Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

From www.lds.org: "President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.

President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.

The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from cause’s incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days."

I was 11 when President Hinckley became our prophet. I vaguely remember President Benson, almost nothing of President Hunter, but Presidnet Hinckley is the one I remember most and I can't imagine our church without him as our leader. But he couldn't live forever and all I can think about tonight is the immense happiness I know he is feeling because he can finally be reunited with his wife. He lived a wonderful life and served the Lord well. I know many will miss him but it's comforting to know that we have great men leading our church and our new prophet will be chosen by God.

The Crater

Well, I did it. I got certified to scuba dive! Kate and I went to the crater in Midway at The Homestead on Friday and Saturday and did our four open water dives required to graduate. My dad requested that I do this post. This is the best picture I could find that shows the inside of the crater. He told me to take some pictures when we were up there, but they don't allow photography inside the crater and my batteries were dead when I went to take a picture of Kate in front of the outside of the crater. Sorry dad, but this will have to do.

On the outside, the crater just looks like a small hill. The Homestead built a tunnel on ground level to the middle, otherwise the only entrance is the hole at the top. The water is around 95º F and since it is open to the outside the cool air mixed with the warm water and created a rather eerie fog. We couldn't see more than a couple of feet in front of us. As seen in the picture, there is a floating dock on the surface. On either side are seating areas so people can just sit in the water like a hot tub. Besides scuba diving, people also swim and snorkel.

Underwater was a different story. I was surprised that it was so clear. Even when it got darker the deeper we went I could still see quite a bit. There's no creatures or plants to see but I could clearly see the walls of the crater and the other divers. At about 35 feet, there is a wagon wheel that hangs from the floating dock above. This marks the maximum depth divers are allowed to go. Our instructor took us a little deeper, so we could swim through a little triangle made of PVC pipe. We still only went 48 feet, which when figuring in the altitude is like 58 feet. Now that we are certified, we can go diving when we go to Hawaii in two weeks. If I like it enough I may go and get the next level of certification and I will be able to go 100 feet deep.

Cole is one-years-old today!

Happy Birthday Cole! My only nephew is turning one today. The picture on the left is of him opening a present on Christmas Eve. He kind of has a little smirk on his face. I can't wait to see what his personality is like when he's older. He's the cutest little boy and I remember going to the hospital to see him after he was born. Caroline couldn't grasp the fact that she wasn't the only child in her family any more. Now she has totally bonded with Cole. She calls him "my baby" and watches over him to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble.

We babysat Cole and Caroline last week and they enjoyed Cafe Rio with me and Kate. I couldn't believe how much of the quesadilla that Cole ate until I looked at the floor and realized that every piece I gave him was ending up there. I made a fire so Caroline could sit by it and watch TV but I told her not to let Cole by it. So whenever Cole got within 10 feet of the fire, Caroline would tell him no and pick him up and move him clear across the room. It was kind of cute.

Here's a picture of Cole from the photo shoot for his announcement picture. I can't remember how old he is here. A couple of months?

Here's Caroline holding Cole right after he was brought home from the hospital. Caroline looks confused and a little distraught.

My first breath underwater

Kate and I had out first out of four scuba diving classes last night. I guess I technically didn't take my first breath underwater last night because I used a snorkel in the swimming pool when I was little, but it was my first breath underwater at a depth of 13 feet. There are six other people in our class plus the instructor so it's a bit cramped in the pool. It just makes me all the more anxious to get out into the ocean where my fins won't hit the sides of the pool.

Next weekend, we will have finished our classes and will go to the crater in Midway. I've heard that it is pretty narrow but goes straight down 70 feet. Kate and I will only get certified to go to a depth of 60 feet. If we wanted to go deeper, we would have to do some more training. Our instructor said that the shipwrecks are really cool but they're all too deep for beginning scuba divers. We really like our instructor. He has done over 500 dives! Anyway, we had a lot of fun and are excited for when we get to do it in Hawaii.