Chasing The Wild Goose

Its winter time

Yesterday, I took Anna snowboarding in Breckenridge.  We had a great time.  Chris went with us to help Anna learn the basics and she is doing really good.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I don't have any pics from the slopes.

Today I found a snowboard small enough for Elijah.  I'm pretty stoked because I had thought that he would have to ski since he is so small.  I'd tried to find a board small enough for him and had struck out.  Thankfully,.Burton now makes a size 90 board and its the perfect size for him.  I can't wait to hit the slopes with Anna and Elijah. 

Elijah couldn't wait so he decided to try snowboarding in our basement.  Here he is.

The World Turned White

We woke up this morning to discover the world had turned white.  We took this picture of the kids for this years christmas cards.

Smores and More

Last week Amy and I took the kids on an evening expedition.  We loaded everyone up in the 4Runner and took a 4-wheel-drive trail to a place we call balancing rock.  There we built a camp fire and roasted hot dogs and made smores.  It was so much fun to get out into the wild with the kids.  They had a great time.  This is what living in Colorado is all about.

While we're talking about the wild in Colorado, I should mention we had a black bear in our driveway the other day.  My friend Jeff and I were unloading groceries from the van, when I looked through the kitchen window and saw a bear walking down the driveway towards Jeff. 

The last couple of months have been really busy.  We were in Texas for 10 days for my friend Levi's wedding. I had the privelege of being the best man.  I was on my best behavior and everything went really well. 

While we were in Texas I took 3 days and did a whitewater rescue instructor certification through the Olympic Outdoor Center.  That was lots of fun and I feel much more confident that I would know how to handle an emergency on the water.

We also have some exciting news, we are expecting our fourth child in January. 

New Whitewater Course in San Marcos, Texas

So, I move from Texas to Colorado to get closer to kayaking and they build a whitewater course in my old backyard.  I had the privilege this morning of being present with Ben and Michelle Kvanli (of the Power Olympic Outdoor Center) as they turned on the water at the new whitewater course in San Marcos, TX. The course is built at the site of the old Rio Vista Dam on the San Marcos River. This makes San Marcos, Texas the undisputed center of Texas whitewater.  I'm looking forward to my next trip to Texas in June when it will be open for boating.

Here are the city officials watching the first water come down the wave at drop #1.

Visit www.kayakinstruction.org to see more pictures and sign up for a whitewater kayaking class on the new course.

Help My Friend Ben Kvanli represent the USA at the World Cup

One of my best friends, Ben Kvanli, 2005 National Team member and 2005 National Champion in Men's Double Canoe (C-2), has just clinched his spot on the 2006 United States National Whitewater Slalom Team.  Ben, along with his partner Shuan Smith, will represent the USA by traveling to Germany, Greece and Spain in an effort to secure a chance to compete in this year's World Championships!

The first race is May 27 in Athens, Greece at the Olympic course.  The National Team does not pay for any of the expenses, so if the racers want to compete they have to pay their own way.  There isn't much time, and we need to raise a couple of thousand dollars to get Ben and Shaun over there.  We have set up an account through PayPal for donation.  If you can spare a little of your extra spending cash, it would be great appreciated.

With a donation of $100 or more you will receive a free 11x14 print of your choice from world renowned photographer Patrick Cavan Brown's website shadowdetails.com.

Click here for more info and to donate!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!  Today we got all dressed up and went to the local Baptist Church for their Easter Sunday service.  Here we are after church on our kitchen deck, looking all spiffy.

It's been a while since I've posted.  We've been busy putting our life into boxes, moving the boxes and unpacking our life.  We're about 70% unpacked (Amy would laugh that I'm measuring it by %'s).  So we've moved from the house with the view of the mountains to the house in the mountains.  Its a very happy thing.  We really enjoyed being out in Calhan, but we were a long way from everything.  Now we are in the mountains, but only five minutes from Woodland Park (lots of restaurants, grocery stores and even a little movie theater) and we're only about 15 minutes from downtown Colorado Springs.  They are actually building a Super Wal-Mart that will be only 3 minutes from our house. 

We managed to move everything in one moving truck, which was pretty amazing.  We had lots of help from our friends including Joel and Margee Ramsey, Nate Johnson, Jeff, Lori, Madison and Eliana Falkenstien, Steve and Karen Christakis, and Art Daniels.  Lots of others helped with the packing and unpacking as well.

A few days after we moved in, I was home with Elijah and we had a brief rain shower.  When the sun started to break through the clouds I looked out of the kitchen window and saw this amazing rainbow (the picture really doesn't do it justice). 

For those of you who are interested we've taken a few pictures around the house.  Click here to view the entire album.

I was entertained by this

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Snowboarding with Anna

Today I had the privilege of taking our oldest daughter, Anna, to learn to snowboard.  We had tons of fun and Anna picked it up really quickly.   Here's a couple of pictures and a video clip.

Download The Video (9 meg)

I was killed EIGHT times this month

Its been a really busy month.  So busy that this is my first post.  The month began with the National House Church Conference in Denver.  It was an incredible weekend.  I was busy working with the House2House team to run the conference, and I'm really looking forward to listening to the CD's when they're ready, but the parts of the sessions I did catch were phenomenal.  We heard from Wolfgang Simson, Rolland Baker, Thom Black and my dad, Tony Dale.

After the conference Amy and I were able to spend a few days in Breckenridge, Colorado taking a much needed break.  We stayed at the condo of some friends of ours, Scott and Tina Wilson.  Scott and Tina have an awesome ministry called The Big Red Bus.  While in Breckenridge we attended the first day of the Breckenridge Film Festival and spent an afternoon watching indies. 

The second night we were there, Scott (who is the chief of chaplains for the Police Department) took me to a training exercise with the local S.W.A.T. team.  They gave us guns and we pretended to be bad guys and hid in an old hotel while they repeatedly broke in and tried to kill us before we killed our hostages.  It was an incredible adventure.  Probably the most exciting part was when they "Flash-Banged" us.  A flash-bang is like a grenade that makes a really loud noise and flashed an incredibly bright light.  It is completely disorienting.  One literally stumbles around for about 5 seconds, not really sure where you are.  By the time I came to my senses five S.W.A.T. team members had machine guns trained on my head.  Just so you know, if you ever take hostages and the S.W.A.T. is called out, just give up, no matter what they tell you, if they come in after you, you're not coming out alive (I think I died eight times).

Last weekend Amy and a bunch of her friends went to the Captivating Retreat.  Amy has a post about it here.  While she was gone, Brandon Thomason, Dave Maxfield and I watched our six kids.  This was lots of fun, especially since three of the kids and Brandon were puking for much of the weekend.  On Sunday, everyone had recovered so we took the kids for a hike around Garden of the Gods.  Here's a picture of me and the kids under "Balancing Rock".

When the girls returned on Sunday evening we had a birthday party for Anna, who turned six on the 22nd.  The whole family is enjoying her new trampoline.

Our friends David and Jamie, who had been living with us for three months, returned to Texas this week.  Before they left, we visited Goodwill and purchased camo together (I'm not sure why, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time).  Here we are proudly displaying our new duds.

Recap of an Epic Summer Adventure

We've just returned from an epic summer adventure in Colorado, Texas, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.  All told, we've been away from home about two months. 

I thought the best way for me to share the trip with you would be through a collage of pictures and stories . . . so here goes.

At the beginning of June we were in Durango, Colorado with our friends Ben and Michelle for the USA Whitewater Slalom Team Trials. Ben and his partner Scott Shipley won first place in the C2 class.

Here's Anna with Scott Shipley.

We then headed to Texas where we stayed with Amy's parents in Seguin.  The first weekend we were there I had my 10 year high school reunion.  Unfortunately, I left all the pictures on my sister-in-law's laptop, so I'll have to post them later.  While in Texas we purchased an all-wheel-drive Toyota Previa Minivan.  We've been looking for one for a while and are really pleased with it (ours is the blue one).

Ben Kvanli and I trained together in the C2 Canoe (Thanks to Melanie Barry for a lot of these pictures).

Click here to view a photo album of our training adventures.

A week after we arrived in Texas, Amy's sister Scarlet arrived back from Pakistan.  She's been teaching English over there and we are really proud of her.  She will be going back long-term in February. 

Later in our trip we went to Wisconsin for a week of vacation and kayak racing. 

Here's Anna with San Marcos as we're getting ready to leave.

On the way to WI we stopped in St. Louis and visited the zoo.  We also visited the fountains in the park in front of the Museum of Art (in our canoe).  Thankfully we weren't chased off by the park police.  We did use some paddle boats as gates for our training.  I'm not sure if tourists in the boats were entertained or annoyed.

After paddling we had dinner at The Boathouse, a nice little cafe overlooking the pond and fountains.  Here's Amy and Scarlet enjoying a St Louis evening at the park.

The next morning we arrived is Wausau, WI.  We had booked a room at the Lodge at Cedar Creek.  Its an amazing place with a water park inside the hotel.  The kids (and us adults) had lots of fun.

We met up with Richard and Barbie Janowicz, some friends of ours that we hadn't seen in over seven years.  Here's Richard and his daughter (she was one year old when we saw her last).

In the lobby of the lodge there was lots of wildlife.  Here's Amy and Anna with a deer.

The races in Wausau were lots of fun.  Our friend Michelle won the K1W class.  Elijah decided to join her on the podium at the medal ceremony. (Please note, my failure to mention how Ben and I did in the races is completely deliberate.)

After we got back from Wausau, we spent another week in Texas with Amy's parents.  We then went to Oklahoma for a wedding that didn't happen.  We decided to spend a week in Oklahoma so Amy and the kids could spend some time with her Grandparents.  I went to Tulsa to train some new salespeople and while I was there I bumped into a few old friends.

Here I am with Jonathan Palmer.

I also spent a fun evening with John O'Neill.  John is in seminary studying to become a Catholic priest.  Here he is with the youth at St. Bernard's were he has been spending this summer.

After a week in Oklahoma we finally covered the last 10 hour leg of our journey and returned home.  When we arrived it was great to see David and Jamie who are living with us at the moment and had been looking after our house.  Here's a picture of David that Anna took last night.

To celebrate our return, Dave and I purchased a Quantum Kite made by Prism Kites. 

To quote Leonardo da Vinci, "When, once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."  Let's just say its very windy here and that means lots of fun. 

So, there you have it, a recap of the last 8 weeks of our lives. 

Next week I'm headed to the Wild at Heart Boot Camp and over Labor Day weekend we'll be at the National House Church Conference.  I hope to see you there.