Late September Natalie and Luke headed up to Seattle to celebrate their birthdays along with brother/uncle Nick. They had a week crammed full with a visit to Natalie's best friend's house to see her new baby, some serious Wii tennis matches, rides on uncle Nick's shoulders, hang out time with Grammie, and Luke's first ever birthday cake. 
Luke loves hanging out by the beach in his tux.
Natalie was the Matron of Honor and gave a great speech!
It was a beautiful outdoor wedding at the Pacific House in Monterey, right next to Fisherman's Wharf. We enjoyed catching up with a bunch of Sacramento friends and it was the first time I was able to play bocce ball and eat clam chowder in a bread bowl at a wedding. 
Our engineering group went indoor skydiving at iFly today for a team building activity. Indoor skydiving is definitely not as relaxing as real sky diving, but it's a good way to refine your technique. You get 2 one-minute rides in the wind tunnel with a guy inside making sure you don't get too out of control. It was interesting to compare the terminal velocities of different body types -- our group ranged from 65 - 130mph.
Tomorrow the Large Hadron Collider gets turned on and will attempt to recreate conditions just after the Big Bang. Particles will be accelerated to 99.9999991% of the speed of light and smash into each other so scientists can observe things like quarks and, hopefully, Higgs Bosons -- the elusive 'God Particle' which may explain how particles acquire mass. Some people think this device will cause black holes that could swallow the earth, so if you feel yourself being pulled toward Geneva tomorrow, get a good grip on something immovable.
Natalie, Luke, and I got to spend the weekend at Woodleaf with Younglife staff from the former Soviet Union: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. It was an encouraging weekend to see and hear about all the great work Younglife is doing there, learn about the history of Younglife from an old-timer who was there for the first club in a circus tent in Dallas, and to relax with friends in a beautiful setting.
Thankfully, the Russian and Georgian representatives got along just fine. I was thankful once again for running water as Stass, a Younglife staffer in Kazakhstan, shared about his hometown. They don't have any hot water -- and they have cold water for only 5 hours... a week! To keep warm in the winter they build small fires in their living rooms because they don't have heaters. I'm liking our duplex better all the time. Stass was also a formidable opponent in our 3-on-3 basketball tournament.
Natalie and I hitched rides whenever possible from Jeff Farrar riding around in his golf cart.
Playing at the lake after a wiffleball game.
This is the biggest swing Natalie and I have ever been on.
Sheryll and Leon are really good at Ultimate Frisbie.
Luke hanging out with Armin, the most famous musician in Armenia, after some messy games.
Luke likes diving.
A few more pictures coming soon...
