Peter's wedding, thanksgiving and fall in PCB

Last weekend Hilary and I flew back to Yakima for her brother Peter's wedding. It was a joyous time of merry making and celebration. Here are some photos from that event, this past week's Thanksgiving celebration, and a few other random photos, like our walk around the fitness trail on the Navy base today.

One of the best parts of being back in Washington was that we got to see our niece Ruby
I was also drafted to change a diaper. It was my first time ever, so a large crowd amassed around to behold the spectacle.
The next evening was the rehearsal dinner, so we prepared all day. I lent my camera out because I always get interesting things back. Mercy and Trudy took a bunch of pictures, here's a couple of Mercy's:
Here's a couple of Trudy's:
The rehearsal dinner was really good, the Boothmans took great pains to not only make the dinner an amazing feast but also make the presentation beautiful as well. From a hidden vantage point, Hily and I were able to covertly observe some humorous activity at the kids' table.


There was additional excitement that evening because Eppy had her puppies

I didn't take many photos of the ceremony because there were so many professionalish people (some of whom actually were professional) snapping photos. Here's Peter and Liz talking with Grandma B., though


Hily and I kept experiencing a strange form of Deja Vu throughout the day because we had gotten married on the same weekend a year before at the exact same church, with many of the same people present. The wedding was very good, Cesar did an excellent job, and it was clear that the bride and groom were devoted to eachother. Peter showed great forsight and wisdom in who he chose to marry - a woman with an obvious heart for the Lord and desire to be submissive to him. Additionally, she loves the Boothman family and they love her, anyway, it looks to be the start of a very good thing.

The day after the wedding was our anniversary (our marriage is 1 year old now! We're becoming old married folk). We had a great breakfast with the parents on my side of the family, and then listened to some friends speak about their adventure in Tashban. To our great delight, it was snowing that Sunday.

We spent the rest of the evening playing Rook until our eyes got too heavy to be propped open by toothpicks, and went to bed. Our flight back to PCB was delayed by mechanical issues (just like our trip to Yakima), so we got rerouted through Atlanta [again]. When we left Yakima it was 18 degrees and snowing. When we got to Panama City Beach, it was about 8PM, 70 degrees outside, and super humid.

On Thursday, we drove over to Pensacola to visit Paula and Josh. Because of the number of dinner attendees, the celebration was moved to another location. 4 1/2 families (the spouse of the man owning the house was a nurse) attended, and it was an old-school feast: a vast array of magnificent culinary works of art, arrayed on the finest bone chine and surrounded by shimering crystal goblets.

[oops, somehow I missed the kids in this shot.]

Josh's crown roast of lamb, one of the most perfectly cooked roasts I've ever eaten

Somehow we built up a sleep deficit over the previous week so we were pooped by about 7:30. We drove home and I somehow stayed awake driving back.

Yesterday we got new box-springs because our old ones were so squeaky that we got angry calls from the neighbors every time we climbed into bed. Just kidding. But they were really squeaky.

Today, after church, we went to the Navy base for a good long walk. I may not have mentioned it, but in Hong Kong you would see these funny, bright colored exerising machines scattered around all the public parks. To our amusement, we discovered a lot of these very same hyper-colored exercise machines (complete with chinese characters!) lining the fitness trail on the base. We walked the fitness trail and made certain to do all the exercises:

If I look like I'm in pain in this next one, it's because I was.


My favorite was the balance beams, where you had to walk across these plastic beams suspended on springs. I stepped on one and immediately found my feet violently shaking at the resonant frequency of the mass-spring combination that the presence of my foot and impulsive behavior had excited. I wobbled and staggered my way across and did a little victory dance at the end.

After some coaxing, I got Hily to trying, hoping that I might have, at last, found something I could do better than her. Unfortunately, she just sort of floated across all the beams as if it were no trouble at all, I don't even think she excited the resonant frequency.

Hily spotted this really cool praying mantis, I'd never seen anything like it before.
We put it on one of the twisty cypress trees, and it practically disappeared.
Can you spot the mantis?

Next week Carrie, Hilary's cousin, is coming to visit. We are going to participate in the "Red Fish Run." If it doesn't kill me, I'll try to post something about it

A goopy sea cucumber

Following the promptings of a sister I am breaking a month and a half long hiatus to update my blog on some recent things that are happening in Hilary's and my life. [< Does anyone know how to say that in a way that is grammatically correct and doesn't sound awkward?]

My cutie, who's daily getting more and more beautiful, went to the beach with me yesterday.
It was a balmy lower seventies, so we had the beach mostly to ourselves, and we didn't feel like the sole's of our feet were getting scorched as we walked across the sand.

Every time I visited the beach during the summer there was a goopy strip of scummy sea weedish stuff at the water's edge. The water was nice and warm, but when I went swimming in it I half-way expected to break out in itchy red bumps.

This is all in contrast to yesterday, when the water was cool and crystal clear. I went snorkeling, but I don't go out deeper than I can stand because I still haven't gotten over my fear of sharks.

Hily took some photos from the beach:
Hily and I played music at church this morning. Her talent is highly in demand (I think I'm there mostly because they figure that she doesn't come without me - and they're right). At her prompting we played a groovy version of "Swing Low" and a mellow version of Be Thou My Vision, which only one other person in the entire group was familiar with.

Our baby is daily getting larger, and I am sure she must be a future olympic athlete, because she never sits still. A jab to the left, followed by a somersault and a knee to the stomach... it is so bizarre to actually feel our baby's little foot when I put my hand on Hily's tummy! I am hoping and praying that I will be as good of a dad as I am sure Hilary will be a mother.

We are preping to visit for Peter and Liz's wedding next weekend. Hily is playing music for that, so we borrowed the church's keyboard so we can practice tonight.

Work is really interesting, and I've been enjoying it a lot. I actually have a hard time not thinking about it when I'm off of work, because I find the problems I am working are so interesting. That's a good sign, but I have to remind myself quite frequently that I need to keep work life somewhat separate from my home life. Hilary is really nice about that though, she actually asks me about stuff that I do.

Finally, I resurrected my old project of writing a computer game. I actually restarted it earlier this year. I work on it when I have free-time, which actually doesn't seem that often these days. This time I actually hope to finish it though...

Here's a picture of a sea-cucumber that I found when I was wading in the cove about an hour ago (Hily took it from the dock):