Road Trip to the Redwoods

Spring Break Roadtrip to Redwood National Park

When we moved back to the USA in 2008, Holly and I promised ourselves that we would not stop traveling.  While living in Europe, we utilized every school vacation to it's fullest and sometimes even kept the kids out of school for a few days to accomodate our family road trips.  We decided that here in the America, we will do the same thing.   We have decided to make the National Parks our major destinations and to explore interesting places as we travel between these National Treasures.

We had already made plans for Noah to return to Germany during this Spring Break and to attend school with his old classmates there.  So for the first time, we took off on a road trip without our eldest child.

Sage was fascinated by the Salt Flats just outside Wendover, Utah

We stopped and tasted more than 40 types of olives in Corning, California-- The Olive Capitol of the USA

Danny collects huge pine cones along the Trinity River

 Holly and I fell in love with Redding, California.  What a beautiful small city in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The drive along the Trinity River from Redding to the California Coast was gorgeous, but the road was definitely not strait.  We stopped many times to enjoy the beautiful riverside scenery and let the kids have a break from the car to prevent car sickness and the ugliness that follows.

From 07 08

Noah will turn Twelve this week. How recently it seems he was our little toddler in the Bronx, responding to the question, "How old are you?" with the unexpected, "I'm Eightween months."

We have been fortunate with our oldest child. He has been fun and easy to raise and so eager to learn about and explore the world. For those who share our Faith, you can appreciate the thoughts we have as Noah passes from the ranks of a Mormon "child" including participation in Primary, Cub Scouts, and efforts to earn the Faith In God Award, into the brotherhood of the Aaronic Priesthood, Boy Scouts, and young-adulthood. We hope he is well-prepared to face the challenges of adolescence in this wonderful, high-tech, high-speed world with all it's amazing opportunities, but also it's intense bombardment with things profane, selacious, and negative.

He and I will leave tomorrow for a Fly-fishing Adventure on the Green River. I hope to make it a family tradition to take each of my boys on such an adventure at the time they turn twelve. I remember my Dad taking me on such a trip when I turned twelve. For me it included my first airplane flight, my first individual fishing adventure with my Dad, and many memories of my Father that have inspired me in my own attempts at loving and nuturing my own children.

Hopefully Holly will have a similar adventure with each of our girls as they reach that magic age.

We just returned from Noah's Orchestra concert. The music was superb and I loved the excited smile Noah gave me as I told him how much I enjoyed listening to the concert. He said, "It is pretty cool, uh, Dad."

I realized last week that I will likely never keep up with Noah in my knowledge of things. I may have a slight advantage now, only based on my extra 25 years of study and experience, but I am not a learner like he is. At this point he reads an average of 1,000 pages a month-- and that is without any pressure from school or parents. I only hope that his formal schooling will never get in the way of his education and love of reading.

The only thing Noah likes more than learning and reading, is telling others about all his thoughts and ideas. During a recent game of BLOCKUS with our boys, I was becoming frustrated with all the time spent talking between turns. I told Noah to "stop commentating and take your turn." Oak, our quiet observer immediately replied, “Noah is very good at commentating.” Oak our observer speaks truth about Noah our commentator.