Happy New Year!

and a note about what's going on in Dubai!

Tom is there tonight, playing at a sheik's party.

That's serious travel!

happy new year to you all.
love,
dad

Barbed Wire in a Hammer Museum?

 Dadio, I talked to you about putting this up while I was still in Skagway. Sorry about the late arrival, and the lack of posting. With the internet being so terrible in Skagway I can't really upload or download much. But i'll try and make up for it by posting some of my adventures over the next couple weeks :)

 

I traveled around south east Alaska a lot more this year. The fact of having an actual passport this time around helped a lot, also having a checklist of things that I didn't do my first year. I ended up in the larger town of Haines a number of times, larger by about 800 people so still a small town. You can get to Haines in three different ways. 1. By car, which takes about 9 hours, passport required.     2. By boat, which takes you on average 1 hour. And 3. By plane, which will take you 20 minutes. Haines has some awesome stuff that Skagway doesn't, including a bald eagle research building with a sweet taxidermy museum, a whole new set of trails, a ton of different touring companies, since its a fishing town killer fresh seafood, and last but definitely not least is the hammer museum. "Home to the worlds biggest hammer" Its a tiny 3 room building with hammers covering all the walls. They seriously had a million hammers for every occasion, including an electric hammer, dentist hammer, nut hammers, a hammer made of solid gold, railroad hammers, whiskey barrel hammers, seriously anything you could think of they have a hammer for.

But on one wall marked "Fencing Hammers" I found a small coil of Kelly's patented barbed wire from 1861. It said it was the first patented barbed wire, and this made me think of Dadio and all his work and research on the subject. Is 1861 seriously the first patent of something that useful? Hopefully Dadio you can shed some light :)

Happy Birthday Ben

And to celebrate, this proof of a creative and fertile mind:

love,
Dad

Ben's big in the Netherlands

Check this out (be patient with the first minute or so):

http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1364718

Here is Phins soccer schedule

Cascade Team Schedule (BU6D1T4)
Date	Time	Field
Saturday, August 24	8:00AM	13 & 14
Tuesday, August 27	5:00PM	3 & 4
Tuesday, September 3	5:00PM	13 & 14
Saturday, September 7	8:00AM	9 & 10
Tuesday, September 10	5:00PM	9 & 10
Saturday, September 14	8:00AM	7 & 8
Tuesday, September 17	5:00PM	11 & 12
Saturday, September 21	8:00AM	13 & 14

And here is Simon's soccer schedule

Date	Time	Field	Half Time Fruit	After Game Snack & Drink
24-Aug	12:30 PM	11,12	Simon Abbott	Brennin Williams
28-Aug	05:00 PM	13,14	Zachary Ferguson	Brandon Valdes
4-Sep	06:30 PM	13,14	Willem Maughan	Shion Sonomura
7-Sep	11:00 AM	9,10	Jack Miche	Thomas Sims
11-Sep	05:00 PM	13,14	Teague Nelson	Maddox Nielsen
14-Sep	12:30 PM	13,14	Maddox Nielsen	Teague Nelson
18-Sep	05:00 PM	11,12	Thomas Sims	Jack Miche
21-Sep	11:00 AM	1314	Shion Sonomura	Willem Maughan

All of their games are down in the vineyard area fields off fourth south toward Utah lake.

I love you guys and want you to know you are all invited to any and all of the games.  It's been fun to watch the kids get better.  It's amazing what practice and experience will do.  Special thanks to Kade and Jar, they love playing with you guys.