Chelsea and I decided to take a retreat just for ourselves. We went to this nice retreat area up in the "mountains" of the Napa Valley. We enjoyed the one night we stayed up there and the small hike we did the next day. We were going to go on a longer hike but got distracted by all the wonderful wildlife we saw.

Most of our days were spent in meditation and talking about goals we had for our family for the next year. We spent the days in beautiful Calistoga. The city was small but had several really good restaurants. Our favorite was lunch on the last day we were up there. We ate at a restaurant called Wappo. Not only was the food really good, but the atmosphere was great. All the seating we had was outdoors in the wonderful sunny CA weather. The seating was neat as the "ceiling" was a trellis with grape vines winding up and through the planks up top. The grapes were hanging down through the trellis and being grape season there were several bunches ready to pluck. There was a waterfall in the middle of the seating area as well.

We left the area after having a great time with each other and talking about what we wanted for ourselves and our family of the course of the next year.

My wife apparently does not want me to have longer hair, and by longer i mean normal length hair. So after enough time i gave in and decided to get my hair cut, after all it will grow back. So i told her just didn't want it buzzed and that i should not go to a sports cut or the such as all they know how to do is buzz hair.

After about 45 minutes of looking at hair styles she and Joshua picked a style they liked out. I mentioned that it look really short but she said she found it in the medium cut styles. I said if you like it no problem hair does grow back. So they printed it out and off we went. Well the only place close and on the way to where we were meeting some friends for lunch was a Sports Clip, hmm wonder if it will get buzzed.

In we walk and this nice lady Tasha greets us and off i go to get my hair cut. After we decide on the treatment and Chelsea tells her what she wants and gives her the picture it is just me in the chair in the hands of the stylist. And what were the 1st words out of her mouth? "The sides look like a 3 or a 4 don't they?" I was thinking umm that is buzz cut talk and that is the length of my beard oh man.

Well about 20 minutes later and a nice hot towel on the face later my wife walks in and the surprise on her face speaks it all. The I love you, I love the hair, and the I am sorry. As the product is in my hair and i see the handwork of the stylist i have the shortest hair i have ever had. It is a nice buzz around the sides with it just slightly longer on top. Well give it 2 months and the hair will grow to a more acceptable length and give it 6 months and it will be ok, but then again my wife might be asking for me to cut it again. And with love as she is the only one who really matters, i will go back to Sports Cuts again if need be as hair is well just dead protein and will come back anyway. My wife well she has to look at me every day, so if she says she loves it then BRING ONTHE CLIPPERS. All that matters is how she views it not me. SO yea i wouldn't choose this look myself, but I DO CHOOSE MYWIFE and thats all that matters.

It has been 6 years with some of the best people in the world and yet as we move abroad to learn language it is hard to say good bye.

From the last 6 years i have gotten together with 5 of the most amazing guys. We all met randomly, 2 went to college together, 2 worked together, 3 got their masters together, and 2 met as bank teller and bank customer (Yes this adds up to more than 6 but this is how we all met and intersected). Then somehow all 6 of us got in the same place and for 6 years we have met almost on a weekly basis. We would meet for frisbee golf, hiking, camping, playing games, chilling, debating politics, debating the world's problems (err solving them i mean), and so on.

We have been through 2 family deaths, 3 miscarriages, 4 soon to be 5 births, 2 weddings, 3 soon to be 4 graduations, more moves than we want to admit, and the list goes on. We have been in each other's lives and it has been some of the greatest moments in each of our lives. And yet as this time here comes to a close it was time to say bye. How lucky have i been to have 5 guys and their wives/kids in my life, more than could be written about. It has simply been amazing that in this more individualistic culture we have found each other but also become so involved in each other's lives. The community we built and that still exists is a testament to just how great community is for our lives.

So as this time comes to an end for me, but not for the 5 of them, 5 of us (we are not sure what happened to the 6th person) got together and went camping up in the mountains for a day. It was a great time. We talked, we played frisbee golf, HOLE 14 STINKS!!, we ate some really great food, we talked more, we joked, we just plain had fun. As we left Hacienda Colorado it was hard to say bye. I know i will get to see them in future and will still talk with them. Now that I have all of them connected to the internet this task will be much easier, yes even Mike has entered the 21st century. I know i will always be welcome in their homes, we will always be friends, and when the last 2 get married i know i will make every effort to be back to be there for those joyous events.

All of this makes saying good bye all that much harder. Just seeing them leave as they drove off or dropped me off was not something i really wanted to happen. I know i will see most if not all of them in a few days again in various ways, but still this "last party for David" was not something i really wanted as it means the weekly meetings have come to an end for me. As the family moves abroad the best i an hope for is to meet others over there who are but a shadow of what these 5 guys have been. The hope and the desire is that some how despite space and time with the help of the internet, snail mail, airplanes, and phone calls i will hear their voices, see their faces and remain in their lives as they have all changed and shaped me to be a better man, husband, father, and friend to them, myself, my wife and the rest of the world.

So while i will not see you all i will always keep in touch as you know!!

With my love and the great past 6 years, HERE is to 6 more no matter the distance we have.

We have moved in and after a long day we are finally got all moved in. Chelsea and the kids were playing all day at either soccer games, the pool, etc while I was cleaning the old house. A friend of Chelsea's came over and helped her with the kids for most of the day and then ate dinner with us.

The day was pretty busy. The kids and Chelsea spent Friday night at the new place while I stayed at the old house. I scrubbed and cleaned our basement tiles Friday night, allowing them to dry all night. Then at around 8:00 I woke up and realized as i was cleaning that i did not have any music and also did not have any food in the house for dinner as Chelsea took it all over to the new house by then. So i started some cleaning and let some chemicals dry as i went to McDonalds (gross but filling) to eat/read for about 45 minutes.

After that it was non stop cleaning until noon when we then packed up 2.5 cars with everything we were taking over to the new house. It was then 4 when i got back to the old house and then was picked up again at 6:30 for dinner with the house finally clean.

The bummer of it all was that at 9:00 i realized our phone base was at the old house still. It would not have been a big deal, except for the fact that our cell phone does not work at all in our new place. Our reception was so bad that when I called our old housemates the wife was saying NOW NOW for me to come and then i was saying OK OK OK not the best conversation but we each got our message across.

I am not sure what it is about moving that drains your energy so much. I could play a full day of ultimate and not feel as drained as i did at the end of that night. What made things worse was it was not until Monday night that i really felt the full effects of the pain and agony of the long move.

Well it was time, or at least Chelsea thought it was. After going to a conference and Chelsea asking me about 10 times in an hour which hair cut I liked the most I got the hint that she wanted me cut the hair.

Not sure why, short hair is just a pain. Unlike long hair you have to worry about what you are going to do with it in the morning. Will it look ok? Do I have to shower, how will I style it? With long hair you put a brush through it pull it back and tie it back and your done. You could sleep on it all night and just a bit of water and a brush and you where good to go, with short hair you sleep on it and you wake up with your hair in ever direction but the direction you want it in. Knowing that the hair went to the children who lost theirs in their battle with cancer makes it better.

The odd thing is that just the length of your hair can make a huge impression on people. For whatever reason we have this mindset that guys with long hair are rebels or trouble makers, and guys with short hair are the well respected ones of society. Even the back of a Chipotle cup makes mention of a man with long grey hair as not one you would expect to be part of the business class. Are we so judgmental as a society that the length of ones hair determines their place in society? Do dead proteins really matter to how a person acts? The fact that one chooses to let more of the proteins grow while another will cut them off?

I ponder this as the reaction I got was the same as it was the same each time I got my hair cut. Some didn't even recognize me, while others said things like "You decided to join the rest of society?" or "So you wanted to be a prepy again instead of a punk rocker?" As we really that shallow that we feel hair length determines how one thinks or how they view themselves? Lets just hope this is not true of everyone.