Tomorrow we will have been in Michigan for two weeks. My mom was good enough to take care of a lot of our travel issues: looking after our cats while we are away and driving and picking us up from the San Francisco airport. We had a layover in Chicago that ended up being two hours longer than we intended because of our plan arriving late and then technical difficulties with the aircraft before we took off. In all of my travels that has been the worst plane experience that I've had so I count myself lucky. We were greeted happily in Detroit by my sister-in-law Leah and my three youngest nephews.
We spent that weekend in Detroit playing with the kids,
watching debates between Christians and Atheists on youtube and making tasty food to eat. They let us borrow one of their cars and we left for Lansing the following Monday. It had snowed a lot but the roads were mostly cleaned off, though we did drive past at least three cars that had gone off the side of the road. Becca even called the highway patrol to come and get one of them. I'm glad she did because that was the coldest weather that I've ever been in. It was a biting 4 degrees Fahrenheit that late afternoon. We were happy to see Walter and RossAnn and thankful that we arrived without any problems.
The next day was our four year anniversary. We were in Lansing for our two year anniversary and went to some of the places that we had been two years ago. It was nostalgic and very enjoyable.
Then the Tobey's came from Detroit to Lansing and we were one big happy family in one little town house. It was reminiscent of the big holiday celebrations at the Boothe's house when I was a little boy and my cousins still lived rather close. Walter, my father-in-law, had suggested that we make a schedule and the scheduled days went pretty smoothly with everyone pitching in with the chores and the kids and everyone having free time. Walter commented that he loved watching the family get organized to serve and help one another in the best way possible.
There are lots of fun stories that we could tell about taking care of the kids but one in particular stands out in my mind. Two Fridays ago I was taking care of the twins in their room. Just out of curiosity, I decided to see what these little two-year-olds would do if I started speaking to them in Portuguese. They noticed the switch but didn't really seem to be bothered by it. We went down stairs to where the Christmas tree was and Ben started taking ornaments off. When he took one off that looked like a house, I did as I had been doing while we played and said object's name in Portuguese. This time, Ben furrowed his little brow and said
House. quite adamantly. I responded,
Não, é uma casa. to which he replied even louder
House! I decided that I might be confusing them and switched back to English.
A week and a half later, last night after dinner, Ben and I were down in my In-law's basement where Walter has a small rope swing set up for the twins. To keep from being bored I decided to practice my German thinking up original sentences and then saying them aloud. Ben was swinging happily several feet away and I didn't think he noticed especially since I wasn't trying to talk to him. When I did finally turn my head in his direction I found that he had been looking at me rather seriously. He then shouted
House!
Some other memorable activities were playing in the snow the day after Christmas. Becca, my brother-in-law Rick and his oldest son Richard built an igloo out of packed snow. The weather changed soon thereafter and a rather vigorous rain washed away most of the snow for most of last week. We took advantage of the
good weather to go on a date with Rick and Leah. Rick had been to a Middle Eastern restaurant before and wanted to take us there. We stuffed ourselves silly eating wonderfully flavorful food and then went to the mall and played air hockey.
I appreciate all of you wonderful people who made 2008 so great for us. Becca and I are in a
period of transition, a term that is often employed as a euphemism for hardship. In this case it is simply that: transition. This year we followed the Lord's counsel and made changes to our lives that we did not understand, nor do we completely understand them now. It is hard to see far reaching consequences of our actions but I am filled with a solid sense of optimistic curiosity when I think of what 2009 will bring for me and my lovely wife.
Happy New Year's Eve from Ryan and Becca.
Tomorrow we will have been in Michigan for two weeks. My mom was good enough to take care of a lot of our travel issues: looking after our cats while we are away and driving and picking us up from the San Francisco airport. We had a layover in Chicago that ended up being two hours longer than we intended because of our plan arriving late and then technical difficulties with the aircraft before we took off. In all of my travels that has been the worst plane experience that I've had so I count myself lucky. We were greeted happily in Detroit by my sister-in-law Leah and my three youngest nephews.
We spent that weekend in Detroit playing with the kids, watching debates between Christians and Atheists on youtube and making tasty food to eat. They let us borrow one of their cars and we left for Lansing the following Monday. It had snowed a lot but the roads were mostly cleaned off, though we did drive past at least three cars that had gone off the side of the road. Becca even called the highway patrol to come and get one of them. I'm glad she did because that was the coldest weather that I've ever been in. It was a biting 4 degrees Fahrenheit that late afternoon. We were happy to see Walter and RossAnn and thankful that we arrived without any problems.
The next day was our four year anniversary. We were in Lansing for our two year anniversary and went to some of the places that we had been two years ago. It was nostalgic and very enjoyable.
Then the Tobey's came from Detroit to Lansing and we were one big happy family in one little town house. It was reminiscent of the big holiday celebrations at the Boothe's house when I was a little boy and my cousins still lived rather close. Walter, my father-in-law, had suggested that we make a schedule and the scheduled days went pretty smoothly with everyone pitching in with the chores and the kids and everyone having free time. Walter commented that he loved watching the family get organized to serve and help one another in the best way possible.
There are lots of fun stories that we could tell about taking care of the kids but one in particular stands out in my mind. Two Fridays ago I was taking care of the twins in their room. Just out of curiosity, I decided to see what these little two-year-olds would do if I started speaking to them in Portuguese. They noticed the switch but didn't really seem to be bothered by it. We went down stairs to where the Christmas tree was and Ben started taking ornaments off. When he took one off that looked like a house, I did as I had been doing while we played and said object's name in Portuguese. This time, Ben furrowed his little brow and said House. quite adamantly. I responded, Não, é uma casa. to which he replied even louder House! I decided that I might be confusing them and switched back to English.
A week and a half later, last night after dinner, Ben and I were down in my In-law's basement where Walter has a small rope swing set up for the twins. To keep from being bored I decided to practice my German thinking up original sentences and then saying them aloud. Ben was swinging happily several feet away and I didn't think he noticed especially since I wasn't trying to talk to him. When I did finally turn my head in his direction I found that he had been looking at me rather seriously. He then shouted House!
Some other memorable activities were playing in the snow the day after Christmas. Becca, my brother-in-law Rick and his oldest son Richard built an igloo out of packed snow. The weather changed soon thereafter and a rather vigorous rain washed away most of the snow for most of last week. We took advantage of the good weather to go on a date with Rick and Leah. Rick had been to a Middle Eastern restaurant before and wanted to take us there. We stuffed ourselves silly eating wonderfully flavorful food and then went to the mall and played air hockey.
I appreciate all of you wonderful people who made 2008 so great for us. Becca and I are in a period of transition, a term that is often employed as a euphemism for hardship. In this case it is simply that: transition. This year we followed the Lord's counsel and made changes to our lives that we did not understand, nor do we completely understand them now. It is hard to see far reaching consequences of our actions but I am filled with a solid sense of optimistic curiosity when I think of what 2009 will bring for me and my lovely wife.
Happy New Year's Eve from Ryan and Becca.
1 comment:
Mr. Boothe -
This is Elder Fife from the mission. How the heck are you?
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