A day trip to Strasbourg

In 1977, my father was employed as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institut de Chimie, Université Louis-Pasteur in Strasbourg, France.  Strasbourg subsequently became the city of my birth.  When my father came to visit in April, he said he wanted to see the city again.  It was only a two hour drive from Wiesbaden so we drove there and back on the same day.  We visited the Strasbourg Cathedral (from 1647 to 1874 it was the world's tallest building), walked around the Grand Island (in 1988 it was named a UNESCO World Heritage site), had lunch at a French restaurant, and stopped at a pastry shop for desert as we walked back to the parking garage.

Pinewood Derby 2012

Oscar started attending Cub Scouts on the local Army base two weeks ago.  He is excited about earning patches and belt loops and learning new things.  Right now he is a Wolf.  In May he will become a Bear.

The Pinewood Derby is only held one a year but was scheduled for last Saturday (Oscar's second week).  Because he was just getting started with scouts, Oscar did not have a lot of time to work on his car.  The wood shop on the local Army base helped us cut the wood and then Oscar painted it and I helped him hammer the wheels on.

Basketball 2012

The boys both played team basketball this past winter.  Oscar was one of the youngest boys on his team.  Although his 8th birthday was two weeks before the end of the season, the rules required him to play on a team with 8 and 9 year-old boys.

Calvin played with the 3-to-5 year-old children.  His group did not play weekly games; instead, the focus was on skills development.  Calvin was supposed to have one game at the end of the season so I was waiting for that occasion to take pictures.  Then the other parents voted to cancel the game.  So I do not have any photos of Calvin playing basketball this year.  Calvin will be six in October so he will play with boys who are 6 and 7 this coming winter.

These photos are from January and February 2012.

New banner image

I updated the banner image with some photos I took after church today.

Calvin builds a Lego truck

Calvin built a small Lego car a few weeks ago.  I had to help him press a few of the pieces together and he needed help putting the tires together but he did the rest of it by himself.

Sara plays with BuckleyBoo

My mother sent Sara a BuckleyBoo toy for her recent birthday.  Sara really likes it.  I took some photos of her playing with it.

Oscar's baptism

Mormon children are eligible to be baptized when they turn eight (see here for an explanation).  Accordingly, Oscar was baptized on his eighth birthday.  Oscar spent several months preparing for his baptism.  We talked a lot about what it means to be baptized.  We also we discussed answers to questions that were in a "Baptism Book" that the ward Primary Presidency provides to each of the seven year-old children.  We are grateful that Oscar made the choice to be baptized.

Cirque Dreams at Ramstein Air Base

After Oscar's birthday party, I took Oscar and Calvin to Ramstein Air Base to see Cirque Dreams.  The show was free (compliments of Armed Forces Entertainment).  A performance stage had been constructed inside a large airplane hangar.  The seating was just removable benches that had been set up on the floor of the hangar.  It was really crowded and we got there right as the show was about to start so we had to hunt to find poor seats in the back.  Because the floor of the hangar was not sloped, we had a hard time seeing much more than the backs of the people sitting in front of us.  Lots of people were standing in the aisles because it gave a better view.  Initially I thought we should just give up and go home but we had driven over an hour to get there so I decided to just wait and see if things improved with time.  In fact they did improve -- but not until lots of other people sitting near us left early (because they were also unable to see).  Once people started leaving, our view improved significantly.

Oscar turns eight!

Oscar's eighth birthday was last Sunday.  We had a birthday party on Saturday afternoon.

Beyblade overload

When I came downstairs last Saturday morning, Oscar was watching YouTube videos on the laptop.  I wondered how long he had been there so I checked the browser history: