2007 in Review (Part 5)

Before I continue, I need to back up a bit. I forgot to mention the Fang Caves trip that I did on Thanksgiving. A bunch of us drove out to the McGregor mountains past Purden to hike the 2.5 km’s in to the cave mouth. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I’ll just post the slideshow I made and you’ll get the idea.


Continuing on…pretty much right after I got back from Edmonton I started to get ready for the Bahamas; we were leaving the following weekend. I must say, I was pretty excited. Warm weather, beaches, and palm trees…that’s a pretty good escape from -10'C and a snowstorm. We were actually going to the Bahamas for two reasons; the first was a Global Leadership Summit where we attended over 20 keynote presentations on leadership and the importance of having character in leadership. I learned a lot from the conference, but I’ll try and sum it up with some impactful one-liners:

• Character is what you do when no one is looking
• The only way to demonstrate character is through testing of character
• The eagles don’t fly with the pigeons
• Integrity is when the way you act, what you think, what you say, and what you do are all the same.
• Leaders fail their way to success
• Habits are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken
• When things go wrong, don’t go with them
• If you’re going through hell, don’t stop
• When pursuing greatness, you don’t know your limits, so you pretend you don’t have any
• Don’t envy people for what they have, because you don’t know what they did to get it.
• Some people are always there when THEY need you
• Don’t make someone a priority when they make you an option
• You can’t see the picture if you are in the frame
• You don’t know what you can’t do
• You are paid according to the problem you solve
• If you find yourself too deep in a hole, stop digging.
• Excellence is expecting more than others think is possible

The second reason we went to the Bahamas was for a vacation, and let me tell you, a great vacation it was! I really enjoyed the Bahamas and will definitely go back. I’ve decided not to post the Bahamas slideshow on my blog for the entire world to see, but for those of you who are my friend on facebook, you can go there and see it.

Now, let’s finish up shall we.

The rest of November was a blur as I got back into the swing of things for work and began getting ready for Christmas. Then December came along and it was another whirlwind month full of eating and partying and family. But it was a fun month, good memories all around; too much to describe here though…

And that, folks, sums up 2007. All in all a pretty great year. Looking back it was even more full than I remember…and I really did make a whole lot of slideshows didn’t I? I’ll be hard pressed to do so much this year.
But then again:

• Thinkfast is in two weeks
• The Diocesan Youth Conference is at the end of April
• We’ve got a trip planned for the Victoria Youth Conference in May
• I may be going hiking in Ontario with Peter in May
• I am going to Australia in July
• Two Camp Morice teen camps in August
• There are several weddings coming up…

AND I should be moving into my house in March!

Why am I always so busy?

2007 in Review (Part 4)

The last day of camp, we broke the guys away from the girls for a gender specific session. I had a good time talking to the guys about being a guy, then we headed out to the field to do some filming with my Action Cam. Here is what we came up with:



I eluded to the Bahamas trip earlier. I’ll come back to that later. For now I will continue on reflecting about the summer months.

So, teen camp was over and it was back to work for a while. Tyler and I finished up some major parts of the Design Standards website, and I began to prepare for my next amazing adventure: The West Coast Trail.

Located on the West coast of Vancouver Island, The West Coast Trail is 75km of some of the most breathtaking and physically gruelling terrain North America has to offer. The trail is not for the faint of heart nor the inexperienced…but it is one of the most rewarding hikes I have ever done. We hiked the trail mid-August…by we, I mean Peter, Rachel, Elizabeth, Rob, Tiina, Randy, and I. I was impressed that we could have finished the trial in 5 days; to most experienced hikers that is a very good pace. We decided to take a detour on the 5th day, relax at the beach, and visit some sea caves. It was well worth it. So, after the detour, we finished the trail in 7 days. Here is a slideshow of our trip.

Now, as I said earlier, there was something else I was contemplating in June. Whether or not I could afford to go to The Bahamas in November with my family for a leadership conference and vacation. I mean, if you were going to go to a leadership conference, wouldn’t The Bahamas make it just that much better? So, as in my usual fashion, I started to crunch some numbers as to the costs of the trip and the income I would need to do it. Once I factored in airmiles and shared rooms, it didn’t seem all that bad. So, I was committed to go to the Bahamas. But, there was still plenty of work to be done before that could happen.

Firstly, the Camp Morice Annual General Meeting was coming up and I was to make a slideshow for a reflection on the past summer. By now, you must have figured out that slideshows are what I do…I’ve got them down to an art. It’s probably one of the most favourite things that I do after an event because it allows me to tell a story with pictures and music while the experience is still fresh in my mind. That way, months or years down the road I can go back and watch the slideshow and have the memories come back. For me, it is truly entertaining. I go back and watch old slideshows all the time…reminisce about the fun and excitement. To me, they are a priceless artefact.

That said, here is a slideshow I made up for the Camp Morice AGM:


So, as October rolled around Adam had already proposed to Myrica and made the decision to move back to PG at the end of the month. Adam asked me to be the best man at his wedding in one breath and asked if I could help him move back to PG in the next breath. It was a cunning and bold move on his part…buttering me up with the invitation to be best man and then playing my feelings to get me to drive to Edmonton and help him move all his junk back to PG. Well played Adam…well played. Of course, I’m just kidding…it was actually pretty fun to drive to Edmonton at the end of October to help move Adam back. I borrowed Tyler’s scoocum tripod for the trip so I could take some cool pictures along the way, and I made a point to stop at Mt Robson for a break where I got changed at the trailhead and ran a few kilometres up the trial and then back again. I must say it felt pretty good to do that…what amazing scenery and clean air! One thing that I thought was pretty funny was when I was coming back down the trail (running pretty fast and listening to some sweet techno) there was a couple walking up the trail; the guy (who was pretty overweight) looked at me as I ran by with a look that said something like “you’ve got to be friggin kidding me…”. It’s kindof hard to explain, but I can still see the look on his face and for some reason it makes me laugh. Anyways, here are some pictures I took from that trip:



I think I've got about one more post to finish off this year in review....so stay tuned.