Da Wifeys 40th

My beautiful wife turned 40 on December 21, 2012.  Had a great weekend celebrating her special day with dear friends and family in tow.

My niece was kind enough to help bring in the celebration by creating a video of some special photos that tell a story of Jenn.

See this video, celebrate her with all of us...  We love you Jennifer and thank the Lord for the amazing ways you have touched us all in your life.

Jenn's B Day

The kids and I enjoyed an opportunity to celebrate Jennifer's birthday with preparing her a great meal and dialing in the house chores.  She spent the day in a spa with her mother and Diane and returned relaxed and pampered.  To top it off, the kiddos played her a tune for an after dinner treat...

We love you wifey....

Family Weekend

Started Thursday with a drive to Valencia to hang with the brother brohem Uncle Sean and his wife Deb.  We started things off with our treat at La Cocina for some awesome mexican cuisine...

On Friday, we started the day off with a morning run and Sean ripping my legs off in the neighborhood.  We then got the family ready for the day and headed to Hurricane Harbor at Magic Mountain.  At the park all day until 6pm and then headed to my sister Donna's house for some more family get togethers with our visiting Alabama family.  Great time.

(The Martin Fam at Hurrican Harbor ala 95 degrees F!)

On Saturday, spent the day at Castaic Lake and had a blast.  Tubing, food, site seeing, swimming, boating, and a little bit of fishing.  Great time and memories were being remembered and created on this lake.  When we finished, we hit the pool for a bit more of water - we were water logged by 7pm...  My kids could not get enough of it.  I'm tired, and cannot explain why...

(Tubing Castaic Lake)

(Heading into Elizabeth Canyon at Castaic Lake)

(Wifey enjoying some summer sun in the Canyon)

(Martin Family Totem Pole!)

Really enjoyed the adventurous weekend.  I don't think I took a shower the entire weekend.  My wife confessed she took one shower!!!  We never got out of the water.

So thankful for the experiences and what God has provided in our lives.  I woke this morning and had the delight to read Isaiah 53 in the Bible and was just simply humbled to read about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.  Sweet time this weekend.  Good rest for the brain, even though we never slow down...

Looking forward to more of lifes adventures.

14 Years...

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

This is the wedding vow made to each other on June 21, 1997.  This is Gods word.  We are grateful that Gods love for us, and our faith in Him, gives us the power to live out these things together.  Without God, these important marriage vows and scriptures flee and we would be self absorbed in our own individual needs.  Praise God for his faithfulness in our lives, especially in our marriage.

I met my beautiful bride at Cal Poly in 1994 as we were waiting for class early one morning.  This blog photo marks the spot which was just under the canopy.  Only the original canopy was much smaller.  She looked at me, and I stared at her.  I did not stop staring.  As our invitations said when we married, a glance and a smile, turned into friendship, and then fell in love...  Her outer beauty caught my attention - her inner beauty captured me for good.  This is Gods work, and I am thankful for that fact.

Looking forward to more marriage adventures...

Adventures in Marriage

team  It's Bizness Time - the ultimate team - 3rd place

Jenn and I had the pleasure to recently celebrate our 13th year of marriage in participating in this years Central Coast Adventure Challenge sprint course at Lopez Lake. Korey and TT joined in the fun and it did not dissapoint and we planned to complete the course together in unison - it was aweseome the wifey did amazingly well...! 

The course consisted of kayaking, mild orienteering to each check points with map navigation, mountain biking, and a run/mountain climb complete with ropes and some minor team tests... 

A little test of teamwork, balance, thinking - the old(er) guard and the new guard.

Team It's Bizness Time with the Faciliators - along with the kiddos and nanna/papa.

Great time of fellowship, suffering, team work, and pure gutteral fun.  So proud of the wifey in her efforts.  Life and marriage is an adventure and this day was a blessing.  I praise God for our marriage "oneness" and His amazing and mysterious gift.  Looking forward to more marriage and adventure together!

Thank you Korey and TT for your friendship in all of this.  Let these experiences illustrate some of the realities of marriages - challenging, tough, messy, exhilirating, joyful, and utlimately a great gift...  Thanks for the grandparents and kiddos for giving us this moment of fun as well...

Black Canyon Adventure

The crew (Brendan, Jenn, Amber, Seany, Mom, Dad, Tim(our guide), and yours truly adventure kayaked the big horn tour up the Colorado River and the Black Canyon just below Hoover Dam. It had all the elements of our kind of trip. Adventure, challenge, good food, exercise, family, fellowship, beauty, and even some occasional rest. This trip did not disappoint and suggest you see for yourself.

CLICK THE RECENT PHOTOS VIA FLIKR TO THE RIGHT TO SEE SOME OF THE GREAT PHOTOS OF THE TRIP!!!

Desert and River Adventure Part I - Hoover Dam

All I can say is what a fantastic time it was...

Adventurous, challenging, peaceful, spiritual, timely, and even sparked some youth memories.  Mom, Dad, Jenn, Amber, Sean, Brendan, and yours truly took a desert and river adventure this past week and totally enjoyed the experience.  More to follow in detail, but lets start with some breathtaking photos the day before our adventure began.

The crew...

The landscape...

Standing atop a very amazing story - Hoover Dam.  The new bypass bridge in the pictures foreground is no less impressive really and the pictures simply do it no justice.  It stands a towering 1000 feet above the water and the scale is simply amazing.

More to follow...

My Beautiful Girls!

12 Years and Rolling

Today, June 21, 2009, Jenn and I celebrate our 12 years of marriage and Gods amazing gift.

With the help of my parents, Jenn and I made a trip to Santa Barbara for the weekend for two nights at the Oceana. I cannot believe it has been two years since we have been away from the kids overnight. The next trip will not take so long...!

We spent two days riding our MTB's and sampling culinary enjoyments. We spent much time simply lazing at the pool and enjoying each others company.

Sean and Debbie joined us on Sunday morning to grind some miles in the foothills and ridges over SB. We met in Summerland, had some breakfast, and headed up the hills for a 3 hours plus ride. We really appreciated their company on the last morning of the trip.

Just below Camino Cielo - Ridge directly above summerland at approximately 3500 feet above sea level. 12 years of fantastic companionship!

Our late afternoon decompression... We lounged here for nearly 3-4 hours on Friday and Saturday. 75 degrees and several naps at waterside.

So thankful for Gods wonderful gift of marriage and looking forward to more journey together.

Thanks to our family and friends for their support over the years.

City to Sea

Jenn, along with many friends, participated in the City to Sea Half Marathon this weekend. The event entailed heading to SLO town early in the morning for the downtown start and running 13.1 miles to the beach. It was a sunny day with mild winds but uncharacteristically very cold at 33 degrees at 7am. They all looked cold but appeared to immediately warm up at the start. The group ran from SLO town to the beach at Dinosaur Caves Park in Shell Beach.

Jenn finishing the final 50 yards with the Sea in the background.

From L to R: Christina (niece), Jenn aka wifey, Nicole Shipley, Lindsey Cheney, Katie Ernstrom, Joy Newman, and Jenn Collins.

Very proud of the wifey with her hard work and encouraging attitude towards the challenge. She and and all her friends did a great job. Congratulations to Jennifer and the rest of the group.

Cannel Plunge

As long as I can remember, I have a profound respect for the wilderness and the pitfalls surrounding those unprepared. Well, we fell right into the unprepared category and it will not happen again...

Jenn and I participated in a recent group ride which entailed riding the Cannel Trail above Kernville. My brother Sean, Wife Debbie, friend John, and three others from the Valencia area joined Jenn and I in Kernville. Jenn and I work at 4 am last Saturday to make the drive to Kernville and arrived just over three hours and fifteen minutes. We all stashed food, water, and everything we could into the camel backs preparing for at least a half day ride.

We all boarded a shuttle and headed further north into the Sierra Nevada mountains and hit our starting location just below Sherman Peak. As we all unloaded, it dawned on me just how far north we were since I could see Olancha Peak directly east with Mt. Whitney and the western divide within easy view north of us. Smokes, we were up there.

Pre-shuttle ride in Kernville.

The ride started just north and almost immediately turned into a hike. Within the first mile and 1/2, we ditched the bikes in the trees and continued the jaunt to Sherman Peak to see the views. The mountain peak was spectacular at 10,200 feet above sea level and offered a strong view point of the largest mountain peaks in the continuous continental United States.

From Shermin peak, it was double back the trail to the starting spot and head south on the Cannel Trail. The trail consisted of very loose late season decomposed granite and pumis and was not much different than trying to ride beach sand up hill...! The first 6 miles was lots of walking and riding through meadows. The next 12 miles was a mix of meadow riding and very technical rocky downhill sections until we reached our half way destination at Big Meadow. After this lunch, this was where the real adventure began...

Big Meadow in the distance. The ladies were real troopers...

Following lunch, we jumped on our bikes and began to cross the meadow. Since our path was in sight of several very large and looming bulls in the meadow, we took a different line and re-converged on the other side of the meadow only to believe we were on the correct trail. Little did we know we took the wrong trail and spent the next 1 hour plus searching the foothill for the correct trail head. We ended up doing the worst thing possible, trying to navigate a short cut and ended up having to go back to the start of the meadow to begin it all again. Only this time, we lost valuable time. Although we were not in panic mode, I had a strong suspicion that our time for the dark zone would be close or within an hour of our completed ride. From here on it, any camera time was always with the comment "let's go, we are burning daylight."We still had 18 plus miles of riding to go...

Opposite end of Big Meadow. Let's keep it rollin girls!

Under normal circumstances, 18 miles could easily be ridden under two hours. On the Cannel, one would be lucky to maintain simply five miles per hour and it was 3:52pm when we left the meadow... Do the math, it was going to be tight and it was constantly on my mind and my wife and sister in law have my pushiness ingrained in their heads...

From the meadow, it was a continuous grind of hiking bikes up very difficult mountain trails and not descending much faster. Also, did I mention we ALL went critically low on water!!!

We all kept our cool and maintained a reasonable progression and even took a few minutes to photo log different parts of the trail. Although we were a little strained with concern of time, we knew we were getting out before nightfall so we took occasional moments to witness just a small glimpse of Gods glory in the mountain landscape.

Crazy unique landscape...

We reached Cannel Peak and looked below at the 8 mile highly technical descent consisting of 8 inches of loosely packed sandy decomposed granite with bouldered adjacent structures. This descent took just under two hours and placed us just a mile north of the town of Kernville and we were simply stoked to be done and safe from the crazy mountain adventure.

The ladies heading into the final 8 mile plunge.

We rode straight for town, bathed in the Kern River, and went to a local pizza place to scarf as much calories as possible. Cold glasses of water never tasted so sweet since I had not had much more than 1 litre of water since 2pm and it was 7 pm when we finished!

After a good meal of pizza and real hydration, Jenn and I drove home. It was beautiful full moon drive and was a silent trip home. Not in the bad sense of the silent time, just obvious reflection of the risk we just took. God was faithful in keeping us safe and moving us through the woods with just a few minutes to spare.

Details: 9 hours, 4300 calories, approximately 40 miles, 4,500 foot ascent, approximately 7,000 foot descent, and hovered at 8,000-9,000 foot for most of the ride. The final 8 miles dropped 5,500 feet!

High Points of the trip:

Time with the wife and very special family
Personal challenge and teamwork
Seeing Gods handiwork
Talking about bear territory only to have a bear run up the hill in front of us
Excellent riding by the ladies - they were amazing!
Seeing Whitney from the backside
Understanding what it is like to be very thirsty
Nobody hurt
Praying continuously
Watching my brother care for his bruised wife

Low Points:

Not being fully prepared
Stress on the ride
Heavy thirst
Watching Debbie crash at least a half dozen times and continue forward

All in all a great experience. Just don't want to experience it again anytime soon.

Jenn - SLO Triathlon

Jenn and several of our friends completed the local SLO Triathlon. The ladies went anything but slow on the course.

Jenn, Julie Theule, Susie Theule, and Lindsey Cheney participated in the event and all did very well. Jenn's goal was to complete the course under two hours which she did even with a flat tire on the bike! She fixed it in good form and kept going in light of the disruption.

After years of making her run ragged at my racing events, I tried to give a little bit in return...

Well done wifey!!! You rock!!!

Jenn the fish slayer

Painful to admit but my wife is the fish killer in the family. Again, she bested me two weekends in a row...

Great day on the water. Brendan, Jenn, Amber, and Seany at 6:30 out of Port San Luis. Conditions were perfect and lots of fish in the water. Total of 4 Halibuts landed and 1 gopher cod. Jenn bagged the only legal on the boat at approximately 26". You would not believe the yield her fish had after the filet time. Bob and his fish pal in the other boat brought in 3 legals. Brendan had a bomber on the edge of the boat but spooked and broke the line and dove down. Yep - the one that got away...

Brendan with nothing but net...!

Great time had by all. Seany's Gulp shrimp smell was the trick in addition to the live bait size. Really love this time together and the new rod and reel was a treat.

Brendan's gopher rock fish - small but very tasty little buggers.

Time for a sharp knife - One very fat Halibut. Great job wifey!

Recipes...

we have a request for a recipe link, anyone interested??

I will try to figure out how to attach a link on the side bar and then I will send out directions. Gotta love the summer cookin'

jen

11 Years

Jenn and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary on Saturday evening. It was a pleasure spending the evening at one of our favorite restaurants. Thankful for Gods gift of marriage for sure.

Happy Anniversary Wifey!

Here is a picture of our evening when it started. Taken by none other than our daughter Amber.