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-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Wasatch Blvd,Salt Lake City,United States

What the future holds

I am a geek. That's right, you heard me. I am a total geek, and even a bit of a nerd. Ever since I was a kid, I have always been fascinated with all things space and science fiction. I grew up watching a bit of the old Star Trek, the newer creations of that show, Star Wars, Red Dwarf, Doctor Who, and many others. In elementary school, I was part of a young astronomers and astronauts after school group. I was convinced that I was going to go on to NASA and wear one of those stylin' white space suites. Sadly, I soon realized that with my poor vision, that would never happen.

Anyway, today, it hasn't changed much, I still love sci-fi shows and movies, I love watching the space launches, and even got to see the space shuttle piggy backed on the 747 transport plane a few years back when it landed in Salt Lake. My heart was dropped when I saw the Columbia break up on re-entry in 2003. So when I woke up and saw this on the news, it makes me worried...

Embedded video from CNN Video

I grew up imagining, and even still today, hope that there is life somewhere out there, and that our human race will find a future in space. So when the Government said that they are cutting back and beginning to retire the space program, it starts to shatter some kids, and even adults, dreams. I hope that the future holds something for our children to aspire to. Our parents got to see the first men in space, and even the first moon landing. We've gone much farther, but we're still tethered here on earth. I will continue to look to the stars, even when our government doesn't.

P.S. I just found this great site wechoosethemoon.org that chronicles in real time the Apollo 11 moon landing mission. Its the 40th anniversary, and we should all remember that great moment. Especially those of us that weren't around.

Our favorite show

So weve recently found this show to be one of the most entertaining shows on television. I dare you to watch this clip and try to not watch more. Once you see it, you'll be hooked.

Back from Cedar City

Well, we've been back from Cedar city for about a week. And it just seems like we didn't have enough time there. So every year we make our yearly homage trek to pay respects to the king of theater.....Sir William Shakespeare.

Usually we try and spend a full week, see one play a day, and spread it out over time. We also try and stay there over a full weekend. Since there are no plays on Sunday, it gives us a full day to go to Zions, Bryce, Brian Head, or wherever we feel like.

Unfortunately, we could only bee there for about 3.5 days. Luckily, Von and Marianne (Katie's parents) were there with us and they were nice enough to watch Caroline while we saw 1 or 2 plays a day from Thursday Night to Saturday night. The shows were great, we loved them all, and they always do such a great, professional job there.

Seeing as we were there over the 4th of July, we thought it was fitting that we should participate in some of the local activities. During the day, at the local park, there was a great party with food booths, blow up bouncy house slides, and craft tents to tantalizing the inner kids in us all. Unfortunately it was a little too much fun for one little girl. (See above).

The other "must see and do" at the fest is the Green Show. Its an old-timey entertainment show with dancing, singing, comedy, live music, and fun for all ages. Caroline really enjoyed seeing the dancers and listening to the music. But mostly, she enjoyed playing with the grass.

On Sunday, before our sad trip home, Von and I decided to go on a photo-hike. I probably took more than 3 gigs of pictures, and we had a blast. i love hiking in southern Utah. It started out as a dry hike up a mountainside. Then it turned into a hike in a shaded valley. Then became a meandering trail that crossed a stream many times. Then transmorphed magically right before our eyes into a beautiful narrow riverbed. It really is a great, short hike. If your interested in it, google "Kanarra Creek Canyon Hike". I highly recommend it.

So until next year, "parting is such sweet sorrow, hasta el proximo ano"

Whirl-wind Week

Wow, what a week its been. Where do I start.....

So Katie's sister heather is leaving on a mission. She was called to the Santa Maria, Brazil mission. But instead of going to the MTC here in Provo, she was sent to the MTC in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Its been a very emotional week filled with lots of family time spent together doing pretty much nothing. Just being together. I know that means a lot to Katie to be able to be there for Heather. Heather left on Tuesday morning.


But I'm getting ahead of myself. So to be able to spend as much time as we can with Heather before she left, two weeks ago, we all went up and spent the weekend in Park City with Katie's Family. We stayed practically right above the ticket sales booth at the foot of the lifts. It was a quite rainy, but we made the most of it. We rode the Mountain Coaster twice and just hung out around town. We had a blast and got to spend oodles of time with heather, and most importantly, Heather got to spend oodles of time with Caroline.

Then on Wednesday the 24th, we had a BBQ over at Uncle Max and Aunt Sue's house. They were leaving for a 2 week tour of Italy, so they would be missing Heathers farewell. They enjoyed seeing her, and she had so much fun over there....even if big ol Max looks scary, hes just a big softy on the inside. Hes great with kids too.






But the cutest thing was while we were over at Max and Sue's, Caroline was really interested in a little water fountain in their backyard. She really enjoyed splashing in it, and playing with the water. As Katie was holding her, I told Katie to let go of her. Katie was was like "what? are you mad?" I said just let go and see what happens. She held herself up so well like a big girl. We were all so proud.




Then she had her farewell in her ward and we had a goodbye party at their house. Lots of people showed up and we all had fun.

Then the morning of Tuesday, Katie Caroline and I went over to their house to have one more breakfast with Heather and the fam be fore she was off. It kind of reminded us of the months before our wedding. Every sunday, we'de gather at their house for either a sunday breakfast, or brunch and then discuss wedding plans. I really enjoyed it.

Then we were off to the airport. It was a very hard time for everyone. We found 4 other missionaries going to the Sao Paulo MTC, but none of them were going to the Santa Maria mission. There was one sister there that was going to the Sao Paulo East mission, and her younger brother was heading off to Australia 2 weeks later. Crazy!





On Wednesday, We celebrated what would have been Charlotte's 4th birthday. We had friends and family there. It was at Shannon's house and we had a little BBQ. Katie and were in charge of the meat. We decided to use Suzi's Kalbi BBQ recipet for chicken and flank steak. Katie was up late Tuesday night preparing it and we let it marinate overnight and all day Wednesday. Then I cooked it on their grill. Unfortunatley the recipet is a very inexact science (ie, some of this, a little of that, enough of this other ingredient to make it sweeter, and a dash of some more stuff). I think it turned out well, but it could have been a bit sweeter. I also think that I might have overcooked it all just a bit. The chicken wasn't as juicy as it could have been, and the flank steak was medium well to almost well done/chared. I know that thats how Katie likes her meat, but I preffere mine to still have some pink in it.

We are now up down in Cedar City enjoying the Shakespearean Festival. We are having a blast and never want it to end. Sadly, we'll have to come home on Sunday. Until then though, we'll enjoy celebrating our independence by seen some old English plays!

Family Portraits

So back at the end of May, we decided to get some family portraits done. Katie's friend Erin had used a professional photographer to do some portraits of Ella, so Katie decided to use her also. Being an avid yet novice photographer myself, I tried to not interject with "well I can just do it and save us some money."

We just got the disk of images the other day, and I'm so glad the went with the professional because they turned out great. I really couldn't have done any better. Her Name is Kathrine Wallin and she was a great photographer. You can find her blog HERE.
She did such a great job with Caroline and was very nice. Caroline had such a great time in the park and loved all the flowers around her. Unfortunately, it was during her morning nap time, so she didn't last very long. Towards the end of the photo shoot, we could all tell that she was getting quite tired and done with being posed and having the camera in her face. Fortunately, I've trained her well for that!
I hope that you all enjoy these images as much as we enjoyed having them taken. Kathrine Wallin gave us the rights to the pictures so if any of you want any copies, just let us know. These are just a smattering of the better ones.
This was over at the stream coming out of Memory Grove. The water was so cold that morning. We tried to get all of our feet in it, but it was running a bit to fast to stand in and I could barely stand to have my feet in it for more than a few minutes.
Caroline has the most beautiful eyes. She looked at me like this when she was born, and I never get tired of looking into her eyes and wondering what is going on in her little mind.

Dance like no body is watching!

Last Wednesday, we had the great opportunity to see my younger cousin Macenzie in her annual dance recital. She had been working so hard all year on getting all the steps down, and perfecting her techniques. I think that that she did a great job.
She has struggled a bit with what the doctors have determined to be muscular dystrophy. Ever since I knew her, she has had a bit of trouble walking and running without tripping over, or keeping her balance. I think that the dance classes have really helped her to over come those physical obsticals.
Seeing younger girls dance though is just good fun. There's always one or two that know the routine pretty well, then half of them have trouble following the teachers that are performing it in the wing away from view of the audience, and then there's one or two that either don't dance and look for their family in the audience and just wave, or sit down, or get scared and run off stage. Great fun!
Macenzie looked great in all of her dances, and in all of her outfits.