Long Days in Orlando

On one day, did a lot at the conference. The last picture in this post of all of us in the park we helped build should be the first. Initially, we all worked at a KaBoom park project for the National League of Cities, making a park for children in an area that didn't have a park. When that was done about 2 p.m. we went to hear the session speaker, New York Times writer, Thomas Friedman, speak about the U.S. being a leader in green technology. Finally, late in the afternoon we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom to go on a couple of rides and have dinner.

On the Safari ride, we got to see plenty of animals up close and personal, like these rhinos. The vehicles that we rode around this huge jungle-brush area are shown below.


Gavin looks a little bit dubious about one of the Disney characters.

Michigan and Orlando

These pictures are posted backwards. . .the first one is the Gavin and Meg watching the EPCOT fireworks show at the end of the day.

Meg, Danny and Gavin are pictured in front of the Stave church in the Norway section of EPCOT. Danny found out that his memory of Norwegian was pretty good as he had no trouble talking with all of the Norwegian employees in this area.

Gavin found a remote-control car with McGruff. . .and he thought that he was pushing it but it was being controlled by the man behind a curtain.

When we were in Michigan, James, Megster, and Brielle went to the Rain Forest Cafe for the first time and had the utterly decadent Volcano for dessert. Brielle liked looking at the fish in the aquarium there.

Ian and Roxy Came to Town

This last weekend Evan and I were were lucky enough to have a visit from Ian and Roxy, my good friend that I met while we were both doing our internships in Brussels (she is from Logan, Utah). We had a weekend packed with good times, tons of laughs, and good memories.

We went to the Mount Timpanogas Temple on Saturday morning. Hillary Miller (a good friend from Southern California) joined us that early morning.

On Friday night we went to Cafe Rio and then played a really fun game - Loaded Questions. It was Roxy's first time at Cafe Rio - I think we converted her. Ian's friend Amy Stringer came with us and was the one who introduced us to the game.

Roxy brought her violin and she and Hillary played for us. We all really enjoyed the beautiful music.

Here is a picture of the three girls on the balcony at the Townhouse. It was a beautiful day - perfect for the BYU football game. We are excited for when Ian and Roxy can visit again!

How do you spend your 58th wedding anniversary?

Grammie and Grampie decided that spending 14 hours working the polls on Election Day 2008 would be a memorable way to spend their 58th wedding anniversary. Margaret worked with them, and Meg and Gavin stopped by to give all the poll workers freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and milk. We ended up having a great time as it was busy all day long, due to the record voter turnout in California.

Pumpkin Halloween

Gavin was a pumpkin for Halloween. He enjoyed dressing up much more than we thought he would. Dan was the Penguin from the Batman cartoon series. Each team in his office dressed up in a different theme. After dinner the three of us went to our church Halloween party and then did a little trick-or-treating. It was a fun evening.

Colorado Halloween

What better place to spend Halloween than in a town with plenty of ghosts in Colorado. I flew up to Denver to visit Ian and we drove up into the old mining town of Leadville. Shown in this picture is what remains of this "Cloud City" (elevation 10, 152) that once boasted a population of 60,000 people in the 1880's (due to mostly silver mining). Today only about 3000 residents remain.

Ian is standing on old rail boards that lead out of a mine shaft at one of the old abandoned mines. Behind him is Mosquito Pass, one of the roads used to haul the ore back down to Denver and Pueblo. The pass was dirt and closed for the winter so we thought it better to not try and go over it.

One of the great stories of wealth, made and lost, is that of the Tabor family. H.A.W. Tabor and the saloon girl, Baby Doe, made millions from this silver mine that Ian and I are standing near. When the U.S. government went on the gold standard in 1893, silver lost much of its value and the Matchless Mine of the Tabors became worthless.

This is a photo of Harrison Avenue (the main street) in Leadville. Halloween is huge here and people of all ages dress in costumes and cruise the streets.

Ian and I went to this haunted house which is called Stapleton Manor, later that night. It doesn't look nearly as scary in the daytime but let me tell you, it scared me a lot. The manor is behind this little blue house - scary masked people with chainsaws, people jumping out at you from bushes, blackened hallways, lasers, etc. It all made for a very memorable Halloween.

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!