Vandyland Shout Out: Adam Vandermyde

Today’s Shout Out goes to my big brother Adam Vandermyde.

Adam just started a new consulting job with Deloitte and spent his first week in training in Orlando. The ~300 newly minted consultants were given a mock consulting case and divided into teams of five. Each team was to evaluate the case, develop a strategic plan, and make a presentation to various judges. The top teams would then make their presentation to the entire body of consultants and judges, but only one team would emerge as champion.

Not only was Adam’s team declared the winner, but Adam also came up with the approach that his team ultimately adopted (which adoption came through Adam’s usual placid yet pragmatic encouragement). Said the partner who wrote the case, “In the eight years I have been doing this, I have never seen anybody come up with that approach.” Anybody who knows Adam knows that he is a natural leader and has the right balance of confidence, objectivity, personality and unflappability to be an effective corporate adviser.

Also, this week I asked Adam to help me develop a program that would increase efficiency in my church responsibilities, and what Adam came up with was a perfect solution to a common problem. It’s called the “Home Teaching Pro." The new program will not only benefit me in my position, but will help all those we share it with (not to mention all of the new families that will be visited as a result!) So Adam, here’s to you!

Sayonara Sermons

Our Good Friends, Natalie and Gavin, had to leave LA and move back to Idaho . . . We'll miss you two!!

Before they left, Matt and I took them flying over Los Angeles at night - that's our favorite flight because you can see all of the city lights. It was especially cool because there was a Dodgers game going on that night so we were able to see the stadium all lit up and filled with thousands of people.

Mini-Matt enjoyed the flight as well.

Even though he didn't get to see much, he was sporting a cool headset just like his daddy.

Bocce Pinata Bashing is Born

How Bocce Pinata Bashing Came To Be:

It all began with Ryan's Birthday request: a donkey pinata. Everything escalated from there. Kinohi and Ashley showed up at our apartment with a giant donkey and bags and bags of delicious, sugary candy. After filling the donkey up with candy, we lured the boys out of the pool and up to the apartment where the Birthday surprise was waiting. As you can see, both Matt and Ryan were extremely excited about the prospect of bashing open the giant donkey - or just riding it . . .

After lugging the candy-filled donkey outside and realizing that hanging it up was going to be more difficult than expected, Matt came up with the idea to use Bocce balls to free the candy from the pinata.

Check out our moves:

And the damage that we're doing to the poor donkey:

Those Bocce Balls really did a number on our donkey pinata:

In the end, we had a blast destroying the pinata,

and we were able to enjoy our spoils:

After our day of fun, we will never resort back to the boring, outdated method of using a dinky little stick to free candy from a pinata.

Bocce Pinata Bashing is the way to go. We suggest that you join the trend.

My Husband is a Fish

Matt loves the pool - and the hot tub. He would spend all day in the water if he could. His brother, Brandon, seems to enjoy the water almost as much as Matt does.

It's a good thing that our pool has windows looking in on it so I can spend some quality time with my aquatic man.