So, guess what?! I got to see Wicked again last night in LA. My best friend, Adam Lambert, from high school is in the LA production and he is the understudy for Fiyero, the male lead. Last week he found out that he would be playing the part of Fiyero on Tuesday night. He usually only finds out about an hour before the show and so this was a huge deal that he could tell people farther in advance. So I decided to jump on it and buy tickets to go see him in it. I called around to the friends to see who could go on this short notice and ended up being joined by my old roommate Sandy and the Gill family (Kristy's family). Kristy, Adam and I were a pretty tight squad in high school so it was awesome to have her there so we could all see each other again.

I left work early last night and we drove up. We got to Hollywood around 4:30pm and we went to Johnny Rockets for dinner, which was good but seemed a lot more greasy during the day. I don't know why - maybe I wasn't as hungry as usual or I could just see the grease shimmering in the daylight, not sure. It was pretty good but my stomach wasn't very happy that I stuck a burger and onion rings in it before I sat down for two and a half hours. Anyway, so after dinner we still had quite a bit of time to kill so we just cruised around the mansions in Beverly Hills - pointing out the ones we liked and the ones that were over-the-top and wishing we lived there. I think Coronado is the closest thing we have to that down here in San Diego - and I think I much prefer it. Something about having a body of water separating you from the dirty of a city...I like that.

Around 6:30pm we decided to head to the Pantages theatre so we wouldn't get caught in too bad of Santa Monica Blvd. traffic. We made it there by 7pm and met up with Kristy and her family and made our way in. We were all very excited to see Adam playing Fiyero, I think Kristy's mom was the most excited! We had really good seats so that was really nice. Poor Sandy had a head cold so she was sniffling the whole time. :(

The show was amazing, as usual. It was the understudy for Elphaba as well but she was really really good. The normal Glinda was there and she was absolutely hilarious. I really just love that show...it gives me chills on almost every song. Adam made his entrance and he was very good. I loved his version of Fiyero!! He didn't go over the top on the songs - only let a few notes show his voice's sometimes overpowering qualities - but it really worked. Overall, fantastic and I am really glad I went.

Afterwards we went around to the stage door and talked to Adam briefly when he came out. It was crazy cause I haven't seen him in like 4 years but it was so good to see him again. I had forgotten how good of friends we were. We were joking like old times. Now I just wish I could hang out with him more often. Good to see that he hasn't changed too much. Only changed for the better... :)

Anyway - that was my mid-week impromptu adventure for this week!! Thought those of you who knew Adam would be interested.

Oh, also I did a comparison shot of Kristy, Adam and me in 2000 and then us now...crazy ,huh? (ignore the stage makeup) Seven years can do a lot. :)

April 2000 - Pirates of Penzance

July 2007 - Wicked

Also - for those of you that know the show and/or Adam, here is a video of him doing the song "As Long As Your Mine" with the girl who played Elphaba last night.

SO Buffy and I had a lot of fun with her family in Mormon Lake AZ. It was interesting with the coyotes howling and the elk calling out, made for fun nights. It was great to see her family and be able to spend time with them. We also discovered a fun game to play in the back yard. It is called Red Neck Golf and I will introduce it to all of you. Here are some pictures of our trip.

Well, Andrew has officially started walking. Mom and Dad were here yesterday and he was walking all over for them. He has been doing it a little here and there for the past couple weeks but he really didn't start doing it until this last weekend. Now he pretty much walks anywhere he can. He does sometimes look like a drunk while he is walking but it is fun to see him get so excited that he can do it. He will be 12 months as of the 30th and is just growing bigger every day.

As you probably have noticed, we have been mia for a while. Marnie even asked me if we were still alive yesterday. Well, the last two weeks I have been out of town in Utah working volleyball camps and hanging out with family there. On the 3rd we drove to Delta, UT to visit Peter's sister and her family for the 4th and had tons of fun. We got to play in a 4 on 4 grass volleyball tourney and attend our first ever demolition derby. If you haven't experienced one of those you must! It was awesome and definitely crowded. They just kept selling tickets no matter if there were enough seats or not. Crazy I know but you would understand if you have been to Delta. Anyways, the 5th we headed up to Orem and that is when I began my 86 hours of work that I worked to get ready for the team camp and doing the team camp at UVSC. Peter took off home the night of the 5th and left me and Andrew in Orem. We stayed at Peter's neice and her husband's basement apartment and they were very gracious to help with andrew on the days of the team camp where I worked until 11pm. It was fun to see everyone from UV and be able to catch up wih some of them. It was a long week but it was definitely worth the money to work it. I headed back home Saturday and pretty much have been relaxing since.

Mom and Dad flew thru Boise yesterday and we got to see them in their 8 hour layover here. It was nice to see some of our family here and we seriously cannot wait until we see you all in August. I am so excited to come over and be able to hang out with you all that will be there.

The pregnancy is going well. I am so impatient and want to find out what we are having because it is so hard to walk thru baby girl stuff at the store and not be able to buy any. Yes I am hoping for a girl but i wouldn't mind another boy. Peter of course refers to it as a boy and only ever wants boys. He says he is scared of having girls. I know he will love it if we have a girl though. I have still been sick and have the pickiest selection of what to have. I never had this with Andrew but some much stuf never sounds good to me and like if I have to have it I have to force it basically down my throat because I know I need to eat. Thus I am not eating alot and am actually losing weight rather than gain. But I am sure I will get past this stage and want to eat everything in sight.

Well I guess I will add some pics and be going. Peter decided to put andrew in the dryer and I think Andrew liked it so much he wants to live there. Also a pic of the look we get when he crawls to the bathroom if we are in there. It is so funny. And his pants were falling down while he was looking at the computer and couldn't resist taking a pic. I will try and get a video of him walking soon on here, I just have to take one soon. We love you all and can't wait to see those that will be camping with us soon. The rest of you, we hope to see you sometime in the near future.

We thought we'd leave Rexburg after church on Sunday at about 1:30 pm. We left about 4pm. Got to Yellowstone and watched Old Faifthful blow about 8 pm. Then, unwisely determined that the best way home was to go to the South Exit, only to find we were in Grand Teton National Park. We rolled into Jackson Hole about 11pm. Headed out after dining at Wendy's, over the Teton Pass (10% grade up and down at night: FUN!............then, through rolling hills, farm land and who gives a yahoo where else and somehow ended up in Rexburg, via backroads at about 1 am. E.....gads!........Prior proper planning prevents ---ss poor performance....and it didn't, because we didn't plan. We're home in Vancouver now. Love it. Dad

...what the people that I work with look like, here we are in a staff photo we took today. Michelle ordered these nifty t-shirts for us to have so we had to commemorate with a picture.

From left to right: Sheryl, Michelle, Linda (holding Tommy), Brian, Andra and Me

WE DID IT!! After waiting in line for 5.5 hours to see the movie...I saw it. We got in line around 6:30pm and already had about 50 people in front of us for the midnight showing!! We had a little drama because they split everyone into about 5 or 6 different theaters but when we all bought our tickets it didn't give us a choice so all of us ended up in the same theater except one of Kristy's law school friends...but we worked it out and she got to go in with us. Harry Potter super fans were in full force. People were dressed as the wizards, almost everyone had some kind of Harry Potter paraphernalia going on. People brought card tables, games, chairs...they were ordering pizza...the missionaries were even walking the line! One lady had a sorting hat and was going around "sorting" people into Hogwarts Houses and giving them little laminated cards for which house they were in.

They finally let us in around 11pm and we got the perfect seats that we wanted!! Yay! Marnie can put her feet up! :) The movie was really good. I think it was a better movie for those that have read the books than for those who haven't. Michelle (who hasn't read the books) said that there were a lot of parts that she felt weren't explained very well. I agree with her but I did really like it. I liked it better than the 4th anyway. I'll put a full review on my blog later today. But the movie sure did get me excited for the new book next week! Now I just have to re-read the 6th book before then! Wish me luck!

Here are some pictures of Kristy, her sister Mandy and Brooke waiting in line...as well as, the line.




Oh - also, Brent and Dave, sorry I didn't answer but I didn't want to hear about how you guys had already seen it...nice one. :)

So I always figured that being a mom would bring new and different challenges but I never expected to hear those words come out of my mouth! This morning Hayden came down to breakfast wearing only a shirt. I asked him wear his pajama bottoms and underwear were and he said they got turned inside out when he went potty so he couldn’t put them back on. I told him to go get a new pair and he insisted that he was fine and didn’t need anything on... hence the formation of the new rule at our house! It’s always exciting around here!

We’ve had a fun and busy time this past week. I decided at the last minute to take a trip to Utah for the 4th of July because my brother and his wife were there visiting and Tom had duty on the 4th and I figured I might as well go while I could because I certainly won’t be making the drive alone once the new baby is born. I left on Sunday afternoon and stayed with a friend in St. George and drove the rest of the way Monday morning. I was REALLY nervous about the drive and worrying I would get too tired or the kids would get too restless but it all went really well. The time in Utah was a lot of fun, I went shopping without the kids, played games, went hiking and just enjoyed hanging out. We went to a carnival on the 4th of July and then to my grandma’s house where several cousins and other family members gathered for a picnic and the firework show from the BYU stadium. Thursday morning we woke up and headed back home, miraculously making it all in one day. I’ll admit that when we had to stop in Cedar City for lunch, earlier than I had planned I was getting really nervous thinking we would never make it... but then things worked out and we made it home just fine! A short trip, but lots of fun.

To our good fortune Tom got off work early on Friday and we got to enjoy being together and then that evening we got together with another new GPR and his wife. They are LDS and have a little boy who is 14 months old. They were really nice and it was fun to talk to someone else in our situation. On Saturday Tom had duty so I just hung out with the kids all day and then in the evening we picked up a pizza and drove down to visit Tom for dinner and for a little baseball in the courtyard. I tried to do some shopping as well for new sandals and a new swimsuit for Danica and it was ridiculous. I must be quite the sight trying to keep my kids contained, especially Danica... it is so tiring I won’t be trying that again soon. I’m getting more used to Tom being gone at night but I still don’t like it!

On Sunday we had church and Tom and I got callings in our new ward. He was called as the Weblos leader and I am on the activities committee. We’ve never done either of these callings so it will be a new experience. My calling is obviously supposed to be fairly low key since they realize I have my hands full being due so soon... a luxury you get in a huge ward like this I suppose. Speaking of due dates, I am less than 6 weeks away from mine and currently feeling very pregnant! I don’t remember feeling this “pregnant” with Danica but I suppose that is because I didn’t have Danica to carry around and I didn’t have any stairs to climb. I can tell I am carrying this baby differently than I carried Danica which is encouraging since I don’t want another breech baby! I could feel Danica’s head up at the top of my belly and I can’t feel that this time. I finally have my first doctor’s appointment on Wednesday so hopefully I can get a lot of answers then. I am in denial about how soon it is but I better get moving on doing some basics like figuring out where the maternity ward is, buying some newborn diapers, finding some newborn clothes, etc.

Marnie came over on Sunday night for dinner, some kite flying at Hilltop Park, a trip down memory lane cruising the old neighborhood and then a long night of trying to come up with a name for the baby. Marnie was very helpful in flying the kite and trying to come up with baby names. However, we figured out with names that there aren’t very many names that Tom likes at all so I don’t really know how we are going to come up with one. It’s going to be like last time where I just come up with name after name after name until I finally say one that he likes and that is the one we use! I can’t even bring myself to worry about a middle name yet... yikes!
Okay, Tom is dismayed by how long this is... I better stop. It’s great to hear all the updates from everyone else! Enjoy your week!



Hayden enjoyed an inflatable dinosaur slide at the 4th of July carnival.

Hey Gals,

So I just received my Friends and Family Coupons. I will send them out to you or give them to you. Please post a comment if you want one. I will only give them if you will really us it as there are many people who want them. Brooke you can ask your sister if you want to take your place.
Other then that I will make it quick as I need to go get ready for work. Buffy and I are getting ready to go to AZ for her Papa's 80th birthday celebration at a ranch by Mormon Lake, AZ. It should be a lot of fun. We fly out on Friday morning. Mom if you are in town we could use a ride. Our flight leaves at 630 am. If not we will park the car at the airport. We are loving our house and so are our cats. We have tons of frogs in our back yard. I see them jumping around when I mow the lawn. Work is doing well and I am trying to keep up with all the changes in Gap Inc., lots of changes in upper management as changes were needed. Anyhow that is my post but we will give a run down of the trip next week. Mom we think we left our camera in the expedition. It is in a red case. Can you check for us? Thanks

Hello Fam. I don't have a great excuse for not blogging like Tom does. He has a real reason, mine just involves being convinced that there will be a moment later in the day that is less busy and then there never really is. Of course I can't say that about the last several days, that has been just plain laziness and a desire to just hang out with my husband.

Everything is going well here. We have had really cold, wet, weather for quite a while now but this weekend we had two sunny days and we used both (we'll repent later). On Saturday we took the kids to Playmobile, a great park in Nuremberg, based on- yes, Playmobile toys. The girls loved it. Most areas had some way in which you got wet and next time they'll wear their swimsuits but I did have a change of clothes for Ellyn and she got the wettest. It was only supposed to be 72 degrees so we wore layers but I think it ended up much warmer. Of course it could all be relative to the lovely 57 rain, wind, we had on the fourth so who knows. Yeah, it didn't make me bitter at all when we saw everyone in the sunshine, in the boat, on wave runners. Nope, I was totally fine with it. As we drove home Jane started feeling sick and she ended up with a fever all night Saturday night. I don't think it was heat exhaustion-it wasn't that hot, but we made her drink alot and now she has a stuffy nose and a sore throat and a slight fever so I think she just picked it up somewhere.

Yesterday morning Mike had to work and I wasn't going to take Jane to church so we stayed home. Mike came home and Jane felt good and so we drove up to a famous cave near here and did the tour. Jane started feeling lousy again so we drugged her up, she felt great after a little bit and so then we took the kids to the alpine slides. They all loved them, even Ellyn. We had a great time. We just pretended we were out of town- I know, bad, we are just running out of time.

Ellyn is back to having some sleep issues again. She falls asleep just fine, she just wakes up at about 3 and that is not good. Luckily she slept through the night a few nights in a row while Mike and I were staying up till about 1 every night watching LOST, season 3. I really love watching LOST that way, 24 as well. You just stay so involved and you don't forget things and you don't have to wait for commercials or next week for that matter.

We leave this time next week for France for two weeks, I think Mike wrote that. We still had the last four days up in air as far as what we were going to do but I called Martha and she e-mailed us some wonderful suggestions for all along the way and I think we will have a great time. I'm a little bit nervous for Ellyn's night times but it will all work out somehow.

The girls are great. Jane now has two girls on our street that are her same age and they all get along really well. This is the first time she has had girls her age to play with since we lived in Georgia. She is really loving it and I am just trying to be patient with the silliness of 11 year old girls when they are all together (actually it is not really Jane or one of her other friends, just the other one). Jane has been such a help this summer and such a good little friend it is going to be hard to send her back to school. Sadie is growing up so fast and she is so dang smart and funny. However, she still gets furious with us if we laugh at her funniness, which is hard. Saturday we had a fly in our car and she said that the reason flies try to get in the house and in the car is because they are cold and they just need some tiny coats, Mike said that would slow them down, and she said that was good- it would make them easier to kill. Our day is filled with stories like that and it makes life fun. Ellyn is busy being a very happy kid. She has really started pointing to the things that she wants and that has taken alot of frustration out of those times when she is upset. She has become very independent and that has been a bit of a challenge. Last Sunday she got out of the house right after church and Jane's friend found her down the street. That was with Jane and me in the kitchen just a few feet away and bells on the door and Jane put the chain lock on the door but she had already slipped out. Zarah brought her to the door just as I was about to go get her to put her in her chair for lunch (thinking she was watching a movie on her chair) or there could have been absolute hysterics at our house. I had ordered a medical bracelet for her earlier in the week and after lunch on Sunday I went upstairs and ordered motion detectors for the doors with a little chime that goes off when the door is opened. The volume can be increased and at night it can be set on alarm mode. That should help. Am I a little nervous as to how life is going to be after Mike leaves and we have another little one in the house- maybe just a bit.

Mike and I are fine. Mike's crazy schedule finally slowed down a bit so we've had him home more often. He is still stressed but I think the last few days have helped that as well. I'm as big as a house and find that my energy level is definitely starting to fluctuate. Some days are great and some days take alot more willpower to be productive.

I think that about wraps it up. Barb, you are going to be sorry that you asked to hear from me on the blog. You now have a novel full of my babbling. We love you all and miss you. The girls talk about you all constantly. Take care. Love, Brooke

So I have finally figured out why I have trouble posting on this site. It has to do with the fact that every time I do post, which is rare, I feel like I am typing forever, to the point that I have blisters on the ends of my finger. Then, I have to put those band aids on the ends of my fingers, and there really is not any good size for those band aids. The other thing is that they fall off frequently and so then I have to keep replacing them. The only way that I can keep them from falling off is to try to keep from washing my hands. But, that is not really an option because I have to wash my hands when I use the bathroom, so, I find myself trying to limit my trips to the bathroom, like only a few times a day. That puts a real damper on anything I want to do because I just keep thinking that I have to use the bathroom and not about whatever I am doing. So, instead of spreading it out, I just choose to drink less water and liquids overall. We all know that is not the path to go down, you need water. So the lack of water just hurts more then helps so I don't do that for very long. So, as you can see, blogging is really not an option for me. I need my hands to do what I do. I reckon that is why we don't hear much from David either. Have a little pity, our money makers are doing their best.

Enjoyed your blogs...Kim and Marnie. I've been recovering from the trek...at least I think that is what it is. I have been so tired this last week and it's definitely not pregnancy!

I just went back and realized that I had not written about the trek. It was very fun...although also very hot. The first day we walked five miles....almost all up hill. It probably would have been better if it were all uphill because the down hill is what gets Dad. He was really sore when we got in to camp after dark. He also was suffering with a bit of dehydration so he was pretty out of it. After a night's rest (if you can call it that...I felt like a chicken on a rotiserie, I was so uncomfortable), we were up and ready to go when we were informed that we were going to be replaced and needed to take a girl over to the hospital. The Doggett's came and walked the 11 miles with the kids that day while we made 2 trips to the emergency room. We drove up to the camp area and cooked and slept with the kids. The next day Dad took the sickies down in the car while I walked with our family. I tried to help pull the cart from the front but it was unfortunately downhill. I felt like the cart was going to run over me...and I had to really move fast at the other's pace. I'm sure I was quite a sight! I lasted about 5 minutes...and think I may lose 2 toenails as a result of it. I really admire those kids and how resilient they were. A lot better than me!!!! Dad had two trips to the hospital that day and I accompanied him for the second. A cart had run over a girl's foot just as they came into the "Valley".

When we came back from Trek we had D & A and B & B over for games on Saturday night. Sunday morning I picked up Melody and John from the airport. They then came home and slept (it was an overnight flight) and then had lunch with us when we got home from church. They left about mid-afternoon for home and we went to the final Trek fireside that evening. Dad has already covered the other exciting events of Wednesday and Saturday. I've been trying to get back into the groove of my work which has been a bit impeeded by my remote computer locking up. That looks like it was solved on Friday so I should be able to make some headway this week. Besides, I am going over to Tri-Cities on Thurs-Fri and will be starting on a new project in addition to the grant.

Grandma is still rolling along. We think we may have found a solution to her picking at her bandages...I am sewing socks to the bottom of her sweatpants. It will be interesting to see whether that works! I am also battling with her bandage company which sent 2 large boxes of these very expensive bandages and still had some on backorder...I think someone made a typo and added a 0 at the end. Then they didn't send what we needed because of the way the doctors wrote the prescription. Oh well!!!

We are having a party for the"yellow company" on Friday night. It should be fun to get together but will be a little hectic since I won't be back from the tri-Cities until 5....the party starts at 7...and we are leaving early Saturday to go to Rexburg to see Kim and Treven. We should be able to see Anne and Peter on our way back as we have an 8 hour layover in Boise!

We had a great Sacrament meeting today. The new stake presidency came to speak to the ward. The talks were great and really brought the spirit. One comment that particularly struck me is that we need to look at what in our lives is keeping us from a closer association with Christ. I've been pondering that ever since. I think I have quite a lot that I need to work on.

I love all of you...more than you know.

Mom

Thanks, Mom, for trying to jump-start the blog again! I was going say something earlier but forgot too. Although it was good to hear from Dad!

Not too much going on in my side of San Diego. Last week I went to a few BBQs at some friend's houses for the 4th and for some housewarming parties. Of course I ate too much at those BBQs so I haven't felt super hot for the past few days - kinda threw me off. But I am back to normal now and feeling good.

Work is good. It has been pretty busy the past few weeks with a lot of editing and publishing of workbooks and guides for revised and custom programs for different companies. I am still really enjoying it and it is nice to be busy.

This week I am very much looking forward to seeing the new Harry Potter movie. It is released on Wednesday the 11th so a few friends and I are going to see it at midnight on Tuesday. It will make for a long day at work on Wednesday but I am a full proponent of seeing movies like HP that have such a solid fan base at the first showing. It makes for a very different movie-going experience. There is cheering and laughing and lots of audience reaction. Very fun. So in order to get a good seat we will be getting in line around 6-6:30pm so I think my friend Kristy is bringing games to play while we wait. :)

Then the next weekend (20th-21st) I will be getting my copy of the 7th and final HP book!! I am very excited about that but it also is a little sad that once I am finished reading it that will be all. I am planning on getting the book at midnight on Friday from Borders where they will be having a big hoo-ha for the release which is always fun. Then I will be reading it right away all day Saturday. I really don't want to have the ending ruined by the stupid media that inevitably will do so for many people.

Then it is Comicon week! :) That is what I am most looking forward to. They have released some of the programming already so I am very excited. I was having a dilemma earlier about whether I would be able to see the LOST stuff because they usually have it in a different room than the big movie room and logistically it is about impossible to switch rooms in the middle of Saturday. But I am very happy because some very smart person decided to move the LOST panel to Thursday night when there won't be any conflict!! So I will definitely get to go to that! The main writers and exec producers, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, will be there as well as creator J.J. Abrams (who also did Alias, Felicity, MI:3) to talk about Season 4. Also they have released some of the movie stars that will be there like: Robert Downey Jr., Clive Owen ( Sin City, King Arthur, Children of Men), Andy Samberg (SNL),the entire Heroes cast, all the Simpsons people...anyway that is what they have released so far. Also it is the 30th anniversary of Star Wars so they will be doing a big thing for that.

Also - just a plug - I changed my personal website that is linked on the right to a blog and jazzed it up a bit. Now it is just movie reviews, so I will be posting my opinions of movies that I am watching. Feel free to leave comments if you have them. :) It is called "From the Upper Right" because that is where I always sit in the movie theater.

Anyway - enough of my geekiness. I am really enjoying the summer weather. It has been a little too humid the past couple days but other than that it is great. I still need to go the beach (for something other than running)...maybe this Friday. Ok - now that I have run out of things to say...I'll leave the continued writing up to the rest of you! :)

It won't let me put a title....

Anyway, we are doing great here in Rexburg. Our niece left last Tuesday. It was so nice to have her here to help with Melia. We got a lot done with school, but now it is our last week of school then finals so we are a little busy. We are excited to get a break from school. For me, I will get a 7 week break and Treven doesn't have school until January.

I start Melaleuca again this week. They started a new reward program where you build points and once you hit 200 or 400 or 600, you can trade the points in for something. Since there will a lot of people gone during the 7 week break they are giving 50 points a week for attendance and being on time. They usually give 50 points a month. I am going for the Plasma TV at 600 points first. At 200 points is like a ipod nano, surround sound system, or motorized scooter. 400 points is a video camera, xbox 360, video ipod with a car input thing, a roundtrip ticket from Salt Lake City to anywhere, or a kitchenaid mixer. Then at 600 points is the Plasma TV, a roundtrip ticket from Idaho Falls to anywhere, a projector, a playstation 3 or a laptop. There are more I just can't remember them all. It has definitely worked to have people stay or come back!

Treven is really busy with work. He got another raise so he is now earning 10.50/hour. Summer, especially around July 4th, is really busy so yeah. He may be able to come for just Friday night Saturday and Sunday the weekend of the camping. The weekend after that he is doing alone because both the other guys he works with will be gone. SO he definitely deserves a weekend off. The only problem is we are trying to figure out how to get him over there fastest...

Well, Melia is crawling a pulling herself up on things. No teeth yet but we can see the bottom front two underneath the gums and she has been crazy lately so I think they are coming. She is now 8 months old. It is going so fast! She likes to eat off of our plates. She will crawl over and just stand next to you until you give her some. It is pretty funny

Mom and Dad are coming on Saturday and Treven has off this weekend (FINALLY! He has worked the last 3). It should be fun to go somewhere!

I think that is it. We will post pictures later! Love you all!

Kimberly

Mom suggested that we go to the Historic Automobile Races at the Portland Interenational Raceway, yesterday. I have to give her great kudos for making the suggestion as I found it to be exactly what I needed to take a break and enjoy what I really enjoy doing with my leisure time. That does not put family activities in second place because I had mom with me and we both really enjoyed sitting out in the sun and watching the old cars traverse the course. It was a stroll down memory lane for us. I can't knock the pulled pork sandwiches offered there for lunch. If you should venture our way here next July, I would really like to take you to the event. It is a Thursday through Sunday schedule but going just on Saturday would fill your passion for cars, if that fits your desire. Join us next year, if you can. Dad

Or did the new format scare everyone off? We need to hear from all of you! I'll write later today as I need to get a lesson prepared for Relief Society today right now.

Love you all,

Mom

Drove it too fast with my mother in the right seat. The Chevy dealer in Davis, CA drove one like this to our home in West Sacramento for me to test drive. My parents were seriously considering buying one for me. Cost then about $4200.00. It was red like this one. I took my mom for a spin out behind the East Yolo Port District on a nice straight, unused blacktop roadway. I got on the gears and throttle too fast and my mother said, "No Way, Jose". So, I had to wait until I was 58 yo to get my own. I'd probably be dead, had I gotten this one when I was 17 years old. Dad/Kenn

To cover a 92 degree day, we opted to sail the mighty Columbia via pontoon boat and two waverunners. Would probably have just taken the pontoon boat and gone up the Willamette River to view the waterfront of Portland...maybe next time. Dad

Great job Marnie. Thanks all for the addressess, now wait for all the spooks to show up at your door to ask questions.

Mike

Marnie, that looks pretty dang classy.
Dave

Thanks to Dave for giving me the controls to mess with the blog. I have done so, as you can see. Let me know if anyone can think of something they want changed, added, or deleted. Thanks!

Need address and phone number for Marnie, Brent, Tom, Kim as fast as you can e-mail it to me for something security clearance related, mike.stinchfield@gmail.com .

Thanks,

Mike

There is a new video on our blog of Hayden swimming a little bit. He has been working really hard to get better. Hope you like it. It is a large video so just be patient on the download time. It took me about a minute.

...Sawyer Michael Stinchfield by unanimous vote. As you Lost fans know, Ben was once Henry, both names we considered and have now dropped after resuming our viewing of Season 3. Having said that, Sawyer is not named after Sawyer, just a name we really like.

We went to Nuremberg yesterday to visit the zoo and on the way visited some of the historic rally grounds of the National Socialists (Zeppelinfeld). I had just watched a show on iTunes (History Channel) called Lost Worlds, episode "Hitler's Supercity"and so I had some background that the Germans weren't going to have posted. For example, the lake there was going to be a 400,000 seat superstadium, and in fact became a lake over the years as it filled with runoff water. The Colosseum he had built still remains there. The zoo was nice, with a great doklphin show. Of course, Ellyn thought it was the pool and was loudly attempting to join the dolphins throughout the whole show. The kid absolutely loves water.

Just over a month or so until I leave. We have block leave starting on the 13th and we have decided we will spend 2 weeks in France. Initially we will spend a few days in Normandy, lodging in Caen, so that we can go see the D-Day landing beaches and surrounding area. Then we have some time booked at Euro Disney, staying at one of the themed park hotels (Davy Crockett Ranch). After that we stay in Paris and then we are trying to find a place in southern France, especially somewhere near Carcassonne, which is a family favorite board game of ours. Speaking of Carcassonne, it is now available on XBOX live arcade and is a very nice implementation even if it is currently missing a lot of the available expansions. Catan was also made available recently and is well implemented. Soon Puerto Rico and a few others are making their way to the XBOX live arcade as well. Anyway, if anyone has Carcassonne, I would love to play sometime.

Had some tough times in my first month of command. I am sure most of you know the story of the Soldier who was killed. I would rather leave it at that. Tragic loss, simple mistake where he went the wrong way into the line of fire. If anything, I hope it has made us a stronger organization to deal with our inevitable difficulties that lie ahead.

Anyway, have not heard from many of you...I am sure you are all very busy. Would love to talk before I head out.

Mike