During our backpacking trip on the Apostle Islands this August, I recorded some video to help us remember the trip. Our two night, three day trip gave us so much video that I ended up with three videos! If you want to see more of our adventures, subscribe to our YouTube channel.
I hope you enjoy a glimpse of our adventure there.
I am pleased to announce yet another place that you can follow along on your adventures: Our YouTube Channel! We blog about our adventures for detail and philosophical ramblings. We post pictures on our Instagram accounts to share places and short form experiences. We’ve been experimenting with video, and we like the way it allows us to remember places with greater detail and emotion. We love watching old videos and remembering the adventures we captured.
When I say ‘experiment’ with video, I really mean it. I have over 60 videos posted on that channel, but we’ve never said much about it on our other channels. Really, this was a way for me to hide a bit as I experimented with different video and editing styles. I’ve tried and swapped equipment, editing software, and both filming and editing styles. This doesn’t mean I have it dialed in: I will warn you that I’m still not particularly good, and I hope to be improving as I continue.
My most recent video is about a wonderful and unexpected day in the Porcupine Mountains on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We had a wonderful day, and I’m happy with how my shooting and editing went. Have a look, and tell me what you think!
My main motivation for capturing video has been mostly as the ‘new’ form of home video. Keeping individual video clips on my phone doesn’t help tell a story. Editing down a video forces me to filter what I captured and attempt to thread it together. I love what we’ve been able to capture, and the benefit it is to us. In the spirit of sharing, my videos are public and you can follow along too, if you like.
I’m slightly behind on editing at the moment, having just begun to edit the video we captured on our Lake Superior Circle Tour. If you subscribe to the channel, you will next see videos about Backpacking in the Apostle Islands and our other adventures as we circle the lake.
We have clearly been distracted and not updating the blog on a regular basis over the holidays. It has been fun with the family, but this next week we will be heading south after some doctor and dentist appointments.
I have a few video updates that I’ve been meaning to post, so I thought I should get caught up before we hit the road again! Here is the first, in which we put the Airstream in Storage before driving up to Sandy, Utah for the holidays.
On Instagram over the last week or two we followed a few of our favorite popular people as they all converged in Provo to set the record for the most people participating in a live Nativity Scene (Scott Jarvie, Shay Carl, Peter Hollens, Alex Boye, Devin SuperTramp, Stuart Edge, David Archuletta, and the Piano Guys). Oh, how I wished we could have been there! What an amazing experience it would have been for our family.
Today, they released the video on the Piano Guy’s YouTube channel, and after watching it there was no way we couldn’t share it with you. I’m in awe of the amazing talent, planning, and generosity of these people that all came together to give us this special gift and to remind us what the Christmas season is really all about: Christ.
Equally as great, is the behind the scenes video done by Devin Graham which features the thoughts of the artists and why they participated:
Hope you enjoy, and as Steve Nelson suggested, find a way to help a stranger this season and spread the joy of giving and love to others!
While we were staying along the Oregon Coast, we managed a hike to the top of Cascade Head near Lincoln City, Oregon. This was probably the one day it didn’t rain in about a week of being there and we took full advantage by getting out and exploring. To find our hike, I basically Googled “Hiking in Cascade Head” and we found an article on Portland Hiker’s Field Guide that had a great description and directions.
Check out our video of the hike:
The trail started out on a small path next to the road until we hiked up to the original trail head (we believe it was moved due to lack of parking). Things got pretty interesting as the terrain was steep and involved some serious stair stepping.
Once we made it out of the trees and up on the bluff we were greeted with views like this:
And this:
The wet mud was great for spotting recent elk tracks, and the kids had fun pointing them out. Down on the ridge just above Sam is a whole herd of elk. Super far away, but that’s the way we like them.
Overall the hike was about 6 miles, and the kids did great on the muddy trail. It’s amazing to me how we can be warm and sweaty on the way up, but need to pull out the jackets at the top and on the way back down. So proud of our little hikers!
