All Things Are Better In Koine

My brother in law showed me this video made by some Biola students. I thought it was hilarious, but I do think you have to have spent a significant portion of your life, sweat and tears studying Koine Greek (or live with someone who has) to appreciate this video.

Trip to Oregon

Torrey and I just got back from visiting her parents in Oregon for a little over a week. My office gets the week between Christmas and the New Year off, so we took advantage of the break and headed up north for a bit. We had a great visit, and here are a number of pictures from out trip. There are quite a few waterfall pictures, because that is something we saw quite a bit of. It snowed a little and rained a lot, and the creeks were running high, which made the falls nice and full. Since it was overcast, the light wasn't too good for photos, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The picture above is Lower Shelberg Falls, a short hike from Torrey's parents' house.

Our first night in Oregon we tried to feed Alethia some pears. She did not take too kindly to the experience.


After that, even the rice cereal she usually does pretty well with was not a big hit.


It snowed on us when we first arrived, but by later in the night it started raining, and continued to rain until shortly before we left. In the meantime we took a trip to higher elevation so that we could play in the snow.


I believe this is the Santiam River near Detroit Lake.


Fun in the snow




It was nice to come home to a wood stove.


Apple season is over.






We took a trip to Silver Falls, and enjoyed walking around some of the waterfalls in the park. Here are a few shots I took of South Falls.






It was very wet due to the rain and the mist from the waterfall, and many of my efforts to photograph the falls were hampered by wet gear or the threat of soaking my camera. We moved on from there to Winter Falls.


And then on to North Falls.


I spent part of one day, while Torrey and her Mom attended a quilting group, wandering around John Neal Park, looking for interesting things to shoot. I startled this deer as I trekked through a mass of berry bushes.


I saw a whole bunch of Nutria, but I never had my camera ready when they appeared, and they never came out of hiding much when I was ready for them. I did stumble across this California Quail though.


Another day we hiked up to Shelberg Falls. These photos are from the Upper Falls.




The trail here wraps around the back side of the waterfall (it does the same at South Falls, but I couldn't get any pictures there because it was far too wet).


Thursday night a huge wind storm swept through the area, and at least a dozen trees came down in our neighborhood.


Several of them ended up across the road, and since this is a dead end road, the only way for us to get out was to cut and clear our own way out.


Two cars on the street were crushed by falling trees. This one had five trees across it! From the street all you could see was the turn indicator flashing away. Notice where the radiator ended up.


A friend of the Barton's brought his Bobcat to help us clear the road. Without his help we may not have made it out in time to get to the airport Saturday morning.


Lee hard at work


This is Harry. He is quite a character. His house had a couple of trees come down on it, and he spent the day clearing them off as he puffed away on his pipe.




We did get out, and we even got home the next day. Now we are back to work and preparing for Christar's Orientation coming up soon. We'll let you know how that goes. Here is one last shot from our trip. Regrettably I rarely had my camera out in the house, so it wasn't until we were on our way to the airport (at 4:30 in the morning and without electricity because of the fallen trees) that I snapped this shot of Alethia and Baron. She loved the dog and got very excited every time she saw him. Baron, on the other hand, never seemed to know quite what to do with her.

Merry Christmas!

May your day be filled with joy as you celebrate the Advent of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

Christmas Cards and a Quick Update

I grabbed this shot of Alethia while we were in Neff Park to shoot portraits for some friends. It has been almost a month now since I last posted. Life hasn't seemed all that busy, but we have quite a bit going on. Christmas is always a busy time. Here is another shot of Alethia (a rare one with me in it). She is wearing a dress that her Grandparents sent from Peru for her.



Can you believe Christmas is only a few days away? I will post some Christmas pictures eventually, but I'm not sure when I will be able to. We are heading up to Oregon on Christmas day to spend a week and a half with Torrey's parents, and hopefully we will even get to see a little snow!

In the spirit of Christmas, anyway, here are some Christmas card shots I took this past month. First, Torrey's brother Brett and family:

















I also took pictures for our good friends Jeremy and Sara with their daughter Johanna, who is just a few months older than Alethia.











Thanks to the Brett and Steph and to Jeremy and Sara for the opportunity to photograph your families. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Alethia is 5 Months Old!

(and Happy Thanksgiving, too!)



Here's one from Thanksgiving. Alethia is enjoying her Great-Grandpa Nystrom. We have been blessed with such a wonderful family.


And this one is from this morning. She is getting so big, and wants so badly to be running by now, even though she hasn't even figured out crawling yet. She is so attentive though, and fascinated by everything she sees around her. I wish I knew what she is thinking about...

Andrew's Visit

We all enjoyed Andrew's ten day leave very much. Now he is off at combat training, where the last I heard from him was that he was enjoying grenade throwing. But while he was around here, we had a number of opportunities to get together for meals and activities, including a great camping trip to Point Mugu State Park near Malibu (sorry you couldn't make it, Mark and Shelley), a delicious dessert at the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney (Mmmm, double chocolate bread pudding...) and a grand night of lomo saltado and games at Mark and Shelley's. Here are a few pictures from our time together.

This amazing tree was by our campsite at Point Mugu.


Everyone enjoyed sitting in its branches (even Alethia)










Alethia had a bit of a meltdown after a couple days of constant stimulation without enough rest or food, but when we figured out what was going on, we got her into the car for some time to quiet down and rest. Other than that, she had a fabulous second camping trip.


The weather was awesome! It was warm most of the time, and we even got a little rain! In So-Cal! Imagine that!




Alethia is fascinated by cups. She sees us drinking from them and longs to try it herself. It is hilarious to watch her tremble with excitement when she actually gets her hands on one.




Um, Andrew... that's the cream for your coffee.


Alethia with uncle Mark




What can I say? My wife and daughter are amazing.


And to close with, here is uncle Andrew with his niece. What a happy family.


Thank you for the time you spent with us Andrew. We thoroughly enjoyed it.