1. I met a guy at work today and after I told him where I was from he said, "I'm from Deary. Well, actually a little outside of Deary, Helmer." You know your town is really small if you're citing Deary as the nearest large town that someone might recognize.

2. Yesterday we had a fire drill in our building at work. When we all got out to the grass, I noticed that someone from our office brought a football and someone from another office brought a baseball and some gloves. Our office manager told me she was going to run home and get some lunch, so I started wondering about these fire drills. I asked around and found out that the drills usually take more than an hour and people usually find something else to do so they don't have to stand around in the sun for an hour. Once everyone is outside they have to check all of the offices in our 7-story building and everyone has to go through security screening to get back in. Seeing that we had some extra time, I took off with some of the interns and went to tour the Library of Congress. We went in, looked around, and started talking with one of the tour guides. Somehow we got on the subject of rare books and someone suggested we go see if they had an original Book of Mormon. We wandered down some halls and peeked through some doors where we saw the conveyer belt system they use to deliver books around the Library. We eventually made it to the rare book section where we asked to see their original Book of Mormon. The lady said, "sure, do you want the signed one or the unsigned one?" I asked her to bring the signed one, but we didn't really know what that meant. The lady brought out the book and it looked just like one of those ones they reprinted a few years ago. Brown cover, no verses and some different chapter divisions. The cover was a little worn, but the paper was in really good shape. Just inside the front cover it said, "Joseph Smith gave this book to my maternal grandmother's brother" and it was signed by Charles Albertson. We flipped to the back and found Martin Harris' signature on the last page. Not a bad way to spend a fire drill.

Congrats to Matt & Kimbre

Where am I?
Happy family

My fire hydrant with a new coat of paint

It was an exciting week. Matt and Kimbre welcomed Riley into their family and all went well. I drove up after work on Tuesday and Mom and I waited in the waiting room, with occasional trips to the labor room, until almost midnight when the nurse came out and said you have a new granddaughter. We visited for a few minutes and then went to Matt and Kimbre's place for a few hours of sleep. Mom stayed and I drove home, I had stuff to do at work. Mom came home Saturday afternoon and is still catching up on sleep. I painted my fire hydrant and kept up on domestic chores around the house. I didn't burn anything, fade any colors in the wash, and looked presentable each day at work. This morning we went to 3rd ward and helped bless Amanda and Matt's baby. Then we went to our ward where I spoke at Cody Woodbury's home coming. He served in the Ukraine. He will help his dad this summer and then head back to BYU-I in the fall. He gave a very nice talk. Summer is finally here. The temperature is warm but not hot, yet. Have a good week.

CARS 2

Some of the people in are family have heard of Cars 2 and some may have seen it. We are some of the people that have. Those who have not yet seen the movie or do not want it spoiled may not want to read on. It is filled with action and it is very intence! It is sort of like the James Bonds movies but nobody is a car agent in it. It is when Mater, (Lightneen Mcqeen's friend) gets mistaken fo a top secret spy and he recives a very important top secret photo. His co agent is Holly Shiftwell a purple corvette. The plot is about a rich land rover who puts on the world grand prix and tries to discredet gasoline companys by creating Alinoil a gasoline that has a bump that when it is hit with a magnetic beem it can be very dangerous. I will not say any more so I do not spoil the story and those of you have seen it are very lucky because it has a ton of action. It is a great movie but I will not say any more.

TRENT ZIRKER

DC Primary

I teach a primary class here in DC. It's a group of boys from about 7-12 yrs old (the 12 year old prefers our class to the one he's supposed to be in). There are four regulars who come. One is from Haiti, one is from Benin, one is from DC and the other kid appears to be mostly white and has a white name, but I don't know much else about him. The kids are like your usual kids of this age. They compare books and videos games and school stories and like to throw a bouncy ball off the walls of our classroom before class starts. They're actually relatively polite and catch on to gospel principles pretty quick. Most of them come to church with a brother, sister or friend, but none of them come with their whole family.
Today we talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan. Our version included references to getting "jumped", rather realistic imitations of stabbing someone, and street-wise talk about what to do if you saw someone you don't like coming down the road. (Jews went the long way around to avoid the Samaritans, these kids know how to cross to the other side of the street and not make eye contact while still looking tough).
These kids live a life that is very different than the way I grew up. Some are in a new country, most come to church without their parents and they all live in low-rent apartments. There's never a dull moment in the class (we almost had two ten year olds get in a fight with a rowdy visitor a few weeks ago), but I enjoy it.

Riley Susan Zirker

Tuesday morning, bright and early Kimbre and I set off to the hospital. Kimbre was two days past her due date and the doctor was a bit worried so he made the call and Kimbre went in to be induced.

She started on the IV at 7:00 a.m. and at 11:12 p.m. we had our new arrival. Kimbre did great for the 16 hour labor and I was able to stay standing for the entire ordeal.

She weighed in at 7lbs. 13oz., measured 21" long with a 14" head.

Here she is the morning after, when she started opening her eyes and looking around more.

Sticking her tongue out.

All dressed up in her homecoming outfit.

Misc Pictures

Weird places kids fall asleep.

Aimee in heaven over her animals. She just loves them.
Ty's First 5K - My first after Baby 5K - haven't been able to run since.

Building an 8 ft Yoda - The Master Builder was there.

Katie at Field Day

Happy Birthday Ty! 11 YRs Old

Aly sitting in the Shade.

Drama Club

3rd annual Backyard Drama Club performance. We did the Hysterical History of the Trojan War. 15 Kids - all from 5 families, it was great. I was proud of them -- Tyler was Apollo, Katie was Hera, and Aimee was the Guard and Homer. It was pretty fun! Yes Darth Vador was in the show too!

Happy Father's Day

Here's a couple of good memories I have.

-The time we got Dad to jump in the creek at the father and son's outing after we built a dam and raised the water level.

-Dad cooking for us on camping trips. Potatoes and sausage for dinner and pancakes with all the fixin's for breakfast.

-The time Dad climbed up the trees in our back yard in Warden and helped us build a tree house.

Thanks for the good example over the years. Happy Father's Day, Dad!



Anyone else have memories they want to throw out?

No Pictures Today

Good morning everyone. Greetings from rainy Moscow. Yes, I mowed the lawn yesterday and it started to rain. It rained all day, evening, and into the night. This morning it is just wet. I am here by myself for a few days. Mom is in Post Falls with Matt and Kimbre awaiting the arrival of the new baby. Nothing yet, but Kimbre asked here to come "hang around" since here mother is still involved in radiation therapy and cannot come. Hope something happens soon. I enjoyed last weeks blogs about Chico's Pizza. Makes me want to drive over just for a bite. Not much new this morning so I will sign off. Happy Fathers Day to you fathers out there.

Mystery word of the week:


Hochstatter


Any ideas?

Trent's Baseball Schedual

This is my schedual for my baseball. -Trent-
Saturday, 6-18-11.........................................................................................Redtail park @ 2:00 pm.
Tuesday, 6-21-11.................................................................................Sand creek Elm. @ 6:00 pm.
Saturday, 6-25-11...................................................................................Redtail park @ 10:00 am.
Saturday, 7-7-11....................................................................................Sand creek Elm. @ 6:00 pm.
Thursday, 7-9-11.......................................................................................Tofer park @ 1:00 pm.
Thursday, 7-14-11................................................................................Sand creek @ 6:00 pm.
Saturday, 7-16-11....................................................................................Sand creek@ 11:00 pm.
Saturday, 7-23-11....................................................................................Redtail Park@ 2:00 pm
Wendsday, 7-27-11...................................................................................Redtail Park@ 6:00 pm.

Baseball

As many of you know, I have started baseball. I am 1-1. My first game I lost 4-12 and my most recent game vs. the Rays I won 6-3. I played first, Short stop, Third, and Catcher. In game #1 In the bottom of the first I caught a line-drive to get three outs. I stole two bases and tried to steal home but got thrown out and bruised up my leg.Also in game one I hit a double and went 2 for 2. In game #2 I got walked and we only have 6 innings and in the bottom of the fifth we were lousing 0-3 but then we caught up and won with a rally. almost 4 kids stole home and were safe. On the other team I knew two kids. One kid was in my class and the other was in my class in first grade. Well it is 10:45 and my dad is getting on me about writing so much and saying that it s enough so lets just cut to the chase. I would like it if almost everyone could come to one of my games. My next game is at 2:00 pm. at red tail park off wildcat and Posten. you can call to see when you can come to one of my games. Hope you can come!

Sincerely, -Trent-

p.s. like the Mustangs?

Capitol dome tour

Dad's always asking for more pictures, so here's some from the adventure of the week. I went on a tour of the Capitol dome. Supposedly it's kind of a vip tour and your congressman has to go with you, but I'm not a vip and the congressman didn't go with us. Either way it was pretty neat to see some of the inner workings of the capitol and some of the paintings up close.

Part of the staircase that takes you up

The gap between the inner dome that you see from the inside and the outer dome that you see from the outside

Freedom vanquishing tyranny and kingly power

The capitol rotunda 170' below. I resisted the urge to spit/throw things

View from the top, just under the statue of Freedom

Downtown DC. Everything is much shorter than you'd expect in a big city. I've heard there's some kind of code about keeping everything shorter than the Capitol

A Change of Scenery

Moving to the new location
Primeval man celebrating completion of the job

New back yard view

New front yard view

We had a busy day yesterday. I mowed the lawn, weeded the flowers, sprayed the trees for bugs and then started the move. I moved all the vehicles in the front and then backed up to the pop-up to pull it out. Naturally it had two flat tires. I pulled it about 10 feet and it started sliding into the neighbors fence. Dan (the neighbor) saw our predicament and came over and helped change one of the tires. We pulled it to the driveway and changed the other tire and all is well. Matt thinks he can resurrect it so we will pull it to Post Falls in the near future. I then backed up to Grandpa Backlund's boat, hooked on and pulled it out front. We are getting it ready for Uncle John to take to Utah. We will probably have to put two new tires on it and repack the bearings. Then we moved the Ranchero into the back yard and we plan to purchase a nice vehicle cover so it doesn't look too red-neck. Then Seth and I "planted" the fire hydrant near the bottom of the deck stairs. A big thank you to Seth for his help and muscles. After that I came into the house and crashed. I think I am getting old. Mom is out of school and looking forward to her vacation. Kimbre called yesterday and we may change our vacation plans a couple of days so they can bless their baby on the 17th of July. We'll let you know. Have a good week.

I saw two big articles about the Church in the news this week. They both seem pretty fair and point out some of the well known Mormons making news these days.

The Mormon Moment - Newsweek

God's MBAs: Why Mormon Missions Produce Leaders




Also, pictures of the inside of the Capitol dome will be posted soon.

Girls

After 9 months of weekly ballet classes, Raya participated in a recital yesterday. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance, but this is a shot taken beforehand. I believe Raya is demonstrating "1st Position." She did very well at her dance. Somehow our kids have gotten into the habit of requesting waffle cookie "cakes" for their birthdays. Happy Birthday Adria!

SOMEONE'S GETTING MARRIED

This is my Uncle Greg and my "new" Aunt Stephanie. They will get married Sept 2 in Draper, UT.

Aimee

Von4L Backyard

This is how I spent my Friday evening and Saturday. Ben (an RM from my ward who works for Kevin) and I drove up Friday after work. That evening we installed the edging, weed barrier and 7 tons of gravel. We dug the valve box by tractor light.

The next morning we woke up at 4:30 am to the local firetrucks blowing their air horns in front of the house and inviting us to their traditional pancake breakfast over the loudspeaker. I love small towns. We spread dirt and installed the sprinkler system by lunch time. After lunch, we raked and installed 1800 sq ft of sod. A little troubleshooting and she was good to go!

Needless to say, I was moving a little slower at church today.

Brant

The Sun is Shining

Father's and Sons Outing
The top youth activity - stick burning

Breakfast burritos by the High Priests (Scotter-G in the black sweat shirt)

We'll we had another successful Father's and Sons outing. The weather was fantastic (a little cold at night) but great during the day. Lots and lots of fathers and sons and some great food. I did the old "car camping" this year. I slept in the Explorer. Not bad after you finally get situated. I came home and mowed the lawn and then sat out on the deck and read a Louis L'Amour. Mom went to her year-end party for the teachers and spouses. One of the teachers has a very nice place out past Viola so they go there for their pot-luck. I begged off and stayed home. Mom only has three teaching days left. I think she will be happy to have summer vacation arrive. She will be packing her suitcase and awaiting Kimbre's call. I will be in Boise Monday and Tuesday at meetings. I drive down with my friend from Spokane. We enjoy driving and visiting. I listen to my ham radio while I type and one of the guys on this morning said, "it's always a good day when you're above ground". Have a good week.