A Merry Christmas from McKye

McKye is finally walking.

McKye's 1st Birthday

On Friday, Oct. 2nd we celebrated McKye's 1st birthday. Angie and I both were reminiscing a year ago when we found out that we would be having our child five weeks early and the craziness of everything...even Angie projectile vomiting across the room after she gave birth. Well, a year later and we have a very active cute little boy. I still look at him and marvel at how he is turning into such a little boy. He is not walking yet but he climbs up on everything (I think he takes that from his dad) and wants to explore and figure out how things work. Angie did a phenomenal job of creating a rubber ducky theme party. There was probably about 20 adults and 7 kids, many of them under 2 years old. At first I was wondering why throw a party when McKye won't remember anything. Well, I think it has helped us remember the past year and God's faithfulness through the ups and downs of everything. And it is fun to have a party.

Angie's impressive rubber ducky cake she thought of and made herself.

There is the birthday boy. Interestingly enough, when we all started singing "Happy Birthday" our social little boy got pretty shy and started sinking into his high chair.

Here is McKye with a bunch of his friends as we watch a video I created of his first year. Getting a handle on Mac's iMovie.

Oklahoma State Fair Seniors King

My father in law who lives in Shawnee, Oklahoma went to the state fair and on a whim he ended up being crowned the King of the Senior State Fair. He was one of many possible Kings but after he shared about his most memorable moment of singing to his wife in the middle of a cruise ship with a couple thousand people watching, they asked if he would sing for them right then. Well, he sang and got crowned King. For the rest of the day he had to be on floats and do the whole royalty thing that he ended up missing a lot of the booths at the fair. And he got his picture with Miss Oklahoma State Fair and Oklahoma State Fair Outstanding Teem...only in Oklahoma.

Capitol Peak - Labor Day Weekend 2009

Stephen Anthony (a friend from seminary), Aaron Nelson (a friend from college days), and myself on our second annual Labor Day hike attempting Capitol Peak.  We first took the wrong side trail that detoured us for about 50 minutes, extra hiking we really did not need with 40 lb. packs.  After about three and half hours we finally made it into Capitol Lake at 11,600 ft. where we camped out.  

At 4:45 am my alarm went off and I could hear it sprinkling outside, not a good sign for the start of a challenging hike.  Climbing up wet rock and being butt early in the morning just does not wake you up.  So we slept till 6:00 am and I decided we had nothing better to do that day so we might as well try to summit.  

First we needed to get up to a 13,000 ft. peak called K2 and then take the ridge to Capitol.  Take a look at the talus and elevation change we scrambled up in this video.

After K2 we headed to the infamous knife edge.  It really is the exposure that gets you and not necessarily the technicalness of it.  So if you focus on the rock ahead of you, you can do okay going across.

As you can tell we were in the clouds up at this elevation.  Maybe it was a good thing so we could not see how far of a fall it would be.  The first part of the video below gives you a sense of the cloud cover and exposure.  The rest of the video will make you dizzy - almost like you have altitude sickness.  This is shot by my friend Aaron Nelson.  

We finally made it to the top after three hours and forty five minutes of intense exposed hiking and climbing up rock.  It was a white out situation with the clouds but we were thankful that we made it to the top.  

The weather cleared up in the afternoon so that we were able to hang out at beautiful Capitol Lake.

 Some people ask me why I do this?  Why risk your life to make it to the top of a mountain?  Well, I was asking myself the same question during difficult stretches thinking I need to find an easier hobby.  But then when I get to the top and accomplish this great feat of summitting a fourteener, then I remember why.  I feel like the strenuous journey up helps me become less of myself, quiet my mind, so that I might fully dwell in God's presence all around me in His creation.  The fact of the matter is that when I am truly pushed and exhausted I believe I let go of myself and grab more of God.  The physical reality of this often leads to a spiritual reality with Christ.  It is a privilege do this with friends who are also passionate about Christ and I think that is the way God would want us to do it - become less of ourselves and more of God as we journey with others.  Probably the best part of the trip was coming home to my beautiful wife and cute son...it also helps you appreciate what God has given you.

 

Lake Powell Trip - July 26th - July 31st

The long awaited trip finally came to fruition.  My parents and my older brother, Justin and his wife, Jamie flew in from Minnesota and then my younger brother Ivan with his wife, Dee all joined us to head off on an RV to Lake Powell.  Thank goodness we took an RV considering traveling with a ten month old boy and how sitting in a car seat for nine hours straight would not have gone over very well.  

We picked up a house boat at Bullfrog Marina.  After a quick overview of how to use the houseboat we headed off...in the wrong direction.  I had asked the marina pilot which way was south and some how he gave us the wrong information.  After finally looking at our GPS and checking it with another GPS we started in the right direction.  

Trying to beach the houseboat is quite the interesting process.  All the brothers are screaming at each other, "right forward throttle...no, left back throttle...are you doing anything."  Even my mom would sometime jump in to the tense moments as we tried to steer this behemoth boat against a current in a particular direction while near rocks and shrubs under the water.  That first night we would drive into a cove to later find that all the spots were taken (first come first served for whatever spot you think is suitable).  Finally we went into one cove and there was another boat there but there was a spot to the left that looked like a decent spot to beach.  Not like we are experts in beaching.  Well, it turns out that we got a great spot.

Earlier in the morning McKye and I would head off for a hike.  This was a way to calm him down so that others in the boat could sleep in a bit.  It is pretty fun to hear him making noises as we would scamper up these rocks.  If his mom only knew where we hike...someone might be in trouble

McKye's Aunt Dee playing with him in the water.  Thankfully he loved to swim and play in the water.  

Our first anchor point, a huge rock probably weighing about 1500 lbs. pulled free after the wind pulled the boat away.  Finally we figured out a better way to anchor the boat.  

My beautiful wife advertising her favorite cold beverage.

We had the opportunity to water ski in these beautiful canyon walls...gorgeous.  

Angie and I had the opportunity to hang out and go on hikes together and get a bit of kayaking in.  It was a great time...a little different with a ten month old baby but still quite the blessing of a trip.

McKye meets his cousin Kenna

McKye hanging out with his uncle at the Hospital
McKye meet his cousin Kenna Elizabeth Mackey last Thursday, June 18th.  Kenna was born on June 17th to Jared and Jennifer Mackey.  It is crazy to think about how big their head grows in eight months.

Thoughts on being a Dad

Charles Dickens opens up his classic 'A Tale of Two Cities' with the memorable line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope..."  I really don't know exactly what Dickens meant, maybe it was because I only got half way through the book but if anything I would say that being a dad has been a season of extremes.  Watching his birth and especially watching Angie fall in love with him and turning into a mom has been absolutely magical.  And then there are days, a little like today where I don't seem to be able to calm him down and he is a constant fuss bomb.  The funny thing is that he might be fussy all day and then we will go hang out with friends and he is all chill and looking around smiling at people and they are like, "wow, your son is so calm."  If they only knew.  Actually, considering all things McKye has been a great baby and now at eight months it is neat to see the new things he does and the little boy he is turning into.  I think that when he starts crawling he is going to be a handful.

Spiritually, I would say that this season has been different for me.  I am used to having discretionary time to read a bunch of books and spend time in the word and journaling.  But there are some mornings where I am barely able to get up because I have already been up several times through the night.  And then as I try to read my bible in the morning I will get so far and then McKye needs something.  Ministry wise, I am now home a lot more.  It is not that it is necessarily bad, it is just different.  I try to remind myself that in this season I have the opportunity to minister to my son's soul...  And right now he is looking at me from his exersaucer like, "won't you play with me".   

Let's go swimming

McKye is in his first swim trunks ever.  We need to get him used to the water for our Lake Powell trip in late July.

I think he is learning how to chill out in his little pool.  

McKye being dedicated

On May 17, 2009 we dedicated McKye Benjamin Long at Lookout Mountain Community Church.  In this momentous occasion, if you look closely I think you can see that as we are praying for McKye, he is blowing a bubble.  That would be our son.  Seriously, this was a great time and I believe a moment where there was a divine ripple in the cosmos declaring that McKye is God's child.  Now we as parents just need to live out His presence.    

Uncle Ivan playing with McKye

McKye Playing in his pac and play

McKye Playing

Six Month Update: Great shots of McKye

I am trying to figure out if he is working on something here or if it is just a funny smile.

Super Baby is our favorite activity.  I don't think he will have a fear of heights considering I sometimes put him up against the ceiling, I just need to watch that he does not drool or spit up on me.

McKye is all about drooling.

Angie sure knows how to dress up our GQ boy.

McKye just started eating baby food and it is incredible how fast he is learning.  But he sure does not like mushed carrots and peas...I wouldn't blame him.

LMCC: A Good Laugh

Back in March 13th, Lookout Mountain Community Church had it's 'Tacos & Tunes.'  This is a talent show - showcasing the good to the goofy.  As you can see above, myself and Brian Newman (Executive Pastor) was doing a little mini-me dance.  We were actually dancing to Slumdog Millionaire.  We called ourselves the Slumdog Mini-me Pastors.  Lookout has truly walked through an interesting season this past year, starting off with a church split which has led to much needed healing, recouping, stabilizing, and finding time to laugh.  It was a great time for us as a community to get together and enjoy the richness of community.

Six Month Update: The Oxygen Rollercoaster

As many of you know, McKye went into the ER when he was two months old due to some choking (reflux related).  While in the ER they figured out that he appeared to be wrestling with 'periodic breathing.'  So we headed to children's hospital for observation and an exhaustive sleep study as seen by the picture above.  This was quite the heart stretching journey for us as we often were in places of unknown and to watch your little child hooked up to monitors and wrestling with oxygen - not fun.  Due to the 'periodic breathing,' he needed to be on oxygen when he sleeps till he was seven months old.  Well, let us just say having a baby on oxygen is not a lot of fun.  But praise God after two months of being on oxygen we did an at-home pulse-ox study and he was doing a lot better so that he no longer needed the oxygen.  He now seems to be doing very well and progressing like a normal baby boy.