Easter Surprise

We had a wonderful surprise this Easter weekend...the Sun came out! So, we headed down to the Oregon Coast. It was sublime to say the least. Eric was ecstatic to find out he has a fearless, (non-wimpy) son: Emmett ran straight for the freezing waves when we let him out of his stroller. Carly became nostalgic for their Hawaiian past with beach towns, salty air, and sandy toes. And Emmett got some alone time with his first crush, Jess Palmer, who came to visit over the weekend. He can't get enough of her. Plus, seeing the sun gave us all hope that perhaps spring had finally begun and the rain was finally over.

p.s. it is raining right now as i'm writing this.

Wooden Shoes

Since there is not much new happening out here in Portland, I thought it would be nice to reflect on a childhood memory. This family portrait was taken in Rotterdam, Holland (The Netherlands), my Dad's native country...apparently my parents thought this a most worthy way to spend our time while on a foreign continent. All I remember is my mom complaining about how pointy her hat was, and that I was livid to be holding the red blob (fyi: it is supposed to be cheese). I think I recall Ryan trying to break the windows with the unidentifiable object he's holding after the picture was taken...that's when he realized the windmill and sailboats weren't real. However, it must be said, we do look quite authentic, don't you think?

Walking

Emmett is finally walking at 15 months! I know it is completely lame to show baby milestones on blogs, and I'm quite sure you really don't care, but now, if you are even still reading this, you'll understand how huge it is to us that he's walking (although, my arms were getting pretty ripped carrying around this ginormous load of a toddler.) The event occurred as such: Eric set down the giant on the floor after a hard wrestling match, and totally nonchalant, Emmett walked all the way across the room to the couch, never before even attempting to take a step. It's as if he had been planning the stunt for months.

Images of Willem Emmett Red...As Promised

Jai Guru Deva Om

The title of our blog is "Jai Guru Deva Om" and I think it appropriate to title this individual post the same. It is written in Sanskrit and the phrase actually appears in the Beatle's song "Across the Universe", which is probably irrelevant. But it means: Praise to the Heavenly Teacher ("om" is actually just the meditation chant.) Being Christmas, I thought I'd put up a few significant photos taken on our experience in Israel this summer, to show where the most imperative events in all of history took place.

The first photo is of the sea of Galilee, Galilee being the place where the Savior was raised, Nazareth being his home town. The Second is a tree in the Garden of Gethsemane, where the eternal and all encompassing atonement took place. And Third is of course the Garden tomb, where Christ broke the bonds of death and was resurrected; later He appeared to Mary of Magdala at this site. Ultimately, the purpose of this post is to redirect my thoughts (and hopefully yours) to this Heavenly Teacher during the Christmas Season.

Big Frosty

We thought we should take advantage of our once in a lifetime, large mass of land and frolic in the snow.

Eric and the Little Man

Halloween & Emmett turns 1

I (Carly) wore this bear costume when I was Emmett's age. Priceless. (no but seriously, we didn't have to spend any money on an outfit.) At Anne Marie's annual Halloween soup party.
An entire chocolate mousse birthday cake was put in front of Emmett to devour: he absolutely hated the mess. We may have a neat freak on our hands.
We went to the Hogle Zoo on Emmett's Birthday with Aunt Berkley and Uncle Pater.

No place like a new home

Apparently, our lives must be quite uninteresting, (we have not updated our blog for about 3 months now.) But we finally have something to say. So this weekend, that never-ending schooling abyss finally saw light as we traveled to Portland, Oregon, to find a new home. Emmett was left with Granny Tam, and Eric and I, confused with our aloneness, departed to the green state (green literally and figuratively: they are obsessed with an eco-friendly environment.) The trip exceeded all expectations. Our purpose was to find a new home, which we did, in a town called Wilsonville, right outside of Portland. Mission accomplished. We spent the remainder of the weekend exploring our new, future habitat...alone. Beauty and Class. Yup, that's Portland. Overall, the trip led way for a reachable future beyond over-cooked BYU students, including the characters of Eric the Sales Analyst and Carly the Mom.

images: view of Wilsonville and us in front of our new neighborhood