Babies!

No, Brian and I aren't having one nor adopting one right now.  I wanted to tell you about a great new film that's coming soon!

As a BzzAgent, I got a recent opportunity to share about a new film that follows 4 babies in different countries, on their journey from their first breath to their first steps.  The film premiers on Mother's Day weekend  (May 7th) this year and it has amazing cinematography.

Here is the link to watch the trailer:


And if you happen to have your own baby, here's a great sweepstakes you can enter to win some great stuff!


We hope you enjoy this great film!

2 more states added

last weekend julie and i drove 4 hours northwest of phoenix to lake havasu city, az.  what a great time it was.   we went up to visit kristyn, julie's friend since the beginning of time.  of course  we made a stop at the london bridge.  what?  you say.   the london bridge in some podunk town in arizona?  yes.  apparently the town founder decided to purchase a bridge in london that spanned the thames river and move it to his city.  so, he did.  it was shipped from london to lake havasu city and rebuilt exactly the way it was in london.   here's a view of it as we were walking by it, along with a pic of us in front of the fountain near the entrance to the bridge.

after the bridge, kristyn, julie and i headed to in and out burger for lunch.  we needed to decide what to do with the rest of our day.  since the london bridge is about all that lake havasu city has to offer.  then, kristyn had a stroke of genius.  let's drive to laughlin, nv!  why was that genius?  because 1) it turned out to be a spur-of-the-moment road trip and 2) it would involve us driving through california and nevada.  two states i had never been in.  so we went.  90 minutes later, we're walking in an outlet mall across the street from a bunch of casinos and the colorado river.  here's a pic i took as we were crossing into california.  thanks to my "quick and accurate picture taking" you can almost read the sign saying "welcome to california"  :)

we didn't spend a whole lot of time in laughlin.  we walked the riverwalk along the colorado river, which had an amazing view.   we made some purchases in the outlet mall, including my purchase of a live otis redding CD from when he toured europe with a bunch of the other folks on stax records in 1967.   we drove back to lake havasu city and had at tasty dinner at the javelina cantina restaurant.  mmm...mexican.    a good time was had by all, and we thank kristyn for being a great tour guide in the fair town of lake havasu city.

Southern Arizona

Last weekend we took a trip to the southern part of Arizona to see Kartchner Caverns, Willcox, AZ, Chiricahua National Monument, Tombstone, AZ and Auntie Annie's Apple Orchard.

It was a great trip with wonderful weather. Here are some highlights from our trip:

Kartchner Caverns - which had wonderful rock formations such as stalagmites, stalactites, turnip shields, and helictites. The story of how the cave was discovered is pretty cool as well! Unfortunately, we couldn't take any photos of the cave, however, the website has come cool video and photos.

Willcox, AZ - this was my hometown when I was in the 1st-3rd grade. In that time, my dad was appointed to Willcox UMC and we "acquired" my two younger sibs, Matt and Sarah. When you're younger, the city seems large and cool. Upon our recent trip back, the reality of it being a small, run-down town set in. But at least they have recycling and Rex Allen Days.

Chiricahua National Monument - is a great mountain range with awesome rock formations to the south of Willcox.

Tombstone, AZ - the famous city that's "too tough to die" which has the OK Corral and many gunfights.


and finally, we paid a visit to Apple Annie's Orchard and picked some great granny smiths and red delicious. We also visited their produce orchard and picked yummy green beans and spaghetti squash. The apple crisp that we've made was DELISH!

Here are some pics from our trip!

Tombstone



one of my childhood homes



Willcox UMC



Willcox Hospital - where my sister Sarah was born



Chiricahua Nat'l Monument

Congrats Rio!

2016 here we come!

we wore real clompen

it finally happened. something i have wanted to do for years, & a dream was realized. i was in the land of my ancestors. finally, i was in the netherlands! you've probably already read julie's post about the paris portion of our european vacation. i thought i would share about our trip to the netherlands. for me, one of the highlights was definitely our trip to see the amsterdam ajax, one of the top 3 football (i.e. soccer) clubs in the netherlands. we had a tour of the stadium prior to the match, which included a visit to the pitch (soccer field). that's me, ecstatic, on ajax's pitch. we also saw the press room and the practice field for the team during the tour. the game couldn't have turned out better. ajax won, 2-0, against nec nijmegan off goals from klaas-jan huntelaar & luis suarez.

we also took a day-trip to volendam, a fishing village outside amsterdam. we saw how they still make clompen (wooden shoes), we sampled some cheese, & wandered on the shore of the Ijselmeer. i realized why so many dutch people settled in the midwest. the climate & landscape are very similar to that of the netherlands. we also saw many very round cows & sheep. our trip also included visits to several museums. the rijksmuseum and the anne frank house proved to be wonderfully interesting. but the best was the van gogh museum. which, of course, focused on vincent van gogh.

van gogh's story proved to be quite interesting to julie & i. we saw some parallels between his life and mine, which i will get to in a moment. van gogh started his painting career painting in a very traditional dutch manner. still life paintings using a lot of dark colors, which create a melancholy & somewhat depressing mood. he then moved to paris & realized that he needed to paint in brighter colors, hence paintings like "starry night" and "sunflowers".

the part of his story that i found i related to was that he struggled with his father over his religious beliefs. his father was a pastor & believed the bible to be the only source in which you could be inspired by god. van gogh disagreed with this, & found inspiration from his creator in books other than the bible. it was this struggle that led to the painting of the crumbling church, known as "the peasant's churchyard". for van gogh, this represented the disintegrating influence of christianity. van gogh said something interesting regarding this in a letter to his brother about the painting, “Les religions passent, Dieu demeure” [Religions pass away, God remains]."

i found that i related to this because my parents & i clash on our beliefs. i don't believe, as they do, that the bible is the inerrant word of god. which is why when i see someone quoting scripture as a method of proving something as absolute, my 1st thought is, "so?". for me, it's the story of our fellow christian brothers & sisters and their struggles as they marched through history, as well as how they connected with their god and what that relationship meant to them.

needless to say, our trip to paris & amsterdam was amazing. we created some wonderful memories, learned more about each other, & saw some wonderful sights. we definitely hope to go again.

to the lands of cafes & bicycles

in just a few short weeks, julie & i are making our trip to paris & amsterdam. i am exploding with excitement. which may make those weeks seem to take longer. this is going to be my 1st international trip, so it's perfect that part of it involves going to the country of my ancestry (the netherlands).

we're in the process of narrowing down what we want to do while we're there, how we're going to get around, along with all the other details that go with international travel. there are things we're definitely doing. in paris, things like the louvre and the eiffel tower are among the places to experience on our list. in amsterdam, we plan on going to an ajax match (1 of the biggest soccer clubs in the netherlands) and the rijksmuseum...among other things. one other thing that i'm excited about is the opportunity to go into buildings that have been around since medieval times. i can't wait to experience history like that.

Home and Sick

Not to be confused with homesick... I'm finally home again after being gone for about 10 days.  I was in Las Vegas for The 'Source and then in DC for Student Forum and the National Gathering for the Young Adult Seminarians Network.  They were great trips.  I'll post some pics soon.  I also stayed in Vegas for a few days after the event, to spend some quality time with my best friend Kristyn.  It was a very belated 30th birthday celebration for the both of us.  It was fabulous!

I sometimes tend to get physically tired after traveling and it was especially apparent after this trip because I have had a cold/allergies for the past 4 days.  It's finally in the "on-it's-way-out" stage and I've been quite friendly with the kleenex box.

One especially cool thing happened while I was in DC... I was able to hear God's call for me to stay an extra day (thank you Brian!) in order to help the group process a situation that happened that involved race and racism.  I won't go into much detail out of respect for those involved, but I felt particularly called to change my travel plans in order to facilitate a discussion on the tricky subject.  By no means am I or do I claim to be an "expert" in the issue, just one that has had some experience with it.  It felt like some of the things that had happened prior to this trip with co-workers, friends, and family had sort of prepared me for being present in this discussion and allowing myself to share what I've learned about race.  Again, I certainly don't assume that I've learned all I need to know about the issue, as I am in constant learning of the topic.  I do strongly believe that situations can help teach you and even prepare you for things in the future.  If I hadn't had some of the conversations and experiences I've had in the last 3 months, I would have had a very different perspective and may not have felt equipped to lead a group of my peers through tough conversations.

I sense that this will always be a part of my life, race that is, and I anticipate that I will be called into places and situations to help bring a different perspective.  I hope that I can always bring a voice that needs to be heard, a voice that God is calling me to bring.