A venture to Spokangeles

Once in a galaxy far far away...
cough cough.
Approximately seven hours north of Eugene to be more specific,
there lived a people group,
large in body and often small in brains,
yes...I was refering to Spokane. Get over it!

So...

I had the opportunity to take a weekend off of all my obligations and duties here at Eugene Bible College to go see my family for the first time in over 9 months. Nine Months! Gosh, it had been Christmas of 05' since my family and I had dinner together; a bit depressing to me.

The whole thing came about on Thursday afternoon two weeks ago; I was over at Matt Franke's new apartment just chillin' and eating some grub that his friend Robert cooked us up. It was a taco salad, might delicious I must say. Anyways, moving on, Brian Shoop got home and we talked for a few minutes before he mentioned that he was heading back to Spokane for the weekend to spend some quality time with his baby girl and his family (he didn't say 'baby girl', that was my emphasis) and asked if i'd be interested in joining him. I was like, "Does the pope crap in the woods?" He was like, "Ben, what does that have to do with the temparutre of Jello in Jerusalem?" We stopped it there. I simply responded, "Oh my friggin' gosh heck yeah are you crazy, I haven't seen my family in like, gosh dang, forever!"(Calm response...I know?)

Shoop and I departed from the Eugene Bible College parking lot at approximately noonish in his blazing red hot ninety something Dodge Neon sports car (lol). As we left Eugene I had this feeling of release. I had been hindered from getting back to my family this summer by a plethera of meetings and other obligations (not that those meetings were bad!) and it had a stronghold on me, it sucked. I knew as soon as we passed Wilsonville that I was really going home, I was really going to see my beloved family.

We decided to take a bit of a detour and we stopped off at Multnomah Falls. We bought some coffee, I bought a magnet for my uncle Ray. We spent some time just gazing at the beautiful waterfall and all its glory.

Here are a few pics from that part of the trip...

This waterfall is friggin' huge and when your within about twenty feet; your gettin' wet.

After leaving the falls the shoopster and myself cruised along at about 70 mph and found ourselves in some little ghetto podunk town who's name I dont even remember, what I do remember is that their was a "Burgerville" there; it was fantaboloustic.

This is me enjoying a phatty delicious Dr. Pepper after knockin' down a colossal something? I think it was healthy; I can still feel it lodged between my asophogus and small intestine. Is that weird?





This over here on the left is shoop being suprised by my amazing hidden-camera skills. Mezmorized huh?
The drive through the Columbia River Gorge has always been one of my favorites; it looks like giants sleeping on their sides; so awesome. I can just sit and stare for hours at the beautiful creativity of what God has done there.


This is a window shot; no prof'esyonal' photo work done here...just plain ol' me.


The pic on the right is one of the higher peaks found in the area. I thought it would be cool to climb it; then I hate Niko memories and said, "Heck no fool!"

So us two crazy dudes arrived in Spokane around 8pm and were both excited to get to our respective destinations; my uncle's house and Shoopster to his family's pad.
This is us on the homestretch, "Spokane: home sweet home."

(GQ Style)

When I arrived in town I decided to catch up on old times with my best friend Patrick Malone. We went and did our norm'...Red Robin dinner and then the AMC theatre. I was impressed to hear about how his life has just been progressing with a quickness; he is an extremely intelligent individual who will do great things for the world with his heart for people and his firmness in 'always' doing what's right. I had a monster burger and a shake (lo-carb treat) and he had something I didn't think looked good.
Here is a better pic of him -->


The one on the left reveals a bit of his special side... down boy!
It did not take me very long to realize that being back in Spokane was nice; regardless of the issues of my past and the prob's that still linger around being back in Spocompton.
I have waited patiently for over nine months to see my uncle Ray and aunt Benita; and spent 99% of my weekend surrounded by them. I use to live with my uncle, and he has always been there for me in life. When my father died I lived with him, all the time I was growing up he'd take my sister and I into his semi-truck and let us ride with him to Seattle. It's stuff like that I remember, my uncle's amazing compassion has always stuck in me, just an incredible man. My aunt is the backbone of my family. She has always been the most consistent financially and spiritually. She has continously spent time praying and fasting for my family; that God would move in a mighty way, and He has. My aunt has been the consistancy that I lacked from a mom, she has been a nurturing mother like figure, constant love and support, I love her!

Here are a few pics from my time spent with them. My cousins (twin's) Bob and Brian are also in the pic's, we all grew up together, they are good guys. I think you can figure out who's who.

My cousin Bob-->

This here is Brian
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So I don't know what happened to this blog; the formatting got all ghetto; that's why this is all underlined. I am sure I screwed something up.
I pretty much wanted to make it clear that God is amazing and giving me a chance to go see my family was the coolest thing he could have done for me. Our Father loves us, and desires to pour Himself out over us, stuff like this keeps me believign God is good, all the time.

Later