Visit from Bisel

This past weekend my long lost buddy from the heartland stopped by Bend for a visit. It was SO GOOD reminiscing with Matt Bisel about the lives we lived in Kansas back in Highschool and most of college. We were best buddies...just living the bachelor dream! We wrote songs, recorded, and toured together all across the Midwest. We even took some killer trips to the Hawaiian Islands. And now we're both married and thousands of miles apart. Court & I took Bisel up to the mountains where Matt saw his first siting of a Bald Eagle (it flew right over us while we were swimming). We also found some sweet looking tadpoles and almost got run off the road by a bike race! It was GREAT to see Matt again! I wish he and his wifee would pack up their covered wagon and ride the Oregon Trail to...well...Oregon!

WHITE WATER RAFTING

We just got back from the most random expedition we have encountered here in Bend. After church, we got a call from The Fitches inviting us to quickly come over so that we could meet up with some other folks who had randomly picked up a few rafts from a white water rafting company. The sketchy-ness factor was rising as the expedition began to unfold. The whole trip was on a whim and the most random people started showing up to take part in the action (none of which were rafting guides and no real experience to speak of). The idea was to forge the mighty Deschutes River! AND WE ACTUALLY DID, it was exhilarating! We floated a few miles and hit 3 really great sections of rapids that successfully folded our boat in half and launched two guys out of our neighboring boat. It was sweet! Court was falling out at one section of rapids, but we snatched her back in the boat before the river completely took her. Who would have thought that 20 minutes from our front door we could be white water rafting...and this is why we love Bend! Yesterday we were swimming in the mountain lakes and exploring the Cascade Mountain Range, and today we were white water rafting...and we've only been back from SoCal for like 3 days! Who knows what the next adventure will be. The skies pretty much the limit here in Bend.

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SoLong SoCal

All in all, our time in Southern California was perfect! We had our fill with the beach and the surf, hit up some great weddings, and got to spend some quality time with the friends & family that we love so dearly! We decided that we should live near the beach again sometime in the future. The Ocean is our first love, closely followed by the mountains...we need to find a place that has warm oceans with great surf and high snowy mountains surrounding it. The drive back to Bend, Oregon was a long one (15+ hours) but it gave us time to think and time to listen to what the Lord will have us do in the next few months. We're moving full steam ahead and stoked to see what this season of life has for us. He is faithful and we are willing.

SoCal Summer Vay-K

Here we are once again in beautiful sunny SoCal. Last time we were here was during Christmas...and before that was our wedding!!! It's good to be here and it's good to be in the water once again. We were a bit rusty on our boards, but now we're confidently shredding up everything! Okay, so here's the story thus far in our trip:

I picked up Courtney in SanFran (after her missions trip) and we drove the rest of the way down to SoCal to spend some much needed time at the beach and with Courts side of the family. So far we've managed to hit the beach nearly every single day! (that makes us happy) We've also hit up the Wild Animal Park and a theater show at Lambs Players on Coronado Island. We've had awesome dinners and conversation with the fam, and we're looking forward to seeing all Court's relative on the 4th up in Dana Point for the annual Keating get-to-gether (so much fun). We're stoked to be here! We decided that we need to move to a beach town again in the future..we just love playing in that ocean and soaking up that sun! ...MORE TO COME...

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Elk Lake Expedition

Court's been gone in SanFran for the last the couple days on a missions trip, so I've been kicking it bachelor style! Lots of non-nutritious foods and late nights working around the house. For kicks, I went out with some friends to a nearby lake called "Elk Lake" up in the Cascade mountain range. It was a beautiful and triumphant day! We drank some "skinny dip" from New Belgium, sailed a dock, and paddled around in a rubber dingy...can life get more interesting? I think not! At the end of the day, I'm thankful that I'm married and only have to "bachelor" it for a few more days!

Fly-Fly Fishing Poles

One of my best buddies Anthony Parla and I went Fly Fishing this past week on the Upper Deshutes River during the legendary "salmon fly hatch". The salmon fly is a rather large bug that likes to crawl down your neck and ATTACK your jugular vein...well, not exactly...they aren't actually aggressive and I don't think they bite, but they're just plain HUGE and creepy! So we fished and floated the river all day with a few other fellas by way of a drift boat. The experience and educational aspect of the trip was outstanding, but we only caught three trout :( Regardless, we had a great time in the great outdoors! The scenery was breathtaking!

Gary's Photo Shoot in KS.

I just returned from a photoshoot in Kansas for Sterling College. It was tons of fun but pretty draining! Three straight days of shooting, and 2 full days of traveling. This was my first real big photo trip and I loved it! I hope to do more with my photography in the future...I really enjoy it! Hope you like the slideshow (you can CLICK HERE to view the photos in our album (if the slideshow doesn't load below)).

Memorial Day in the Ochoco Moutains

We spent the holiday over in the Ochoco Mountains. They are different than the Cascade's b/c they are really green and grassy. They aren't high altitude peaks like Bachelor and Three Sisters, but they are a really "healthy" mountains with huge Pondarosa Pines that have lots of room around them and green medows with wild flowers. We spent the day cookin' over the campfire, shooting some skeet, and riding an ATV. It was sooo much fun. We went up with our rad friends The Millers (Michelle and Conor) and the Wytsma Family. Good Times, Great Oldies, Kool 105.0FM

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CAMPING!!!

We've been doing some Camping up in the Cascade Lakes (endless lakes seated up in the mountains...extremely beautiful). This trip we went with our good friends the Fitch's. We did some fishing, exploring, and story telling around the campfire...you should ask Jon to tell you the Marshmallow Man story :) We're looking forward to lots of camping this summer!

Gary's HomeBrew

Well I officially brewed by own beer - a crisp summer wheat beer. It basically took a few hours of cookin' and four weeks of sittin'...it sat in the bottles a few weeks and now it's ready for drinkin'. It makes me feel pretty burly, like a real Oregonian...now where'd I put that flannel and extra beard?

Oh Maui

We're actually missing Maui right now :( It's weird that we didn't miss it during the winter months, but now that it's basically summer and beautiful here in Bend, we miss the island. It's crazy to think that we actually lived there...in Hawaii...what a dream come true. Now it's our life ambition to LIVE in the places that most people vacation...b/c why not? I just mainly wanna hit some surf right now...we'll be in SoCal in a few weeks and I'm ganna surf my brain out!

Painted Hills

We took a little trip to the Painted Hills of Central Oregon with our fellow Bend-ites "the Parla's" & "the Fitch's". It was a rainy day but the hills still looked unreal. Up close the hills look like kitty litter...weird clay type soil...beautiful, but weird.

The Parla's and Fitch's are our close friends that we've connected with here in Bend. We currently meet together as a small group, and we also share a lot of life's joys together. We're meeting together and praying for direction right now. We all share a heavy burden of wanting do something HUGE with our lives...something bigger than us, and out of the norm. We feel honored to share life with such extraordinary friends.

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"The Valley" Trip

We took a four day trip over to western Oregon to visit a bunch of our Maui-an friends. Our days were filled with killer art shows, skate parks, nose piercing, bottomless coffee, soccer, interstate driving, kickin' it downtown Portland, visiting George Fox University and Oregon's annual Tulip Festival.


This is Courtney getting her nose pierced in Portland. Notice the amazingly sympathetic husband standing by her side. (FYI, I think the nose ring is SUPER HOT)

Matthew Solomon Strubhar killing it at Aumsville Skatepark.

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6 Months of Marital Bliss

Well folks, it's been six months of marriage and we're still stoked! It totally seems like yesterday when we were on Maui playing in the ocean, and it seems like 30 minutes ago when we were kickin' it in SoCal prepping for the wedding. Looking back, it's crazy to see the adventure we have been on! And it's not letting up anytime soon. The next 6 months are packed full of adventurous plans. Stay tuned for some summer fun in the Cascade Mountains, Kansas, Missouri, SoCal, NorCal, Washington, the Oregon coast, and Canada! To see some wedding photos, go ahead and CLICK HERE

Smith Rock, Oregon

As we've been exploring the outskirts of Bend, we are finding out how crazy diverse this area really is. You go 20 minutes West and you're high in the mountains with green meadows, snow capped mountains, and endless lakes. If you go South you're deep into miles and miles of endless pine trees seated on rolling hills and buttes. If you go 20 minutes East, you run into high desert and crazy rock formations such as Smith Rock. What a place! There are more than a thousand bolted routes for climbers. It's a rock climbers paradise and one of the best in the nation. We spent the afternoon hiking through the canyon and watching climbers do their thing...crazy climbers...at least they were winning.

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Birthday Bike Ride

Courtney's birthDAY was far from the perfect day. She had to work while I got five cavities filled (leaving the WHOLE left side of my face numb for 10 straight hours! ...yah... stupid) and then I had to lead worship practice that night while Court attended a marketing meeting. So with the 29th pretty much shot, we celebrated the following day when far less was going on.
I took Court down to Sunriver, a resort TOWN - picture a big resort and make that into a whole city centered around vacation homes and shooting the breeze. I don't even think ANYONE actually LIVES in the town! It follows the Deshutes River and is nestled next to the mountains, it was beautiful! It has endless golf courses, condos, hot tubs, big wood lodges, private lear jet runways, large homes, and endless intertwining bike baths. So we snagged some cruisers, packed a picnic and rode down to the river for lunch. It was a great little get-a-way. Court only crashed twice and got her pants caught in the bike chain once :)...funny story!

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Spring has Sprung

Spring is in the air here in Bend! Long gone are the days of fresh powder on the mountain and clean crisp-y days. So with the change in season comes a new desire to begin exploring the land we live in. After obtaining a map, gather supplies and putting our hiking nickers on, we are ready to hit the gravel. We found waterfalls, trees, large mountains, endless roads, campsites galor, lakes, trees, wildlife, and MORE trees. This land is HUGE and extremely beautiful. We're ganna have a fun Spring and Summer exploring the ENDLESS possibilities that are in our backyard for outdoor fun!!!

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Crater Lake in the Winter

While Courtney's folks were in town, we did everything one might expect to do in 7 days in beautiful Bend. We played in the snow, ate some great local food, went to the best local brew pubs Bend can offer, and even made a little trip to Crater Lake. The drive was long and there was incredible amounts of snow still at the park. I guess it takes something like 4 months to clear the roads for the summer tourist season. They got over 300" of snow this year! It was drop dead beautiful and such a great time with the family!

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This is Better

This is what I'd rather be doing: snowboarding the summit of Mt Bachelor on a clear and wind free afternoon. CHEERS!

X-C Skiing is for the Birds

Cross Country Skiing is actually hard and honestly not that much fun! I'd rather sit on a chair lift for a few minutes and climb 3,000 vertical feet only to then bomb down the mountain shredding every piece of powder off of the face of Mt. Bachelor! But to each his own. It was a great experience none the less. Lots-o-falling down and laughing with great company (Mr & Mrs Keating - all the way from SoCal for a visit).

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