOMSMAN LINING UP FOR A SWEET ISLAND PICTURE BEFORE THE WEDDING.

 PAUL AND HIS NOW WIFE HANNAH. WE DON'T REALLY KNOW HER BUT IF PAUL LIKES HER, THEN WE LIKE HER.

WE CAUGHT THIS GECKO IN OUR CONDO RENTAL AND HE WAS CUTE AND NICE. HE HUGGED LIKE HE LOVED US!!!

The Beaches of Kauai

Four days after Brian returned from Russia, he and I flew even further west (not helping jet lag at all) to Kauai, Hawaii. What an awesome island. I've been here once before with some great girls from Alaska, and was very excited to get some warmth and sunshine!!
We did come here for a reason, Brian's great friend, Paul is getting married on Saturday. Good excuse to come to Hawaii I think!
The beaches have been superb and the water is so warm and lovely. We went snorkeling and saw some amazing fish and even watched a turtle for a long time under water. Those pictures are all film pictures on my awesome underwater camera and guys bought me.

DAN, BRIAN AND ADAM

I THINK THIS IS WHEN BRIAN WAS ACTUALLY CHILLED A LITTLE SO DAN STARTED BURYING HIM IN THE SAND FOR WARMTH.

THE WATER IS SUCH A NICE COLOR!

Being with these guys all day for 3 or 4 days in a row is definitely fun for me. I laugh AT and WITH them more than I laugh in a normal day when I'm by myself. Here was a moment on the beach when four of them grabbed hands and all ran as fast as the could into the water. Maybe trying to walk on water? or maybe just enjoying the silliness of the moment.

Our day two of attempting to snorkel didn't go as well, we went to a "not so good" beach and didn't see much of anything. But as always, they made it into a treasure hunt and searched for random objects that people had lost. They found a whole lot of snorkel gear people had dropped, a few random small toys, and best of all some money!

NOT A BEACH SHOT, BUT THESE GREAT TENTS ARE WHAT WE SPENT OUR FIRST THREE NIGHTS IN, NOW WE HAVE MOVED INTO OUR RENTAL FOR THE NEXT THREE. 

BACK IN PORTLAND!!!

I (Brian) have made the 27 hour plane ride back to my smoking hot wife. She fought through rush hour traffic and greeted me at the airport with a big huge smile. We hung out with each other for the next 36 hours until she had to go back to work.

MY WENDY IS THE PUZZLE MASTER. I HAD SOME FRIENDS DO THIS PUZZLE FOR ME THEN I WROTE A LETTER TO HER ON THE BACK AND DESTROYED IT SO SHE HAD TO PUT IT BACK TOGETHER TO READ THE NOTE. SHE FINISHED IT WITH 1 WEEK TO SPARE!!! ICE CREAM PROVED TO BE QUITE A TRICKY PUZZLE PICTURE.


We are now sitting in the airport getting ready to head out to Kauai for my friend Paul's wedding. We will be there for one week soaking up the sun. It will be quite the contrast from the far north Russian city of Arkangelsk to the hot sand beaches of Kauai.

Yesterday I got an opportunity to go to a recording studio in Portland to watch my friend Troy Welstad produce a record for a new artist named Nathan French. I have only seen the recording process on youtube and it was so cool to get to go and see what it is really like in a studio. I was in the control room, behind the glass was a drum room, guitar room, and grand piano room. The record sounds like it will be really good (because Troy is producing it, and he is a perfectionist)

 TROY AND MICK DEBATING " NO I THINK WE SHOULD DO THIS, NO THIS, NO THIS WOULD BE BETTER." BEHIND TROY AND THE GLASS IS JEREMY ON DRUMS.

THIS IS DEAN THE SOUND ENGINEER SITTING IN THE CAPTAIN'S SEAT AS THEY CALL IT. HE IS REALLY GOOD AT WHAT HE DOES. SOMEONE WOULD SAY "CAN I GET A LITTLE MORE BASS IN MY HEADPHONES? AND HE WOULD PICK ONE LITTLE KNOB OUT OF THE 800 ON THE SOUND  BOARD. QUITE IMPRESSIVE.

Arkangelsk Part 2

It is now my second day back in Moscow and I am packing up to go see my cute wife!!! I get to fly backwards in time so even though the time traveling will be like 23 hours, it will actually on time wise be like 8 hours. I think the jet lag will be easier coming home (even though it wasn't very hard coming to Russia) I am super excited. But I did promise part 2 of my adventures in Arkangelsk, so here are some more fun photos...

 THE LONGEST BRIDGE IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY OF RUSSIA IS LOCATED IN ARKANGELSK.

 THIS IS THE SIGN THAT WELCOMES YOU INTO THE CITY.

 THESE ARE TWO OF MY FRIENDS ALYONA AND LERA, WE ARE STROLLING IN DOWNTOWN ARKANGELSK

 THIS IS ONE OF THE ROUND A BOUTS IN ARKANGELSK. THIS PICTURE IS FROM THE 8TH FLOOR OF AN APARTMENT I STAYED AT FOR JUST ONE DAY.

Arkangelsk Part 1

I'm back (brian) from the distant land of Аркангельск (Arkangelesk) Russia. I just got done with a 23 hour train ride and got home and decided to blog so you could all see how amazing this city was. It was by far my favorite place in Russia, no questions asked. The people were so amazing and the place was such a warm place (not literally because it's so far north is was actually cold weather) but it was a warm place because every person, and I mean every person was so nice to me. I got to help redo some stairs at a church and hang out with some amazing people and see the sites of one of the farthest North cities in Russia. I have a lot of pictures so I wanted to blog in pieces so here is part 1. Hope you enjoy some of them.

 THIS IS ME WITH A SEAL STATUE, WHY A SEAL STATUE YOU ASK? RUSSIA HAS SEEN MANY WARS WHICH HAVE CUT OFF FOOD SUPPLY FOR MONTHS AND YEARS AT A TIME. SEAL MEAT AND FAT HAS KEPT MANY PEOPLE ALIVE FOR GENERATIONS, AND FOR THAT THEY FELT IT NECESSARY TO HONOR THIS COOL CREATURE.

The next pictures are of Malye Karelia, This is a place about 20 minutes outside of Arkangelsk. It is an all wooden village that people can go to in order to experience what life was like 100 years ago in Northern Russia. It took a better part of a day to walk around the whole place, and even then I'm pretty sure we missed some buildings. I think I am going to try to convince Wendy to move into an old wooden house with me and live like Russians 100 years ago. Eating seal fat, and baking berry pies, drinking fermented bread with water and sugar. It could work...

 THIS IS MASHA'S MOM (EKATERINA) AND MYSELF AT MALYE KARELIA HANGING OUT WITH A TRADITIONAL BABOOSHKA. SHE WAS SHOWING US ALL OF THE DOLLS SHE MAKES AND EXPLAINING HER LOVE OF TRADITIONAL DOLL MAKING.

 MASHA, LERYA, AND I TAKING A PICTURE AT MALYE KARELYA ON WHAT COULD BE THE LARGEST HILL IN ARKANGELSK.

 THIS IS THE CHAPEL WHERE WEDDING PARTIES COME TO TAKE PICTURES. ONE WORKER TOLD US THE RECORD FOR A DAY WAS 38 WEDDING CEREMONIES ON A SATURDAY TOOK PLACE AT THIS CHAPEL. WE SAW MANY BRIDES DOING PHOTO SHOOTS.

 THIS IS A OLD RUSSIAN Качеле (kachelye) or CAROUSEL, THE LITTLE KIDS JUST DIDN'T HAVE THE STRENGTH TO GET THIS THING GOING, SO I STEPPED IN TO HELP.

THIS IS ANDREI, HIS WIFE NASTYA, AND I WALKING IN DOWNTOWN ARKANGELSK. ANDREI IS THE PASTOR OF THE CHURCH IN ARKANGELSK THAT I GOT TO HELP REMODEL. THEY WERE SOME OF THE NICEST PEOPLE I HAVE EVER MET.