Hey everyone!! Another year has gone by as we’re ready to get 2011 wrapped up and over with.

The Bernharts would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, or happy any-other-holiday-you-celebrate … in other words: Happy Holidays to all our family and friends!!

Some highlights of our year:

• Melanie finished radiation therapy, started the reconstruction process, and has been given the “all clear” from her oncologist that she is currently cancer free!!
• Melanie and Lauren took part in the opening ceremonies of Supercross in Anaheim Stadium in February for their Breast Cancer Awareness event.
• Lauren started 10th grade, passed the 6-foot-tall mark… and made the Junior Varsity volleyball team at her school.
• Brody is still trying to decide on what he wants to be when he grows up. The choices he’s mulling over (so far): waiter, break-dancing bowler, or sound effect impersonator.
• Neil organized Octobeardfest for it’s second year, and with help from Melanie and many, many other friends…  raised $1,180 for cancer research.
• Melanie took a bartending course and passed to become a certified mixologist.
• My friend Tim invited all four of us to be on the Cancer Assassins float in the Chino Christmas Parade. Survivors and families were on the float, and Cancer Assassins raffled off a fully decorated tree that raised over $400.

Special thanks go to our good friend Mike Flores for having the patience to take our group holiday photo, which is not easy with a 3-year-old running around (as you can see in one of the pics below).

Here are some other photos from our holiday season for you to enjoy!

We were on a float in the Chino Christmas Parade this year. My buddy Tim has a cancer fundraising group and he asked for local cancer survivors and their families to be on the float. It was a great time… Brody really loved it, but said that his arms were tired from waving to everyone.

Brody: Daddy, you get a medal… for eating.
Me: Wow, really? That’s… awesome.

He made me put it over my head. So I obliged, then finished my meal.

Brody: I want some runch!
Me: Oh, you mean breakfast?
Brody: Yeah… my tummy wants food in it.
Me: Is your tummy hungry?
Brody: My tummy is mad at me… it goes like… “GRRRRR”

Me: Here you go buddy, have some yummy waffles
Brody: I want some ketchup on it!!

Not quite sure if he was serious or not.

Me: Oh man, that trash got out and it’s all over the street. Maybe Mr. Trash Man will pick it up?

Brody: Yeah, it’s yucky trash.

trash truck comes by for the other side of the street… and does nothing about the trash that got out.

Me: What? Mr. Trash Man didn’t pick up the mess. Shame on him!!

Brody: Yeah, he’s got shame on the truck. We put shame on him (making a throwing motion with his arm)

Me: Let’s have a snack and then we’ll go to the park and play baseball

Brody: OK

Me: What kind of snack do you want?

Brody: Beer!

It gets less comfy every year… for me at least since I’m at the bottom. But, it’s so worth it!

One of my most vivid memories of NYC was from a trip into the city to visit the World Trade Center. I’m sure it was not long after we moved back to NY that we went to visit the city, I’m guessing ’78 or ’79 (I think I was 8 or 9 years-old at the time). I remember seeing the Statue Of Liberty from the car as we drove to the Twin Towers.

Most likely from the Brooklyn bridge as we made our way to lower Manhattan. I haven’t been to NYC since we moved out to CA in ’81, but I can still remember seeing those twin towers dominating the skyline.

We were there to go to the top of the one of the towers. Back then it was open to the public to actually go out onto the top of the towers. I can still picture the view from the top; the observation deck was sort of a small area far away from the sheer edges of the tower. But, believe me… I still felt the rush of being so high up in the sky.

The most memorable part was not being up at the top, but rather at an observation level that was on the way to the top. I think it was part of, if not an entire floor, dedicated to tourist activity. I recall stopping part-way up to get to this level and walking up near the windows.

On some windows, they had stickers on the windows that were outlines of city landmarks and other buildings… and if you lined up your sight just right, you could position the outline around the actual object in the distance. I remember my dad lifting me up to help me do it. I think it was the Chrysler build off in the distance that I was lining up.

He put me down and I was maybe a foot away from the glass. I was frozen. It seemed as if I was floating above the city. That wasn’t even the part that was most memorable. Here’s what happened next: My oldest brother pushed me from behind and my heart skipped several beats as I almost hit the window. I don’t think he let me actually hit the window, but it was close enough that I came close to soiling my underpants. Brotherly Love.

Whenever I see images of the Twin Towers, I remember that trip to the city. Seeing the Statue Of Liberty, being on the top of the Twin Towers, my dad helping me learn as he always did, and my brother scaring the living crap out of me.

Those Towers will always mean something to me. I can’t wait to go back to see the memorial.

Brody: (watching me finish a glass of beer) What is dat?
Me: It’s beer
Brody: Beer? Where did it go?
Me: I drank it… it’s all finished.
Brody: Oh
Me: What should I do now?
Brody: Get more beer!!!

So obvious, that a 3-year-old knows what to do!

We started doing these ‘newsletters’ in 2008 as a way of getting out a list of the past year’s happenings out to all of our family and friends. This year’s newsletter is dedicated to two special Bernharts: First, my father, who passed away on May 12th. We all miss him very much. Second, Melanie… who has been a pillar of strength for our family since the day she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I would not be the person I am without having both of them in my life.

OK, now let’s get to some of the fun stuff from 2010!

Lauren turned 14 in April and started high school this year. She’s also decided to make good use of her height (recently broke he 6′ mark) and has taken up Volleyball and made the frosh team at her school. On top of that, she tried out and made the Goldenwest Volleyball Club team, which will help her get onto the varsity team at her high school faster. She is really excited about it and loves to play. We’re looking forward to watching her play in the coming year.

Brody is well into his ‘terrible-twos’ now, giving us a run for our money in the patience department. However, most of the time he’s a great boy and has definitely given us some fantastic moment of laughter. We took him to his first baseball game at the end of the Angel’s season. He even did the ‘wave’! He tried some soccer fun as well. Brody definitely takes to any sport that he sees, either in person or on the television… his re-enactments are very accurate.

In September, we all participated in the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure, in Orange County. We had many good friends and family come out and join us, as well as dozens of others who helped us raise $1,185 for the foundation.

Melanie completed her final chemo treatment on December 9th! We are all very glad that part of this whole ordeal is over and we can no focus on the next phase. She is excited to grow her hair back, too!

Neil started Octobeardfest: Guys grow their beards out for the month of October to get attention and help raise awareness and support for cancer research. In it’s inaugural year, everyone who participated helped raise $495 for our Stand Up 2 Cancer team. As you can see in the photos, Neil has gotten attached to his beard and has yet to shave it off.

Yes, 2010 was rough for us… but we’re staying positive, doing well and more than ready for 2011. Here’s wishing everyone a wonderful year to come!

Melanie walked the whole 3.1 mile course without any trouble. When we were done, the line for the bus back to the off-site parking was so long that she, along Lauren and I, walked back to the car… and even ran some parts of it. This was another 1.5 miles! This turned the 5K into a 7.5K. The only thing that could have been better was if it wasn’t so hot that day. Unseasonable weather had the temps in the mid 90s, which is HOT for how close we were to the ocean.

Here are some photos from the day…

When Melanie and I first started dating, we went to the Orange County Fair to waste our money on un-winnable games, scary rides that can be packed up and hauled off to the next county fairground location, and all of that indulgent and deep-fried food. The deep fried avocado and the Aussie battered potatoes are  favorites of ours!

In 2000, we did the photo booth thing with just the two of us. The following year, we started bringing Lauren to the fair with us… and began this tradition of annual family photos in the booth. After about 4 years, I started putting the strips together on the front of our refrigerator in chronological order. Soon after, I began scanning them in and combining them into one picture.

You should click on the thumbnail above to view the photo on flickr.com, where you can see it larger. I believe it’s my most viewed photo on flickr… I think it’s been blogged a few times, which gets it some traffic for sure.

Here is the single strip from our 2010 trip to the fair… Now, I need to update the header image on our family website to include the latest shot.

In 1971, my mother decided it would be fun to pick up and move the whole family to Australia. In March of that year she had heard some friends talking about the Australian consulate and some sort of program to bring workers to that country. By June, we were packed and heading to the airport. I was just barely 11 months old, so I do not recall any of this.

In 1973, we befriended some neighbors of ours, the Graveson family. Parents David and Anne had 3 kids…Two girls, Anita and Karin, who were close in age to my sister Stephanie, and brother Derek; and one boy, Erik, who was very close to my age. We spent lots of time hanging out together at the beach and having lots of fun. Both dads were very fun, and made sure that all of us kids were always entertained.

In 1977, my mom woke up one day and decided that she had enough of Aussie land, and said it was time to go back to New York. We made our way back, staying with other friends in the city until we settled in Port Jefferson, on Long Island. The parents kept in touch, and in 1979, when the Gravesons were relocating to another continent, they arranged to visit us when passing through New York.

The families made sure to get some beach time together and went out to Jones Beach on Long Island. Fun times on the beach included building huge pyramid sand castles, making hats out of beach towels, and singing/dancing to a song that David made up for us; we recall it being the “umkwa ka zinga” song.

The Graveson family have always been a huge part of our childhood memories of fun and happiness. And, after their visit to Long Island, our parents kept in touch ever since then via holiday cards and occasional phone calls. Us Bernhart kids would get updates from our parents at Christmas time on what their family was up to and where they were.

This past Christmas (2009), we learned that their father, David, had passed away earlier that year, after a long battle with cancer. Obviously, this really saddened us as we recalled once again, all of the great times we had with him and our families together. A few weeks after our own father passed away from a much shorter fight with cancer this May, my mother called their mother, Anne, to give her the news… and to talk about everything. My mom told me that she had a nice long call with Anne and they talked about all of the kids and grandkids. A few days after that call, I got a friend request on Facebook from Karin. Then a day later, another request from Anita. I then found Erik through their profile pages and sent him a friend request. And lastly, I found Anne there as well. My sister also hooked up with all of them. My brother, Derek, tried but didn’t like Facebook and removed his account. Oh well, his loss… we’ll have to keep him updated separately. Perhaps I can talk him into re-joining, and get my mom on there as well (good luck to me).

How great is the internet in this day and age? We can all share photos and messages with each other, and keep in touch much easier than if there were no such thing as the ‘net. Erik and I have sent some messages back and forth, catching up on what our own families have been up to. We’ve discovered that we both have some very similar interests and background. It’s been so great to see that they are all doing so well. It’s also been good for some self-healing in dealing with my father’s passing… to be reminded of how much fun it was having him as our father. I look forward to keeping in touch with them.

By the way… I sing the “umkwa ka zinga” song to Brody a lot. It gets his attention and he laughs and tries to sing along. Great for when he is fighting a diaper change!

We now have the living room filled with trains! Here are some photos that I took at Disneyland and him opening and playing with gifts. I have some videos as well, but haven’t processed those just yet. Stay tuned.

I see lots of friends over on Facebook getting all in a tizzy over their personal information being displayed on spokeo.com. Most are worried that their privacy is being invaded. The general concern is that their information is searchable on this site, and that they didn’t authorize it. Well, I hate to break this to you, but… you actually did. But how did I authorize it, you ask? And how do they get that information?

How does Spokeo.com get that information?
In a nutshell: all of the information that you see on spokeo.com is publicly available already. This is information that is found in the phone book white pages, real estate listings, government documents and records, and most importantly… all of the public profile listings on your favorite websites like Facebook, Yelp, MySpace, Flickr, LinkedIn, Amazon… and the list goes on.

How did I authorize it?
Two words for you: privacy settings. Every site that allows you to create an online profile (like the ones listed above) also allows you to adjust what information is made available publicly. The problem is that most of them, by default, have many details set to be public. It’s up to you to keep that info from becoming readily searchable online.

Example: I have an account at flickr.com, and on that account I have my full name listed as my “screen name”. I do this by choice because I make money on the site as a photographer and Flickr is a great way to market myself. A simple google search for my full name shows my Flickr profile as the fourth item in the results. Is this an invasion of my privacy? No. I put my own full name on a publicly searchable item on Flickr, and thus I’ve authorized my full name to be found quite easily via a web search.

You see all of these photo thumbnails here on my web site? All of those are publicly viewable, so they will show up in the Spokeo.com search results. I posted them on Flickr as viewable by everyone… and that really means everyone.

This personal information can be found by anyone on the web. The ease of finding the information is dependent on how adept they are at searching the internet. But, Spokeo.com just does all of that legwork for them. And guess what? They are not the only sites that do this sort of thing; Pipl, ZoomInfo, ZabaSearch, Radaris, and Intelius. Technically, these sites are not doing anything illegal as the information they are presenting is freely and publicly available to everyone.

So, what can you do about it?
You have a couple of options.

1. Don’t ever share anything on the internet, especially on any social networking sites. This is a bit drastic, but you’ll be guaranteed to keep your private information private. Of course, keep in mind… you’ll have to be unlisted in the phone book, and never do anything that has to do with the government.
2. Get to know the privacy settings on the sites that you use and make the necessary adjustments accordingly.

To lead you in the right direction, go take a look into the privacy settings on Facebook. If you see anything that is set to “everyone”, you can consider that information available publicly and searchable on the web. I always tell friends to modify every Facebook privacy setting so that “everyone” is not selected. And an important one is the Public Search Results; Do you want people to find your Facebook profile page via any internet search engine? If not, then keep this box unchecked. I’ve sent this link out to folks before, and is great for understanding your settings on Facebook: 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. The locations of settings and verbiage on Facebook may have changed since this article was written, but if you spend some time you’ll be able to find everything you need to set.

Oh yeah, and why do these sites exist at all?
Simple: money!! They are trying to get you to pay them money to find more information about the person you are searching for. Just go to Spokeo.com and search, then click on the “see full results” button. You’ll be promptly directed to their Purchase page. But, it’s likely that you will not find any more detail about that person than what you can find with a simple web search engine.

Very important to know this: Completing the form on spokeo.com to remove your information will not remove the information from where spokeo.com found it. To do that, you’ll need to do one of the two options I’ve noted above.

It was non-stop action with him; he was only temporarily occupied with my hole digging adventures. He wanted to be down by the water and watch the waves creep up. The water was freezing, probably in the mid 50s, but he did not care at all. He was all about looking closely at the water and sand, investigating every little thing he found. And, another favorite thing to do at the beach is dig in the sand, which is not normally a bad thing… but it is when he throws the sand up into the air and it gets into his hair and eyes. Good times!

I think we’re in store for some fun this summer when it warms up even more. I took many photos and shot some video! Here are some of the choice photos and a little video that I edited together… enjoy.

I thought I’d post this video of Brody and I from a few weeks ago. He’s really trying to say so many more words now, and doing so well at it. Here he is doing his best to say ‘pizza’. You may need to turn up your volume since he’s sort of whispering.

Greetings and happy holidays to all of our family and friends. Welcome to year 2 of our annual holiday newsletter. It’s been quite a year for us Bernharts, and we’re looking forward to it finishing up so we can get started on next year.

To keep you all up to speed on the happenings in our lives, below you’ll find a quick list of significant events in our past year. After that you’ll find a slideshow of photos of us taken throughout the holidays.

A special thanks to Mike Flores who took our family photo this year. With Brody now running around, it’s not as easy to keep him in one place while I set up the camera, like it was done last year. Having Mike take our photo helped keep us stay sane that day.

• Neil was laid off in March.
• Neil started his new job in June.
• Melanie was laid off at the end of October.
• Melanie started her new job on November 1st: full time mommy at home.
• Lauren finished 7th grade with all As and Bs, and has started 8th grade. Her favorite subjects include Drama and Science.
• Lauren started training for her return to soccer next year.
• Neil took Lauren to her first concert (Jason Mraz at the Hollywood Bowl).
• Brody started crawling.
• Brody started walking.
• Brody took swimming lessons and loved it.
• Brody learning baby sign language, which really helps us communicate with him.
• Brody is beginning to say many words. His first word was ball, and his second word was beer.
• Our annual summer Carlsbad trip turned out to be quite the camping fiasco.
• We updated our photo booth collage for 2009.
• Brody turned 1, and is currently 18 months old now (and weighs more than an average 2 year old).
• Lauren became an official teenager in April.
• Melanie and Neil each turned 29, again. :)

Below is a slide show of holiday photos. I’ll be updating this with more photos through the holidays, so please be sure to come back.