Thank you, Keats, for the update.

Keats...
Thanks so much for taking the time to post. Your pix are fabulous- those handsome little men are getting so big! Best of luck in your new adventure- I'll be watching for updates on FB. Hugs to all. LB

Hello From Blistering Arizona!

I just wanted to give a summer hello to all of the Lopez clan out there! It's quite hot here in Phoenix right now (116 this upcoming weekend, July 11-12) so I hope it more pleasant where you might be reading this from. I also want to say how sad it was to hear of my Uncle Carlos Chavez' passing earlier this year. I hope the Chavez portion of the Lopez clan is doing all right, you are in my thoughts.

I just spent almost a week in Minnessota with my wife (Tammy) and our two boys (Soren & Aidan, who just turned 5 and 8 respectively). They're all still out there in MN so I'm batchin in here in Flamesville.

I'm excited that my twin brother Franz is coming out this weekend with his wife (Yoana) and their toddler (Marianna, who is about 19 months old). My folks Michael and Tina and our sister Sarah are also here in town right now since my father had to have a bladder surgery here at the Mayo clinic in Scottdale. He had some large stones removed in a pouch that had formed off his bladder and was causing him some extreme pain; this getting old stuff just doesn't sound that fun, especially since I have my dad's genetics!

Anyway, my family and I are doing well for the most part (heck, there's always something to complain about but what good does it do). Aidan will be starting 3rd grade (yikes!) and Soren will do another year of pre-school since we just don't feel that he's ready for kindergarten yet. Aidan is an absolute sports nut (imagine that) and just finished a great season of little league baseball. He will start up soccer again here in August which he also absolutely loves also. Academically, Aidan had a wonderful year in 2nd grade and became quite the reader. He acutally read the ENTIRE Harry Potter series as well as the C.S. Lewis books during the school year amongst other books he was reading. I don't think my brother and I could hardly read or spell at that age! Soren is much like me in temperment ( a real comedian and a jokester) but also unfortunately acquired my father's horrible temper with the occasional unreasonable emotional outburst. He keeps us on our toes to say the least. Our older son Aidan is so much differnt than his brother but that's probably how it is for most sibblings.

Professionaly, I, like my twin brother, am still in the fitness and health promotion industry; I also have a massage licence with a specialty in a type of massage called Neuromuscular Therapy, which is quite effective for relieving muscle pain. I recently started a podcast with a colleague called "Reality-Based Fitness" which is a real fun project. We've interviewed 3 various experts so far with two of them being nutrition guys with some real interesting things to say about fat loss, health, peformance and more. If you want to listen you can go to iTunes and subscribe under Reality-Based Fitness or visit the site. if you want to listen on you computer.

To finish this blog post, I want to give the link to a bunch of pictures we took on a recent trip to Santa Fe. There's a lot of pictures but will give everyone and idea of what we all look like at the moment. The trip was quite nice and we saw some beautiful parks and National monuments. Well, that's it for now; I hope everyone else is doing well and I'd love to get some updates on what other members of this amazing clan are up to! Thanks for reading.

Much love, and with thoughts of our dear Nana,

Keats