Last weekend when Dan, Helen, and Erin went back to the Mid-West they also stopped by Notre Dame. They really enjoyed the campus and saw many of the familiar sites - The Grotto, Touchdown Jesus, Sacred Heart Basilica, and these funny fire hydrants. One is painted to look like the Golden Dome at Notre Dame and the other is painted to look like a fighting Irishman. These are definitely fire hydrants that dogs are not allowed to urinate on!
This past week Margaret and Brad went to San Francisco for a conference. Shown here are Tica and Aunt Margaret in their room at the Mark Hopkins Hotel before they went to dinner with Uncle Brad. The view is taken from their room at the Mark Hopkins, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. The Mark Hopkins is built on the location of Mark Hopkins' estate on Nob Hill. The estate was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. The final picture is of the Executive Committee at dinner with the opening speaker for the conference, Story Musgrave (olive colored shirt), who has flown on all 5 of the space shuttles - has a very interesting story (no pun intended) to tell.
As many of you know we do not subscribe to a newspaper since we really don't feel like we have time to read it. On top of that when you get the news paper in the morning the news could already be 8 hours old! That is totally unacceptable to me. I like up to the minute news because then I never feel like I am out of the loop for even a second. There is a compromise when it comes to "breaking" news and that is accuracy and thoroughness. It is for this reason that we do subscribe to TIME and NewsWeek. What about news being delivered in the way of moving pictures? I can't remember the last time I watched the 10:00 news and there are two reasons for that, commercials and inconvenience. What would happen if those two issues were to vanish? That question was answered this week when NBC decided to offer the Nightly News as a free download through iTunes. I actually watched the news! Since I have 3 huge exams in one week's time I was not able to watch the entire broadcast at once, but it since I control when I watch it and where that was not too much of an issue. It was also great to watch Brian Williams with NO COMMERCIALS! That cut the 30 min. show down to 20 min. Anyway I just thought I would share that with people. Go check it out on iTunes!
It's James and Megan!! Dan, Erin and Helen just returned from a wonderful weekend in the Midwest, visiting Ne at Loyola in Chicago and James and Megan in Lansing. As soon as we arrived in Chicago, we headed to Pizzeria Uno in downtown for dinner - yummy!! Later that evening as we were driving on the Indiana Toll Road, we were broadsided by a deer running across the interstate. Fortunately, we made it to our hotel and got a new rental car. The next day, we toured Notre Dame, St. Mary's College and drove through the Amish area of Indiana. Erin was excited to claim three new states (MI, IN, and OH). We enjoyed the warm hospitality from James and Megan in Lansing and even shared a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with them - thanks, Megan! The MSU football game was lots of fun, but also pretty cold. BRRR! It was nice to see where James and Ne attend their professional school - we are so proud of the work that they are doing! We hope you all get a chance to visit them in the future - just don't go during deer mating season!
Larry and Susan just finished putting in the pizza oven at their house. We all went over for the trial run. . .and can't wait for more pizza from Chef Larry. Then this past weekend we went to the beach house at Morro Bay with the Fasanas and Susan. . .went kayaking and climbed Bishop's Peak. . .all very relaxing. 
Helen and Allison flew to Connecticut last weekend to watch Jeannie and the Coast Guard Women's Volleyball team in their conference playoffs. It was a surprise visit as Jeannie didn't know that Allison would be coming too! Allison was able to attend one of Jeannie's classes and we enjoyed a "training lunch" in the wardroom. The playoffs games were very exciting, with the Coast Guard team finally winning and earning a berth at the NCAA playoffs this coming weekend at MIT. The weather was cold and clear all weekend, but didn't dampen the high spirits for Jeannie and Allison to spend some time together. We even saw a Navy submarine cruising down the Thames River one afternoon. We wish the women's volleyball team lots of luck this weekend!
We all got together last night to celebrate Mom and Dad's 56th wedding anniversary. It was a dinner of steak and enchiladas, with a chocolate dessert of course. Congrats Mom and Dad on 56 years!
The management team at Danny's office was supposed to dress up like X-Men for Halloween. . .Danny decided to be Wolverine - and took home the $50 first prize. Way to go, Dan!
This past weekend Erin went up to BYU to visit Alana and Ian for Homecoming Weekend. After getting all blue playing True Blue Football (check out previous blogs) there was the football game to attend where BYU beat UNLV 52-7. It was a beautiful fall day and a great game! Later that night we went with a group to a haunted corn maze. We had a really good time and decided to get into the farm theme and took the second picture there. We did a lot of wonderful activities and had a really fun weekend!
Sue, Grammie and Grampie are examining the giant banyan tree, the largest on Oahu, on the North Shore. Also shown is the LDS temple in Laie and the Turtle Bay Resort, that just underwent a $100 million renovation.
There were 15 foot waves breaking at Shark's Cove so Tat, Grammie, Grampie, and Margaret took dinner there to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful evening and we saw a brilliant, fluorescent green flash that lasted a long time.
Brad, Margaret and Evan drove Ian's piano up to BYU this past weekend. They went to the football game on Saturday (which BYU won handily). Ian and Alana had a bunch of friends over on Saturday night for a dinner at the townhouse and "the piano christening". Mike and Shauna Miller were visiting Hillary so they came for dinner also. The aspen trees were turning different colors in the mountains and were beautiful. We also hiked one afternoon up to Timpanogos Cave. It was a great weekend with the kids and we didn't even hit any traffic driving back through Las Vegas. Erin, have fun when you go up there next weekend for homecoming (and True Blue football)
