San Antonio

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the National Collegiate Honors Council conference in San Antonio. As president of the Honors Student Advisory Council at BYU, I went to this conference with the director of the Honors Program, the administrative assistant, and another student that is on HSAC. We went to many sessions and learned a ton to take back to BYU with us.


We did explore the city a little - much of it part of the conference - and enjoyed all that San Antonio had to offer. Our hotel was right on the Riverwalk and very close to the Alamo. This is a picture of Daniel (the other student) and me at the Alamo

We ate along the Riverwalk one night and really enjoyed the beautiful setting.

After some exploring of the city for the conference I reported back for our group.

We tried a lot of the local cuisine while in San Antonio, including alligator tail!

Punkin Fun

Karen and I tried our best to make our jack-o-lantern as scary as possible, but I don't know if we succeeded or not. While jamming to Josh Groban and eating Extreme Moosetracks, the madness began. The scariest thing of the night may have been Karen with a knife in her hands after I told her that I voted NO on Proposition 2 in California.


Things got a little messy when we started to deal with some "nose goblins" (thanks Ren and Stimpy).


After a struggle we were able to conquer the pumpkin. While it is not the most ornate of pumpkins, we were content with the outcome.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fall Fun!

I finally put my pictures on my computer from my new camera (thanks Mom and Dad, Crumps, and Grammy and Grampie!). A couple of weeks ago Evan, Hillary, and Peta took time to help me loosen up from so much studying for an exam. We all went bowling and it was a blast!


This is from the first game of the season when Mom, Dad, Auntie, and Erin were visiting. It was fun to go to the game with Evan, Peta, Hillary, Cynthia, Dad, and Erin.

Camping In The Rockies

This past weekend I tried out my new tent (thank you Crumps and Warnicks) and hit the road with my friends from the Denver area. We headed up to our secret camping spot for a one-nighter and some fun hiking.


Although we didn't have a table we still went through with our plans for tin foil dinners. Soooooo good.

Here is the new beauty being setup. With so much headroom and a huge skylight, how could I say no to REI on this one. Anyone who is willing to make the trek out here will want to try out the tent, even if it means sleeping in Karen's backyard.


This is part of a hike that we went on the next day up to Lost Lake. We followed a river most of the way before getting up to the lake and had breathtaking views of the valley below and the cascading waterfalls.

More Fleet Week and Yosemite

The title of this blog says it all. The first is a picture taken by Helen of Gavin playing on the stairs of the Coast Guard Cutter. The second picture is of a shot taken at the just the right moment to frame the Patriot jets.

On the way home, Brad and I stopped in Yosemite to do some hiking. We made it 1/4 of the way up the 8.5 mile trail to the top of Half Dome. Maybe next year we will finish the whole trail. The last shot is from the valley floor at Yosemite.

Downtown Disney with Uncles Mike and Bob

Mike and Bob Finlay, cousins from Atlanta, are visiting from Atlanta. They wanted to see Downtown Disney so Meg and I took them with Gavin for a Volcano dessert at the Rain Forest Cafe. We visited the Lego store, where Gavin had a great time playing legos with Mike and Bob.

Gavin was concerned about the Darth Vader made of legos.

The elephants at the Rain Forest Cafe drew Gavin's attention, instead of the Volcano dessert.

Afterward, we went to the confectionery and Gavin just stared at all of the cookies and candies in the glass case.

Coast Guard Weekend

This past weekend, Megan, Gavin, Brad, Grammie, Grampie and I all went up to Sacramento and stayed with the Crumps. Helen and Dan are involved with the parents association for the Coast Guard Academy and for Fleet Week up in San Francisco, the Coast Guard gives places to a limited number of "Coastie" families to view the air show out in the Bay. We boarded a Coast Guard cutter, the George Cobb, and were stationed out in the middle of the Bay as a buoy tender vessel. The views were fabulous and the day was beautiful.

Here is the sister ship to the cutter that we were on.

Gavin is pictured here, up on the bridge, helping to "steer" the cutter.

Here is a picture of Auntie helping Gavin climb up to the "poop" deck to have his diapers changed. . .gives a whole new meaning to this deck.

At the airshow, we were amazed and entertained by the Canadian Snow Birds, an Osprey plane, stunt planes and the Blue Angels. Pictured here are the Patriots, a non-military, privately funded group of planes. It was a great weekend and we sure appreciate the hospitality of the Coast Guard.

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

Erin and Allison had no trouble finding their way and running in the San Jose Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon last weekend. This was Erin's first 1/2 marathon and she finished in 2 hours, 45 seconds. Allison was close behind her. Several of Allison's friends from Cal Poly also participated in the run. As you can see, they are all smiles right afterwards, showing off their medals for finishing the race.
Erin is still smiling at mile 4 of the race that went through downtown and some of the surrounding neighborhoods. There were 13,000 participants in the run. Both girls agreed they are looking forward to their next half marathon - perhaps early next year. You go, girls!

General Conference in Provo

We all met up in Provo for General Conference. Ian flew in from Denver, Megan and Gavin flew in from LA, Margaret came in from Seattle, and Danny and Brad drove up. Pictured here is the family, with Danny's parents, Merril and Sharon. Danny, Megan and Gavin were the big surprise for Evan. We told Evan that Ian had left something at the airport so we had to go and pick it up. Gavin came racing out and ran right up to Evan and hugged him. . .nothing quite like Uncle Evan.

Evan is shown hoisting Gavin in the air - he loved it.

Uncle Evan is shown here playing horse with Gavin.

In between sessions of conference, we drove the Alpine Loop, where the aspen leaves were turning beautiful shades of gold, yellow and peach. It was great to be with the family again!

Seattle Ingenuity

Shown here are Margaret, Jason Golding, and Karen Herrera in front of a new mixed-use project in the Northgate area of Seattle. They flew to Seattle with the Metro Gold Line group to look at this transit-oriented development project, which might serve as a blueprint for development in the Los Angeles area. This project has a creek running through it, senior housing, condominiums, retail shops, community center/library and a large theatre complex.

Another view of the project, with the creek area in the center, senior housing on the left and condominiums on the right.

We stayed at a hotel downtown, several blocks from the Pike Market, overlooking Puget Sound. We learned a lot about the new transit system here in the Seattle area that will help us with development in the San Gabriel Valley.