To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. ~Clara Ortega

I was just over at Ryan's place (the other side of our apartment building), and got to sit around and talk to him for a bit.  It happens a lot, actually.  I go over, I sit on his couch, we talk, we eat, we talk, we watch movies, we talk.... you get the picture.  Tonight, after he was helping me with my German by talking to me auf Deutsch, he was gave me a tour of Munich online.  I sat on his bed and was struck again by how incredible he is.  Anybody and everybody who has ever known Ryan can attest to that.  He's been one of my absolute best friends for years.  I confide in him, I trust him, I respect him enormously, and I love him with a big chunk of my heart.  He really is the greatest older brother a girl could have.  

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This was ten-ish years ago.  He's an Eagle Scout now.

This is up at Rachel Lake in Washington.  I'm pretty sure I followed him around everywhere those days.

I bought him tickets to go see Handel's Messiah at Benaroya Hall in Seattle when he came home for Christmas after his first semester away in 2005.  He ended up really being the one to take me out, though.  We even hit up Red Robin's down on the waterfront.

He ran the Salt Lake City Marathon.  

That's 26.2 miles of running, just in case you forgot.

He's also a cyclist.  Well, more like he's a cyclist and goes on runs when he can.  I'm not actually sure how many times he rode the Seattle-To-Portland bike ride (which is approximately 200 miles), but it was a lot.

I slept over at my neighbor's house one night (August 2006, I believe), and woke up the next morning at 7:30 to Ryan telling me to get into the car for a drive because it was a beautiful day.  A drive, right?  Wrong.  It turned out to be a spontaneous one-day roadtrip.  This picture is at Hurricane Ridge in Washington.  After that, we just kept going and going.  We spent 13 or 14 hours in the car that day, didn't stop for food (which would never happen these days), and took lots of pictures.  And you know what?  That day was one of the best I've had yet.

This was in Germany, when he was serving a mission for our church.  That's Frankie, a friend of ours from our homeward.  They were companions for a transfer.  Cool, huh?  

Ryan got home from his mission the week of my Harvest Ball ballroom performance/event/thing.  I asked him to come, and he did.  He pulled on his tux, and he came and watched me dance.  Afterward I was dancing with a friend, and Ryan came and tapped in.  I'm pretty sure he still has no idea how cool that was to me.  

(I realized I had a blurry picture of us dancing, so I just had to put it up, too.)

There isn't any story behind this picture.  I just love it a whole lot.

He sings, too.  He was in Men's Chorus for a couple of years, and then did a year in Concert Choir (which is a little more prestigious).  He was there, singing in conference.  He did a few times, actually. 

Yup, that's my brother.... hogging all the good genes.

Ryan's hand is on the left, and mine is the right with Dad's ring.  

We LiveStrong.

Ryan wanted to go take pictures of stars down at Natural Arches National Monument in souther Utah this past summer, so we all hopped in the car (Riley's) and went down there.  Unfortunately our tent collapsed during some rain storm thing while we were off eating dinner at 9pm, so we packed up and found a landing strip by Lake Powell to stay the night at.  It was a lot warmer there and, after eating more hummus than any human should, Riley and I slept while Ryan took some absolutely incredible photos.  You see, Ryan is a genius with a camera, too.

(He took this one of the Milky Way that night.  Awesome, right?)

Ryan is also superuberduper German.  A lot more German than anyone else in our family (besides Oma), which doesn't really make any sense until you meet him.  He went to Germany to study for a couple of months this fall at the Goethe Institue in Munich.  This is Ryan at the Embassy for one of his nationalities.

And... this is Ryan at a parliament house for his other.

(That'll be me soon, Germany just doesn't know that I exist yet.)

This was when we were home for Thanksgiving.  It was FREEZING and absolutely beautiful so we headed to Gas Works Park in Seattle (ever seen Ten Things I Hate About You?) and took some photos.  Well, I was the only one without a camera, but Ryan let me borrow his to take a few pictures (which Allison caught on her camera).  Did I mention it was ridiculously cold?  

Well.... they adore him for a reason, let's just say that.  =)