G:J

Asheville Bike Trip

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:44:00 +0000

Last weekend we ventured out to Asheville, NC and went mountain biking with the Fowlers and Hullquists... good times. You can probably read all about it on Jen's Facebook page, but you can take a gander at a few pics here.

It's Been a While

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:55:00 +0000

We've really neglected our blog recently, either from being too busy or just plain lazy. So, here's just a quick recap on some of the highlights for the past 3 months or so....

June

A bunch of us went to check out the fireworks at Chattanooga's annual Riverbend Festival. We saw the show from the Market Street Bridge which was almost right on top of where they were launching the fireworks from, so it was loud and pretty close up. Surpringly good show being that it was free.

July

We took some time off and headed out to Oak Island, NC for some R&R at the beach with Phil and Kelli. Fun.

August

*Celebrating of Jen, Eric and Gil's birthdays. Interesting party with a huge cake that Ame graciously made. Unfortunately, it tasted like cardboard... because it was. At any rate, we appreciated all the fun gifts like coffee mugs, brownie mix and Amazon Bucks that went towards getting roof-mount bike racks (thanks, Sis & Jon).

*We also finally broke down and bought ourselves mountain bikes so we could go riding with our friends. So we took a trip out to a trail out near the Ocoee River for some riding, and had a really great time. In the process, I incurred a couple of injuries that weren't serious, but somewhat gross. You can look if you're curious, but you've been warned.

So now we're in a new month, and we hope you all are doing well wherever you are and whatever you're up to.

Happy Birthday, Jen!

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:35:00 +0000

Roofing Adventures

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:14:00 +0000

Not too long ago, we had the 'privilege' of getting to re-shingle our roof. I only got to work on it for a day while dad, mom and Jen labored and toiled about 3 or so more days. Luckily the weather was fairly cooperative and it wasn't too hot (note: I was sitting on my comfy task chair in a bitterly AC'd office for most of the job, so I guess i'm not exactly the best judge for that).

A huge thanks to everyone involved for all their help and hard work.

Buddies

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:58:00 +0000

David and Caroline came by last weekend for a wedding, and we got to hang out for a bit like we used to in college. Reg, Isaac and I promptly introduced them to the joys of Mario Kart Double Dash and had a grand ol' time. Here are a few pics of us getting some sun on the deck Sabbath afternoon.. weather was pretty spectacular. Good stuff.

Concert Night

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:07:00 +0000

Yeah, we know - it's been a good long bit since we've posted. It hasn't really been too busy, just been really lazy.

Jen and I met up after work this evening to go to The Altar and the Door Tour featuring Casting Crowns, Leeland and John Waller - we'd already heard CC before in a previous concert, but were really excited to hear Leeland and John Waller since we had just recently picked up both their albums (both highly recommended). Wished they would've gotten to play more, but it was still very much worth the trip.

Casting Crowns is heavily involved in ministry with World Vision, trying to get some clean water to folks in a remote part of India (and in the end raising $10m to get water to as many people that need it as possible). They also enlisted the concert crowd to sponsor a child somewhere in the world to help the cause, so we decided to 'adopt' a 7-year old boy, John Michael, from the Philippines which is pretty cool. We don't have too many specifics on him due to security reasons, but we'll find out more as time goes by (and/or they feel that we won't try and kidnap him for some odd reason). We'll post some more info when it comes by.

Hope you all are doing well wherever you are, and sorry again for not posting in a while. We're still here...

Copper Mountain - Day 7

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:58:00 +0000

The last hurrah before we take off. Ruthie and Ame gave snowboarding a try while Zach and Bryan flew down the mountain as usual.

It was kind of a bummer to leave, but there's always next year!

Copper Mountain--March 3

Copper Mountain - (Powder) Day 6

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:41:00 +0000

About 8-10 inches of fresh Colorado powder fell late Sat PM-Sun AM so we ventured out into the backcountry of the mountain. It was the first time we've ever ridden in deep powder.. almost felt like floating.

Monday's looking good with an additional 4 inches in the early morning hours and more bright sunny skies.

Pics

Break - Day 5

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:59:00 +0000

We met up with Bryan, Ame, Zach, Ruthie, Mike, Tara and Cavin yesterday for WinterFest church @ Summit High School and ate lunch (somewhat) shortly afterwards. Being the outdoorsy type that they are, we had to go out on a hike. The thing is, everything around here seems to point skyward and away we went to Loveland Pass, which is part of the Continental Divide. The parking area was right at about 12,000 feet and we hiked about a mile and an estimated 500-600 feet up to the top of one of the peaks, where we literally almost got blown off the mountain because it was extremely windy. Not sure exactly how fast the wind speed was, but we had to 'lean' pretty hard on it to keep from falling over.

The evening was a bit more calm with a trip to Starbucks and a nice (free) sit-down meal at an SAU Alumni get-together.

Break Day--March 1

Winter Park - Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:03:00 +0000

We headed northeast towards Winter Park to check out what the resort had to offer, courtesy of the TransFour pass we got from the Rocky Mountain Conference which allowed us to visit both Copper and WP on the same ticket. Pretty amazing stuff - we made it up to Parsenn Bowl via the Panoramic Express lift, the highest 6-person lift in North America at almost 13,000 feet. It's almost like riding down on the face the moon since there's nothing around you but white stuff.

Jen got some pretty decent panoramic images of the Rockies from the top of the bowl as well. Doesn't really do it justice when compared to seeing it in person, but it'll have to do.

Copper Mountain - Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:10:00 +0000

Just another day out on the slopes. I know... it's a hard life.

Copper Mountain--Feb 28

Copper Mountain - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:41:00 +0000

We finally got out to the slopes today to put some turns in. Our legs are pretty sore and my face is sunburnt (Jen was smart and used sunscreen), though we did enjoy the bluebird skies all around. Temperatures were in the mid-30's so it was really warm, but it made for a pretty comfortable day of riding.

Tomorrow should be cloudier and a bit cooler, so today was definitely a treat.

Copper Mountain - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:09:00 +0000

We made our way from the Denver Airport this morning to Frisco, about 7 miles away from Copper Mountain. Though we didn't hit the slopes, we did get settled in pretty well without having to rush around and got a chance to roam around the town. We even signed up to become club members at the local Safeway grocery store.

While we drove towards Frisco, Jen snapped a few pics of the Rocky Mountain foothills (click on the image to check out the album). We'll try to post daily.. just depends on how tired we get!

Just another reason why...

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:20:00 +0000

...the US economy is going down the drain - this is just plain crazy.

Hello, Hello

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:52:00 +0000

We visited our local IMAX theater this past weekend with Eric, Janell and Todd to check out the U2 concert which was exhibited in 3D. Though I'm sure it's never as good as actually being there (in South America with around 150k strong), it was still a pretty cool experience to say the least. Gotta admit, you think you're pretty snazzy in those big goofy 3D glasses, yes?

This technology seems to be stirring up the pot again.

Better Late Than Never

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:14:00 +0000

Happy birthday to my big brother (in-law) Jonathan, which was actually yesterday on the 28th but we totally missed it. At any rate.. cheers!

Slowly But Surely

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:45:00 +0000

After a few months of searching, we finally found a dining table that both of us really liked. Unfortunately, it took us even longer to find chairs which matched and we both agreed on (contrary to popular belief, men can have an opinion! hardy har-har..). Anyone up for potluck?

Wanna come?

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:41:00 +0000

It's about a month and a half away till we head out for this year's WinterFest over at Copper Mountain/Winter Park. As mentioned before, we've got room for about 2 more people in our condo - so if you've got some free time on your hands from Feb. 26th thru Mar. 4th, come out and play. We'll be meeting up with a few other folks (the Fowler gang) who are coming later in the week, so the more the merrier!

Snow!

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:09:00 +0000

This might seem trivial to some, but it hasn't done this here in TN for a long while. It was actually falling a lot harder before the pics were taken.

Holidays 2007

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:46:00 +0000

I know, I know.. we've been a bit bad about updating this blog on a consistent basis. We do hope that everyone had a great holiday season just like we did. We actually did lots of traveling - driving to Jen's parents in WV for Christmas and flying down to my parents in TX for new year's - but had a great time seeing all of our family members that we haven't seen in such a long time. And, we ate a lot of good food. A lot.

Best (belated) wishes for 2008!

That's Just Not Right

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:32:00 +0000

I was reading a recent article on usatoday.com about animal breeding mills that I found really disturbing. I wouldn't say that I'm an activist by any stretch of the imagination, but I just had to let others see this. As the article says - if you're thinking about getting a pet, be sure to visit your local animal shelter and take a good look. There are a lot of would-be pets just waiting for a new home. We were lucky enough to find one of our critters from a shelter here in town, and he's been a great addition to the household (amongst other things).

Might have to become a vegetarian after this one..

Babysitting

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:11:00 +0000

While Eric and Janell were away for the holidays, we got to pet-sit their crazy critters. This post is actually more for them than anyone else, but we got some enjoyment out of it.

WinterFest 2008

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 03:39:00 +0000

As some of you may know, Jen and I are headed out west from February 26th to March 4th for a week of skiing/snowboarding out on Copper Mountain during WinterFest, an event yearly/mainly sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Conference. We haven't gotten too much of a response yet from the invite we sent out since it's still a ways out and it's hard to plan that far ahead, so we went ahead booked a small condo for ourselves in the town of Frisco, about 7 miles from the slopes. We rented it for pretty cheap ($750 for a whole week), and we've got room for maybe 2 or 3 more people since it has a separate loft with a king-size trundle bed plus a futon in the living area for people to sleep on.

If anyone's interested and you can find a way to get out to CO, feel free to get in touch with us since you can have a place to stay for not too much coin. I've got more pics if you want to see them, but the owners are revamping the whole unit so they'll be outdated here in a bit (they'll send new ones as they're available). If we have more people that we can hold, we can always look for a new pad as we can cancel our reservation 30 days prior to our arrival without any penalties.

Here's some more info about the event you can take a look at:

WinterFest info

Discount lift tickets ($170 for 4 days)

Discount equipment rentals

Mobissimo, the easiest way to find the best airline rates

If you have any questions, leave a comment or send me an email directly. Hope to see you guys out there!

Signal Mountain pre-Fall

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 03:06:00 +0000

This used to be one of our favorite hiking spots because of the waterfall/lagoon about a mile from the entrance, but since it hasn't rained here in about 5 months it was probably bone dry. So, we opted to hike to the first overlook to enjoy the view.

Table Rock State Park

noreply@blogger.com (gil · jen) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:23:00 +0000

About 3 weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to be invited to play for Bryan's dad's church retreat. Since I'm a bum, here's a link from Eric's blog that I'm going to mooch off of (thanks, E!) that outlines some of the weekend happenings. And, of course.. more pics on Picasa.