Complete Christmas Card Collection

Saturday, December 30, 2023

2023 Christmas Card

2023 Christmas Card 

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year! We have been celebrating with family and have been a little lax with posting this. 

Much as Erik wanted to scent this with Pinesol, I recommended instead pine essential oil. We applied it to the word “pine”. Unfortunately, the scent evaporated after going through the US mail. 

I guess it is the thought that counts. Hope you all have a prosperous new year!



 


Sunday, December 10, 2023

2023 Year in Review

Year in Review 2023

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It has been a busy year with travel to Puerto Rico, Caribbean cruise, Alaskan Cruise with Erik's side of the family, and also quick trips to Tennessee.

Erik continues to do some photography and videography. Gelerie continues to work part-time as an anesthesiologist. We have also been actively managing our short term and long term real estate investments. We just added a vacation rental in Tennessee at the beginning of the year. 

You may have noticed the Winning with REI icon on the card. That's our logo for our upcoming short term rental course that will teach one to manage vacation rentals. If interested, let us know. Happy to share.

Finn is a freshman at Campion Academy and has been enjoying it. Aubrey lives in Tennessee with her husband Caleb. 

We wish you many blessings this coming year! 

Erik, Gelerie and Finn

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Christmas Card and Year in Review 2022

2022 Christmas Card and Year in Review


This year’s card photo is a nod to the classic movie “A Christmas Story” in which Ralphie wants a BB gun more than anything—despite multiple warnings that “you’ll shoot your eye out!” Classic as that movie is, it’s not the ORIGINAL, classic Christmas story. 

That one is found in the Bible, Luke chapter 2. Shepherds in fields, baby in manger and all that. But that baby Jesus grew up and had some powerful things to say about His *second* coming. Those words are in Luke also, chapter 17:24 Luke 17:24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.

Click to Enlarge.




Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!!

Not going to lie, some of this year has been really tough. But in general, we are so thankful for the many blessings that God has granted us. 

We took two different ocean-centric vacations this year: Sanibel, Island, Fla., during spring break, and Maui to kick off summer vacation. We also visited family in California in July. We also went to Pigeon Forge, TN for vacation and work with Gelerie's sister Ivy and family. We also love spending time in Grand Lake when we try to play in addition to working on the rentals.

Gelerie is working three days a week, no call, no weekends, and with a four-day weekend most weeks. She’s enjoying her part-time status and also spending time on real estate. Erik is maintaining his real estate license primarily for the purpose of being a smarter investor and occasionally helping someone find an agent in a new market. 

Aubrey (Stenbakken) Sutherland is now married and living in Chattanooga, Tenn. Finn is in 8th grade and doing well. Most weeks he does three days at school, one at home-school-ish (normal school week is only four days). 

Below are the year's highlights. We continue to look to the promise of His second coming when all things are new again. And for those times when life does get tough, we are thankful that he hold us in His hands. Matthew 6:25-34 

Click on Photos to Enlarge.

Love Boat Ice Cream, Sanibel


Sanibel shells we found

Feast at Lele, Maui with Grandma Arafiles


Jungle Ziplining



With Grandma and Cousins in California



30th Anniversary in August

Finn making Pretzels

Our Newest Vacation Rental--Water Bear, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Sold the 1986 Vanagon! In with the new 2022 Ford Transit that Erik is converting.








Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Christmas Card and Year in Review 2021


You can Click on the Photos to Enlarge





We hope you were entertained for 79 seconds! You might have to watch it again to figure out what just happened there. That's a lot like 2021 itself, isn't it? "What just happened?" seems to be a theme these days. 

We enjoy a bit of levity -- but the whole year was not amusing. The pandemic continues to weigh heavily on us. Gelerie lost several family members to Covid. Just last week we lost a friend from college we've known for 30 years. Again, Covid. Sad things, and we are aware of the pain of many. But our year has not been all bummer either. 

Spring break we went to Sanibel Island, Fla., with our family, Erik's folks, and Erik's sister, Rikki Welch and family. After Aubrey's graduation from high school (yay!) we kicked off summer with a trip to Maui where we did the Maui things. We visited Grand Lake, Colo. over Gelerie's birthday. Grand Lake is where we have two of our vacation rental homes. Then we did a road trip to Collegedale, Tenn. to see Aubrey off for her first year of college -- Southern Adventist University. She's taking Business Finance. The times between all those highlights was … mostly boring work, study, and such. 

Speaking of "study" -- Erik finished his course requirements for a real estate license and passed the national and state-level exam this spring. That skill set is used to grow and manage our vacation rental home business. Stenbakken Media is taking a smaller role. The "Adventure Through the Bible" podcast that Erik is on just recorded its 100th episode! Gelerie works three days a week with the same group she's been with 15 years. Aubrey is enjoying the non-class parts of college (while still doing well in classes). Finn is (mostly) enjoying 7th grade. He really likes distance learning, and we've had several brief periods of that this year. 

It's impossible to adequately express our faith and hope as Christians in a brief post. It's a daily part of our lives. It's personal, not political. And it's even more real during hard times. Christmas is ostensibly to celebrate the first coming of Christ (for the record, didn't resemble much of today's holiday). But that's history. The future has hope because Jesus has promised to come again. Not as a baby next time. Not quietly to a manger. Every passing day brings that 2nd Coming sooner and sooner. It's my hope that we -- and you -- will be ready for that day.  

You can Click on the Photos to Enlarge

Fishing on Sanibel Island

We paid someone else to take photos for us!



We rented a house with a pool. Yeah. 
A pool *right at the house!*
It was a huge hit.

Sanibel is famous for shells... and we found some!



Erik just minutes after finding out he
had passed both the national and state
real estate exams (roughly 8 months of study)


Aubrey graduated!!! (from HS)


National Donut Day happened while we were on Maui.
One free donut per person at Krispy Kreme!


Our first ever luau. Even living in Hawai'i for a few years (Erik)
and visiting often, this was our first! It was amazing.




We got passes to await the sunrise from the top of 
Haleakala's Summit. It's over 10,000 ft elevation
and even for Hawaii, it gets cold! 

Cousins and grandparents joined us at Grand Lake, Colo

Early morning, Grand Lake.

Aubrey goes to college.
We went to help move :)











Sunday, November 28, 2021

Christmas 2020

Pandemic Christmas 2020

Sorry, apparently I forgot to post this one!!! Stay tuned for 2021 Christmas card and video. Coming soon!!








With love from our family to yours, Erik, Gelerie, Aubrey, and Finn.






Friday, December 4, 2020

PANDEMIC 2020

Wow. What a year, eh? But you knew that already. 

Here's an overview of our year. It won't take long. We didn't go far!

We did visit the mountains in February with our friends the Aakkos. Eric and Erik got to do some cross-country skiing there in Rocky Mountain National Park which is always fun. Erik and Eric also went on a hut-to-hut ski trip in Feb (that's like backpacking on skis, except instead of a tent, it's a really nice log cabin with real mattresses and cook stoves!). 



In mid-March, I (Erik) went down to Tennessee to do some flooring work on our short term rental property there. Between when I left Denver and when I returned, almost everything changed. That's when 2020 really kicked into gear for us too. 

Travel and vacation plans got shelved. Visits got postponed, and even simple things like going out to lunch with friends was impacted. That was only the beginning. 
Covid Home Haircut

When the US hoarded toilet paper

Finn and Aubrey's schools switched to online learning. Finn loved it and thrived with the ability to work at his own pace (fast). Aubrey is more social and it was much harder for her. Besides, as a high school senior, her classes are substantially more challenging than Finn's 6th grade subjects ;-). As a senior, Aubrey has begun checking out colleges. She gets more mail than we do these days from colleges near and far trying to recruit her. She's visited Union College (with Mom last spring) and Southern Adventist University (with dad this fall). No decision yet there. Yes, Gelerie and I have fond memories of Union College and think highly of it now, but we're leaving the choice to Aubrey. 

January, Finn's 11th Birthday!

August, Aubrey's 17th Birthday!

Gelerie had about a month of days off (unpaid) because of shutdown, and when there was work, there was very little of it because nearly all non-emergency surgeries were cancelled. Yes, she did have to intubate COVID patients. It is unsettling to launch a human into an intubated semi-coma so that they can fight for their lives with the help of a machine -- especially when they are a decade younger than us and were healthy till that point. As of now, she is back at work almost close to her normal 60% time (which is still about 30 hours/week). She has to wear an N-95 mask and face shield all day, every day. On arrival at home, she changes and showers immediately.

For those still wondering if the pandemic is real: yes it is. She's been a doctor for 21 years and been through 21 flu seasons. This is not "like the flu"; it is not a hoax. 


Erik's work has all but disappeared. There is one client I still serve by doing a production once every other month. But other than that, my photo & video work has gone to about 5% of what it was. It wasn't even this bad in 2008-9. It was in the last recession of 2009-11 that we bought rental properties and I began rehabbing them.

In the spring of this year, I sat and took a hard look at the viability of photo/ video work in slow economic times and made a decision: I'm going to lean into real estate investing hard. Yes. I will continue to serve existing clients or new ones that fit my skillset (one acquires skills and gear in 24 years). But my time this year has been spent studying for my real estate license exam, analyzing potential investments, reading, and networking. This represents a major shift in focus for me and is not something that will end when the pandemic turns a corner. You can follow my journey on Instagram at @reiforthewin (rei = Real Estate Investing).

Our short term rentals took a major hit in the spring, then rebounded well over the summer and fall. Long-term rentals are holding on ok. Grand Lake area was devastated by the 2nd largest Colorado fire in history (193,812 acre fire). We are very fortunate that our houses were not damaged. The fires got to within 1/4 mile of our properties. 

What does 2021 have in store? All we can say for sure is that we for sure do not know. We know how it ALL ends (see Revelation 21 for that). But between then and now, so many unknowns. 

This has been a watershed year for us in many ways. Not just shifting how school works, losing work, refocusing careers, but also in our personal journey. We've seen things in our country, friends, and faith community we thought we'd never see. Some of them good things, some of them not. 

We have chosen to seek an even deeper, more personal relationship with Jesus through all this. We believe that's the only trustworthy bearing for navigation. We invite you to a deeper personal relationship with Him too. If you don't know where to start, the book of John is a great one to see how God works relationally. Watch how Jesus interacts with people. If you'd like to see what God's idea of a kingdom looks like, the book of Matthew paints an amazing contrast between His kingdom and the kingdoms we think of and champion. 

We cannot wait to re-connect with our friends again. Literally. We can not wait. Why wait? Drop us a line or call! 



Other highlights this year.

Gelerie hit her half century mark!

Gelerie's Birthday Week spent in Grand Lake, Colorado

Plenty of the outdoors to socially distance.


Moose on East Inlet Trail, Grand Lake

Online Song Service and Sermon-- We sing at 7:23 and at the end of Erik's Message

Erik perfecting his homemade Pizza
Erik Tossing Dough for Pizza

Gelerie trying to perfect macarons

Upcycled Cashmere Sweater Blanket made by Gelerie