A Saturday at Mt Baker

The Mt Baker crew of Saturday December 5th, 2009.
From left to right, Ben, Trinh, Bryce, Andrea, Mark, Jhenya, Adrew, Britney, Daniel, Tatem, Jake, Levi and Alex. It was great to go with so many people. Even thought you went in smaller groups you were bound to run into other people you knew. It was a beautiful cold bluebird day. Jake and Mark on the lift #1

No shave Nov, my room and Thanksgiving

The End of No Shave November

Will Peterson and I now have our own desks and it so nice. You cant understand how unorganized your life feels without a desk until you try it while at school for 3 months.

Did quite a bit of bowling over thanksgiving break. Oh, and ate lots of pumpkin pie.

Cranberry sauce Bowl! 4 hours of soccer in the mud and rain!

Hard Core

The night started with heavy sleet, just above freezing temperatures and 14 Nash boys who were still wet behind the ears. The journey to manhood was a wet and cold one as those 14 boys prepared for the ordeal ahead of then. They crammed into two cars, 7 in each, 5 up front, two in the trunk and drove down to their destination. 8pm, Down on the boardwalk overlooking Bellingham bay they stripped down to their shorts. The freezing sleet and rain beat upon their unprotected bodies soaking them and rapidly lowering their body temperatures. They then clambered down the ramp to the edge of the dock and launched themselves into the bay. It was cold, very very cold. The temperature outside was about 36 F but that water felt even colder. The speed at which they were able to exit that water would stun even trained professionals and navy seals but then again it was cold and being cold has a way of motivating people in ways other things cannot. they shot out of the water, screaming and yelling at the top of their longs. The outside seemed warm compared to the water but then the brain freeze set in. They had never experienced such pain in their head before. It felt as if a vice made of both fire and ice were crushing their skulls between its jaws. As they hobbled back towards their clothes the ramp cut into their frozen feet causing some of them to begin to bleed. They made it back to their clothes and began to dry off. It was hard for them to move, their bodies were so frozen but now those boys are men and have shown their courage and strength. They can now call themselves a brotherhood.

After making it back to the cars they piled in and drove back to campus. Not to the dorms, no, that would be to simple, they drove to the rec center. They walked inside in soaking wet shorts and damp t-shirts while the rain poured and the wind howled outside. They went in and and went Hot Tubing! Oh yes, that is right, they lowered their chilled frozen bodies into that hot water and soaked, for a long time. It was a good night!

This is Nash Core, 2009-10 and this is what we do!
Nashites, the few, the Strong, the brave.

(sorry no pictures, to wet for cameras)

Wind

It has been incredibly windy these last 2 weeks. Winds gusting over 50 MPH with a steady wind of about 30MPH nonstop. We had class canceled last Wednesday do to power outages and a lot of windows got blown out on campus. Our house is still standing but I will need to go check the roof for tiles being blown off after it gets to be nicer weather. These photos were taken about 2 weeks ago, right before the wind started. It is now calm and gray outside.

Late!

Well, I dont have any great photos of what is happening up here but these were on my phone and they made me laugh. Jordan is epic in all his photos!

CCF Fall camps

Here are some picture from Fall camp. I have to wait for people to post them on face book so more may come. It was a great time and we had a blast. Our core dressed up as Nash Bachelors. We had newspapers, bath robes, v-neck tshirts and chest hair. ;)

We had the most people I have ever seen at fall camp. 284 people from campus! (I am front middle in a mustard colored sweatshirt, along with my core.)

Fast update

Looooooong Time
The idea of getting on and writing or updating this blog, or more importantly the action of getting on and doing it is getting harder and harder. Its not that I don't care but more that so much is going on and there are people around me all the time I don't have the desire or focus to write.
So here I am writing but I really don't know what to say. So much has happened there is no point in trying to catch up. But I'll try.

School is going great, not very time consuming this quarter, Core is amazing this year and is super fun, the house is wonderful and God is pouring out blessings upon us. Went to CCF Fall camp last weekend, it was a great bonding time, car wouldn't start on Sunday and so stranded at camp for 2 hours. Halfway through quarter, midterms went well. life is really busy but fulfilling.

Class in 10 min so I have to go. I am sorry about no pics. you can look on face book or wait until I can find my camera. Still haven't unpacked my stuff, still don't have mattress, still only have one desk between two guys. But, I do have a bathrobe now!

Mom and Dad have been a huge blessing and they were up this last weekend helping finish one of our bathrooms. It works great.

Okay, TTFN

They posted on facebook!

Here are some pictures from our start of the year kick off BBQ. We had over 200 people come!

My Camera is Missing

So I must say that having Jordan now at school and having his own blog is good competition. I am definitely loosing as of now due to his prolific writing and posting of pictures. But, in my own defense I am still not unpacked and am living without any of my normal things unpacked. I have clothes set up and I have deodorant out but that's about it. All my supplies are still in boxes and my toiletries kit is stuffed away somewhere. I am having to use other peoples shampoo and sneak their q-tips, if and and when I get around to showering (not often). Anyway, all this to say that I don't know where my camera is. It is either still packed up somewhere or I left if at home on accident. So that is my excuse for not a lot of pics. I have to wait for other people to post them on face book. Anyway, i do have some pics from my phone, so here you go...
House initiations! You had to drop down to get an apple but only standing on one foot. Much harder than you think.

Walking home Friday night after CCF, found a box...boxes are fun...

My stylish father

Dinner this last Monday, enchiladas and Mexican rice. I am eating better at the house than I have in the last 5 years of my life. Well, mon-thurs dinners that is...

First Friday of the year. Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF) it was packed!

Some picture of our house.

Dinning room and kitchen, Half of the living room and our house emblem, at least for now. We are called the North Star.

School is starting!

Wednesday, the first day of classes for the 2009-10 school year. This quarter my classes are entirely engineering, except for a badminton class. I just looked tonight to see if I have classes tomorrow and to find out where they are. I have spent no time prepping for school. No books, no prep, I haven't even opened my school supplies up yet. All this to say that as an upperclassmen I am not prepared. Or maybe its just that I understand how things work and figure that I can just do it later. The real reason is that I have not had time. I have been going non stop doing work on our house, setting up things and doing core stuff. Well, since I haven't unpacked, I don't have my camera and I am missing quite a bit of other stuff so I cant post any pics. Ill try to get something up soon.

MADE IT TO DUVALL.... HOME AT LAST!!!!

Well, the guys made it to Duvall and are staying with my sister and her family at our log home. Their plan is to make sure they visit as many relatives as possible during the next few days so they started with Julia, my sister's daughter.  Tristan, their son, is away camping with friends, so they plan to check in with Uncle Mark and Aunt Peggy and then Uncle Armin and Aunt Lora and cousins.  It should be fun.

They had a great few days at Hood River,playing in the water, wind surfing, white water rafting and 'hanging out', as they said the people do as they wait for wind! :)  My boys were amazed at these people who could literally 'hang out' all day, just visiting and talking.  They are not used to this lifestyle and found themselves a bit antsy, but all in all the days went by fast with other activities.  

So, the ride is over and they have arrived safely at our log home.  Congratulations guys!  A trip well done and well executed.

Hood River and Housin River

New pics just came through!

Stopped for a free breakfast of fresh cherries near Hood River, OR.  These are our competitors!
Biking along the road!
Donuts and Bacon?  Hmmmmm..... where were you boys raised?
First day in Hood River, OR, waiting to hear from Dad and getting sick on Ice Cream.

Hood River, Log Cabin, Amazing Connections!

Last night I got the update on the trip from Portland out to Hood River.  The guys had hoped that Dad could arrange a place for them to sleep with one of his friends, but Dad was having trouble connecting with them via phone.  

Levi and Jordan took off on bikes and had spectacular scenery as they rode along the Columbia River gorge.  They decided to stop off at Multnomah Falls for a couple of hours, hoping Dad would call with contact info, but after swimming, having lunch and taking a nap and still no call they decided to head on into Hood River.  Arriving at a grocery store after some 30 miles of biking and hitching a ride the last 30 or so miles, they were starved.  Jordan promptly bought a quart of ice cream, or was it a half gallon?.  Their thought was to again wait at the store until Dad told them where to sleep, but Dad was traveling and at this point on a plane and unable to call them.  They kept waiting, and eating.  After they had finished half of the ice cream they felt sick so Jordan calmly walked over to the Ice Vending Freezer and stuck the container of leftover ice cream into it, for later, he thought, as if it was his own freezer at home!  Entering the store, they bought and consumed chicken and several other items and felt much better, so they decided to try out the ice cream again, for dessert, of course!  Well, the freezer and other customers had cooperated with Jordan's confidence and had left it alone so they dove in and finished it off.  Now feeling completely and irreversibly sick, they waddled off to their bikes and waited some more.

Now it was dark, and they began to feel that they must take matters into their own hands and find a campground.  Asking around they discovered that a nice campsite existed just on the other side of the gorge, and that there was a convenient bridge right down at the bottom of this hill to cross over.  Just as they were about to take off Dad calls with the news that the guy he hoped to have the boys stay with was actually in a moving van heading south - - his internship was over at Insitu Corp.  Well, the boys were not too disheartened because they had found a campsite so off they went, down down down the hill to the bridge.

Upon arriving at the bridge, however, they discovered that no pedestrians and no bikes were allowed across this particular bridge so they went up to the bridge guard and asked for advice.

"Hitch a ride" was the only hope he offered, so Jordan reluctantly began to stick out his thumb when, to their surprise, a truck pulled over and told them to hop in before Jordan had even finished his posture.  The guy was friendly and outgoing, easy to talk to, so the guys struck up a conversation quickly.  Turns out this guy was a Mechanical Engineer and worked for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle company there in Hood River.  "That's funny", levi said, "What's the name of the company?"  "Insitu Corp", he said.  "Weird!" Levi said, "My Dad has done work for that company!"  "What's your Dad's company?"  "Quatro Composites".  'No way' says Brian, I know them, what's your dad's name?' 'Ken', says Levi. "Ken Gamble? I know him!".  And so the conversation went.

 Wow, this is too weird.

So, in the end, the guys camped on the 20 acres of this man who also had a beautiful log cabin, who Ken knew, that worked at the very company Ken had tried to arrange for them to stay with!  So amazing!  Life connections.  Maybe hitchhiking is an amazing walk of faith, and a blessed one at that.

They hope to wind surf today.  All For Now

Multnomah Falls!!!!!!

Riding their bikes from Portland out to the Hood River, the guys stopped by these beautiful falls for a swim and a break.  Griffin is missing his brothers!

Northern Oregon and Hood River bound

So, the last couch surfing home in Otis, OR was a nice reprieve from the previous one.  They stayed with these people for two nights, enjoyed great food (all freshly cut up and served), and then got a ride all the way to Portland.  Once in Portland they enjoyed traveling by the city train or tram and were impressed by the high tech system the city has for the movement of people.  

Here in Portland, Levi was able to connect with the parents of one his friends at Western Washington University so they are staying with them until Jim Buttrick, Ken's friend from Boeing days, comes down to the Hood River for windsurfing and vacationing.  The guys plan to meet up with Jim this weekend, stay with him and catch a ride up to Seattle for a ride home.  So much for the rest of the bike ride, eh?  I guess high winds, hot weather, sore bottoms and dangerous roads have made them want to get to their destination and find friendly paths to ride.

They hope to get to Duvall early next week and enjoy some time in the Washington Cascades, camping, biking and hiking.  These are a couple new pics I've gotten, seems as though the recumbent is looking more appealing now with their sore shoulders and bums!