Family

Yesterday I took a substantial study break so that we could head down to the OC to see my Dad's cousin Denny who was visiting from Michigan. The above shot is Denny with my Grandpa, Doyle Nystrom. Here are a few more shots from the day:

I can't remember what Mark was telling me here. It looks like it must have been very interesting though.


Kyle was upset with me for not getting in the pool.


I like the way this shot of Mark and Shelley turned out.


One more shot of the Nystroms - Doyle, Paul and Denny.

Camping with the Family

Last weekend Torrey and I went camping with my family up in Idyllwild. We had been trying to put together a trip like this for some time, and we finally did it. We found out when we got up there (contrary to information we had received on the phone) that the only site open was the State Park site called Stone Creek. That wasn't our first choice for campgrounds, but we went anyway since it was our only option. We ended up finding a great site that worked well for us, and we had a great time hanging out together for the weekend. My parents came, along with Torrey and I, Mark and Shelley, and Shannon, who brought her friend Katie Hummel. My mom planned the food, so mealtime was quite the event. We tried some hiking, but the baby held Torrey back quite a bit, so in the end, we had some very nice walks in the woods. Here are some pictures from the weekend. A larger set is here. I also got some good 3D shots that I will post when I have the time to put them together.













Our last evening we walked up to a nice vantage point to watch the full moon rise, and as we waited, we watched the clouds come in from below us. It was awesome watching the clouds ebb and flow through the mountains as the air currents from the mountains clashed with those coming from the desert below.

The Girls

This is just an update picture of Torrey and her belly. I liked the way the shot turned out, so now I am sharing it with you. There are still two months left until the baby is born - plenty of time for Torrey to grow even bigger!

The Joys of Hebrew

I had a Hebrew test yesterday. It was a bit more challenging than I expected it to be, but I think I still managed to do well on it. The great thing is that we are done with our mad rush to learn the variations of the Hebrew verb, and now we have the rest of the semester to learn well what we have already been taught. Hopefully by the end of the semester I will be much more confident in my ability to pick up the text and work through it. Ah, the joys of language learning!

Here's your test: can you tell me, without cheating (don't look at the title of the picture), what the bottom line of the picture above says? Good luck.

A Visit to the Los Angeles Zoo

During Spring Break I had the chance to take Torrey to the zoo. This was our first visit to the LA zoo, and we definitely enjoyed it even though it was not the most spectacular zoo we have been to. I must say that I was disappointed that we never got to see the river otters. But that is typical of zoos everywhere. Check here for more pictures. Or just enjoy the ones posted below.

Below is Reggie the alligator. Reggie was spotted in a Los Angeles park in the summer of 2005, and avoided being captured by a variety of professionals until nearly 2 years later. He was quite popular in the news for a time, and someone even created a blog from Reggie's perspective.


Did you remember the grade-school song about the kookaburra? I don't believe I had ever seen one before, nor did I know that the kookaburra is a type of kingfisher. Fascinating.


Torrey and I ate our lunch in front of the kookaburra cage, hoping the merry, merry king of the bush would laugh for us. He never did.


These guys were fun to watch. As he ruminated you could see the lump of cud moving up and down his long slender neck. Cool!




I've always loved these cranes.


This guy looks like he had a rough day.

Desert Blooms

It has been a while since I took these, but I wanted to put them up anyway. Over two weeks ago Torrey and I went out to Joshua Tree with my parents and Shannon to see the wildflowers that were blooming out there. Our trip was not at the ideal time, but it was still gorgeous out there when we visited. We were a bit late for the flowers in the lower elevations, so while many of the blooms were still fresh, there were lots of dried up plants and old blooms, suggesting the peak had already passed. In the higher elevations of the park, there were lots of small green plants, but few flowers. I think the bloom hadn't yet hit there, but I can't say for sure. It sure was fun though, and here are a few of my pictures from the day. As always, if you are interested, you can find a larger set here.

It runs in the family, I suppose














And this last one is probably my favorite from the day.