Karrissa & Joe's Institute Graduation

After being on the road for the last two weeks - SoCal with the family, and then Boston for an AirMagnet class all week... I found myself driving up to Logan yesterday to be on hand for Karrissa and Joe's graduation from Institute. We got to play with McKinley as well as have a nice service in the historic Logan Tabernacle.

Then with Joe's parents went to dinner at the 'Iron Gate Grill' - a good time was had by all! Oh yeah, it was also a celebration of Karrissa's Birthday on Friday - Jill enjoyed getting her daughter picture frames and a pair of shoes for presents. Of course she also had to bring along a little something for the grandchild... a pair of little socks with toys in toes.

Then since it was late... and I was still on East Coast time, Ryan gratefully accepted my request to drive home. He's a great driver - I slept till Ogden.

Family Vacation to SoCal

We all love a great vacation!
This week we were fortunate enough to have a family vacation over the kid's spring break to Southern California. Additionally, Janet & Rich and all their kids were down there at the same time with Grandma and Grandpa Parsons. So it was like a bit family reunion - just no time all together for pictures (Sorry Grandma)

Two days in Disneyland, a day at the Long Beach Aquarium and a day at Knott's Berry Farm made for lots of walking, lots of rides, and lots of time spent playing with our grand-daughter McKinley!
It is refreshing to see the boys actually have 'fun' with Alysha. The cousins, and Ben were around most of the time and it seemed like everyone was having a great time.

I'm getting a bit old for some of the level-5 rides - but I did enjoy the Xcellerator (0-80 in 2 seconds) and all the entertainment the parks offered.

I'm now waiting on a 6-hour layover in the SLC airport on my way to teach a set of AirMagnet classes in Boston this week.

Barry's Dinner

"A good time was had by all"

After a week of restaurant and fast food, the family was treated to a nice home-cooked meal! Barry and Donna graciously hosted our family in their home - the candles were set, classical music in the background, a variety of drinks available, trays of fruit and cheese, as well as an entire dinner were waiting for us when we arrived.

Earlier in the day we'd be caught out in the cold and wet of an unseasonable Southern California storm - so spent the day in the Long Beach Aquarium - but that evening we had a warm inviting home to dine in.

Split pea soup, a 'committee salad' and chicken/rice with grilled fresh veggies rounded out the meal. Then the finale capstone was a 'special' winner of an Ice Cream Barry had found - a Raspberry Chocolate that we all enjoyed so much we even had seconds.

Thanks Barry and Donna for an unforgettable evening!

Viva Las Vegas...

Jill and I brought Karrissa, Joe and McKinley down to Las Vegas this weekend to do a tour of the UNLV Dental School - where Joe starts in the fall for four years - and to help them look around for a place to live.

We had a nice little tour of the UNLV facilities - this campus is not down by the airport, but up a little west of I-15 near the center of old town Vegas. The school is fairly new, with new construction on a couple new buildings that should be ready to go in the fall. They have an 'all-computer' training, with all the students with identical Dell D620 laptops, lab space for each student with a 'simulated head' to work on, as well as four clinics for actual live work on volunteer patients. Not that you'd want to sit for three hours for a 30 minute procedure - but that's why they are volunteers.

We then drove around - about 100 miles yesterday... looking at new construction, town homes, old houses, and new houses - today we'll start in on the rental homes. Mostly in the NorthWest area - where the other Dental students recommended Joe and Karrissa go.

Then back to Orem for Easter with the whole family.

McKinley is just a doll - everyone thinks she is just the cutest thing... but I'm a bit biased. She got to go swimming for the first time in the hotel pool with her parents. Grandma (Jill) sure is good with her.

It was a quick trip - but Jill's new Highlander did great - getting 23 mpg!

Ok - I am a 'Major Geek'

I even took the test to prove it!



My son Ryan suggested I take this test... now how'd he know I'd get a good score...

Brent's Lacrosse - Timp Beats Lone Peak in OT

After work this afternoon I was pleased to be able to watch another of Brent's lacrosse games. This one was at home - Timpanogos High School. And better yet, we had a bunch of the family show up, Karrissa & McKinley, Ryan, Alysha and her friend Sherie, Grandpa and Uncle Rich, and then Jill. A nice sunny (albeit a bit windy) spring afternoon. I can't think of where I'd rather be this afternoon!

Cousin Michael Rife was still home sick - but even without him the team won 7-6 in Overtime. Brent played pretty well, not only giving some big hits, but he took a really big hit... but the guy who did it was WAY late and received a long penalty - Brent had to really control himself and not hit right back... but he sure wanted to!

Uncle Rich kept Michael in the game by 'texting' a running comentary so he could 'be there' - the game was to be available via TimpanogosTribune.com under broadcast streaming... but it wasn't working. So Michael was stuck with just texting. I'll have to remember that next time I'm out of town during a game.

Universcale!

Every few months, I come across something on the web that completely blows my mind. This morning, a friend of mine sent me a link to Nikon's Universcale web app. It puts the entire universe into proportion, from the smallest particle to the largest measurements of space.

From the femtometer to the light year, Universcale spans 40 magnitudes of measurement into a single cosmic web app. It's really amazing when you zoom all the way out into stars and galaxies and realize that every time you go a magnitude higher, everything you saw before, from the flea to Mount Everest, is contained in this tiny little grid in the lower-left side of the screen. Of course, the Carl Sagan-should-be-narrating-this planetarium music helps.

If you have a few minutes and want to feel really, really small (or really, really large, or really, really disoriented), check out Universcale. It will eat up your afternoon and enlighten you as to the true size and scope of the cosmos. Not bad for a Flash app.

Family Over for General Conference

We had a big family weekend. Saturday all the kids living at home watched the 10am conference all together - then we worked in the yard together to clear out all the waste from Jill's pruning adventure last weekend. 2pm conference together, then the boys and I went to the Priesthood session (Grandpa was in the same building, but we didn't see him until after) - this year we went to Arby's afterward... next conference we'll try a different place.

Late last night Karrissa, Joe and McKinley came over. Today Jill made her 'Famous' Conference Breakfast. I went down and picked up Keilani Conger to spend the day with us. Brent thinks it's his most favorite breakfast of the entire year! In between sessions we were able to walk down to the park and play with McKinley on the swing.

After the afternoon session the rest of the family came over for Sunday Dinner at our house. I like being home for these family dinners.

I'm actually going to be home for the next two weeks - yea!

Updated Rights...

Sorry for those of you who weren't able to upload comments. I've changed the 'rights' on my blog to allow anyone to comment. (this is for you Mom...)

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