On Sunday after church Jenn and I got to go camping with some of our best friends in the world, the Percivals.  We had a blast!  We got up to Sequoia National Park Sunday evening around 5:30 giving us just enough light (with the help of our lanterns) to set up our tents and get a fire going.  We had burgers and hot dogs, I made bacon and eggs in the morning and we got to do a lot of playing.

It was very cool to get to use a lot of our new camping gear (courtesy of Jenn’s parents, mostly).  We busted out the propane stove and our camping cookware set complete with pots, pans, cups and plates.  It was fantastic.

The Percivals have 4 kids, 3 of which they brought with them (they left the 1 year old with some friends) and it was very fun to see them running around.  These little girls were cheating death for 2 days climbing rocks, navigating the camp fire (one of them actually stepped in it at one point; she’s ok) and even breaking in their new princess fishing poles.  Needless to say, Snow White is about as good a fisherman (fisherwoman?) as I am, so they didn’t catch anything.

We had a great time, but lived in fear of getting caught in the rain as that was the prediction.  Fortunately, the weather held off until the last morning and we were already pretty well packed up so that we could make a quick exit.  To our surprise, though, we did not get caught in the rain, but in the snow!

I woke up and quickly scurried out of the tent to take my morning…stroll? and felt little snow flakes falling.  It didn’t stay light for long and soon we driving home in some beautiful, though a bit scary, weather.

Maybe I should’ve sprung for 4 wheel drive on the Escape!

Really?!? Crying bunnies?!? Drowning puppies?!?

Come on environmentalists, is this really the most effective way to get your message across?

Week 2 of Journey was fantastic!

We continue to hear stories of how God is working through this series and, oh by the way, the band sounds fantastic!

Here’s our performance of “Any Way You Want It.”

“Any Way You Want It” from Paul Haugen on Vimeo.

 We’re in the middle of our series called “Journey: Navigating Tough Times” where we’re using the music of Journey to help people find hope in the midst of difficult situations.

I guess Oprah is hip to us, cuz she had the real band on her show the day after we started the series!  Sorry Op! we beat ya!

There is, perhaps, no bigger reason for my lack of blogging in the last 5 months than the birth of my daughter, Gracie.

So as I begin this process again I thought it only fitting to show you some pictures of her and why my attention is focused more on her than on all of you (sorry).

So, you can look forward to seeing pictures of my little rock star whenever you stop by.

Last week we kicked off a new series called Journey: Navigating Tough Times.

We wanted to address all of the difficulties that people are facing right now in a way that brings hope and joy to their lives.

So we’re using the music of Journey to talk through it.

We started with “Don’t Stop Believin’.”Enjoy.

Don’t Stop Believin’ from Paul Haugen on Vimeo.