Our 2008 Fall Break

Delynn and I have been back in Germany just a little over 24 hours and we slept almost half of them! For those that did not know (and sorry, I didn't mention anything in the blog two weeks ago) we had our school fall break the week of 6-10 October. The 3rd of October was also a German holiday (Unification day) so we had a little over a week off. Michael's parents are celebrating 50 years of marital bliss this year - as part of this year-long celebration, they wanted to renew their vows at church (After 50 years, it's probably a good idea to review exactly what got them into this situation...) Since we were going to have a break during early October (their actual anniversary date is 10 November) they graciously rescheduled their vow renewal and reception to fit our break. We flew out of Zürich, Switzerland for Tucson, Arizona a week ago Thursday. We stayed in Tucson for a week with the reception and renewal on Sunday. Here is a picture of the lovely couple before church.

Even though we were away for a week, international travel back and forth took up two full days (Ug!), so the trip was really short. It was such a wonderful thing however for brother David and I (and our wives) to stand witness to Dad and Mom as they renewed their wedding vows at church.

So, I was sure that I had taken my camera to church to take some pictures. However, when we walked into the church foyer, I realized that I didn't have my camera with me so I grabbed Dad's keys and ran back to the car. I searched in the car but the camera just wasn't there. I remembered setting it down just before we left, so I figured that it was sitting in the house on top of the fridge. We had arrived quite early for church and I debated running back to the house to get it but my sister-in-law Teri had brought her camera, so we could take pictures. Fast forward to after mass. We are walking through the parking lot to the cars when Eagle-eye Dave says, "Hey, what's that under the car?" We all looked and saw our camera case just behind the passenger side front wheel of Mom and Dad's CRV. We opened the case and the camera was inside, safe and operational. Thank goodness for my brother's amazing sight - if we hadn't seen it, we would have surely driven right over the camera as we left the church parking lot - plus it wouldn't have been at the house when we returned. Yeah Dave! For those of you who don't know my family, can you guess which one is Dave in the picture below? Yeah, you guessed it. He is obviously much older than I am... Okay, well, 18 months older.

We had a wonderful time at the reception - I love this picture of Delynn having a little fun before the festivities began.
Did we say that it was HOT in Tucson? If not, let me tell you - it was HOT in Arizona. Okay, it wasn't like blast furnace hot, it did however get up into the mid 90's (mid 30's C). But, as they say, it was a dry heat. Surprisingly, humidity does make a difference. With humidity in the low teens, the sweat just dries right up without making one feel too icky. Plus, every building has air conditioning...
This is Arizona hot! We were struck again at how beautiful the desert can be. It is not just sand and rocks, there is actually a lot of green and plenty of wildlife. Again, I was so impressed when we were driving through the desert to Tombstone. David was sitting in the middle seat and he kept pointing out stuff while we were driving along: "Hey, there's some coyotes on that ridge.", "Do you see the blimp?", "I think there is a fly on that cow's left horn..." Okay, so he didn't see a fly, but he would point things out that I had to really search to see. Dave must eat a lot of carrots.
So, Tombstone is pretty much a tourist trap. It is located out in the middle of the desert. If they hadn't found silver in the ground, it would not ever have come into being. The fact that it had 103 saloons in the city limits speaks volumes about its rough and tumble reputation. Why, even the Earp brothers (the Law) had to leave town at one point because they were about to be indicted for the unlawful killing of some poor schmuck. Still, it was worth the trip to the well-restored town. Don't those guys below look nefarious? Especially the one in the sunglasses...
We arrived back in Weil a. Rh. yesterday to witness the start of the fall season. We slept in quite late our first morning, which hopefully will begin to get us adjusted back to our regular schedule. As we walked through town today, I got a couple of shots of the new fall colors. We love the way God has given us all of the diverse beauty in the space of one short week.
Yeah, that's a palm tree below. We can actually grow them here. It is fast appoaching the time when they will be pruned and covered for the winter. They don't grow as tall as in Green Valley, but hey, we also have grass. After shopping we stopped by the café just up the street to sit in the beautiful sunshine and soak in the atmosphere. It is one of those things that we have not been able to replicate back in the States. Sitting at a café, watching the world go by. Ahhh. The coming week will be busy - I think we have something going on every evening and Saturday. Please pray for our school reception in Basel on Wednesday evening (11:00am PDT) as we meet and talk with prospective parents, relocation companies and company HR representatives. Also, Saturday is our Fall Party - we will be inviting families from the reception to meet with our current families to learn more about RIA.