It hasn't been a very fun year so far for our family. I was gone for four months to Iraq and then was back in Cyprus for three weeks. I was able to come back to the US for Zak's birth, but had to go back to Cyprus again after only a couple weeks. And now, finally, after six months of being apart, our family is back together!

Cheri has been doing very well with teaching Jonathan how to speak. This is no surprise to most people who know Cheri because she is very eloquent with her pronunciation and vocabulary. Recently Jonathan has wanted to talk to me on the phone and since I'm not always available to answer, I get lots of fun messages, sometimes at Cheri's prompting and sometimes all on his own. These are some of my favorites:

Miss you!

I don't always agree with the things Google does nor with some of its policies. But I am impressed with the way it has stood up against Chinese censorship, even if it had to be "nudged" in that direction. So well done Google. It's refreshing to read (and almost difficult to believe!) that a company gave up "right now" revenue in order to do what it believes is ethically right.

Church services here are a little... different. Sure they are small, but I'm used to small. I got used to that on my mission and during the last two years that we have been in Cyprus.

Following Justin's lead, this is my year in review by cities:

• Akrotiri, Cyprus
• Chania, Crete
• Paris, France
• Provo, Utah
• Rigby, Idaho
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• Ucon, Idaho
• Valleta, Malta
• Ypsonas, Cyprus

Spent at least one night in all of these cities.

I'm guessing that few of you know that feeling you get when you are working on a remote computer halfway across the world and apply a change, only to never have it come back. I liken it to standing on the edge of a cliff that doesn't have any railing and looking over the precipice.

Well, thanks to my father who patiently stayed up late so that I could walk him through a few troubleshooting steps, it's back. So thanks Dad! It's nice to have something to work on over here in the free time.

A whole lot has happened in our lives. Here's the Reader's Digest version:

Well... almost.

I stepped outside to go to work yesterday and my scooter was nowhere to be seen. I asked Cheri if she had moved it and she asked me if I was trying to play a joke on her. I thought maybe she was trying to play a joke on me. After we determined that nobody was trying to fool the other, I went to the roof to have a look around. No scooter in sight.

Well that sucked.

I haven't mentioned it in quite a while so I thought I would give an update on my progress towards getting my PPL. The good news is that I haven't crashed and died yet. Yay!! Though I probably owe most of the credit for that to my in-laws who have told me they pray their daughter won't be a widow in the near future.

Jonathan likes experimenting with all the different noises he can make. They range from imitating things he hears Mom and Dad say to just weird, random noises. Cheri got this great video of him playing on a local jungle gym.