Moritz Life

Yesterday was our 26th anniversary. It also marked another celebration we will remember in years to come. We became United States citizens.

We have been the U.S. now for just over six years and since we have made it our home we decided to commit more to our presence and enter fully into the political process. For those of you worried that we have become traitors, at heart we will always be Canadians and yesterday's ceremony did nothing to change that. We retain our Canadian citizenship and have the advantage of dual status. (As a side note, you may find it interesting to know that I wore my Canadian underwear to yesterday's ceremony!)

We were fortunate to participate in a special naturalization ceremony for 518 people from 42 countries. Normally they only swear in 30-40 at a time in Yakima, but with the recent surge in applications they went all out, hosting the event in the classy Capitol Theatre downtown. It featured pomp and ceremony, speeches by politicians, videos, and cake afterward in the 96 degree (36 C) temperature on the street in front of the theatre.

Immediately after the ceremony we rushed to the passport office to submit our applications. We are also registering to vote so that we can make our impact in this fall's elections!

Here are a couple of pictures. The second one was actually on the cover page of the Yakima Herald Republic newspaper (you should be able to see us). You can see our complete collection of pictures at this LINK.