Category: Travel

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Good ol’ Charleston!

Pete was able to join some of the Brentwood team last week and head to South Carolina for a Multi-Site Church conference. It was an amazing trip and as always it’s taking days for him to download all of his thoughts and notes and start the expedition from notes to application. Check out some snapshots from the trip!

As we took off from SFO I looked outside the window and had a view of my hometown of Livermore!

Then moments later I had a perfect view of our new home in Brentwood/Discovery Bay!

On our long flight over the Country, Delta (yes… unfortunately not Untied ) had a cool trivia game on the little TV’s. Check out what place I was in! (It didn’t last long…)

We were in the greater Charleston area pretty much the whole time, but it did not disappoint. The downtown looked like it had come right out of the 1800’s with just a fresh coat of paint.

We went to the shrimp Boatin’ area of town and enjoyed some waterside dinning.

The Conference went great and I came away very encouraged and ready to return to my Children’s team with some new energy.

This is what they served as one of the break time snacks! “Shrimp and Grits” Only in the South………..

The BW team Pooped on the way home…
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Lake Shasta Trip

Family time! We just returned from a great family trip to Lake Shasta to do a little boating. We had a blast wakeboarding, sea dooing, and enjoying the hot sun.

Check out Bree’s first day of boarding

One of the days was a little windy so we took a day trip to Burney Falls which is a place we went often camped when we were kids.

It was crazy fun as you can tell!

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Camping in the Redwoods

We joined some Cornerstone families and headed west! It was a breathtaking area in the heart of the redwood forest. Bree played with the VandenHeuvel’s newest baby and I sucked down the coffee by the camp fire! What a trip. We also made it down to the beach near half moon bay and got our beach volleyball on!

Memories from the Campfire

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Hartland ’08

This year Bree and I both headed to Hartland Christian Camp with 80 elementary kids! It was a great week of effective ministry… but let me to you, when you spend that much time, with that many kids… Let’s just say that I just might grow gray hair before I lose it!


The boys and I got the Big one!

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In the Windy City!

Hey Guys! So, I had the chance to go to Willow Creek Community church in Chicago a week ago for a Children’s Conference! It was quite the experience! I am still trying to download all of the amazing insights that we can use to improve our effectiveness to reaching Kids for Christ.

First off, when we landed in Chicago, we were walking through the airport and all the sudden, we ran into THE AMAZING RACE! All the teams were racing to get to San Pablo, Brazil, and we just happened to be standing by their gate! It was unforgettable.


Then we headed to Willow Creek Church, and WOW!!! That place was huge; 25,000 member congregation. It was just unbelievable to see something like that. But better then that, it was cool to see so many people fired up to serve kids that week, and 44 countries represented as well!



The big bad Cornerstone Childnen’s team! For the record… 1# in laser tag!

They even have a lake stocked with fish!

Check out this video of the one and only legendary Glen Keane. He is one of Disney’s most prominent animators, and was responsible for characters such as Ariel (The Little Mermaid), The Beast (Beauty and the Beast), Aladdin (Aladdin), Tarzan (Tarzan), and many more! (Video)

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Christmas in San Jose and a Concert to boot!

I thought it was about time for Bree and I to go on a date and I decided to surprise her. So, San Jose here we come…

San Jose has a great Downtown Christmas-in-the-Park and so after a dinner, that was our first stop.


We rocked the rink and tested our skating legs.



Found an abandoned carnival and Bree pretty much made me sick on the Tea Cup…



Then as we were walking to the car to “head home”, and we walked by a concert hall and Bree saw the sign… RELIANT K/SWITCHFOOT show! She pretty much lost it, so I pulled out of my pocket two tickets… She was just a little excited!

Reliant K even made it SNOW INSIDE the concert hall!

But to make it better, Bree and I we’re talking about how cool it would be to meet switchfoot because Bree’s aunt is very close with the lead singer and lead guitar in the band. We would have a conversational in! About 1 min after that conversation, a lady came up as asked us, “You wouldn’t want to meet Switchfoot would you?” We pretty much died in front of her as she handed us the backstage passes!!!

Ya it was amazing! AND! They completely knew Bree’s Aunt! She only mentor’s Tim’s (Lead guitar) wife! Just crazy! Then when we got home, we got online to contact Bree’s mom in PNG, she told us all we had to do was tell them about Bree’s parents! Bree’s mom WORKED for Switchfoot in their early days, and Bree’s dad helped John (Lead singer) put in his Jacuzzi!

What a fun time out!