Greetings From Maui

Hello friends. Courtney is finally here! Early this morning Nathan, Perry and I travelled to Maui where we would later meet up with Courtney as well as perrys family. Courtney travelled with Julia and the kids to help her in the airports and taking care of the kideos. What really sucks is that courtney and all their luggage didn't arrive. we suspect that it didn't make the transfer of planes in Seattle. What really sucks is tomorrow is a day off and I wanted to go snorkelling and how courts what its like but she doesn't have a bathing suit. Here are some shots from our new hotel complex and our condo that 5 of us are staying in.View from the pool yard of the sunset
Courtneys cameras version
View of the kitchen from the living room couch
living room
view from our patio
This is Emma, courts took this on the plane
view of our patio
the bathroom
happy peoplel
courtney in her new tank top

Hawaiian Day Off

Yesterday, saturday, was our day off, we had a lot of fun. played some beach olympics, snorkeled with colourfull fish, and swam with sea turtles and a big tiger shark. for real, well, kind of.

So we went to this one beach called "Turtle Beach" when we arrived we saw this sign. we asked around about what kind of shark it was and how long ago it was last seen. Apparently it was a 12-15" tiger shark that was not much more 100' of the shore. The Tiger Sharks main sustenance is Sea Turtles. The Tiger shark is one of the only animals that is strong enough to break the shell of a sea turtle. Local authorities were so concerned about this Tiger Shark being so close to shore that they called in a police helicopter to monitor it. About 2 hours after all of that was when we showed up. What did we do? We went swimming. This is one of the only beaches where you can actually go snorkeling with Sea Turtles. Ryan was the only one of us who swam with a turtle, and none of us got eaten by a shark.


Here are a few shots from our beach olympics! Ryan won the long jump event

The beach olympics took place on our beach at the military base we had a great time.

see you tomorrow courts!

More Hawaii Pics!

Alright, so courts was saying that i haven't posted enough pictures of stuff around me, so here they are. some shots from our home on the base and abroad.

These two shots were taken last night at midnight or so. for the picture below i had the shutter open for 10 seconds. Even though it looks like day time it was actually really dark out, just like the picture above of the moon and a tree in its way.

Here is a photo of the runway that we cross to get to our hotel on base
A plane we had to wait for as it was taking off
this is how we packed the van one day. packing tape to hold a merchandise bin on the roof. now we have a lot of bungee straps and it seems to work a lot better.
ryan, your hair looks so lovely today
our 'hotel'
This is our beach front view from our Hotel on the Marine Corps base

Hawaii!

Well, here i am in hawaii. let me tell you, this tour is rough. already on my first day of tour we had a day off, i had to do tasks like, relax on the beach, go snorkelling, jump in nice waves, and take pictures of beautiful scenery all the while hanging out with good friends.

Today is also a day off, we're going to be doing things like, going to costco so i can buy a snorkel set and find some industrial size hummus. then going to another beach where we'll have to do more relaxing and stuff.

On wednesday though we play 3 times in one day and that gets pretty draining, so i guess its good that we're going to be able to have some time off while we're here.

Courtney is coming to hawaii on monday. She's going to be helping out perrys wife Julia and her two young kids Emma and Ryan. Courts should i buy you a snorkel set too?

Hawaii here i come

Well, life has been really rough these days. releasing my bands CD and having overwhelming response - 340 tickets - a sold out event. Playing at a big youth conference in grand forks BC - thats real rough, and today, i'm sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight destined for HAWAII. didn't i tell you? life is super rough eh, i just can't seem to get a break ;)

i'll blogs some pics soon!

sk

Hey everybody. I'm writing to you right now from a suburb of Minneapolis Minnesota called Excelsior. We're staying in a barn that was converted into a house. it's very nice and they have highspeed internet on wireless so i'm excited to share some photos with you. This first picture is of our drummer from minnesota and his daughter betty. Betty is only just 2 years old and is amazing at talking, she's very smart and very kind. she got to hang out with us all day yesterday.Here is a picture of perry presenting world vision to a group of students at the minnehaha high school.
There was an amazing response to the world vision talk
Kids were signing up to sponsor a child left right and center
162 children were sponsored - this is a world record. It was so amazing.
Yesterday we went to guitar center to look for a bass for me *which we found one by the way, my dream bass* but while we were there the air raid sirens for tornado warnings started going off. we looked outsid and saw this crazy green sky! then the rain started going almost straight sideways! it was super scary!

more world vision presenting
old way of navigating
new way of navigating

here is a video of me at a health store called trader joes, i was drivng a cart. good times. no one kicked me off. i love minnesota.

Last Florida Post

Well i'm back from florida! It's good to be home. I wanted to post some pictures of Gatorland - a place we went yesterday to see and feed some aligators. check out these picturesThis was during a 'gator wrestling' show. You couldn't pay me enough to do what that guy is doing.
We payed a bit of extra money and got to get within 3 feet of these gators and feed them chunks of chicken. It was really cool to see how they feed. They only eat out of the sides of their mouths and they can't see anything straight infront of them

At the feeding hole they all try to climb on top of eachother to get closer to the front. So, if you throw your piece of chiken to the back row they all splash around and fight for it!
Here's an example of them eating with the side of their mouth
Here is Shanna throwing a piece of chicken into the crowd. The only that seperated us from them was a little stick that the guide was holding - yet somehow we all felt safe. HA!
How's that for close?

Here's a good part of the group that was on tour. Nate on the left from houston texas (electric guitar), Myself (bass), Shanna (Jareds wife, and Merchandise Girl), Mike from Minnesota was flown into do a promotional video for the band and my good friend Jared (drums)





Everyday we were in florida it rained. Usually just around mid day for 2 or so hours. Except for yesterday - just after we got to feed the gators it poured rain like you would not believe - it basically poured like this late into the evening. Even the airport flooded on their bottom floor and escalators were shut down and flights were delayed! But we got home safe and sound!

Who knows what my next adventure will be! There's word of an October Hawaii tour!

Till Next Time,

Steve