Today I tested to advance to brown belt in taekwondo. We’ve been doing it for almost eight months, and love it! Laura is currently a green belt, and will continue advancing once the baby is born.

Testing consists of each student demostrating the curriculum for their current belt to the Grandmaster, in order to qualify for advancement to the next belt. Here’s a video of me at testing:

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This year was my first attempt at gardening. I have always had an interest in it, but never actually done it. I planted four roma and two celebrity tomato plants in custom-designed 6-gallon buckets. Continue reading »

Today we went to the Utah Brazilian Festival at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City. We went with our (Brazilian) next door neighbors Claudio & Manuela, and my cousins Paul & Valeria. We had some amazing food, and enjoyed watching the parade. Here’s a video of the day:

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Today we went to the doctor, and found out that we will be having a boy!! Laura’s due on January 22, and we are very excited. Looking at his parents, especially his father, I am sure he will be very calm, obedient, quiet, well-behaved, and reserved….. Now we just have to come up with a name. Suggestions are welcome.

Today Laura and I went on a tour at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. It was her first time there and we both had a lot of fun on the tour, browsing the gift shop and museums, and “playing” the piano. Enjoy the little video I made, as well as some great photos that Laura took on our trip:

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Today we went to the world’s largest man-made crater, which is even visible from outer space. It was fun looking into the mine while watching all the huge trucks working, as well as take a stroll through the visitor’s center. Check out this little video from our visit:

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Today my Dad and I went caving at the Timpanogos caves. Although we’ve been through them many times before, we had never done this specific tour, which requires hard hats, head lamps, and goes off the beaten path. It was a lot of fun! Here are a few photos from our adventure:

After much frustration with the limitations inherent of free hosted blogging services, I’ve decided to buy our own domain, so I can setup and brand our blog how I want.

Among other things, now that I am fully in control of administration and hosting, I can embed custom flash videos, photo galleries, automatically send out push email notifications of new postings, and more. So enjoy the new goodness!

-Ryan