Christmas 2008 Family Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Valentine’s Day! We had a fairly eventful 2008, which ended in moving to a new home. Brian just finished up his two-year postdoc appointment at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and accepted a job as a visiting professor in the Physics & Astronomy Deptartment at Brigham Young University for two years. We moved the week of Christmas from our apartment in Los Alamos, New Mexico to a roomy house in western Provo, Utah. That is why we have a Valentine’s Day letter, instead of a Christmas letter this year!

One of our highlights this year was the opportunity Angela and Brian had to spend a week touring Paris without the kids. We twisted the arms of Brian’s parents to fly out to our house to chase our kids while we vacationed. Brian had two professional conferences, one in Aix en Provence, France and the other in Paris, France. Angela joined him near the end of the Paris conference and we stayed another week to tour Paris. We enjoyed the Parisian food, including duck, seafood, pizza, and their wonderful ice cream. We really enjoyed the Eiffel Tower, Opera Garnier (the opera house where Phantom of the Opera is based), the Louvre and many other places. Despite the impressions these famous places made on us, one of the best experiences was attending our church’s local congregations in France and seeing through a different language and culture how similar our church was there to the United States, particularly the calming peaceful Spirit that attends the meetings.

Our little Lucas, or Lou-key as we often call him, is 2 now and isn’t so little anymore. He has quite the vocabulary and tries to be independent, often saying “my do it.” Lucas is full of energy and is always running (well really galloping) wherever he goes. His nearly ever present smile lights up a room. Lucas is starting to imitate his older brother in all that Travis says and does. Lucas loves eating strawberries, playing with margles (marbles) and balls, wrestling with Dad, riding bikes inside and outside the house, and blowing kisses to people.

Travis turned 4 this year and is so tall that new people he meets ask him if he’s 6. Travis is full of questions and always wants to learn how things work and why things happen. Travis could play with his trains and cars all day long. His toys are even starting to talk to each other. On his first Sunday here in Provo the church’s Primary welcomed him and when he came home he told us that they called him a visitor, but in Travis’ words “I’m not a visitor, I’m Travis!” He also tells us that Lucas is his best friend.

Angela has been very busy teaching piano, being involved in the church primary organization, and chasing our 2 boys. She is expecting #3 in July, and we are very excited! Angela has been teaching piano lessons for about 3 years now and has really enjoyed it. This year she taught 14 future Beethovens. Angela will miss all of the many good friends she made in Los Alamos, but she is excited to be able to shop at more than just the local grocery store and enjoy the variety of restaurants in our new city.

Brian enjoyed his job in Los Alamos including giving two conference presentations and publishing six scientific journal articles. He’s excited to experience his dream job as a professor. Dr. Anderson started teaching Physics 167 (Acoustics of Music, Speech and Audio) on Jan. 5 at BYU. Brian loves geocaching (high tech treasure hunting) with his pals, Travis and Lucas, hiking Los Alamos’ mountains and canyons. Another benefit of moving to Provo is that there is an all new set of hundreds of geocaches to find.

We hope you also had a wonderful 2008 and enjoying the beginning of 2009! We hope we get the chance to visit with you and continue our friendships and love. The current world events/situation can be discouraging, but we encourage you to find the joy in serving others and in your relationship with God.

Love,
Brian, Angela, Travis, and Lucas