Holiday Traveling

We spent Christmas down south in crazy HOT SoCal...so much for a white Christmas :) But we had a great time kickin' it with the Keating family, seeing our long lost Maui friends Dan and Cloe, and catching some much needed surf. It had almost been 2 months of no surfing action...that's crazy-ness! So we got a few barrels, had some laughs, and enjoyed the holidays as only sunny California could bring it. As soon as we returned to the fridged Northwest, we headed straight up to the mountain to make sure we hadn't lost our snowboarding skills...we won by the way.

UP NEXT: snowshoeing! SWEET!

Please visit us at:
Gary's Design Portfolio 
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Visit us online! *NEW SITE*

Okay folks, we are officially up and running! What once was our wedding website has transformed into a site dedicated to our new life together. So if you'd like to keep tabs on "The Christenson's" (since we are apparently hard to keep track of :) you can now visit our new site often! We've also arrange a huge online photo album for your viewing convenience that we will keep updated. ENJOY!

"Let It Snow" & "TIMBER"

"LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW"

It hasn't stopped snowing in Central Oregon for almost a week now! Yesterday we finally got some substantial snow here in town, but up onto Mt. Bachelor ...it's ridiculous! Courtney and I have season passes and so far we've been snowboarding at least three times a week! It took about two solid days to get the hang of snowboarding, and I think we've got it. We did a black diamond yesterday and didn't die...so there you have it.

"TIMBER!"

After snowboarding yesterday, we went and chopped down our Christmas Tree (click here for pictures). It was so much fun! We got a tree permit, 4x4ed through the National Forest, hiked through 2 feet of fresh snow and finally found our perfect little tree! I took to it for several minutes with my new hatchet, and it came "TIMBERING" down! It was hard work but we're proud of our tree and our adventure to get it. Sure, buying a tree from a lot in town is probably cheaper, easier, and a better use of your time...but this way we have a great story and an awesome memory together with our first Christmas tree!

We're Officially Oregonians!

Well...the wedding is done, the honeymoon was amazing, and the move was a success! After sweating bullets at the DMV (stupid test - I BARELY passed - they had a question about horses...crazy Oregon folk :) we have officially become Oregonians! We have a Drivers License, sweet pad, killer ride, jobs, and eachother...what else could you need in life? Courtney is officially and legally a "CHRISTENSON" and I couldn't be happier! Tomorrow marks the opening of Mt Bachelor! Mt B. sits just outside Bend and is one of the Northwest premiere ski resorts. We have season passes and can't wait to snowboard like crazy for the next 5 months. That's pretty much our life. We've revolved our work schedules around having fun together in central Oregon during the day light hours. We've made money almost our least priority (enough to make life exist and happen) and made our marriage our top priority! We want to just have fun together this next year and have crazy adventures every day of the week...why settle for anything else but daily crazy adventures...life's too short!

Upon leaving Maui, we traveled to so many places and serioulsy lived out of suitcases for almost 3 months! And now it feels so good to be in our own place and start our life together. We don't know a single soul here and that's very appealing right now. This is the first time that Court and I have been able to simply be us...and it's so refreshing!

It's chilly outside, there's snow on the mountians, and we're ganna go play in it! Until next time...

Wedding SLIDESHOW!!!

Our Wedding Slideshow (click the link to PLAY!)
We had David Hessemer fly in from Maui to capture our wedding. I'm partnering up with him to design a harb-bound photo book of our wedding to enter into some photo/design contests. It's ganna be sweet! For more info on our wedding, please visit Our Wedding Website ! Well post pictures all over that site soon...we just have to move first...then we'll have some time to take a look at our pics and post the extremely good looking ones.

Pre-wedding vs. Post-wedding

Well, we officially left Maui in one piece and had an amazing vacation in Oregon. We spent several days in Portland with best bro Brendon Wiksell, and spent the following weeks in southern Oregon. In less than three weeks we pretty much saw ALL of Oregon. It was a wirlwind but it was oh so beautiful! We spent time in the cities, the coast, the mountains, the crazy wilderness (endless forests and lakes/streams/waterfalls), and even went underground in the Lava Beds National Park. Basically, Oregon is diverse and outstanding among other states. We didn't get to the sand dunes (which are so rad), but we'll ge there soon enough.

So, Right now we are in SoCal in the final stages of making this wedding happen. With less than one month from the big day, things are surprisingly calm. Everything really seems to be in order and we are trying to just enjoy life. Check out the latest details on our Big Day.

It's official folks, we have figured out what life after the wedding and honeymoon will look like! We're moving to Bend, Oregon! We had a chance to spend some time there on our vacation and it just felt right. The Lord had been revealing this option to us in so many ways, and it's about time we recognized His leading. We never imagined it would be Bend, we thought if anything it would be Portland or somewhere in SoCal, but Bend it is. We will be 15 minutes from Bachelor (an amazingly huge Ski Resort). So we're looking foward to becoming professional snowboarders. It's funny how we spent all of last year becoming professional surfers and now we'll be living in the snow. What an adventure and great twist on the story, eh? So we'll be living the dream in the outdoors come November. Everything in Bend is extremely outdoors driven and the city is so beautiful! Come visit us!

Wish us luck on the wedding!

Surpise? Surpise!

Look at those mad coffee handling skills!
I just returned from a surprise visit to California. Courtney had been gone from Maui for the last month on a mission’s trip and was going to take a week off after the trip to spend it recouping with her family in Escondido. So I flew out to be with her and meet everyone in "Courtney's World". My folks even flew out to spend time with Court and her family. It was an intense week of wedding planning and people meeting. Through the help of the many people that love and support us, we were able to seriously conquer a lot on our list-o-things-to-do for the wedding! We also had another engagement party for the California kids, and we spent the 4th of July at the Keating Beach House in Dana Point. I can't tell you how stoked I am about the family I am marrying into...they're super rad...but not as amazing as Courtney! I can't believe I get to be her husband!...90 days and counting!

PLANNING A WEDDING!

In case you haven't heard, I'm getting married to my amazing fiance Courtney Keating!!! For all the background and information please visit our NEW Wedding Website !

Gary Goes To China

I recently traveled to the distant land of China to visited my folks with my college buddy Jenny Earnst. What an amazing trip! We went all over the nation by plains, trains, boats, bicycles, taxi's, subways, and buses!!! We first went northeast and stayed in Beijing and then went to southern China where it was very plush with tons of water and the craziest hills/columns you've have ever seen. I've never seen anything like it! From there we went to central and western China high up in the mountains. We stayed at 10,000ft and road horses up into the crazy huge mountain ranges that surrounded the high altitude valley. We then headed back to Beijing and climbed all over that Great Wall and explored the Emperors Palace and Gardens. We finally ended up in Baoding - where my folks teach. We had two concerts there and taught some classes for the University students.
WANNA SEE PICTURES? CLICK HERE

Some highlight for me:
- Seeing my folks in their element
- A Chinese girl threw up on me at the Great Wall
- We spelunked in this cave that went back a mile and half...and towards the middle there was this amazing mud pit! You'll have to see the pictures!!!
- I ate incrediblly crazy things that I'll never eat again or talk about
- Riding bikes and almost dieing every minute of it
- Being on the river boating to the port towns
- CHING TOW everybody!!!