TBT: April 2012 trip to Disneyland!

I decided to dig up a couple quick pictures of our April 2012 trip to Disneyland. We did a lot more on that trip than just go to Disneyland, so I really should take the time sometime to document it a little better, but not right now.

I've been thinking about this trip a bit recently because I may or may not have a trip planned back that direction in the near future! This time just Luke and me, going kahekesi (I can't think of an equivalent word in English! It's an Estonian adverb meaning "as a pair" or "two-ly"!)

Paradise Pier in California Adventure

Before this trip, it had been a solid ten+ years since my last trip to Disneyland (April 2001) during my Sophomore year of high school on a choir tour. I'm not sure I even went into the California Adventure park at that time because as I recall, it seemed to be under construction/renovation, and I didn't know much about what might be there. On our trip last April, I discovered how many amazing and awesome rides are there! It will definitely be a place to spend a lot of time on this upcoming visit.

Luke, Mark, and Logan

We had a great time there and really wore ourselves out during the two and a half days we spent at the two parks. We had strollers so it was nice to be able to push the boys around and provide a place for them to rest. No strollers this time. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!

msh

TBT: Study Buddy

Emmelise has become my little study buddy. At least on the nights when Suzanna is gone at some function or another.

Emmelise (six months) all tuckered out from the studying

Tonight I outlasted her, and she's sleeping soundly in her little chair here in my office. It's nice to listen to her soft breathing, and she sounds so peaceful.

Logan was my study buddy for Exam C when he was about the same age. I should go dig that picture up, actually. Ah, here it is (one of many):

Logan (six months), my study buddy in February 2011

As a matter of fact, I took my very first actuarial exam (Exam P) when Luke was about two and a half months old and another exam (Exam FM) when he was nearly seven months old: about the same age as Emmelise and Logan in these pictures.

Luke (almost seven months) with a sock on his head in May 2009, two days after passing Exam FM

Hopefully Emmelise will bring me luck like the boys did and I'll have a successful sitting on October 31st when I write my (hopefully!) last exam, the Group/Health Advanced Exam!

msh

TBT: Rivertrip July 1994

This post could be so much longer than it's actually going to be. While I only have a handful (okay, maybe two handfuls?) of memories from that week in July 1994 when Dad took Brian and me with him on a trip to ride the rapids of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, I could probably write many pages about those memories and the significance of some of them.

Tonight, though, I will let it suffice to say that this trip which we took just one week after my ninth birthday, stands out in my memory as one of the most fun, exciting, and cherished experiences I can recall. Five or six days of riding the river and camping with my dad and brother. It was a great time, and I hope to some day revisit the Middle Fork of the Salmon river, perhaps with my own sons, to re-live that week.

Just last month, while visiting Utah for our yearly summer trip back, Mom got me set up with her slide digitizer and a few sheets of slides from that trip. Of course, most of the pictures were of us kids or the other participants or the river since the whole reason we went was for Dad to take photographs for advertising and brochures. But he did show up in a few photos, the best of which I have included below.

This picture makes me happy. Makes me miss Dad more than I usually do and wish I could have recorded him retelling his memories from that week so I'd have more than my few scarce memories. But I have what I can remember, and now I have some photos to go with it. And for that I'm grateful.

msh