2009
Then the Grace Assembly Building on Fremont St. became available to us. The first week of January we moved from our building on Murray Dr. to a facility on Fremont St and hwy 99.
 
When we first looked at the new facility all we could say is ‘wow’ and not a good wow. The building where the kids will meet looked like it had been built in the 1950’s and abandoned in the 1980’s. The ceiling was about 7 foot high, so no bleachers and a lot of the tiles had water damage. I was really bummed that we were leaving an awesome Kid’s Church for this.
 
As we tried to figure out what we were going to do, the Lord started laying little pieces about His plan on our hearts. We know if we would have received His whole vision for the facility, we would have choked. We removed the ceiling and a wall between 2 23x25 classrooms, so we would be able to use the bleachers from our old Kid’s Church. Our original thought was to paint the roof, however after we removed the ceiling, we found piping and wiring exposed for the non functioning a/c units. The ducting for the a/c units looked like they were put in by Dr. Seuss, what a mess. We also found that most of the insulation and tiles were not salvageable because of the water damage. We did find a lot of pots and pans above the ceiling, I guess that was easier than taking care of the problem. Because of the wiring and the piping, we needed to replace the ceiling, ouch.
 
God really started to reveal Himself when a friend said he had family that would be able to put a new ceiling in for us and a friend that can check out the a/c heating units. That week, our a/c units were all working and they were able to remove almost 30 feet of extra ducting that had been installed. I had been dreading getting the estimate for the ceiling.
 
When the people came out for the ceiling, after taking some measurements, they said they would be able to do it all for free. All we would need to pick up is the tiles. He had all the wires, t-bar and everything else. He even brought a crew. All he wanted is a letter of recommendation for the job. (Are you kidding, a letter, WOW God you are so in this).
 
Now I am getting excited, I wanted to have something that took the place of our mammoth structure that we had over our stage at the other building. We tried to think of something that really didn’t belong in a classroom (or 2).  A MASSIVE STAGE, now it is getting exciting. God was giving us dreams. So I talked to our stage creator (Johnnie), who helped us, start planning the stage, and boy did we start planning. We did not waste anytime building an awesome 10 foot entrance wall, puppet stage and a 2 foot high 24 foot long stage (I was hoping for 3 foot high but 2 is awesome).

If the video below does not load, it is viewable at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=0VjO03JtFU

 

 Finished Room

 

LifeSong Remodel of double wide modular, old youth ministries room

When we discussed the theme for this room before we started, I was hoping for an Old Jerusalem or Galilee type theme, my wife wanted a ship. When we first started to clear out the room, we found some t-shirts from a VBS the church had done a few years earlier. They had a picture of a ship on them. A few hours later we found curriculum based on a ship. Not 10 minutes later I got a phone call from the previous Children's Pastor telling me that she had been praying and the Lord had put on her heart that Robin and I were Captains on a ship....Being the dense kind of guy that I am, I got the message :) I said ok to my wife's ship vision.

We started to put out the vision to our church body for help, as I am not a carpenter or electrician. I was starting to get disheartened with the lack of interest in anyone helping. Then one family said they would be able to help, and they really were able to make our dreams come true. They were also able to add to the vision. As we started to build, then others started stepping up with supplies. 

 

 

Last year we drove to Alaska, then to the West Edmonton Mall and Yellowstone National Park. This year we are going the other direction. We are visiting my sister in Dallas then heading up to Springfield Missouri to visit some friends, instead of driving straight from Dallas to Springfield, we are going to go through Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Fort Walton Beach Fl., Bowling Green Kentucky.

We went over 6000 miles covering 16 states in 17 days.

 

Days 1-3: Home (Stockton Ca.) to Ft Worth Texas

This doesn't look like enough snacks to get us to Texas.

I didn't know that life could to start this early

It was a great morning when we left at 6:00 a.m. from Stockton California.

on I-405 we got postponed by the traffic, due to President Reagan's funeral procession

We are at the beach by San Diego

Hunter checking out the wild life by the beach.

We made it to.......uuuummmmmmm?

The girls watching the Hunter flying show

Of course we had to keep the tradition of having Dairy Queen when we leave California

at one of the rest stops in Az. We didn't get on the news here.

we made it ,to the rest stop

What is ironic, 10 years after coming through this area a couple times, Robin's parents moved about 30 miles away from this rest stop. 

such a drastic scenery change from Arizona to New Mexico....NOT

then on to Texas

Since we where in El Paso so close to the Mexican border, we went to a Greek restaurant and had pizza, go figure

time to wash the desert dirt off

as we headed further into Texas we got stopped at a border patrol check stop. They didn't know that we had smuggled Nicole in from Canada.

A B1 bomber flew over us as we headed into Fort Worth

We saw this storm chaser on I-35w as we headed into the Ft Worth area. They had been under severe weather for the 3 days prior to us getting there.

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Days 3-4: Cleburne Texas, Ft. Worth Zoo

 

We made it to my sisters in Cleburne, just south of Ft. Worth







on our way to the zoo





the 3 amigos


Hunter was terrified of the squirrel.








This is a great way to cool off

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Days 5-6: Cleburne Texas, Ft. Worth Stockyard

and I thought our kids were good. You raise them right and they still turn out bad. I think Oscar is the bad seed ;-)

Just yesterday he was terrified of a squirrel

The girls got their Texas size gumballs, they were hollow. What a jip

Aunt Robin got Hunter a gun set

Then she shot him

my poor poor boy

I think he liked the gift.

from being afraid of squirrels to riding bare back

helping with the chores

family picture time before we leave

I can't believe I got my kids Dallas Stars stuff. But at $4 bucks, I couldn't pass it up. 2 weeks earlier our pastor was in British Columbia and the hockey stuff was way over priced.

 bye Cissy.....again

 

 

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Days 7-8: on to Louisiana, with a stop in the big Easy, Mississippi, Alabama

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we made it to Louisiana. Uh oh, where is Cole? Did we leave her in Texas?

those clouds look pretty serious as we head towards Baton Rouge.

not too bad

didn't need it but I guess it was good to know

Baton Rouge across the Mississippi River

thats where we are headed

the French Quarter. They were hosing the barf out of some of the bars into the street. It stunk.

The buildings were really awesome to look at.

On to Mississippi

Out of it already???? Hello Alabama

USS ALBAMA Now, That is a boat

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ADays 9-11: Fort Walton Beach, if you go here you have to stop by the Old Bay Steamer and have the seafood boil, it was the best food on the trip.

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We stayed at the Ramada which was a great family hotel.

oooooooohhhhhh mmmmmmyyyyyyy. This is the view from our room. As soon as we saw this view, we called down to stay an extra day here.

yea dad, this is our room.

The girls wasted no time hitting the beach.

this is my favorite picture, this was taken from inside our hotel room. I love the wave crashing.

it started raining for a while, so we went and did laundry.

quick everyone lets go... the sun is out.

because of the weather front that moved through, the waves were great.

 

the girls getting ready to go body boarding at 11:30 pm.

 

the 3 girls out at the surf after midnight.

 

they decided to call it a night when the lightning started to get close.

 

 

the next part of the front made it in.

 

We were on the beach for about an hour and half between the rain, and boy did we get cooked.

except BD just got browner

we seem to be getting redder

The slide worked suprisingly well for being very humid. Hunter flew off the slide

 

the last night, go to check our emails.

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Days 12-14: on to Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas

 

there is a gator over there

we just passed the highest point in Florida and then we dropped into Alabama (345')

on our way on a side trip to pick up some boiled peanuts

Nashville? or LA with trees

We want to go to Kentucky again and spend more time here

The pool felt great on the sunburns

bye Bowling Green

We just watch the Godfather the night before. I don't think we have any enemies like Sonny Corlione.

 

the show me state.......show me the way out.....

trying to get to the arch they had everything closed off. St Louis sucks.

this was as close as we got....stupid Missouri

 

 

we don't have lightning bugs in Calif

on to see my parents. They live in Arkansas. I will get some pictures up from there pretty quick.

We had a great evening watching T-ball game.

 

go girlfriend

 

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Days 15-16: on to Kansas Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona

 

look, we're not in Kansas anymore (I think it is a law that you have to do that picture)

this McDonalds goes over the highway. Too cool

we stopped at the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum. It was very sobering.

 

this tree survived the blast

 

as we came up to this statue across the street, Hunter was saying, 'Look, Jesus is crying'. Here is a 2 year old who can grasp the concept that Jesus was crying. Another family was walking by and the mom told her kids that they let a church put this statue here because the church got damaged during the attack. How about it is here because 168 people lost their life because of terrorist attack.

 

just west of OKC we passed through the Canadian section of Ok. I didn't know they had a canadian section.

 

Cole getting emotional at the end of Return of the King

 

 

yea I'm still back here

 

We stopped at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert again. It is worth the stop

it's not time yet!!??

 

 

should we be concerned?????

 

these things are huge

 

 

 

except for Cole's scowel, this is a nice picture, at least Bon is happy.

 

we picked up some ice cream cones to help cool off

 

through Las Vegas

look at the all the great things to do on highway 95

area 51........oooooooo scary

the Ramada was like an oasis in the middle of the desert. The hotel and restaraunt were fantastic.

 

back to Califonia

 

Mono Lake

 

Hunter had a chart of bugs and he was excited to match it up.

hi bunny

 

 

 

on to Panum Crater. The girls went up to the top and I had to change a tire.

fun times for me

we always find snow on our trips.

since we had to change a tire, we went to Yosemite instead of Bodie. I didn't want to take the gravel road to Bodie without a spare tire.

we always try to get a penny smushed

it is over already. Droppin' of Oscar Cole

 

Road Trip 2003
Last year they thought we were crazy. Then we told them this year we're adding a thousand miles and we're going to Alaska. Since Alaska wouldn't be enough, we are adding the West Edmonton Mall and Yellowstone National Park.

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Days 1 Home (Stockton Ca.) to Vancouver Washington

 

We left Stockton at 6:00 am. Streets and Trips tells us we should make it to Vancouver by 6:00pm. No need to rush

We started a tradition last year, when we leave California we have to stop at a Dairy Queen for a soft-serve. This one took us 20 miles out of the way (my fault)

Hunter loves this tradition

We made it to Vancouver Wa. the first evening.

 

Budgets,

we took our total budgeted amount for food, fuel, (we used $2.20 a gal for fuel, for a buffer,prices in June 2003 was around $1.68g), and misc and split it evenly among all the days of the trip. Hotels were figured separately. Our girls handled the budget, they keep track of all of the expenditures, and running balances and once we got into Canada they had to do the Canadian currency conversions as our budgets were done in US dollars.

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Day 2 Vancouver Washington to Kamloops BC

we stopped at Safeway and picked up muffins for breakfast and stuff for sandwiches for lunch and the stop at DQ. We had lunch at a little diner while we were out seeing the sites in Vancouver. Dinners were at a member of the family who's house we stayed at for Days 1-2, leaving the morning of day 3.

On day 3 we started our trek to Canada. Of-course we had a great breakfast. Bananas, strawberries and chocolate dip.

Hunter complained about the smell as we drove by a dairy just before the border.

The border guard at Sumas - Huntingdon Border Crossing laughed at us when we told him we were going to Kamloops. He said 'unless you have family there, no one goes on holiday to Kamloops'(I liked it, he must of got mugged there;-)

To make the border crossings easier, we had a copy of everyone's birth certificate with a copy of the letter from our auto insurance company stating that we were covered in Canada.

We arrived at our hotel in Kamloops BC,(Thriftlodge). We started another tradition on our last trip, bringing circus animal cookies for a late night snack.

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Day 3 Kamloops to Vanderhoof BC

(gas went up to $2.15usd once we crossed the border)
we had breakfast before we left Vancouver, bought stuff for lunch which we ate just before we crossed the border. Once we got to Kamloops, we sat down at a nice family restaurant by the hotel.

The next day we got on Highway 16 (the Yellowhead Highway) and made it to Vanderhoof BC, the geographical center (or centre) of British Columbia. We got in around 4:30 and checked out the museums. We stayed at the Hillview. For staying daylight so long, they should have thicker curtains on the windows. The room was really good. We found this hotel via a hwy 16 web site.

We picked Hunter up a Blue's Clues chair at the Canadian Super Store in Prince George. The girls inflated it and deflated it at every hotel.

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Day 4 Vanderhoof BC to Hyder Alaska

we had continental breakfast before we left the hotel, bought stuff for lunch which some kind of sausage pastry thing that was really good. Ate dinner at a nice place in town

The rest stops on the Yellowhead Highway are nice, Hunter did his part to help keep it clean.

Somewhere along here we saw the world's largest fly fishing pole. Who tried this thing out?

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Day 5-6-7: Hwy 37 and 37a to Hyder Alaska

 

once we hit highway 37a we saw a lot of wildlife.

The black shadow in the bushes is a bear.

Below is Bear Glacier. It is on 37a heading into Stewart/Hyder

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We made it to Alaska. The asphalt road on the other hand did not. We fell in love with Hyder anyway. This place was great. While in Hyder we stayed at the Grandview Hotel. is a good family hotel. We had no complaints about the room.

There is a great place to eat in town. This was best food on the whole trip. It is called the Seafood Express

I guess the roads are bad in winter.

While we were here we had to go to Salmon Glacier which is about 15 miles out of town on a gravel road. The road was still snowed in so we could only get so far up the mountian. We also had to get ready for the mosquitoes.

 

here is an old gold mine. I guess when they were done they got theirs and left the mess for us to enjoy.

 

Salmon Glacier

This was the road we drove up in the van. We ended up breaking a muffler bracket.

I guess the repellent did not work

Salmon Rive

 

the pictures of the girls on the dock was taken at about 9:45pm. The leaving Hyder picture was taken about 10:20 pm.

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Days 7-8: from Stewart BC to Prince George, Jasper

 

We picked up some pastries and muffins with coffee from a little shop in Hyder to get us on the road.

 

on to Prince George

 

We left early in the morning. It was sad to leave Stewart and Hyder.

One of the locals saying good-bye to us.

On to Hwy 37 the Hwy 16

We stopped in Smithers for the afternoon and got our oil changed in the van. Our gas mileage dropped to about 14mpg and with gas over $2.15 a gallon(usd) in Canada it was bad. After the oil change we were back up to 18 and 19 mpg.

After our stop over in Smithers we drove on to Prince George for the night. We got to the hotel early enough to watch the cup finals at the hotel.

It is not time to get up already, is it?

Staying on Hwy 16 (Yellowhead) toward Edmonton

We met a couple from Michigan, they warned us about the police in Jasper ticketing people who do not stop at the stop line instead of the crosswalk. They got a $200 ticket for running a red light, for pulling up to the crosswalk. They are heading for Prince Rupert and they will take the ferry up to Skagway Alaska then drive back towards Michigan. Sounds like a future trip 

We stopped at the Terry Fox Peak. I can remember when Terry started his ocean to ocean run.

  We made it to Alberta

 

here is sign that list the amount of animals killed on Alberta Highways. Are we supposed to try to beat the record?

 

We think this is why they call it the Yellowhead Hwy. There are dandilions along Hwy 16.

this is a picture of the top of the Jasper tram. Yeah it is that little dot at the top of the cliff. They talked me into taking the ride.

back in traffic again.

look a bear......no wait it's a......it's a.........it's a stupid bush

one of the very few times it rained while we driving.

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Days 8-9: Edmonton

EDMONTON!!! Girls, can you smell the mall? Are you sure it's the world's largest mall?

with signs like this, there is no way that we will get lost, right?

This is not the street that we are supposed to be on. !!!! don't worry I will get us there. ahhh back on track

we made it !!! We got to the mall and had dinner. It was after most of the stores closed, but we walked around for about 4 hours anyway.

"I don't need oxygen, I'm at the West Edmonton Mall"

We made it back to the mall at opening.
We kind of splurged for breakfast. We had breakfast at Death by Chocolate. Because we had been doing great with the food budget, so it was no problem.

break time already. our mall doesn't have a ship in it, does it?

what do you mean dad that we are only 1/4 of the way done?

It took awhile to get the girls out of Old Navy. Don't we have those in the States?

I got my second wind and a hockey jersey dad, I am good to go.

What do you mean 24 loonies to make a crank call to Cathryn

We stayed until after midnight. It finally got dark.

Our hotel is just off Bourbon St.

The girls really dressed the part. They look very Canadian.

Everyone is glad our hotel is right across the street.

I guess we were lucky. We had just change our hotel to this one 2 weeks before we left. We were going to stay at a hotel downtown.

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Days 10-11: from Edmonton to Yellowstone through Great Falls

Bye- Bye mall, we'll be back

ohhh, now they sleep. We were in Edmonton for 30 hours and they spent over 20 hours at the mall.

this is rush hour on Hwy 2 in Edmonton. Can you believe I have to share the road with 4 other vehicles.

on to Calgary

Stop, I am trying to write a postcard. (ps. she just mailed the post card 2 weeks after we got home)

This was at the last visitor center in Canada before Montana.

The border station was tore up for construction. It was a stinky mess.

Welcome to Montana, we got to see a few lightning strikes on our way to Great Falls.

Oscar messin' with Hunter after getting back from doing laundry. They got to see a thunderstorm when they were at the laundry mat. I was sleeping at the hotel until the television started alarming with the thunderstorm warning.

This must be the Great Falls that this city was named after.

this was on Hwy 89 which is listed as an American Byway. The scenery was fantastic.

Ohh great, more traffic. Unlike some of the irritated locals, we just turned off the van and waited until they passed. They left a whole lot of presents along the road. It gave the outside of the van a lovely aroma which I got to smell again a few days later when I washed the van.

on to Yellowstone. We entered through the North entrance and our hotel is on the West Entrance.

entering Wyoming and the 45th parallel.

ok???, we saw the moose, deer, and pedestrian crossings, now we have to watch for people with Hula-Hoops?

this is the web cam for the Mammoth Hot Springs Web Cam. It was neat to see the camera that we had been logging on to for the past 6 months while we were planning this trip.

 

...and to our left we have more steam with the lovely smell of rotten eggs. Please notice how the lovely smell stays with you even after returning to your vehicle. Later on at night you can enjoy the smell when you take your shower (^_^)

a bald eagle's nest with chick.

We made it to the hotel. The room was fantastic.

We have to bring the luggage up how many floors??

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Days 12-13: Yellowstone National Park

 

there were a lot of births during the spring.

Which one of you guys is going to be dinner? everyone had buffalo burger while we in West Yellowstone.

There is a lot of miles on the north loop. We ate lunch at a secluded meadow

it is the middle of June and there is still snow. When we got higher up the road there was a lot of snow.

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Days 12-13: Yellowstone National Park

 

You have to climb back up too.

check out the really stupid person on the far left who walked off the boardwalk. There are all kinds of sink holes and hot springs. I guess they didn't see the hole in the parking lot.

More traffic.

After each eruption, the rangers can calculate the next expected eruption. We were lucky, we didn't have to wait that long.

everyone is waiting under the eave because it is cold and raining. After a while, the rain slowed down and we braved the cold to see Old Faithful.

she finally started after a few false starts.

it was worth it.

does Yellowstone have piranhas?

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Days 13-15: Yellowstone National Park to Home via Grand Tetons, Minnetonka Caves Id., Salt Lake City, Lake Alpine Ca.

The Grand Tetons is a beautiful National Park.

Then into Idaho Driving in Idaho we took Hwy 89 to Bear Lake, were we stopped at the Minnetonka Cave

It was a long walk. We had planned on visiting some of the caves south of SLC, but after this....I don't think so.

There is a great burger stand as you turn on the road toward the caves. On to Utah, We stayed the night in Salt Lake City.

The Great Salt Lake really stunk and the visitor center only let you out. There was no door to let you back in.

Bonneville Salt Flats

Then to Nevada, We got to Elko really early from SLC, since we didn't visit the caves. While we were in Elko we visited the Northeastern Nevada Museum and then we went to the movies.

This is the last night. Next stop home

 

This is our road trip map, we covered 4800 miles 9 states and 2 Canadian provinces including Alaska. These road trips are becoming a great tradition. I never thought that driving 4800 miles in 2 weeks would be fun.