Playing in the snow

The kids had a great time playing in the snow up in Indiana. The first day we got there it snowed, so the kids went out the next day. It was in the upper 20's. On Friday it iced and then got down to -3 on Sunday with a windchill of -26. The kids were not nearly as excited to stay out in it for long though Liza did discover that the sled goes a lot faster and further when the snow is coated with a thick layer of ice. :-)

Here are some pictures from their fun in the snow....





The ice made the trees look beautiful, but it took down lots of power lines including Liza's brothers' houses. They were out of power for 16 hours the first day and then off and on for the next couple of days. Thankfully, Liza's parent's house did not lose power so they had a place to come and warm up.

Living in a Mac home

There are so many posts we need to make about our trip to Indiana. You can check out my sister-in-law's...she does such a better job at it.

But this one made me laugh--Last week in Indiana was freezing. I'm not sure if the temperature got above 10 degrees. One day I was getting Zach and Isabella ready to go outside and play (they were completely undeterred by the cold weather, thanks LaDawn for rounding up the snow clothes!), and Isabella had put her scarf on.

Zach looked at her and said, "You're a PC!"
Isabella: "I am not!"
Zach: "Yes, you are."
Isabella: "PCs are what people laugh at! I will not be laughed at!"

You can tell we live in a Mac house...later Zach declared he was a PC also when I put his scarf on him. Chris will post the pics to let you see how cold it really was.

Let it snow!

Last Tuesday, when I arrived back in Austin after a long trip home from New Zealand, it was snowing in Austin. Liza was at her annual staff Christmas party and got this picture of her and Erin trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. The next morning the when the kids got up they were SO excited to see even a dusting of snow on the roofs and play scape.

Kid Theology

Last night when we were getting the kids ready for bed, Isabella was praying for people we know who don't know Jesus. Then she said, "I believe in Jesus!" To that Zach said, with conviction, "I don't believe in Jesus!" Liza replied, "Why not?" "I believe in God!" he replied. Isabella then retorted, "Well, Jesus IS God" but he would hear nothing of it. :-)

Flight home

When I got back from going downtown, I went to check back in with United. I was not really looking forward to the 13 hour flight or trying to sleep in the little seat. I only slept about 2 hours on the way over, so I was kind of dreading it. When I got up there, the very nice lady said, "Oh, good news, you've been upgraded." That was great news! When I got on to the plane, I discovered that my seat was on the upper deck and the plane was one of the newly outfitted "premium service" planes. It was by far the nicest seat I've ever had flying...



You can see the huge screen which had all kinds of "on demand" movies and tv shows. The seat reclined fully in to a bed, so around 10pm New Zealand time, I layed it down and went to sleep for 8 hours! It was a real blessing and I was very thankful. When I got off the plane in San Francisco, I discoverd that my bag was still in Auckland, but even as I was waiting I was telling the Lord that I didn't mind. I'd happy trade a late bag for a great seat any time!


On the way out of Sydney, we flew right over down town. I snapped this photo on my phone. You can see the Opera house in the lower left.

Afternoon in Sydney

On my way home today, I flew from Auckland to Sydney, about a 3 hour flight. I had about 6 hours to kill at the airport there, so I went in to town on the train to look around and take photos. Liza and I visited there back in 2003, so it was fun to go again.

I wish I had my video camera for these guys. The music they were playing was amazing.

The Sydney Opera House.

The Harbor Bridge. If you look carefully near the top, you can see a line of people who were climbing the bridge.

I thought this looked cool. The flowers kind of mimic the look of the opera house.

What visit to Sydney would be complete with out a visit to the Apple Store? Most, probably, but I ran across it while walking through the city and thought it looked pretty cool. It was packed out too, which I'll take as a good sign for my Apple stock. ;-)

More New Zealand Pictures

The last couple of days I was in New Zealand, I got to spend more time in and around the city and with the summer project that was there learning and working on 3 other films.

This is a great shot of downtown Auckland.

A picture of me on Mount Victoria (an extinct volcano) with the city behind me.

These trees (I can't remember the Mauri name for them) are a protected tree in New Zealand and are really beautiful. They bloom at Christmas time (the summer is just getting going) and Aaron said they are one of the symbols of Christmas there.

Here are 3 of the Kiwi students along with Rocky, Cristina and Libby from our team in Austin out on the beach. We had a Kiwi barbecue (Kiwi style, that is, not barbecuing actual kiwis which would get us all put in jail.)

These pictures are of the three different groups working on their films. Here Aaron, the staff guy who put the project together, is looking at this group's film about "Identity."

Another group is making a animated short about a characther called "Pot head" - he has a tea pot for a head and I'm really looking forward to seeing the final film. The last film is called "Apathy" and deals with a girl who is giving all the signs of commiting suicide but the society around here is too busy to care. I got to spend a couple of days with the project and helped them out with some programs that were very useful to them in editing their films. I would have loved to have spent a couple more days with them, but I am glad to be on the way home to see Liza and the kids!

G'day from New Zealand

I've been in New Zealand for the last few days working on a film here with the New Zealand team and most of my team from Austin. It's been a great time. NZ is amazing beautiful and the guys from my team really did well and helping to pull together the production. It's been a lot of work, but fun too. The film is about an ex-gang leader who took the rap for some fellow gang memebers and ended up in prison. He later came to Christ and Jesus "Took the rap" for him. The film is the true story of his life and called "The Rap." You can learn more about him at www.true-red.com Here are a few pictures from the film set...

Rocky and Matt talk with the director about the next shot.
The camera operator and the focus puller (1st AC) ride the dolly to get the final shot in the "prison cell."
I came to help produce and to manage the data files that come from the camera.

We had an awesome makeup artist who made this guy look like he'd been in a major fight.

The set was built in a local Rugby club. Our art director and a carpenter built a prison cell out of plywood and foam board. It looked amazing.


Here is Tuhoe on the monitor during one of the shots of him in the prison cell.

The final shot was out at the beach- where he proclaims that he is free becuase "someone took the rap for me."
The beach here is beautiful.

This is Aaron Thompson, the NZ producer and the boom operator.

We had a big "Jimmy jib" boom to film the final scene.


Here is the start of the final shot with Tuhoe in front of Freedom Rock.

Running

This afternoon the kids and I walked around our neighborhood delivering invitations to our annual brunch. Zach and Isabella each had a stack in their hands. Finally Zach came up to me, handed me the stack, and said "I need to run with my arms." He had been running down the sidewalk, but decided he needed his side flippers (which any of you who have seen him run know about) to help him go. His form actually was much better than usual. Amazing what a couple of weeks can do in the life of a two-year-old.

Decorating the tree

After we let the tree settle in for a day, we began the task of decorating the 10 foot fir. Last year Zach mostly wanted to take stuff off, but this year he was very excited about helping to put on ornaments. I put on most of the lights while the kids were asleep (somehow HALF our lights died while in the box from last year to this one, so I had to go out and buy some more. ) Then Isabella helped put on the rest and helped with the garland. Once that was done, we put on the Christmas music (we have a long tradition, from back when I was a kid, of listening to the Carpenter's Christmas album... funny, but true) and we went to work putting the ornaments on the tree. Liza took them out of the box and would hand them to the kids, then I would help them to avoid putting them all on the lowest branch grouped in a small 2 foot area. :-)

Isabella and Zach got in to the spirit by wearing their "Sanata's helper" hats.

I had to use a ladder to get to the top of the tree.

Isabella would take the ornaments and put them on. For the high up branches, I would lift the kids up as high as I could and they would put them on.

Zach hung this one out on the limb. We thought it was so funny that we left it there.

Here is Zach getting way up high. After the first time, he only wanted to hang on the top of the tree.

Isabella wanted to hang some up high as well.

When we were done, we ended up with a beautiful tree. The kids love to look at it and to ring a bell that is down at their level. We have gotten Zach to ASK before he can go ring it and he usually refrains from ringing it more than twice the number of times he asked that he could.

Merry Christmas all!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas Tree!

Today we got our Christmas tree from our traditional location: Lowes. :-) We went in wanting a good tree of course, but the first one we saw looked really good. Too good actually. It was in the $39 aisle of 7-8 foot trees. I looked at the tag, and it was marked as a 7'-8'. As you can see below, unless Liza has shrunk to Hobbit size, this tree is a lot taller than 7-8 feet. When we got it home we found it to actually be just over 10 feet tall. (that's about a $60 savings if we had shopped in the 10 foot tree aisle.)

It looks very good in our living room and the kids are really excited about it. We'll let it fall out today and then decorate it tomorrow.

A new twist on Christmas music

Yesterday we drove back from Tulsa to Austin. As is our tradition, we listened to Christmas music on the way home from Thanksgiving. As we were listening, Zach said, "Who is Santa Clause?" Liza replied, "Well, who is Santa clause?" To that he replied, "Oh yeah. He's the Christmas Tree man." We all laughed. Later, he said, "I want to hear Frosting the snowman." We got a good laugh out of that as well.

Big Fish

While we were at the conference at Pine Cove, Isabella got in on some fishing with some other kids. Just like at her Grandpa's pond, she threw in the line and caught a fish immediately. I think it was the biggest one anyone caught all weekend. She thought it was pretty cool, but did not want to touch it. :-)

Pine Cove Conference

This weekend we have been at Pine Cove Camp, just outside of Tyler, TX for our annual regional staff conference. We've been having a lot of fun, and I've been having fun playing with a new digital SLR. Here are a few pics from before we left and at the conference center...

Zach was looking out the back door and wearing a hat the he and Isabella made at the "Y" on Thursday.

Indie wearing her sweater. I know, I know, your saying, "Really? A sweater?" I felt the same way, but after a couple of day of her sitting around shivering all day because of the colder weather, my mom got her one. She is much warmer.

Zach at Pine Cove today showing off a rock he found.

Liza with the fall colors behind her. It is really pretty here.

The leaves are brilliantly colored.

After nap, Isabella and I went pine cone hunting. She had a great time.

She thought the bottom of these two looked cool.

A big smile.

She gathered up 32 before she ran out of steam...

I asked her to make a goofy face, and she gave this very cute one instead. Expect lots more fun and great quality pictures in the future....