Layover

So here I sit in the Vancouver airport waiting for my flight to Edmonton so that the Christmas season can properly start.  I remember the first time I was in this airport: I was on my way to Edmonton to go get married to Lindsay and officially join the family.  Good times.  Now, as I look forward to the Christmas season and also New Years, I look forward to joining everyone for a memorable Christmas.

I just hope I brought enough cold weather gear.

Happy Birthday Charla!!!!

Happy birthday Char! You are so awesome.  I'm so glad you're in our family. We love you!  Have a fantastic day!
  
OJ: Canadian prairie girl with a beautiful voice who loves poetry, music and philosophy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHAR!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcrEqIpi6sg

Coleen: Char - One of my favorite Christmas memories ever is Christmas Eve EIGHT years ago (!) when you and your new sisters-in-law went caroling down the streets of London together.  You left a trail of stardust in your wake :)

I wish I had a video of that to share - but this Scottish rendition of a very famous UK Christmas carol will have to do - - 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrnqWgjV-7Y

Thank you for sharing your joy for life and your love of music with everyone you know!  

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Char!

Ian: Happy Birthday Char! I hope its a great day and great year.  I've always admired how you march to your own drummer and really try to live life to the fullest and with joy.  So, I chose Don't Rain On My Parade from Funny Girl.  I hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_g3kkGH8Mo

Jordan:

Happy Birthday Char! This choice of song was easy because all I needed to do was remember that moment that the excitement hit you when you first heard that K'naan was coming to Edmonton this summer. So much of your time spent this year has been all about the gift and the and  you help me and the kids to live our lives, by showing us to give is priceless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APw9ES0JpZo&feature=g-hist

Lindsay: I love how you're always living in the moment.  You're so attentive and fun to be with.  You're also one of the most 'full of life' people that I know - you become engaged in what you're doing, whether it's playing in the yard making mud cakes with your kids, or having a spontaneous dance party.  Thanks for being such an amazing and fun sister-in-law!  Love you!  Happy Birthday!!!

All I Wanna Do by Sheryl Crow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ouOa9k0gE

Spencer: I'm going to go with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the Wizard of Oz, it's nice and calming, yet full of hope and wonder!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU

John: Charla I was so grateful when you played this song with me for Gala a couple years back.  It was lots of fun and I really appreciated you doing it.  This is one of my favorite versions of this song.  The passion on Yo Yo Ma's face is ridiculous!  PS this is probably also one of the best shorter classical music pieces ever written.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNbXuFBjncw

David: I choose this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUmZp8pR1uc simply because I remember Charla getting Oliver to sing along to it when I visited them in Scotland about three and a half years ago when Oliver was almost 3.

Rachel: I love your creative, fun-loving spirit.  And I always enjoy talking with you.  I had a lot of fun spending more time with you over the summer! Have an amazing birthday!

I chose this song because it is happy and reminds me of your carefree-ness and how you are always seeking to make your dreams come true, as well as help others around you do the same! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_I4wtNPv5w

More Israel

Here are photos of a few sites we saw in Israel that take us to where Jesus actually lived and taught.
Dad and I enjoyed being there at a time so close to the Christmas season.

 The River Jordan

The Pool of Bethesda - Where Christ healed the lame man.  Dad loves this story and the rendition of it painted by Carl Bloch.

The Western Wall of the Temple - or the Wailing Wall - named in part because it is the last standing wall (the retaining wall) of the second temple - rebuilt on the temple site where Jesus taught.  People - and I was one of them - line up to pray at the wall and leave their written prayers in it's crevices.  

The Garden of Gethsemane.  There is a very peaceful spirit here.



Lo How a Rose Ee'r Blooming - on Manger Square.  Lindsay should have been there to sing it :)

At the Garden tomb - the spot where many believe the resurrected Christ was first seen by Mary

Dad and I were so glad we could travel there.  Our love for the Savior and his teachings grew immeasurably.

12.12.12

Today's date.
I just needed an excuse to write that down somewhere -
For an old-timer like me, I think its pretty cool - - -

Hello Corolla

 

It's always exciting to buy something new.  Recently Spence and I made a very large purchase.  We had been saving for a while, and wanted to replace the car I'd been driving with a newer and more person and baby safe vehicle.

My previous car- a '99 chevy prism, had served me well the last 6 years here in L.A.  I lucked out with some of it's repairs working out well... I bought it from Meliss and Ian who had had it a long time, and it miraculously just kept running and running.  But it was getting a little scary as it needed some more repairs, and a recent hit and run had left a big old dent in the back left side, pricier to fix than replace the car... so it's time had come.

We kept saving and planning and then some friends at church were telling us they bought a used car from the L.A mission. They said the vehicle had been well maintained and they were happy with it.  So we looked into purchasing a used missionary car and found that the San Fernando Valley Mission was selling a couple '09 Toyota Corollas.  (Sounds new to me!)

After some test driving, Spence and I got our paperwork together and headed up to the mission office out near Santa Clarita!  We made all the arrangements and paid the selling price. It is the best feeling EVER to get in a (new) car that has nice new seats with great back support, air conditioning, new tires, fresh oil and no dents!  So we headed home with a silver '09 Corolla!!    Yay!!  Here's a pic of the short span when we still had both cars.

So... we checked off a big item on our list to get ready to have a baby.  I guess that timing worked well.  It's been a few months since the purchase but it still feels new! 

Rachel's Birthday!!

Rachel! It's your birthday! We think you are the most
wonderful person and hope that your day is GREAT!

From Mom-
Birthday Girl! - When you and your friends performed this at your graduation I saw it as your goodbye to high school, farewell to home & family song. I still get a heart-string tug every time I hear it :) Love ya tons, Mom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTSG5PGCceM
And what do you think of this photo taken when you were sweet 16 and just back from a Coldplay concert? Thanks for getting me on their fan list :)

From Dad-
Happy Birthday Wooz! When you were a real little youngster you had four songs that we had to sing with you each night so that the sandman would come. Here's one of them: Love, Dad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLUV74hxa34

Editor wants to add a Schneider Trivia Question: what was the song Pah requested each night at bedtime along with Popcorn Popping, Twinkle, Twinkle, and Five Little Ducks?

From John- This one is a classic. I heard some Germans singing it in Europe during the Euro 2012 tournament this summer, naturally I thought of Captain Woozenschnitzel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59fNJpDiIBQ

From Lindsay-
I loved sharing our first ultrasound pic with you because you were so sweet about it, replying back quickly with your excited remarks and then, 'looks like all is well!' I thought that was really nice comment and it helped me feel more confident about our new pregnancy. I appreciated your educated opinion! It's nice to get a medical view, AND, we hadn't heard the report by the Doctor yet so I was wondering a little, if everything was cool, but thought I'd share the picture anyway. ;) I love how you have a nice calming and soothing way about you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7K0Dp2M2fE

From Jordan-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SotI-Md3dy4"
Rachel this song makes me think of the doctor you will someday be. Giving out great advice to your patients in a chilled out and kind way.

From David-
A nice memory I have of Rachel has actually been during her past two birthdays. On her last two birthdays she invited me to come to her birthday party and to the birthday dinner at a restaurant (2011: Cafe Paesan, 2010: Red Robin) To me, this memory shows that Rachel will include people by making them feel important. I didn't really know anyone at the parties/dinners (except her roommates), but it was a nice and thoughtful way of Rachel making everyone be included without making a big show of it. Another thing I admired too from this was that you could tell the people she invited to her party/dinner were actually genuine friends and not people that she invited to have "lots of numbers." In short, genuine and inclusive. Keep it up Rach when you're 22!

From Melissa-
I remember when I told Rachel that Ian and I were engaged. She said, 'do you need a flower girl?' I hadn't really thought about it but it was perfect- she did the thinking about it for me. She was an absolutely wonderful flower girl. Recently when I was in Utah, she drove me to the airport. It was so helpful and great to visit with her. I love that she is so thoughtful and considerate.

From Spencer-
I couldn't find it on YouTube, but Hulu has it: Neil Patrick Harris plays the "Doogie Howser, M.D." theme song on Saturday Night Live.
Dr Rach will be a great doctor just like Doogie Howser was.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/53001

From Char-
I Run for Life
"If you ask her why she is still running she'll tell you it makes her complete. I run for hope, I run to feel, I run for the truth, For all that is real....we will be running as we have before. Running for answers, Running for more. " This song reminds me of your running which I think is so great. And also I think Melissa Etheridge's voice is bold and strong - just like you.
(I hope you can ignore that this song is supposed to be about breast cancer because I think those lyrics are quite meaningful taken out of context)
Happy Birthday! Love Char.

We love you!!  Happy Birthday!!

Halloween at Christmas

I am a little behind on my blogging, so I will pretend we were at a Halloween at Christmas Party! hahaa. we werent... but here is one pic I had to put up - Spence and I had such a fun time this Halloween coming up with costumes. We played around with a few ideas and decided to settle on '50's people!' It was so great because it was fun and simple. I borrowed a costume from my coworker and Spence pulled out his letterman jacket from his good ol days at Murray High. It was a really fun Halloween! Here we are at the Ward Halloween Party.

We also took a page from Puente's book and hit the pumpkin patch! SO fun! Spence especially loved the pumpkin thrower :)

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Last weekend was a blast.  Mom, Andrew and I got to go up to Vancouver to visit with the Johnsons and see Emma perform in a play called Dancing at Lughnasa. She played an Irish woman in the 1930's who had 4 sisters and she did awesome!

We also got to visit the famous Capilano Suspension Bridge, one of the top tourist attractions in Vancouver that none of us had been to!  Mom will recall that I was griping quite a bit because we weren't expecting to have to pay money to go across the bridge, but I'm glad we did because it was really cool!  It is a big park area now with quite a few other cool features besides the bridge itself, including a treetop walk and a cliff walk. The bridge is about a 250 m long and it spans a really deep valley, so it's kind of scary to cross!  The thing that amazed me the most is how strong it is- just a few years ago, a huge cedar came crashing down onto the bridge during a storm.  Not only did the bridge not break, it SNAPPED the tree that fell onto it!  Pretty amazing.  Makes you feel a bit safer as you walk across it!  If you haven't been, I definitely recommend it.  

Deliberate Motherhood

There's a little book that I contributed to that has been published and I just thought I'd share it with all of you.  It's called Deliberate Motherhood and has been written by mothers from all over the US and of course at least one contributor from Canada.  It's a lovely little read - here's a link to a review featured in Deseret News.  It was nice to be included in this project although lately I feel like the only motherhood book I could contribute to would be called something like "Bare Minimum Motherhood" hopefully I will get back to being deliberate soon enough.  The book is good encouragement for me anyway as is the quote below:

“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived.”

-Henry David Thoreau

 

Christmas Dinner

So we are fast approaching that time of year.  While I haven't heard final plans on who will be in Edmonton or where everyone will be for Christmas dinner I thought I'd send out a post soliciting input/thoughts on what would be included on your ideal Christmas menu.  I look forward to your thoughts.  By the way, Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving!

Yay for Thanksgiving!  It is one of my favorite holidays. Admittedly, I love all holidays, but Thanksgiving is pretty cool since it's a great chance to give thanks and an excuse to gorge yourself.

I'm sure you're already familiar with the history of Thanksgiving, but I'll give a brief recap.  The first Thanksgiving celebration was thought to be held in 1621 between the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians.  From then on, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states throughout the year.  It wasn't until 1863 that President Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

I am thankful for lots of things, and one of those is Thanksgiving!  This year was lots of fun because along with Mom, Dad, Rico and Beej, we had G&G and Andrew visiting in Seattle.  It was so great to have them! 

Ward Prayer

So, as some of you may know, there is a somewhat strange Sunday night tradition among the BYU singles wards. It is known as Ward Prayer.  The basic agenda is that people gather together to sing a hymn, have a spiritual thought, commemorate birthdays, make announcements, say a prayer, and of course, socialize.  That is the main event, probably.  I have noticed a distinctly different style of Ward Prayer in my current ward as opposed to my previous ward.  My previous ward made it quite an event, often taking an hour to accomplish these few tasks (they would include extra things like apartment spotlights which could take a long time).  This ward downplays the socializing a little bit and up-plays the spiritual factor, which in my opinion is a very good thing.
The reason I bring any of this up is because our house, by virtue of our large living room, is now hosting ward prayer for the winter.  Maybe by writing about it I will become more enthusiastic about several singles taking over our house every Sunday night for the next little while :) Yay!

We did get a picture from last night, for fun.

Real Places

A trip to Israel puts the Bible and even the Book of Mormon - which starts in Jerusalem - in a whole new light.  Dad and I loved our time there. It was a phenomenal experience for us to be in the places we'd read about since we were children.  Legendary names became real - the Sea of Galilee, Bethlehem, Capernaum, the Jordan River.

                                     The Sea of Galilee

The Garden Tomb -  many believe this is the actual site where Jesus was buried.

For us it was a life changing experience.  We hope each of you gets the opportunity to travel there someday.  (These are 'phone photos'. I'll post more as soon as I can download the ones on my camera!)

Kids and Halloween Candy

I love this video.  If you guys haven't seen it, you should watch it!  There is also another one done from the same show from last year.

Teaching & Learning at Home & at School

I just went to the coolest Seminar this morning that was really inspiring. It was held at a nearby Private School and the theme was Teaching and Learning at Home. The premise was that schools in the US are not in their full and best form right now because

1. there is sometimes too much of a focus on achievements and grades, not learning
2. Young students don't have enough play time (the ideal should be 'no child left inside' not 'no child left behind,' :)
3. the students are told to often to sit down, be quiet, and listen
4. there are a lot of standardized tests

This results in students who might make it through college and even enter work force but

1. can't self direct
2. have been so scheduled and celebrated and programed that they don't know how to complete things on their own!
3. cry a lot
4. expect that after such a list of achievements, they should be promoted all the time

and just basically haven't learned as much as they could in their schooling.

What schools really need is

1. to encourage students for their effort not results
2. be more project based instead of having students spew out memorized facts
3. collaborate with local businesses, charities, and cultural centers so students are more experience rich and not information rich/experience poor as they are now
4. to have individualized lessons to help students develop their own unique talents

This results in students who are

1. creative, innovative and problem solving
2. more like Steve Jobs/ entrepreneureal
3. curious, self directed
4. communicative and able to collaborate

So those are some of my thoughts after the seminar. It was interesting. Of course this is a generalized summation of some pretty deep ideas that are supported by studies and observation, but it was definitely eye opening!

Never Give Up, Never Surrender!

 

The title of this post comes from the movie "Galaxy Quest" (which, if you haven't seen, you should.  It's absolutely hilarious, featuring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan "Professor Snape" Rickman).  Essentially, the crew in the movie never gave up despite long odds and managed to defeat their enemy.

The same is true in sports.  As you know, I'm a strong advocate of never leaving a game early, even if your team is losing badly.  A sportswriter I read noted that if your team is down by a lot at halftime, you have just as much time to erase that lead as the other team had to build it.

Such a remarkable turnaround took place in England recently.  In a knockout tournament (not the regular English Premier League season) Jordan's favorite team, Arsenal, faced Reading, who had just been promoted to the top flight that season.  Arsenal was the obvious favorite, but Reading managed to strike first.  And second.  And third.  And, yes, fourth.  All in the 1st half.  When they scored to go up 4-0, the TV broadcast showed a couple of fans wearing Arsenal jerseys leaving the game in disgust.  Their loss, because they missed one for the ages.

Arsenal managed to get one back to go into halftime down 4-1.  In the 2nd haf, they kept chipping away and got another goal to make it 4-2.  Then they scored again, making it 4-3.  It took until the 5th minute of 2nd half stoppage time, but they got the equalizer to level the match at 4-4.  Because this was a knockout tournament, there had to be a winner, so it went to extra time.  Arsenal then scored again to make it 5-4, but Reading responded with their own equalizer.  Arsenal then got another two goals in the dying moments to win 7-5.

Don't leave early.  Never give up.  Never surrender.

Downton Abbey Mania!

I know many of us are fans of this British period drama! So for Halloween this year, I had the idea of dressing up as Lady Sybil and having Andrew dress up as Branson (everyone knows they're a better couple than Mary and Matthew, right?).  However, I didn't know how we'd be able to pull of authentic looking costumes.
Until... Andrew mentioned that his grandma sews costumes a lot and she might be willing to do it.  So he asked her and she said she would!  Not even a week later, our costumes arrived all the way from California.  I was so excited to see that the costumes were almost exactly the same as the ones in the show!  She is quite talented.
We wore them at our ward Halloween party on Saturday and got several excited comments from girls who had seen the show.  Yesterday, we decided to make our rounds about campus in costume.  A girl stopped us and asked if she could take our photo.  We agreed and she snapped us in our best Downton Abbey pose.  Little did we know that it would be posted to the BYU Facebook page an hour later!  They took lots of pictures of people's costumes throughout the day. There were lots of thrilled people commenting on our picture and it was very gratifying to see that so many people were fans.  My only regret is that I found out some spoilers about season 3 in the comments section... I haven't even seen season 3 yet!  Oh well.
Probably my favorite moment in this costume was when we were walking through the bookstore and the cashier's face lit up as we walked in.  She said, "you guys make me so happy!" It was a fun costume idea and I'm glad we could do it!  All thanks to Andrew's grandma!

 This is the picture that got us on the BYU Facebook page!

We took a picture before our ward's Halloween party on Saturday night as well.

Zionism

Zionism is an interesting concept.  According to Wikipedia, it is defined as a Jewish nationalism that supports a Jewish nation in the land of Israel.  Of course, Mormons have their own form of Zionism, but the general public seems to be ignorant of it.

So what does that have to do with what I'm writing about?  Well, nothing.  But I did go to Zion over the weekend!  Zion National Park, that is. 

 Andrew made me pose for a ridiculous amount of pictures on our way up to the top of this cliff, "Angel's Landing."

 

 

After hiking through Refrigerator Canyon and climbing 21 switchbacks, affectionately known as "Walter's Wiggles," we reached the spine of the cliff.  And yes, we are about to hike to the edge of the spine where Andrew's hand is pointing.  I should also mention that since 2004, 6 people have died on this section of the hike.

Luckily, we didn't die.  Here is a splendid view overlooking the park!

Movember is coming...

Last year we had a shining example of what Movember is all about thanks to John and his participation.  As a reminder, the stated goal of Movember is to help develop awareness and funding to cure various cancers that primarily afflict men.  The way to raise such awareness is by growing a mustache throughout the month of November.

For those of you who are participating (or are thinking about participating) and would like a guide on how to begin, Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson from "Parks and Recreation") is ready to give you a guide:

I will not be growing a mustache this November, but good luck to those who choose to do so.

"I Love to See the Temple"

Someone snapped this photo of Ollie, Ben and me at the Calgary temple open house this Saturday.
We left Edmonton at 7 in the morning and when we got close to the temple we had a hard time finding it - usually you can see it for miles around, but this morning an early snowstorm had completely shrouded it in fog.  The LDS community in Calgary has been working around the clock to accommodate the thousands of visitors coming through. Even though there were hundreds when we were there they had it organized so no one had to wait outside- thankfully :) Its a magnificent building.
The boys were quite taken with the whole experience and so was I.

"To Thine Own Self Be True"

Shakespeare was a pretty smart guy!  This past weekend I got to see Hamlet at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, thanks to Mom and Dad's ticket credit.  It was awesome!  Hamlet is of course a really dark show, but it's a fun one to see and I thought it was really well done.  The costumes and setting were early twentieth century, which was pretty neat.  The actor who played Hamlet himself was quite amazing.  The seats were up pretty close, so I could see spit flying everywhere when he did his dramatic monologues.
There are a lot of great lines that I had forgotten were from Hamlet.  It always amazes me how applicable Shakespeare's plays still are.  Mom, you'll be happy to know that I'm a definite fan!  Thanks again for the tickets!

World Cup Qualifications

The semifinal round of the qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil has just finished for the CONCACAF region, which includes the nations of North America, Central America and the Caribbean.  The teams who have advanced to the final round will now participate in the Hexagonal, or "Hex" playing all the other teams in the Hex twice (once at home, once away).  The top 3 teams in the Hex will advance to the World Cup and the 4th place team will face a playoff against the winner from the Oceania region to determine which team will make it to the World Cup.

The United States has advanced to the Hex by winning its group (which contained Jamaica, Guatemala and Antigua & Barbuda) as well as Jamaica (which benefitted from the US win against Guatemala).  The other teams in the Hex are Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras.

Canada was in the semifinal round, but unfortunately did not qualify for the Hex.  While I'm all for the United States doing its best, there was room for Canada to also make the World Cup and I wish both teams could have made it to the final round of qualifying.  The nice thing about the World Cup is that there's another one in 4 years.

Fall!

I think fall is my favorite season.  I admit it.  I've been trying to deny this realization for a long time, but there you have it.  Fall is the best!  A few of my reasons for loving this season are:

-the indescribable nervous excitement of starting a new school year

-the pretty leaf colors

-Thanksgiving (twice for a Canerican like me!)

-General Conference

-Halloween!

-My birthday (which is technically still in the fall)

-Caramel apple cider cookies (here is the recipe :))

-making and jumping into leaf piles

-scarf season

-the nippy weather which is perfect for drinking hot chocolate

And many more!  I'm sure you can all think of excellent reasons for loving this season.  I just wanted to share the love a little bit.  Happy fall everyone!

Outdoor Movies

There are so many neat things to try out here in LA! While in NY in Summer '01 I fell in love with the Bryant Park Outdoor Movie Screenings that Meliss and Jord and I enjoyed. The tradition continues... I got my 'outdoor movie fix' a few summers here by heading to the 'Hollywood Forever Cemetery,' once with Spence and Rach and Beej. But the listing of movies didn't strike Spence' and my fancy this year, so we excitedly tried out a couple other spots! This weekend we headed to the Pier with some friends to watch 'Hunger Games' on a big blowup screen they set up. It was a delightful event through 'Front Porch Cinema.'

Here's Spence air-keyboarding to the music they played before the movie. :) It was blissful to chill there on the Pier. Our other enjoyable outdoor movie this summer was a few weeks ago when we saw, 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' with some friends at the LACMA.

Here we are in the 'yellow spaghetti' as our friends' kids call it- it's really neat plastic strings hanging from the roof in the outdoor courtyard. Fun!! It feels cool to walk through. We'll see how the outdoor movie viewing trend continues. I will keep you posted.

On Our Way Home

One of the great blessings of these times is having living prophets on the earth.  For centuries after the deaths of the apostles there was no priesthood and no voice to speak for Heavenly Father.
There was great darkness and confusion.
No longer.  This weekends its our privilege to listen to living prophets.  I hope each of us will watch all sessions of general conference or as many as we can.  If we're in tune we will hear answers to the problems and challenges we're facing on our way home. Like a ray of light along the path.
Love to all,
Dad

Soccer & Parenting

Coaching 2 teams this year has really underscored how different my kids are from each other and has proven to be quite a parenting feat.  To break them down a little bit (in terms of soccer, at least):

Julian -- Loves the competition and is very enthusiastic (probably more enthusiastic telling and re-telling stories of his game time exploits).  Still a little nervous about fully engaging for fear of contact;
Caleb -- Has really been a struggle to kindle much enthusiasm for the game.  He does love being part of a team (cheers, joking with other kids) but could take or leave the game itself;
Jack -- 4 years of trying to keep up with his brothers has really made him a pretty great player.  He had 4 goals on Saturday before I asked him to help other kids score (where he had 3 or 4 more assists).  Very laid back in terms of personal stats and loved helping the other kids score as much as scoring himself.
Christian -- Definitely my most aggressive kid.  Sometimes goes after the kid rather than the ball.  Loves the competition and loves to promote his accomplishments (he had 3 goals on Saturday and held up a finger after each goal to indicate just how many points he was racking up).  

I wish that I could say in this post that I've mastered the intricate workings of each of my kids' minds, but such is not the case.  My efforts are just as likely to blow up in my face as yield the desired result.  That said, I'm crazy about each of them and grateful for the opportunity to be their dad. Soccer has been a good opportunity to really work with them and I'm grateful for that.

Drink, drink, drink!

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to get in touch with my German roots by attending Oktoberfest!  It took place up at Snowbird ski resort near SLC.  It was a beautiful setting with lots of fun things to do.  Of course, the main attraction for most people was all the biergartens, but there were a lot of other fun booths.

 Mine and Andrew's favorite thing was the main stage in the big food tent.  After we got an obligatory bratwurst (despite being $6, we decided we had to get one to share - they were so good!), we turned our attention to the stage where they were playing accordion music.  Soon, they announced an activity. Six women were called up, so with Andrew's urging I quickly made my way to the front.  The contest? Seeing who could hold a large stein, a 33 oz beer mug that weighs 2 lbs when empty, with a 2 lb weight in it straight out in front of themselves for the longest.  Somehow, through pure determination, I landed second place!  I didn't get a prize, but I was proud of myself for lasting that long.  Overall, it was a fun experience!  Andrew did the same version for the guys, the only difference being that they had 4 lbs in their stein instead of 2, and he got third!  Since neither of us have huge biceps, we thought we did pretty well.

We each bought a stein and made root beer floats in them later (as shown).  So don't worry, we didn't do any drinking there ;)

Locked Out

Fortunately, this isn't a post about how somebody lost a key to the front door or left the car keys in the car and locked it behind them, requiring the services of a locksmith.  Unfortunately, it involves sports and one of Canada's favorite things: Hockey.

There have been multiple lockouts in sports recently.  The NFL had two this past year (one involving the players, one involving the referees).  Both have been resolved (the referees lost 3 weeks of their season, the players didn't lose any games).  The NBA lost some games of the 2011-2012 season to a lockout, but managed to settle their differences in time for a shortened season.  Now it's the NHL's turn, with their second lockout of the millennium (the first being in 2004).

It should be noted that this is a lockout, not a strike, and there is a difference.  A strike is when the workers (in this case, the players) officially say, "We won't work."  A lockout is when the owners say, "We won't let you work."

As always, it's about money and how best to split it up between the players (who risk their health in playing a game) and the owners (who risk their fortunes in funding a game).  And as always, it's the fans who lose out regardless, since they don't get to watch the games.  So far, just preseason games have been lost.  Hopefully a settlement can be worked out before meaningful games get lost as well.

Tea Party: Provo Version

There were a lot of fun tea parties in Edmonton over the summer.  Beej threw one with some YSA people, and Mom threw one in honor of Ruby with the female family members.  I had such a good time at both that I have been scheming since then to throw a tea party of my own in Provo.  Last Sunday afternoon it happened!  I recruited Andrew and my roommates Emily and Amberly to help me.  Since Emily is from England, it definitely lent some authenticity to the whole affair :)

We had a lovely time with our other three roommates and a few friends from our ward.  We had egg salad sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, orange-cranberry scones, raspberry squares, English muffins, jam and clotted cream, assorted tea, and lemonade.  Turned out wonderfully!  Thanks Beej and Mom for the inspiration :)

I forgot to ask how to say 'amazing' in Thai

                                       

I have to share how cool its been to be at Karyn and Jim's these past few days and see all the things they're doing to get ready for their time in Thailand - especially seeing what Karyn is doing to learn Thai. When she picked me up at the bus depot there were a bunch of sticky notes on the steering wheel with Thai words on them so she can practice out loud while she drives.  She blesses the food and practices giving her testimony - all in Thai.  She's getting so good at the language that she even corrected Jim once while he was speaking it.  They have regular language training skype sessions with a recently returned missionary who served in Thailand.

They're doing all they can to prepare for their 12 month stint.  It's pretty obvious they're going to be off the charts amazing.  I've been totally inspired by all they're doing. They leave for Provo on Halloween day and they say they'll dress up as LDS missionaries for the occasion :)