2007 Week 31
I feel like I’ve been traveling the last month… it all started with a Slade family reunion here in Fort Collins the first week of July, followed by a Mills family reunion in Newport Beach, CA, then a trip to Portland for a conference, and finally a quick trip out to Intel’s site in Hudson, MA. I’ve had more than enough of airports and airplanes for a while.
For the Slade reunion, we played around in Ft Collins for a bit, but the highlight was camping in RMNP for a couple nights. All the time I’ve lived in Colorado, I’ve never been up there before, and it really is beautiful. The company was great, too! It was not an ideal for young-ens learning to crawl, with dirt, rocks, and more dirt everywhere you look — So Kim just made a cameo with Mark. She left early to make it out of the canyon and home before dark… but then a flat and a destroyed tire meant she wasn’t home until 11pm or so. But I’m grateful for her effort to be involved!
The Mills reunion was spent in a couple of beach houses right off the beach in Newport. It was a great location, I can understand why so many people are drawn there. But way too many people for me. For more crowded fun, we spent a day at Disneyland (I even managed to sprain my ankle). We also went to the Medieval Times show, which the boys enjoyed. Still not much there in all of that that works well for a crawling baby (babies + sand = not recommended). Again I’m grateful to Kim for her patience and desire to be involved.
While in Portland, a man stopped me on the street to ask for some money. He gave me his story about his truck being stolen (he’s a hardwood flooring contractor), along with his wallet, cellphone, etc. The police wouldn’t come out to help him since no injury was involved. He needed $30 to take the train/bus up to his custom house up in the hills. I ended up getting $40 out of the ATM for him, and we exchanged contact info so he could get it back to me. We talked for a couple minutes, and I asked him whether I could send him a copy of the Book of Mormon as a return favor — I wanted him to understand why I stopped to listen to his story and help him out, regardless of whether I believed his story or expect to ever receive it back:
16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
He said he would be willing to accept it and read it — he himself had lost his faith through the course of a divorce and other trials, but he said he believed people were brought together in such encounters for a reason. Still waiting to hear back from him though…
The trip to Hudson was short, with half of it spent in transit. My recommendation: avoid Southwest Airlines, at least for business travel. That was not a pleasant experience. I did get to see my sister Merrit for dinner and (part of) a movie. Another recommendation: avoid Transformers. Not worth the garbage.
So now I’m home with no travel plans any time soon. School is just a few weeks away for the boys. We hope to enjoy the remainder of the summer by doing as little as possible. But with all the boys and everything else, there’s always something…
I actually wrote this up last Sunday but never managed to get it posted because I hadn’t gotten the pictures up… they’re up now, so enjoy!
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One last thing: check out my write-up / tutorial on using RSS feeds to stay on top of new blog posts…
August 13th, 2007 at 7:17 am
I enjoyed all the pictures but my favorite was the one of you and Kim. Everybody, check out picture #51.