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!!!