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.