Aaron Klein's Corner

Catching Up

Hey, blog friends...sorry for the long delay between posts. I'm sure it won't be the last time. I just got back from a week and a half of vacation to Seattle, Chicago and Indiana. Cacey, Spencer and I had a great time visiting Pike Place Market, the first-ever Starbucks, Giordano's deep dish pizza, the Sears Tower Skydeck, De Brand Chocolate, and visiting with family near Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Now I'm back, attacking the hundreds of e-mails in the inbox, and we had a board meeting last night as well. I'll try and post a bit more about that soon...we had a very interesting dialogue with the Omniparty, which is the bargaining group for our unions. The state budget issue seems to be mired in gridlock (what's new), but Sierra College is really rising to the occasion in an incredible way -- more on that soon.

The documents from last night's meeting are now posted in Your College @ Work. Have a great week, and I'll post more soon!

PS: I'm on Twitter now. One description for it is a "micro-blog" because each post is 140 characters max. Still sort of figuring this out, but I have it working on the BlackBerry. If you're interested, you can check it out here.

Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is here again.

A time to celebrate the birth of the One who came to bring hope and peace to our world. A time to laugh and make memories with family and friends. A time to mail out 650 Christmas cards. (If you didn't get one from us, it's not like we didn't try!)

We'll be with our families for the next couple of days, so if I don't have a chance to say it again...Cacey, Spencer and I wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Addysen Grace, born at 4:21am

I'm an Uncle again...my sister Marie, and her husband Christian, are the proud parents of Addysen Grace Burtt. Born by emergency c-section at 4:21am, she is 8 pounds, 7.5 ounces, 20 inches long. Mom, dad and baby are healthy and resting.

We couldn't ask for a better thing to be thankful for! :)

A little post-election R&R

Wednesday night after the election, we left for a short post-election vacation to see some dear friends up in Oregon, and we thought it would be fun to take Spencer on his first train trip. We had a sleeping compartment on the train, so it was a very fun and comfortable trip. Here we are having lunch in the dining car...

While we were there, our friends (who are amazing and iconic photographers) did a photo shoot. They make us look so much better than real life. :)

 

 

Grandpa John

My Grandpa John just passed away after a very short fight with cancer. While it wasn't a complete shock, it was pretty unexpected.

He and my Grandma Ruth were our adoptive grandparents — my dad lost his parents many years ago, so they stepped in to fill that void. And such a special man he was.

He was a railroad man — Santa Fe. A union member, and quite possibly, my favorite Democrat. :) He and Grandma lived for some years in Southern California, then relocated to Topeka, Kansas to follow his job, and back to California after retirement.

They raised bassett hounds, angus cattle and persian kittens, as a hobby, and for income. And nobody could grill a better steak, angus hamburger, or stuffed pork chop, although my dad gave him a run for his money.

Somewhere up in heaven, I'm quite sure that God commanded an angel to break out the reel-to-reel machine, because that's how Grandpa still played a lot of his music. Those new-fangled eight tracks were no match for the reel-to-reel. :)

Above all else, my Grandpa John was a man of faith. Our faith teaches us that we can grieve with hope, because we know that goodbye is not the end. And that makes the fact that we miss him already, a little bit easier.

We miss you, Grandpa. We'll see you again soon.

Miniature golfing with my two favorite people

Seven Years with My Best Friend

Today was seven years with my best friend.

We celebrated with a weekend away together. Grammie stayed with Spencer, making it our first night away from him — but we survived. :)

And oh yes...someone found a dozen roses waiting at our table at the restaurant that night. She deserves every one of them, and more.

Happy anniversary, sweetheart.

New family photos...

We had some dear friends from Oregon visit us recently...they happen to be professional photographers (do visit www.bluecastlephoto.com), and I just had to share a bit of their artistry with you! They do amazing work — especially with what they had to work with. :)

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cacey, Spencer and I send our warmest wishes for a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year! We look forward to seeing many of you in 2008.

A few photos...

I bought Cacey a new camera as a gift, and we've been having fun taking great pictures with it.

Here she is with her cousin, Tamara, at the baby shower for their son, who was born just a few weeks ago. Color me biased, I think this is a great picture of my sweetheart. :)

Playing with my niece, Lily.

Holding another one of my nieces, Julia.

And this is a shot that I captured of my oldest niece, Elaina (Lily's sister, and Julia's cousin). She is two, going on six. :)