Germany - Again ...

I'm testing out mobile email posting, so here goes. I'm sitting on a plane, just about to take off from Frankfurt. It's my 9th trip to Europe in the last year for business, and this trip was extremely short. I arrived Monday at 7am local time and I'm leaving Tuesday at 11am local time. I'm hoping the trip was short enough I'll avoid any jet lag. We'll see.

The only bright side to these trips is that I've been a United Global Services member for a while now and I usually get upgraded to 1st class.

Today, I'm on my favorite flight - the upgraded United 767-300. It has a sweet first class "cocoon" (see picture). It honestly makes the 8 hour flight a pleasure.

I've also posted a picture of the Cathedral ("Dom") in Cologne. I took it a couple trips back, but this is basically the view from the hotel I stayed in this trip.

Here's another picture of Cologne - this time from the top of the Cathedral.

Happy 5th Birthday Caleb!

Caleb turned 5 last week so we went mini-golfing with our family and our cousins!  Caleb also got to bring a friend along so Luke joined us too.  The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.  Check out our expert golfers.

When the ball wouldn't go where he wanted, Seth would help it with his foot. :-)

The big kids golfed in their own group since we were all too slow!

Caleb got a lava dragon webkinz from his brothers and sisters and was so excited!

Ouch!  Jessica does a real "bump on the head" by dropping the presents.  Good thing Caleb is tough.

Caleb wanted a Star Wars cake decorated with the action figures we have.  But once we got decorating, he decided to throw on a few extras, too!  Happy Birthday Caleb!

It's Not Easy Being Green

Lest Kara is too bashful to post this, I thought I'd beat her to the punch. Last week we attended a ward talent show and Kara performed Loathing from Wicked with one of her friends. I told Kara that it was perfectly fine to just sing the song -- but of course that wasn't good enough -- they had to put on a little "Broadway." Kara played the part of Elphaba and, yes, even painted her face green, and her friend played the part of Galinda. The girls did a fantastic job (not surprisingly) and sounded terrific together.

Seth, who hadn't seen Kara until she took the stage, however, did not think the performance was terrific at all. He jumped on my lap and asked me repeatedly, "What's wrong with mommy? Why is her face green?" When Kara left the stage to sit with us, Seth retreated from her and didn't want anything to do with a green-faced mom. He was very glad the soap worked that night and the paint came off (as was I).

Lucy's Blessing Day

Well, it's a miracle but I'm finally a blogger!  So I hope you enjoy my first posting. :-)  On May 2nd, we had Lucy's blessing and she looked so cute in her "princess dress" (as my kids called it).  Since Katie and Mike moved here, she even got to have some family to her blessing.  We also have great friends who participated and then came back to the house after church for lunch and dessert.  It was a great day.  Enjoy the pictures!