Still not the world's forum for great thought
If you just want the highlights, see the video at the bottom of the page. Otherwise, read on…
When Afton was working on her class schedule for high school a couple of years ago, and I saw that a Portuguese class was being offered, I bribed her into taking it by telling her I’d taker her to Brazil if she did.
Continue reading “Rio”London, Paris, New York — the three that always seem to top the list of iconic world cities. I visited the first two many years ago but had never made it to the one in my own country until this past August, when we went for our family summer vacation.
Continue reading “New York”“He’s done already!? Wow! Did that seem fast to you, too?”
That was a pretty typical response from ward members when they learned that Gerrit was finishing his mission to Hong Kong and would be home November 14th. Yes, sometimes it seemed to go fast. Other times slow. And now that he’s home, somewhat dream-like. Did that really all happen?
Continue reading “Gerrit’s Homecoming”We’ve just had the most vexing day — very vexing indeed.
No, I haven’t just woken up from a coma or sustained a head injury causing me to speak like a 19th century heroine. I have no desire to give you affright, chastise ne’er do wells for being beef-witted blackguards, drink from a stoup, or give a concert on my pianoforte. But, as is our wont to make you ware of our sundry and varied exploits, I will share our most VEXing experience.
Normally, a few weeks further into summer, Shannon and I would be saying, “We really ought to do some kind of family vacation!” Then we’d try to figure out what and where and when, which is always the hard part for us. So in an uncharacteristic bit of pre-planning, we had the basics figured out clear back in January, and the trip completed a week into the summer break.
Continue reading “Hawaii without (really noticing) Garbage Cans”
For our family vacation this year, we decided to go on a cruise. A large part of the appeal was a reduced planning effort compared to our previous epic road trips. No decisions about how far we’d go on a particular day, where we’d sleep, how long we’d stay somewhere, etc. It also gave our family a chance to experience several “firsts”.
Memphis, Nauvoo, Mt. Rushmore and points in between. See the highlights of two weeks in just eight great minutes!
Is it weird that for Mother’s Day I considered asking for a butt cushion? We have a chiropractor in our ward and I’ve seen his family bring a silicone pad to church that makes the cold, hard, metal chairs more ergonomically correct. I for one, never thought I’d covet one of those. I’d never be an old person dragging my own fold up seat cushions to church or stadium sporting events, but then Gerrit discovered karate.
When we entered Disneyland last Monday afternoon, there were so many people that we hardly knew what to do. The people wranglers got us moving, though, and after a bit of herding we ended up near Space Mountain. The sign estimated the wait at nearly an hour and a half, which seemed kind of long to me. Maybe going to Disneyland in August is like going skiing on New Year’s Day — where the time waiting in line is so long compared to the actual activity that it’s hardly worth it. With that in mind, it was a surprise that one of our coolest experiences was being singled out from among the masses.
I think it was about a month ago that Shannon said, “OK, I’m really going to send Christmas cards this year.” So have you gotten yours?
Continue reading “Someday We’ll Send Christmas Cards (Maybe)”