Whaaaaale!

David Hessemer took Court & I out on his boat this morning to get up close and personal with a bunch of whales! Whale season is in its prime right now. It's estimated that there are 2,000+ whales that come to the inter island channel of Maui. The calm water in between all the small islands surrounding Maui make for a perfect place to give birth to their little babies (which are the size of a VW van when born)! So the Humpback Whales travel from Alaska and gather down here in Hawaii from Dec to May-ish. It's quite amazing! They are an interesting animal, and there still is a lot of "unknowns" about the Whales life. What an experience to be so close to such a huge and remarkable creature! Feb is by far the BEST TIME TO VISIT the islands: 1) good surf 2) whales everywhere 3) it's not too hot 4) cheap airfare 5) great friends are all here!!! LOVE IT!

Meet Haleakala

Early this morning we took the long road to the top of the 10,023 ft volcano called Haleakala to watch the sunrise over the Hawaiian island chain. It was freaking early and freezing cold, but extremely beautiful! Shortly after the sunrise we had breakfast at Kula Lodge. This is the ritual we use to perform when we lived on Maui - back in the day... good time great oldies!

Maui Wedding

I had the privilege & honor to be the second camera for a wedding shoot in Maui this afternoon with renowned photography company Hawaiian Images owned and operated by David Hessemer (my mentor who lives and works on Maui). It was absolutely gorgeous outside and a great personal learning experience! Courtney was able to snap some photos of me in action for all you lovely people to see what a photo-shoot looks like from the other end of the camera!

Maui Take 2

We spent this morning enjoying the remains of a little North swell and can't wait for the nice sized South swell that arrives tomorrow! ...thanks New Zealand! In the above photos you can witness the infamous "Gary barrel stance", and "Courtney's stink-butt stance"...what can I say, our style is distinct :) we're always ready and looking for that barrel...even if it's a mooshy day. After the surf died we went to Paia Fish Market for some Mahi Burgers...a-freaking-mazing! The memories are just flooding back! We still have whale watching, scuba diving, and more surfing to look forward to! The sun is out, it's 75 degrees and we're ganna go get back in the water! Life is good my friends!

Maui Take 1

Well, We're back on the island and life is slow, calm, and relaxing. We're staying with our friends  (The Woodards...who are amazing...their little daughter is unbelievably cute) we're staying in their new home and spending a lot of time just catching up with all the folks that live here. So far the trip has been everything we've needed it to be: Great friends, meaningful conversations, some fun head-high surf, and time to process our life and what God is doing in it. We're stoked to be here!  

Travis + Linda

Before we leave for Hawaii, I wanted to post pics that Courtney and I took a few days back of Travis and Linda! They were massive amounts of FUN!...and Freakin' b-e-a-utiful! We will be shooting their wedding in SoCal on June 22nd in gorgeous La Jolla!

Maui Bound

We'll, we're making a LAST MINUTE trip to the homeland...the islands! The place of origin for the "Gary & Courtney Story". We looked at plane tickets today (on a whim), and are leaving in 2 days...leave it to us to pull off something like this! We really need to connect with some folks there and just bless them with encouragement! Wish us luck! If you're on the island still...we WANNA SEE YOU! Aloha and Mele Kelekimaka...yah, you know what I mean! Catch you in a few!

WORLD WIDE

Courtney and I have been dreaming, praying, and studying about an upcoming trip we'd like to take at the end of this year. We have a heart for hurting people and want to use our jobs / talents / time / and gifts to make a difference. We feel like we're supposta live abroad in a missional setting but don't know exactly where to go, so here's the idea:

We'd purchase two "around the world" plane tickets and take 6 months or so to visit every agency, relief organization, and missionary we know of around the globe. We'd do this to A) Get a first hand look at the their work and narrow down where we need to go, and B) Really find out what it takes to live a life of sacrifice in a foreign land. We'd go to be "learners" and "helpers" as we figure out the details on where we might end up someday. A great man I respect once said "Starting the process clarifies the calling"...so we're ganna be active in figuring out our calling in life. Tell us your thoughts...

Take the Good with the Bad

First off, I have to say that my wife is freaking amazing! If last years dogsledding wasn't enough, this year in celebration of my b-day, Courtney surprised me with a snowmobiling trip with our friends Randy & Kristin (and "Dakota Blue" who is in Kristin's belly). The day started off as being a complete disaster but ended perfectly! To start things off, we couldn't find where to go, we got our vehicle stuck in several different ways, I ripped my pants :( we couldn't get the sleds to start and then once we actually got going on the sleds we got TRAPPED 5 miles back in the woods (we've been getting an unreal amount of snow in Central Oregon and everything was just powder...which makes for hard snowmobiling). After the first several hours of mishaps, the day started looking up and we actually started having WAY TOO MUCH FUN rallying around the mountains! It was such an adventure! Thanks Court!

Web: Allstate Materials

Client: Allstate Materials. We just completed a kickin' Dynamic Flash website for a company in southern California. It's up and running! View it at: www.allstatematerials.com