Temple Square and a Bird

A couple weeks ago Ade and I went up to temple square for dinner and to see the Christmas lights. Here are a couple of pictures from that night.

This first picture shows statues of Mary, Joseph and Jesus (in the manger).

Here is a photo of some of the lights and a fountain on temple square.
This is a copy of the Christus statue by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.

And finally, we had a bird fly in the house. It must have come inside while I was shoveling the front sidewalk. About an hour after we came inside it flew out from the front room. The next 15-20 minutes were spent laughing as we tried to get it to fly back out the front door. We made sure to get a photo for memory's sake.

Florida Friends Visit

Mark and Ginger came out to Utah for a few days and watch their daughter, Bailey, perform in the Nutcracker in Ogden. She didn't have a large role (it was her first time dancing with this company), but her performance was fantastic. She and her friend really stood out among all the dancers.

We ate dinner up in Ogden at a nice Italian Restaurant named Zucca Trattoria. We were really impressed with the food...but slightly disappointed by the service (think molasses).

Our friends didn't know anyone else out here so we had them over for Sunday dinner. The Salmon, Chicken, and Spaghetti Squash all turned out great! It was quite a bit of fun to reminisce about our Lake Powell vacation from the summer.

BYU Bet

I'd like to thank my Brother-In-Law, Austin, for sticking to the bet. BYU beat Utah in Football this year and he manned up to the consequences. Here he is...wearing his BYU tie proudly. My sister says there are some better photos available but hasn't sent them over yet.

BYU Basketball

Our good friend Henry invited us to go to the BYU basketball game on Saturday up at the Energy Solutions Arena. They do games there once or twice a year (not sure why). Anyways the tickets were in the third row so we were just above eye-level with the players.

BYU won and we had a blast. Elder Oaks was directly opposite us in the same row. It was fun watching him clap along to the fight song.

It snowed a bit Saturday and it is supposed to snow pretty much straight through Wednesday. It's beautiful, but it always takes a few days for drivers to remember how to handle snow on the roads. We're headed up to dinner at "The Roof" in Salt Lake City for a Christmas Party. I hope that traffic is reasonable.

Australia Trip Review

Ok, here is the mother of all posts. I'm going to try to cover the majority of the events of the Australia trip in one shot.

We landed in Australia on Saturday the 29th of November around mid-day. We were tired, bedraggled and our feet were even swollen from sitting so long. Chi Nam took us out to lunch at Hien Vuong in Footscray. We had Pho which was amazing. It was so good that Adrienne decided that she now understands why I like Vietnamese food (previously she only put up with it, not hating it but not liking it either). My and Ammon (her fiance) got home later that night and we caught up on the plans for the week.

Sunday we went to church in Footscray Ward and saw some of the people I knew years before when I was a missionary. The Vietnamese branch has been dissolved and they meet with the Aussie ward now. Bishop Toi was visiting (he's in the Stake Presidency now) and Chu Gio was there as well. There is a huge shopping center right next to the church now...it's pretty bizarre. I found my old Yarraville flat and took a picture outside for old time's sake.

Sunday afternoon and evening was spent first preparing, then eating, Thanksgiving dinner. It was a few days early, but we wanted to share the experience with a bunch of people. I cooked turkey, stuffing, corn bread pudding (another form of dressing), and Pumpkin Pie Cake. David Tran brought some chicken, someone else brought a quiche and Khanh brought potato salad (which was truly yummy). Most of them didn't really know the story behind Thanksgiving so I took a few minutes to explain it to them.

The best part of the dinner, for me, was the dessert. We didn't have canned pumpkin, so we used real pumpkin. We didn't have pumpkin pie spice, or even normal cinnamon. We did have cinnamon bark. So we shredded the bark and put it into a pepper grinder. Then Nam went on to grind it 4 or 5 times (she just kept reloading it). I threw it in the mix and it turned out AMAZING! Here's a photo of the event. From left to right: Adrienne, Khanh, Lana, Jane, My, Ammon, Eden, Jenny, Rodney, Nam, and David. I took the photo...so I'm invisible.

Monday we headed downtown to see the city a bit. We took the train from Footscray down to Flinder's Street and walked around a bit. I can't believe how much the city has changed. I think all the bad areas have been turned into shopping and restaurants.

Tuesday we headed up through Sunshine and St. Albans. On the way back down we found the bowling alley the missionaries went to a couple times while we were there. It's right by the train station. Since I was feeling nostalgic, Adrienne humored me with a couple of games. Later, we went down to the city again. This time we shopped for souvenirs at Queen Victoria Market and went down to check out Rod Laver Arena (where they play the Australian Open). We got a bunch of smaller items for friends and family members...we even got a couple things for ourselves. Here's a shot of the city circle tram we rode.

Wednesday was a whole different kind of adventure. We went down to the Werribee Zoo. When we got there, we found out about a "ute" (ute = Australian for off-road vehicle) tour that you could do. Basically we did a safari style tour around the zoo. We went out to see the Giraffes, Rhinos, Camels, African Deer, Antelope, etc. It was a total blast. Then we went around the zoo to see some of the animals at feeding time. We just missed the lions eating, so they were pretty lazy when we got there. He's a nice shot of one (don't worry, I was behind some glass when I took this photo). Notice the drool...

That night we tried to hunt down where Chi Lieu is living now. I had heard she bought a house in Coburg and even had an address that was a few years old. We used the navigation in the rental car to get there. But when we knocked on the door the very old vietnamese lady who answered said that Lieu didn't live there anymore. Then she brought us in and pointed to a phone number on her white board and handed me her phone. So I called the number and a young man answered. He said she lived there, but wasn't home at the moment (most of this is translated from a Vietnamese conversation). I got his address and we drove there. When we got to that house we saw another Vietnamese guy and I asked him if Chi Lieu was back yet and he said that she was on holiday (vacation). I asked if he was sure and then he realized he misunderstood the name I asked and led me around back. Chi Lieu lives in the bungalow out back. So now I knocked on that door and a young man answered. She wasn't home still, but I persuaded him to let Adrienne and I wait inside for her (he seemed weirded out by the request). We waited probably an hour and there comes Chi Lieu walking her bicycle. She saw me threw the windows and had a look of surprise. She's married now to an old high school friend and the young man was her step son. She goes to church at Glenroy Ward and she is just as wonderful as ever. By the way, the Footscray missionaries didn't even know who she was. And the old lady at the other house was her mother-in-law.

Thursday we headed out towards the great ocean road (right after a quick stop at High Point shopping center). We went the quick way out. Headed straight out to Colac and went south to Cape Otway. We first visited the "Otway Fly Tree Top Walk". The hike takes about an hour and for about half of it you are hiking on a suspended trail that is almost 80 feet above the ground (maybe 150-175 feet to the top of the tower). Then we went over to Triplet Falls. This hike also takes about an hour normally. Of course, being a rain forest, it rained on us about halfway through so we we a bit quicker to finish. We drove the rest of the way to our hotel in Port Campbell, had a nice dinner and went to bed. Here's a shot of the Otway Fly trail from the top of the tower.

After we got up in the morning on Friday (OUR TEN YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!), we had breakfast in our amazing hotel room, showered and headed out on the Great Ocean Road. We stopped by the Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge first taking plenty of photos. Then we stopped by this little wilderness park. When we drove up, no one was around and we almost left. Then we heard someone mowing grass somewhere and hunted them down. It was just $10 to get in with a back of feed for the animals so we decided to give it a shot. At first it was pretty mundane feeding some exotic birds in cages and such. Then we rounded the corner and there were several wallabies hanging around. We got to feed them right out of our hands and even pet them. They were very gentle and pretty amazing in their own way. Then we saw some deer, Jerusalem Donkeys, Emus, and Kangaroos. The owner came out and let us into the paddock with the Kangaroos and we got to feed them from our hands too. There were even a couple mammas with baby Joeys sticking their heads out. The last stop was the Koala area. He let us in with them too, but said that they weren't very friendly so it would be best to not try to feed them. Then he recommended we stop by Red Johanna Beach. When we go there, we saw a couple cars in the parking lot. We walked over to the beach area and found it completely deserted. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Then we stopped headed to Apollo Bay and Lorne. We stopped for a bit in Lorne to lay on the beach and watch the waves. I just love that drive along the coast. We finished up with a quick dinner in Geelong and headed back home to Nam's. They were in the final stages of wedding preparation.

Saturday Morning we headed to the Temple on the other side of town. The weather had forecasted rain, but all we had throughout the wedding and reception was sunshine. It only rained after it was all done.

Yes, that is a Hummer Limo that she chose to have drive the wedding party from the Temple to the reception hall. The reception was fantastic. We sat with a bunch of My's friends. The food was really nice. They had a first dance, then called the wedding party and parents to come out and dance. Ade and I saw that My's mom wasn't going out, so I went and danced with her myself. It did take some considerable convincing to get her to come out on the dance floor though.

After the party we drove Nam's sister (Binh) and neice (Y) home to Dandenong in the rain and headed home again. Sunday we packed up and headed to the airport. We had one bad flight in all our travels. Coming back from Sydney to LA the entertainment system was broken. No movies or TV to pass the time (there were 4 movies scheduled). Oh, and the plane was LATE. In LA we had to get our baggage and go through customs before we could board the flight to San Francisco. We had to RUN once we got through security and barely made it. We left at 1 PM Melbourne time on Sunday and got to our home at 10 PM Utah time on the same day...even though we had traveled for more than 24 hours. We are still readjusting to the time zone changes on the way back.

Australia Fun

So this trip has been a whirlwind so far. I don't have much time (I'm on a borrowed computer) but have a look at some of these pictures.

Here's Flinder's Street station in downtown Melbourne.

And here's a shot of Adrienne and I at the 12 Apostles rock formation along the great ocean road.

Getting ready for Australia

It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks. My mom came out to visit Utah. My parents had been thinking of buying a home out this way to eventually retire too...and they picked one out. Looks like they will close on the house next Tuesday. In the meantime, my mom has been going back and forth between my sister's apartment, my house, and our friends' home (Kay and Henry).

Ade and I bought some items for our trip over the weekend. We even got a couple of suitcases to make sure we had some of the right size (thanks to mom and dad buying one of the two). We leave on our trip Thursday and we can hardly wait. We'll try to post activities and photos as often as possible while we are gone.

Seattle Trip

This last week I had a business trip in Seattle. I hadn't been back there since 1996 when I had my mission farewell. It's such a beautiful city. You've got mountains and lakes all around. I had some wonderful seafood and had lunch on top of the Space Needle. In between meetings I even took a side trip to visit the Seattle Temple.

Of course there was a business purpose to the trip. I had meetings with our graphics design firm and a possible PR group. All in all the trip was a success.

Here's a photo from the restaurant on top of the Space Needle and one at the Seattle Temple.

Sunday Dinner

We just had some friends and family over for Sunday dinner. My sister and her husband came down with our friends Dane and Bailey from Salt Lake City. I can't believe it took us two and a half months to finally get Bailey down here. We promised to have her over when we were down in Lake Powell, but it's hard when she doesn't have her own car. The food was great and the company too.

I'll be headed up to Seattle for a business trip in less than two weeks. That will be my first time back up that way since my mission farewell. I can't believe it's been more than 13 years. I'll have to take some pictures while up up there.

BYU was thumped in football this week by TCU. There's no other way to put it. We were outplayed in every facet of the game. Oh well, there's always next week.

Helping out friends

We have some good friends that bought a house up the canyon from us. It's at a beautiful scenic spot, but they had to completely gut the house. Adrienne and I have been up there a couple of times to help tear things down and redo some of the wiring. Yesterday was particularly interesting because we found some dead animals under one of the floors that we tore out. It actually looked like a cat had killed a bird and then had died somehow while eating it.

BYU has kept up their winning ways in football. First we blew out UNLV, then we had a bit of a close game with San Diego State. They don't seem quite as consistent as I could wish, but hopefully they get it together for next week's game. We play TCU at home on Saturday night.

BYU wins again

Hi everyone! I need to get more consistent with my posts. Another busy week and another BYU football victory. It's a shame that the team didn't play well against FSU, but they seem to be coming together pretty well the last couple of weeks.

Ade and I bought our plane tickets for Australia. We'll be gone from November 19th through November 29th. It's partly for our 10 year wedding anniversary and partly so that we can go to a friends wedding. We can't wait to go.

Most of the weekend was spent watching General Conference for our church. It's always inspiring to listen to the words of our church leaders. My favorites were Elder Bednar on Saturday and Elder Holland on Sunday. Maybe I can put some links in from those talks later.

Keeping our word

So BYU lost that football game against FSU a week ago and Adrienne and I had to make good on our bets. As such, here is a photo of Adrienne wearing FSU gear to work and one of me wearing an FSU tie to church.

New Job and BYU Football

So I'm all set with the new job. We are so blessed in our lives. I can't believe how well this all worked out. I'll be a PR Specialist with this new company and work directly with our good friend Henry (who is the CEO). The benefits are great and this company really seems to care for the employees. I am grateful for the many good friends I have in my life that really try to look after my family.

Saturday, BYU was beaten rather badly by FSU in football. It's unfortunate for many reasons, but the one that comes to mind currently is the bet I made this summer. Now I am required (as a matter of personal integrity) to wear an FSU tie to church. I will even document the event with photographic evidence and post it on this blog. Everyone knows I am a big BYU fan so it will take some explaining for everyone to understand why I have traded colors for a day.

Adoption Update and New Job

Yesterday we met with our new adoption case worker. She stopped by our house to renew our Home Study for another year. It was great to put a face to the name and get to know her a little bit. We are all approved again for another year and just hope that things work out for us to adopt sooner rather than later.

I am starting work at a new job this Friday at Millenniatta, Inc. My new boss is in Japan most of this week, so I am just studying up at home about the new company. On Friday we'll meet at the office so that I can fill out all the employment paperwork. I'll be working on their PR with two others.

UVU Volleyball on Labor Day

I teamed up with one of our friend's sons for the tournament. He's 17 and really just picked up volleyball about a year ago. Of course his dad played for BYU Hawaii years ago so he has a bit of an advantage. I like this shot because not only am I hitting, but Caleb has his hands on his hips. It's like he's thinking to himself, "well I've done all I can do, now it's up to him". Next time we play, I'm sure his dad will work on him with covering the block. We didn't have any breaks at all so I didn't have the opportunity to go take pictures of Adrienne this time. I really only got to see her play for about 60 seconds the whole day.

BYU vs Oklahoma

Labor day weekend we had an amazing opportunity. Through the generosity of dear friends we were able to go to the BYU vs. Oklahoma Football game at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. It was 15,000 BYU fans vs. 60,000 Sooner faithful (it's only about a 3 hour drive from their campus). The odds in Vegas were that we would lose by 22 or more, but we pulled it out in the end. 14-13 winning on a 4th quarter touchdown drive. Probably the funnest football game Adrienne and I have ever been to.

This first picture is the outside of the stadium. It is unbelievably large. That said, 1/3 of it is below ground. You can't even see the field from the outside windows because it is so far below ground level.

There is a 60 yard wide HD monitor inside to watch game action and replays (actually there are two...one facing each sideline). This was a great shot of the BYU logo.

We flew out on Southwest Airlines. In a strange twist of chance, we were on the flight with the entire BYU cheer squad. They were practicing lifts during the layover in Albuquerque. They even sang the BYU fight song over the loudspeaker on the plane.

Here's a shot of most of those in our group right after the game ended. The Sooner fans took off immediately but most of the BYU fans stuck around to cheer the team and enjoy the moment. From left to right we have Diana, Trent, Dave, Carol, Adrienne and Jason (me).

On Labor Day itself, we played in a 2-2 volleyball tournament at UVU. I'll have to share a picture or two from that later. I took 2nd on the men's side and Adrienne took 3rd on the women's side. It was a lot of fun, but I was cramping up in my right calf the last 3 games of the tournament. I think Caleb and I would have had a good chance of winning it all if I had been in better condition (we lost by two in the championship).

Football Cometh

For those who don't know, my Uncle Larry passed away last Friday night. His funeral was last night and my parents were able to stay in Wisconsin long enough to attend. I wish that I would have had the chance to see him more in recent years. We should all take the time to be with those we care about whenever we can.

I can't believe we find ourselves in the month of September. Adrienne are flying down to Dallas to watch the BYU/Oklahoma game. Football season is here and we will probably be in the box for each of the home games. I hope that it's a good season and the team plays well.

I'll try to keep up with this better in the weeks to come. It's just been crazy busy since we got back from Lake Powell.

Catching up part 3 - Depeche Mode

Last night we went with some friends to the Depeche Mode concert at the E-Center. They really are a great band to see live because their sound quality in person is just like their CD's (but much louder). Anyways, it was a big treat for Adrienne because she is a huge fan.

Here they are rocking away.

And here we are enjoying the show.

Catching up part 2 - Uncle Larry

I don't remember if I mentioned this in a previous post or not, but my Uncle Larry has been having serious health problems. All of his siblings (my dad's side of the family) and family have gathered as he will be passing soon. He has declined further treatment and feels that it is time to go. They are counting the hours now rather than weeks or even days. Uncle Larry's family was the one that I knew the best growing up. We'd see them every year or so for Thanksgiving or Christmas. He was always ready and willing to spend time with the kids and had a ready laugh. He and Aunt Margaret opened their home to foster children when they couldn't have any more themselves and I think they ended up adopting most of the ones that they had in their care. He is a good man and he will be missed. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Catching up part 1 - Lake Powell

Sorry that we messed up our usual posting schedule last week. We were away at Lake Powell with our cousins (Eric, Machelle, Matt, Rachael, and Sable) and some of their friends from Florida (Mark, Ginger, Brian, and Bailey). It was a wonderful trip and it was great to meet our cousins' friends. Their daughter is starting school at the University of Utah and has a ballet scholarship. We were at the lake for 8 days and did all kinds of fun things.

This first shot has Sable and Bailey getting bounced around on the tube the first day at the lake. Sable was tossed first, but Bailey followed right after.

We took a trip to "Hole in the Rock" and hiked to the top. This is the place that some Mormon Pioneers blasted and dug a path from the plateau down to the river (which is now a lake/reservoir) so that they could cross.
Here is the whole crew. We made sure and got a picture with everyone together and used my camera timer to get it done. From left to right and starting in the back row. Jason (me), Mark, Brian, Matt, Eric, Machelle, Bailey, Adrienne (my wife), Ginger, Sable and Rachael.
We actually did a few hikes this year. This one was up the San Juan at one of Machelle's favorite canyons. Makes Matt look rather small. I can't believe he is a freshman at FSU now.

The new toy this year was the Wake-Surfboard. Wake-surfing is done right behind the boat. You start with a rope. Once you find the groove you toss the rope and surf the wake just like a wave at the beach. Rachael was the best at it in our group so I thought I'd share a picture of her.

Here I am up the Escalante arm of the lake wake boarding. This shot looks nice, but a few seconds later I took a nose dive.

Youth Conference 2009

Hey everyone. It seems I'm always claiming that we are busy...but we really are. Last weekend was our stake's youth conference. It was a great experience. We were there 3 days and each one represented past, present, or future with various activities and learning opportunities. I've included some of the pictures below.


The first day we had the youth take a pioneer trek and do some old fashioned games. This first photo shows a bunch of the youth in their pioneer clothes playing partner tag. That night we had a dance so they would have an opportunity to socialize.

Day 2 we went down to Payson Lakes where the youth swam and went around the lake in canoes. Later in the afternoon we had 4 guest speakers come and take turns talking about different aspects of their future.

Our stake president came up the last day to talk about their lives in the present. Then we dd various service projects around the camp and cleaned up. Right before leaving, one of the ward groups decided to hike up to the overlook into a canyon and I decided to join them. This last photo is a view from there.

My company had our summer party this week. It's always fun, and, as usual, we had it up at a park up Provo Canyon. Great food, good fun, and we even had a little volleyball action.

This weekend we are headed to Lake Powell with our cousins. We won't be able to post or be online until we get back. We can't wait to take this break and enjoy a little vacation with our extended family. I'll have plenty of pictures to share when we get back.

Will's Deployment

It seems we are always busy this summer. Our garden is starting to produce some vegetables. We have one type of pest attacking our garden. I never new about Squash Bugs before now, but I've put some serious time in researching how to kill them. First, some squash are naturally resistant to the bugs (Butternut squash for instance). The only squash I am growing with problems is the Spaghetti squash. I've probably killed 100 of the little guys by now.

Will and Stephanie had a tough goodbye this week. Will is a reservist in the Marines and he's being deployed to Afghanistan. He's already been to Iraq and back, but he's being sent again. We met up with them at Camp Williams and with Will's mom and siblings to say goodbye. He'll be in San Diego for training approximately 3 months, then home for 10 days...then he's gone for about 9 months overseas. I've included some pictures for everyone.

Here's Will's oldest sister holding little Liberty before it's time to go.

Steph and Will just sitting together as we visited.

Will is a Sergeant in the Marines. He's assigned to an anti-tank light armored unit in the C (Charlie) company. Here's what it looks like. The one they will train in is an older model. The ones in Afghanistan actually have air conditioning.

This was their final goodbye before Will had to get on the bus to head out. It's tough to see loved ones separated like this, but I'm so proud of my brother-in-law. He's a good man.

This weekend Ade and I are headed up to Youth Conference for our Stake. We're taking all of the youth between 14-18 years old up to the camp. The theme for the year is from 1 Timothy 4:12. "Let no man dispise thy youth; but be thou and example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." We're going to try to have them look to the past for examples and reflect on how they can use those examples to guide their lives moving forward.

Stewart Falls

Well, we were going to hike Stewart Falls AND go swimming, but we sorta ran out of time. But here's a couple photos from the hike. Since it is Pioneer Day weekend, there were tons of people around. This first photo had the fewest people people of all the ones I took.

And here's one with Adrienne. It was a little awkward to stand in the melted glacier water while we took the photo.

Lamb Days and "Singin' in the Rain"

Last Friday we went to the Community/High School production of "Singin' in the Rain". We knew 3 adults and 3 kids in the play and sat in the 3rd row with several friends from our neighborhood. It was a blast and we were both really impressed with how well it was done. It's always amazing to me to see the amount of talent that can be found in one community. I loved watching the tap-dancing and they were really good singers.

Last Saturday we headed down with the Dan and his kids to enjoy a bit of Lamb Days in Fountain Green. Part of the various celebrations was a Co-ed 4's volleyball tournament. Our team consisted of Adrienne, Dan, Bryce (as a sub), and Kasilia (Dan's neice). We had a great time and took second place overall. The only team we lost to the entire day was the eventual champs. We lost 25-22 and 25-23 so they were really close games. Here are some photos from the event.

This first one is Dan's youngest, Tyson. He's a cute kid and surprisingly strong.

Here we have Adrienne getting ready to play some volleyball.

I am setting Adrienne so she can hit the ball.

And Adrienne delivers the big smash with Dan watching.

Finally, Kasilia is serving another ace (at least that's how I want to remember it). Bryce wasn't playing in this game so he graciously took photos of the rest of us.

I saw the SWAT truck!

Last night I rode down to Fountain Green with my friend Dan. He was participating in their annual Lamb Days coed softball tournament. This tournament is interesting because you don't sign up teams, you just sign up in pairs (one guy and one girl). Then you are randomly assigned a team. It's just a fun event for the whole event to come out and enjoy everybody's company. An interesting thing happened on the way back.

When we got on the freeway, we started seeing cops going the opposite direction with their lights flashing. Between Nephi and Payson we saw 18 emergency vehicles. Most were Utah Highway Patrol or unmarked SUV's, but we saw a Fire Marshall, an ambulance and even the SWAT truck. It's basically a mini-sized semi. Needless to say, we were curious what was going on, but I didn't find out for hours. I guess there was a domestic dispute followed by a police standoff in Nephi, but there still aren't very many details available. Sounds like a sad story, but nobody got hurt. I had never seen anything like that before. 18 random emergency vehicles spaced a mile or two apart, all going the same direction, but no two together.

Catching up

I'm finally up and about again. I got sick Friday night, July 3rd, and haven't really been very coherent since then. My neighbor is a doctor and he decided that I had Bronchitis. It's pretty sad that I missed all the 4th of July celebrations, but I was lucky to have friends and family to look after me. I'll just have to find some other fireworks celebrations to see since I missed the 4th. I was excited to try the "fireworks setting" on my camera.

Facebook is an amazing website. It is fascinating to make contact with old friends that you haven't seen in years. One such friend is going to stop by in about 10 minutes. Mike is moving from North Carolina back to Washington and decided to make a stop in Utah to catch up. He's a great guy and I can't wait to meet his three stepkids (his wife is in training in Missouri). He'll be stationed in Ft. Lewis.

We found out that our case worker at LDS Family Services is quitting. Her husband was accepted to graduate school in Philadelphia. We wish her all the best and can't wait to meet our newly assigned case worker. I guess our profile is shown regularly and we seem to match well with lots of birth moms...it's just a matter of time.

More photos

Here's some additional shots of our tournament. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of my sweet tan-line from wearing the bandanna all day long. I've got a pretty solid line in the middle of my forehead. In this first one, Dan is showing his passing form. Notice he has his right foot forward and he is completely focused on the ball.
I'm getting ready to serve another winner.
Emily set up Adrienne for this perfect spike. They won the game soon after this play.
Emily's form is even better than Dan's. Of course she's been playing volleyball a lot longer.
We always have a blast playing in these tournaments. I hope we find time to do another one soon. We might even play "B" next time (next level up from Novice).