Christmas Trip 2005

Here is a slideshow of the Christmas break. The first pictures are from Loon Lake, then the rest are just from the family get togethers.

Megan in Arizona

Here are some pics from my trip to Arizona. We took a trip up to Sedona where they have some very pretty red rock formations. The church in one of the pics is built into the side of the rock. Merry Christmas.

James and the Tiger

On Monday I got to go the Potter Park Zoo and help with a physical exam on a Bengal Tiger. His name as Charlie and he weighed about 400 pounds. It was really a neat experience to get to work with such a huge animal. I hope to have may more experiences like this in the future.

Talk to a REAL Person

Don't you hate calling big companies and having to use their automated systems? Here is a huge list of big companies and what you need to dial to talk to a real person. This is very handy, especially around the holidays. Click here for page.

Thanksgiving Pictures from Michigan

We had a great Thanksgiving break, although we missed being with family. We spent a lot of time together, so it will be hard to go back to classes. Megan made her first turkey, which was very tasty. We went to a dog show that was on campus. There were over 140 breeds of dogs there. The St. Bernard ("Buddy") was about 170 pounds at 2 years old! We got our first snow of the season the day before Thanksgiving which made it very pretty outside. The snow made us want to start decorating for Christmas. We also went to the temple in Detroit. We have many things for which to be thankful.

Thanksgiving at Morro Bay

The Ferguson, Finlay and Crump families all met up at Morro Bay this year for the annual Thanksgiving weekend. There was the usual walk on the beach, watching the huge waves break over the Rock and day-after-Thanksgiving shopping and visit with Santa Claus. Ian got to see two of the cousins, Nene and Jeannie, that he hadn't seen in 2 1/2 years. Maybe next year we will have even more family members there. We truly have a lot to be thanksful for.

Michigan Trip

Here is a slide show of the trip to the Lake Michigan shore. We had a great time seeing family and exploring the place we now call home.

What's in a name?

Megan and I thought this site was really neat. It tells you how popular a baby name was in any year. Just type in the name and see what the trend is. James is going down hill pretty fast, but Maximus is coming on strong. Click here to see about your name!

Yeah for Video!

A test to see if video works for everybody. There should be sound so make sure that your speakers are on. Let us know what you think and if it works. It is pretty easy to put video up so let me know if anyone is interested in doing it. Tchau!

Homecoming 2005

Hillary Miller came up to BYU to experience a little bit of the college life. Between the Homecoming Spectacular, hiking to the illuminated "Y", having a tailgate party, going to the homecoming parade, and watching BYU take care of business on the field, we had a pretty complete weekend.



This is "True Blue Football". Two weeks later our toes are still blue from our intense football match against the BYU cheerleaders.

Free Knowledge

Here is a link that lists some schools that offer free podcasts of lectures. There are courses ranging from Personal Finance (at Purdue) to Understanding Technology (at Harvard). If you are really feeling gutsy you can try a BioChem course :) This is a great way to increase your knowledge during a commute or on the treadmill. You will need a podcatcher to do this. iTunes is a nice free one to use. Happy learning!

In Honor of Halloween

I thought this was pretty cool. It is an optical illusion that really plays with you mind. What you are going to do is click on the picture. Then look at it from where you are sitting and then start to walk away from the screen. The scary man and the woman will "switch" places. When you walk closer they will go back to normal. Sweet.

This past weekend, we went to visit Allison at Cal Poly. It was wonderful to see her and she loved staying at the Morro Bay house. It gave her a chance to get off campus for a little while. We had some of her friends over for dinner on Saturday evening - these kids are either from her high school or youth group. Allison is in charge of the hike on Thanksgiving Day - either to the "P" on the hill or up Poly Canyon. 

Allison at Cal Poly

 

The Spartan Game

Megan and James went to the football game on Saturday. It was fun to go and feel the energy there, but that energy was sucked out pretty fast once Northwestern scored 49 unanswered points. Did I mention this was the Homecoming game? I am guessing that season ticket sales are going to drop through the floor after that performance. A 64 million dollar addition to the stadium was opened this year with 3,000 more seats and a bunch of suites. Maybe it will pay off next year.

Allison moving into Sequoia Hall

Even though Allison has been at CalPoly for about a month, this is a picture of her on move in day. Stop by to see her when you visit Morro Bay. Alli would love to show you around campus! 

Helicopter pilot Jeannie

Jeannie and Annette pretending to fly a helicopter. They look like they're having fun - hang on tight, girls!! 

Jeannie sitting in helicopter at the Academy

There were a couple of helicopters that landed at the Coast Guard Academy and Jeannie and her friend, Annette, decided to investigate. Obviously they were able to explore inside and pretend to be real pilots - just give it a couple of years after graduation and they could be there. 

Trip to San Diego

This past weekend, Margaret had a conference in San Diego so Brad and Evan went also. It was great to be able to stay on the bay and ride bikes on the bike path there. This picture was taken aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Midway. We took a tour of it and learned a lot about the planes on it and how it differs from carriers today.

Bike Trip with Ed and Helen in Alsace-Lorraine

These are some pictures from our wonderful bike/barge experience. We rode approximately 30 miles every day and then met the barge at an appointed place for dinner and happy hour. We were 7 days on the barge and 3 days in Strasbourgh, France. There were 22 of us altogether. Six of us were from Southern California and had ridden on bike trips together before. One of the most interesting parts of the trips was when our barge went down the slide lock, which took the place of 17 locks, and dropped our barge 147 feet. There are only 3 of these types of locks in the world.

Picasa 2.1

For those of you who are posting on the blog here, it just got even easier. There is a new verson of Picasa (ver. 2.1) that simplifies the whole process. When you download the new version and instlall it all that you have to do is choose a picture (or many) and click the "Blog This" button and you are good to go. Very slick. Get it here

Pictures from the Crumps

Hi folks,

This is Helen. Here are some pictures of Parent's Weekend at the Coast Guard Academy. We had a great time meeting Jeannie's friends and their parents. We attended classes with her, saw a women's volleyball game and also their football game. Ne was able to join us from NYC which made it special. Doesn't Jeannie look official in her uniform? Also, we thought you might enjoy seeing Allison moving into her new dorm at SLO in September. She lives in Sequoia Hall which is very centrally located on campus. Stop by to visit her when you are staying at Morro Bay.

Trip to San Francisco

I had a conference up in San Francisco this past weekend. Evan flew up to join me and Helen came down from Sacramento. It was also Fleet Week up there and since the weather was beautiful, we were able to watch the Red Bull Air Race (small airplances perform acrobatic skills between pylons out in the Bay) and also see the Blue Angels. . .very impressive. The Bay was filled with different types of boats, including an aircraft carrier, Coast Guard ship (go Jeannie) and other ships. On Saturday afternoon, we met Natalie Costanzo (our cousin Katie's daughter - she works in Palo Alto) and took the ferry over to Angel Island out in the Bay. We hiked around the perimeter of the island, a 5-mile walk, and watched the Blue Angels when they flew over the island. Have a good week.

The Detroit Temple

Megan and James took a trip to the Detroit temple today. We arrived just as the sun was setting, so it made for some great pictures. It was fun to see one of the smaller temples. It took about 1.5 hours each way to drive. Not quite like living in Orem, but nothing like living in Brazil!

Great Way to Back Up Your Data

For those of you who are seeking to back up all your pics, music and documents Microsoft has a great tool for it. I am pretty sure that is only available if you are running Windows XP. Basically it keeps two drives (your hard drive and an external hard drive for example) in sync. So if you save a picture on your computer it will automatically save it to the external drive as well. Pretty neat stuff. Get it here.