Vacation Recap...

Hello!!

We are sitting in the SeaTac airport in Seattle anxiously awaiting our flight home. We have had an amazing vacation on the East Coast. We got to do just about everything we wanted to, and more! There is no way that I could give a detail by detail description of our trip but I will try and touch on some of the highlights! We had an amazing day in Boston! We were a little worried that our short time there would feel rushed and that we would leave feeling like we had barely done anything. In fact, we left feeling like we had done and seen about everything we wanted to! We took a trollie tour around the city and saw many of the more famous sights that Boston is known for such as the Old North Church, USS Constitution, Boston Tea Party site, Quincy Market and MANY other places. We loved Boston and enjoyed our time there! We spent a day in New York City also and had a great time! We went to Rockefeller Center and saw the tree and the skaters, shopped on 5th Avenue and saw Times Square. We had lunch in Trump Towers at the Trump Grill, and George from "The Apprentice" sat 1 table away from us!!! How awesome is that?! We also took a carriage ride through Central Park and saw Mo Rocca (actor/comedian) filming a commercial. We didn't get to go to a Broadway play like we wanted but we will make sure we do that next trip. We had a great day in NYC seeing all of the sights that normally you only see on TV!!! We also took a day trip to Newport, RI. We toured "The Breakers" which is the most famous of the "Newport Mansions". It was the former summer home of the Vanderbilt Family. Talk about amazing!!! Newport was a great little town. We did some shopping, saw mansions and enjoyed this little town on the Rhode Island coast! We spent a lot of time in Connecticut with family and it was really good to see everyone and it was great for Sherri to finally meet that side of our family! We ate and ate and ate and ate!!! The food was always amazing and we had some good times gathered around the tables! So, between seeing family, New York City, Boston, Newport and all of the other awesome things that we did, we certainly had a GREAT vacation!! I am posting just a few pictures from our trip here.

The Dome Is Going Up....

Hello -

Our church has been in the process of building the largest air supported structure in North America, on our new campus. It will serve the entire city of Anchorage and really the whole state of Alaska as a state of the art indoor sports facility. It has a full track, soccer fields, softball fields, batting cages and much more. It will be approx. 177,000 square feet and they are estimating 150,000 - 200,000 people will use the dome each year!!

The fabric structure was delivered last week and just the dome material weighs over 100,000 pounds!! The instalation and inflation of the dome will be going on for the next few days. Our church has put up a webcam so that the public can watch the entire process of the dome being assembled and inflated. Here is the link to the webcam: http://www.changepointfamily.com/sportsdome/

Check it out, it should be an amazing process!!

- Adam & Sherri

Christmas Lights in Anchorage

Check this out! This is a Christmas light display on a house here in Anchorage!! How awesome!!

Private Jets, Holiday Shopping and Sunny Skies!!

Hello -

It has been a few weeks since we have posted on here so we have a lot of updating to do!! So, here goes. A few weeks ago some buddies and I went to an event that we had at church, the wives got together to do Holiday crafts and we had planned to meet up with them after the event. Shortly after the event ended one of our friends who was with us got a call from work that he had to fly that night (he is a pilot). He flies private planes and it just so happened that there were three seats open on this flight. It was just a short 30 minute flight to Valdez and back, but it was still a great experience! So we all piled onto a private plane, which was a first for all of us. I must say, I fly A LOT and I certainly understand now why people buy their own planes! It was so nice and very comfortable! I grabbed a quick picture with my phone before we left of me in front of the plane, it's kind of goofy, but that's ok! It was a very fun experience!!

Our Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, we went to an early Thanksgiving dinner at my Dad's house and then went over to a friends house for a 2nd dinner later that night. We hung out with friends and just had a great night! We had been planning to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving, as that has become a sort of yearly tradition for us. Our friends wanted to join us so we all decided to stay awake all night, rather than trying to get a few short hours of sleep. At 3:30am we left our friends' house and headed to Best Buy, hoping to snag some of the great deals that they had advertised. The doors opened at 5am, so we figured that 1 1/2 hours would be plenty of time to get a good spot in line. Well, we were wrong. When we arrived shortly after 3:30 there were already approx. 1,000 people in line ahead of us. So, we decided to brave the line and the cold and wait outside with everyone else. The temp was -3 that night!!! After an hour and a half of waiting we finally got in the store and, I am proud to say, we all got everything that we had on our lists! We spent the rest of the morning hitting some other stores and then grabbed breakfast at Hogg Brother's, a favorite restaurant here in town, and went to get some much needed sleep!!

My new job has been going really well, I am enjoying it and am really looking forward to being "cut loose" after my "training" is over. I will be in Orlando for approx. 5 days in January, so that will be a nice trip! Sherri is doing really well. Work has been going good, probably the best that it has in the 2 1/2 years that she has worked there. She is enjoying the people she works with, that is a great blessing!

We have had a very strange November. We have had sunny skies EVERY day this month, with not even as much as a trace of snow! The temps have been very cold, in the single digits, and we are all ready for some snow! Cold is ok as long as there is fun snow to play in!

Our home is all decorated for the Holidays and is looking quite festive! Sherri painted some AWESOME holiday decorations this year and they just look great! I will try and get some pictures of our home on here soon.

We leave for Connecticut on the 17th of December, so we are getting very excited for that trip!

I think that is probably about it for now. We would love to hear from all of you, so if you have the time, drop us an e-mail with an update!!

BIG Changes....

Hello -

I have some BIG news. I have been at my job with The Hotel Group for a little over 2 1/2 years. I have always felt fortunate to be in this position at such a young age and have been thanful for the opportunities that this position has given me. However, for the past few weeks I have been in "negotiations" with a new company and am pleased to announce that today I accepted the position with them. The new position is "Area Director of Sales" for Extended Stay Deluxe hotels. This is a fairly new hotel chain that has been growing like crazy. They have several hundred hotels around the country and I will be the Area Director for the 4 hotels that they have here in Alaska. This is a BIG promotion and an opportunity that I could NOT say no to.

I sent out my letter of resignation here today and will be starting the new position in the next couple of weeks. This position comes with a large increase in pay, better benefits and less travel, all of which are HUGE answers to prayer for Sherri and I.

I am thankful for my time with The Hotel Group, they have been great to work for and I am very excited about this "new chapter" in my professional career.

To say the least, Sherri and I are thrilled about our future!!

Fall Harvest/Halloween Costume Party Update...

Our Fall Harvest/Halloween Costume Party was Awesome!! We had a White Trash couple, Howie Mandel and a Deal or No Deal girl, iPods, A Pilot and Flight Attendant and Sherri and I went as a plug and an outlet. We had such a fun time, here is a picture of everyone! We hung out, ate, handed out candy to trick-or-treaters, watched some old episodes of The Twilight Zone and played some Halloween trivia...which Sherri and I won!! Awww Yeah!! What was the prize for winning you might ask...5 episodes of A Spongebob Halloween on DVD. Ha! We are having friends over tonight to watch the new episode of The Office. It is easily our favorite TV show. We own season 1 and 2 on DVD and anticipate every new episode! If you haven't seen it we highly recommend that you take the time to watch it. It is VERY funny. Last night we went and saw "Who Killed The Electric Car", which was very interesting, it was fairly one sided and obviously anti-bush and anti-government, but it made some good points and at least made for some great discussion. It is a documentary about the creation, life and death of the electric car. I actually would recommend it to anyone who is open minded and likes a good documentary and enjoys hearing different points of view. Ok, that is all for now. We will post more soon!

An Update On Us...

Hello -

My Seattle trip wen't really well, the game was fun and while I was there I got to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were on display at the Pacific Science Center. It was pretty amazing to see!!

Anyway, this is more of an update on "us". Life here has been very good! Sherri has been busy at work, she has sort of taken a new position with Curves. She spends the 1st 1/2 of the day doing data entry for them and than she finishes her day back working at the clubs. She has been working on a big data entry project that they wanted to have done by early to mid december and it looks like she will finish it up this week or next week. She has been working really hard on it and making a ton of progress!! Work for me has been good, I have a feeling I will post a blog on some possible changes in the next few weeks. More to come on that topic.

We have accepted a leadership position at church. We are now the new Team Leaders for the New Marrieds lifestage community. Basically at ChangePoint we have "lifestage communities" we try and engage people with events and groups that are related to the current lifestage that they are in. It is such a great concept and we are starting to see other churches asking for our lifestage community models so that they can implement similar things at their church. Anyway, the New Marrieds lifestage (0-5 years of marriage with no kids) has been needing a new couple to step into the team leader position, we talked and prayed about it and decided it was a great fit for us. This lifestage has been huge in helping our marriage so we wanted to give back to it, and also to help it grow so that it can impact other couples the way it has impacted us.

We have also been doing a lot of things with friends. We have a fall/halloween costume party next week. The theme is "famous pairs", such as ketchup & mustard, peanut butter & jelly, you get the point. Sherri and I are going as a plug and an outlet. We got the stuff to make our costumes last night and I am sure that we will post pictures on here!!

The ladies are starting a thursday night "ladies night" where they will do crafts and scrapbooking and all sorts of other fun things that ladies do. On that night the guys will also get together to do "guy things", such as eat pizza and play Madden 07.

Winter has finally arrived....sort of. We have our first snow, maybe an inch or so. They are saying that it could all melt off this weekend though. Itis very weird to almost be in November and have little to no snow. It is also strange to watch the news and see all of these reports of places around the country getting lots and lots of snow while we sit here in Alaska and look at grass.

Well, I guess that is about it for now. I will update more next week with pictures of us in our costumes, so make sure you check back!!

I'm Going To The Seahawks / Vikings Game Sunday!!

So, I will be in Seattle Monday - Wednesday this coming week. I was online looking at football schedules (because that's what guys do) and I noticed that the Seahawks have a home game this Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. I decided to look into the possibility of making the game. So after some checking, I decided to change my flight to get me there early sunday rather than early Monday! I can't wait! There are a few reasons that I am really looking forward to this game. 1st: When you live in Alaska you are basically a fan of all Seattle sports teams by default. They have been adopted as our "home team". 2nd: I have been a Chicago Bears fan for as long as I can remember, one of the Bears biggest rivals is the Vikings...so...I hate the Vikings. #3: Qwest Field, where Seattle plays is easily one of the nicest, and newest stadiums in the NFL and I have heard amazing things about it, so I can't wait to experience it for myself! So I get to watch my #2 fav team play a team I loathe in an amazing stadium full of rowdy fans. What could be better? The game is sold out, so it will just be me and 72,000 other people ready for a great day of football!!

East Coast, Here We Come!!!

Well, it is official! We are going to Connecticut for Christmas!! I booked our travel tonight. We were able to use air miles for both tickets so the travel isn't costing us a thing! We get there on December 18th and leave Christmas night. It will be the first chance for Sherri to meet all of my family who lives "back east". It is going to be a great trip. Sherri has never been to New York City, and there is no better time to see the city than at Christmas!! I am sure that we will post our "schedule of activities" once the trip gets a little closer, but I am sure that we are going to have the chance to get out and see a lot of that area of the country and do a TON!! So, now that the Connecticut trip is booked we will hopefully start looking at a "west coast" trip so that Sherri can meet the rest of my family!! I would imagine that trip could happen in early spring or early summer. Then, we are still planning a trip back to Indiana sometime around Christmas of next year. We are also still wanting to have an "us" vacation sometime soon as well. So we will see when we can fit that into the schedule. I imagine that Christmas of 2008 (how weird is that) we will spend right here at home. So, in inder 75 days we will be back on the east coast! Christmas Shopping in NYC Here We Come!!

Welcome To AdventureLand...

Ok, so here are the pictures from last night's grand opening of AdventureLand, our church's new childrens ministry area. It was an AMAZING night, the place was PACKED. About 10 minutes into the event they announced that, even though the auditorium was already full, there was still a line of cars 20 deep coming onto the campus off of the highway! I am going back to the church on Monday night and will hopefully be able to get better pictures of everything since there wont be as many people there. Here are some highlights of AdventureLand: A two story tube slide that looks SO much fun, A huge city scene with buildings and mountains, they even have fiber optic stars in the "sky" above everything. They also have L.E.D. spotlights that change the sky color so it looks like the northern lights, a rock climbing wall, a underwater room that has props in it that blow bubbles so it looks like you are actually underwater, The Hangar, which is a room that is designed to look like an actual airplane hangar with a plane and everything, yes, a real, lifesize cessna airplane! That room also has air hockey tables, foosball, basketball, 6 video game stations and tons of fun "high tech" toys. The King Cove, which is basically a huge indoor play area, has a huge boat that kids can climb through, slide down and play on. It also has several "tunnels" that crawl through a fake rock wall that was built. The main hallway, the best part of the hallway is the huge hollowed out log you walk through. The log even has "forest sounds" built into it so when you walk through it sounds like you are in the forest. The nursery has a much more "calm" feel than the rest of the areas. There are a total of 12 different nursery rooms. They included some smart "extras" in the nursery, such as an industrial size washer and dryer. SO, if a child makes a mess on their clothes, they can wash them, dry them, and have them back in clean clothes in a matter of minutes. These pictures really don't even begin to capture the real feeling of the whole area. It is something you have to see in person, it is amazing to look at all of the detail that was put into it. The new childrens ministry area is about 70,000 square feet. SO, when you come to Alaska we will certainly set up a tour so you can see it for yourself!! You can click on any of these pictures to see a larger image.

Thanks For Looking!!

Thank You State of Alaska!!

Every year the State of Alaska gives a check to every Alaskan, this is called the Permanent Fund Dividend. It was set up in the 70's during a time when the state was in the beginning stages of oil development. There were several politicians who felt that the resources on the land belonged to the people of that land. So they set up a fund that gets paid into by a small percentage of the oil revenue that the State of Alaska makes each year. Then, each fall, the State of Alaska pays a certain amount out to every Alaskan. They just announced the amount of this years check. So, on October 4th, Sherri and I will each receive $1,106.96. Just for living here. That will be a nice little $2,200 bonus for us!! They also do a 6 year outlook and estimate what the checks will be for the next few years and they are saying that the check amount will continue to rise quickly!! Next years checks will probably be in the $1350 - $1450 range. It is a great boost to the local economy every October because there is so much extra money. This is a very common time for people to take vacations and make big purchases. Figure this, the average family, with 2 adults and 3 kids will get an extra $5,500. That can certainly help a family's budget!! The largest dividend check payout was in 2000 when the checks were $1,963.86. They expect that record to be broken in the next few years though as dividend check amounts rise. Last years checks were $845.76, so we had a pretty big jump in this years check amount! The Permanent Fund is a pretty amazing concept, you can learn more about it and how it works at www.apfc.org

Summer Is Hanging On...

Howdy!

Normally in Alaska, September is the beginning of Fall. Around the first of the month the temperature begins to drop and by the middle of the month the leaves are turning fall colors. Sometime between the beginning and the middle of the month the first snowfall will appear on the surrounding mountains as well. By the end of September the leaves are off of the trees and onto the ground and we are all certain that winter is on its way! The first snow normally happens in the city sometime between the beginning and middle of October. However, this year seems a little different. It is now the middle of September, we have had non-stop sunny days since the month began and there is little sign of any changing colors. We have been able to be outside playing disc golf almost every day and the temperature is quite nice! There isn't even any snow on the mountains! Which is nice, however, I must admit that I think mountains look better with snow! No doubt that summer is coming to an end and fall is quickly approaching but the beautiful September we are having has been an excellent end to another summer.

In other news, we are going camping this weekend with about 10 of our friends which should be a great time! We are going to a place called Eklutna Lake (see picture above). It will be an awesome weekend of kayaking, camp fires, tents and fun! We are VERY excited!!

Also, we are now only 10 DAYS away from our 1 year anniversary!! That is awesome! It has really been a great year, I am sure that we will post a recap of our 1st year together on here soon.

That's all for now. We will post camping pictures when we get back after the weekend!!

Apparently we are young, smart and not that cold!

Well,

CNNMoney recently released some "top 25" rankings for cities across the country and I am proud to announce that Anchorage has been listed as the 22nd smartest city in America!! Apparently we have 32.2% of our population that has a bachelor's degree or higher. Also, we were recently awarded the "Best City for twenty-something's" award that was based on the amount of outdoor activities that are available, amazing job growth and a very high average income. A list that Anchorage was NOT listed on that may come as a suprise, is the "Coldest cities in America" list that CNNMoney also compiled. There were 25 cities that made the list. These included cities from Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, New Hamshire and Iowa, but no Anchorage :o) We were also named the "Best American City for Entrepreneurs" which is a good thing to hear since Sherri and I are wanting to open our own business! The Milken Institute also named Anchorage as one of the 50 strongest economies in the country. The Green Guide said that Anchorage has the best Air Quality Index in he country. Also, Anchorage is the "Least Taxed" city over 250,000 residents in the country. This is mainly because we have no state income tax and no sales tax. Also the Anchorage area continues to be one of the fastest growing areas in the country. So, lets review. Anchorage is smart, young, not that cold, clean, great place to own a business, fast growing, strong economy and very little tax. Why would you not want to live here?!?!?

Why I Love The Alaska State Fair...

<-- Look, Corn!! Just Like Indiana, well, except for the Mountains in the background.
<--That's a BIG Mushroom!!

<-- Try putting that in a soup!!











Howdy!

On Monday, Sherri and I went to the Alaska State Fair. It was a beautiful sunny day and we decided that we might as well take advantage of it! I have decided to compile a list of my top 3 favorite things about the Alaska State Fair. So, here goes:

1) In a state of only 600,000 people the fair draws about 300,000 each year. You have to love an event that attracts 1/2 of the states population.
2) Denali Cream Puffs & Giant BBQ Turkey Legs. Easily the two best foods at the fair. The cream puffs are HUGE and topped with either chocolate or an alaskan mixed berry topping, we had the mixed berry, and oh boy!!!! The turkey legs are amazing, the meat falls off of the bone and it is covered in BBQ sauce. MmmMmm Good.
3) GIANT Vegetables! This is a little known fact to most of you in "farm country", but Alaska holds a HUGE number of world records for the largest vegetables. Including a 39 pound turnip, 63 pound celery, 65 pound cantelope and a 75 pount rutabaga. One of the more well known events at the Alaska State Fair is the annual Giant Cabbage Weigh Off. Each year this draws tons of people and many cabbages that break the 100 pound mark. Because of the LONG Alaskan summer days flowers and veggies have the perfect growing conditions and reach massive sizes.

Overall we had a great day at the fair! We had some awesome food, got to see a lot of fun stuff and really enjoyed our time together, I even won Sherri a stuffed animal at one of the carnival games!! We are already looking forward to next years fair!!!

Just Because It Is Next To The Trash Doesn't Mean It Should Get Thrown Away...

So, I learned a VERY good marriage lesson yesterday. This weekend Sherri and I went to the mall to walk around, while we were there she bought a pair of shoes. We got the shoes home, left them in the bag and set them on the floor. Yesterday afternoon we were doing some house cleaning and we always put the full trash bags by the door so that we take them with us next time we leave. Well, last night we went out with some friends to play Disc Golf and as we left I took out the trash. I grabbed all of the bags that were by the door, thinking that I was doing a good "husbandly duty". So, late last night we are getting ready for bed, both in our pajamas and Sherri asks a question that I didn't expect to hear. "Where are my new shoes?" I had remembered taking out the shoe bag and box with the trash, the only problem, I never made sure that the shoes were OUT of the bag and box. So, we grab a flashlight and an umbrella, we tromp down the stairs and out to the dumpster where, low and behold, sitting at the bottom of the dumpster was the shoe bag. So with some nifty use of the umbrella handle I hooked the bag and rescued it to safety!

So, in summary:
taking out the trash = good
throwing your wifes brand new shoes away = not good

Life Is Good...

I must admit, life is pretty stinkin' sweet right now. It just seems like things are going great. We have awesome friends who we are getting to know more and more. We are having amazing weather. We love where we live. We have an incredible church. The bookstore is moving along. We have been getitng outside more and more to do things. The mountains are covered in green and the sunshine just really makes them look amazing. Sherri is getting out of a job that she has never really liked. Life is just good. I don't know if I would change things, even if I could. It is really awesome to just be happy. Just look at life and really feel content.

We have a double baby shower tomorrow night with our small group as two of the couples are expecting babies in the next month or so. So the ladies will hang out and do the baby shower stuff inside and the guys will be involved in an intense game of street hoops.

I will begin traveling with work quite a bit over the next couple months. I have trips to Fairbanks, Juneau, Kenai and two Seattle trips. I will be in Seattle on August 22 - 24th and it just so happens that the Mariners are playing the Yankees on thoes days, so I got my tickets and am excited to see the games!!

I have been playing a lot of disc golf lately and I feel like my game has really been improving, which is nice. Also, Sherri and the other wives have been coming with us and walking the course. Its nice to be outside getting exercise.

We are only 46 days away from our 1 year Anniversary!! That is just amazing, the time has really flown by!

Ok, I suppose that I have said enough for now.

Here is a little known Northern fact: In the summer Anchorage is known as the "City of Flowers", because of the long daylight hours the flower displays in Anchorage are amazing. The City of Anchorage has 461 different flower gardens that it maintains. Also, they hang over 1,000 baskets downtown each summer. There are also some awesome private residence gardens as well as the Alaska Botanical Gardens and the Anchorage Garden Society that host several garden events throughout the year.

The picture above is of a small side street in downtown. It shows a couple of the smaller flower beds and also some of the hanging baskets.

Our New Home...

Hello Everyone!

This will be our new "home on the net". It will be easier for us to update, and it's free! WooHoo! We will continue to update this regularly with what's happening in our lives. Please feel free to leave us any feedback or suggestions that you would like too! Thanks!