Our babies have hatched!

Ok, so three weeks ago I was at Home Depot getting plants for the yard, and I see a sign that says "Praying mantises are here!" So I asked the cashier about it and she presented me with a cocoon pod looking thing in a purple net, and said each pod has about 200 mantises in it. They're good for gardens because they eat bugs you don't want. So we hung the net in our tree and today we were just so lucky so see them just as they all hatched. I'm not typically a bug person, but these things are cool. Even though they're only maybe a 1/4 inch long, you can see them turning their little triangle heads, looking at you as if to say, "What are you looking at?"

Awesome Lightning Storm

"Waahoo!That was totally awesome!", I yelled into the night at my brother Tim after catching some awesome night shots of a lightning storm this week. We went into an open field at the end of my street, and waited with excitement to see what the sky would do during each 15-30 second exposure time. In the words of my nine year old sister, Megan, "It was Epic!" Click on the picture to view full screen. Its much better.

Forrest Gump

My family from Utah came to visit this week. They're always up for anything, so I said , "Hey, lets make a music video!". And for the record, yes, we know we're dorks. Not bad though, for our first low budget film. Enjoy! Oh, and you may want to pause the background music before viewing.

My Pride and Joy of Summer.

To me this is summer! Eating oatmeal on my back deck, looking at the wonder of all the beautiful colors and textures, before I fly out the door to go to work. Enjoying the beauty of our hard work is just a nice calming way to start my morning, or just a nice place to sit on a moss rock and ponder whatever. I love our cancans fir trees because their branches are sparse like the ones I see in the mountains, but with very soft needles. I always think of them as my Charlie Brown Christmas trees. They get pink pine cones every other spring that eventually turn purple then brown. How cool is that!
The other bright spot in our garden is my concord grape vine. I can't wait till its a monster, and yields gobs of grapes....someday!

Friends We Love!

If you don't see your smiling face, e-mail it to us, and we'll plug you in the show.

Deutsch ist kühl

When my family moved from Germany back to the US, I always had a desire to go back and see the places I remembered as little boy. A couple of years I got that chance... and now I'm ready to go back again. There is something about that country that makes me feel at home. Of course it could be because five years of my childhood experiences were created there, but I'd like to think that there might be a different reason. Maybe an inexplicable connection to my ancestors, even though they came from Switzerland. Hmm, it seems I'm trying to create a false sense of reasoning in myself. I wouldn't be surprised, I do find my self consuming candy at an enormous frenzied hyper-gorging rate of speed... sometimes.

Back to Germany. Since I've been back I've wanted to learn German so I could obviously communicate with the locals. Maybe even more than that, so I can do genealogy research on my family's past, specifically following the line of my last name. Sure, members of my extended family have done tons of research but it seems that genealogy reaches a point where you have to do some digging. This digging is going to have to happen in Europe.

I purchased some German language cd's about a year ago and started listening to them a lot. A couple months passed and I had eventually forgotten that the cd's existed at all. Yeah, I'm good, huh?! So that brings me to now, where I had stumbled onto the cd's and have again, begun my immersion into the German language. If all goes well I'll be able to carry a conversation in German before we go back in... 3 years?

Wish me luck!

Life: Passing In and Passing Away

The past couple of weeks have been challenging and in a sense, spiritually rewarding. Veronica and I have seen the passing of her grandfather and our niece. This has given me reason to contemplate life and also view things from a different perspective.

The first passing, of Veronica's grandfather, although saddening, was something we didn't know when it would come, but because of his deteriorating condition, we knew that it would be within the next couple of years. We all know that as the body ages it starts to become more fragile and so it was in this case.

Just a couple of days before he passed away I mentioned to Veronica that we needed to plan a trip to the east and visit all of our relatives that are aging. I've never wanted the feeling that I didn't get to see someone before they passed. Of course in order for me to accomplish this I'd need to go to both the east and west coast. But I want the feeling that I at least tried to make it out to visit them.

The more recent passing of our niece, Sidney, struck us harder. She was traveling on a road trip with the rest of her family and didn't survive a vehicle accident. It completely devastated our family and extended family. How could such and innocent life be taken away from us? Nothing could explain the feelings inside. I then began to contemplate what my brother and his family could be experiencing. This brought me even greater sorrow. I love my brother so much, and to even try to comprehend what he might be going through brought me to tears. These are times that test our faith and who we are.

My wife and I were speaking with my mother last night and there seemed to be a feeling of wanting to be with Sidney. Not so much a feeling of wanting to be dead, but a feeling of holding her in our arms. You could see the fear of dying disappear. No more fear. It became as a stepping stone to what is to come. Not wanting to hasten this life's process but becoming more in tune to the Plan of Salvation. My mother told us that she mentioned wanting to be with Sidney to my father. My father replied, "What about your other grandchildren? What about Alli? What about Max? They need you too. What about me?" It's discussions like this that make you reflect on life. Growing up as a Mormon, we are taught strong family values. In fact you could say that our doctrine surrounds the family in the eternities. Principles that are made available by Jesus Christ.

I feel that Sidney has taught us a valuable lesson in what Heavenly Father has in store for us. Thank you Sidney. We love you very much.

A quote Sidney's father included on the funeral program:

"...I have meditated upon the subject, and asked the question, why it is that infants, innocent children, are taken away from us, especially those that seem to be the most intelligent and interesting. The strongest reasons that present themselves to my mind are these: This world is a very wicked world; and it … grows more wicked and corrupt. … The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again... Notwithstanding all this glory, we for a moment lose sight of it, and mourn the loss, but we do not mourn as those without hope.” -Joseph Smith