San Diego

This past weekend I went to San Diego for the funeral of my Great Aunt Betty, my mom's aunt. I am glad that I was able to step out for a couple of days to go to the services. I don't think that I have ever been to a Catholic funeral. Quite a learning experience for me--most of my extended family is Catholic so it was interesting to learn more about their beliefs. I have a picture of Aunt Betty my mom sent me a few days before Aunt Betty passed away. I am sad that I didn't have the time to see her after she became sick, but we are all thankful she is isn't in any more pain.I was down in San Diego, I spent some time with my extended family members. My uncle and aunt from Tennessee were in town as well as my aunt and uncle from Minnesota were there with their kids, Owen, Greta, and Henry. I don't get to see them very often but the visits feel as if it has only been days since we have seen each other.

Owen, Henry, and Greta at the beach posing for a Christmas card

Greta at the beach
Owen looking at the ocean in La Jolla

Henry, Greta, and Owen at the Children's Pool Beach

The weather in La Jolla was great! We saw the sun for most of my trip (except on Sunday when we took these pictures). The temperature was in the sixties and seventies. I was quite sad when I found my car in SLC parking lot with two inches on the hood. Oh the joy of Utah life!

Jazz Games & Babies

This week I watched two Jazz games. Almost makes you think I am a Jazz fan, but one of the games was against the Twolves. Go Twolves! (I am a long time Twolves fan; I spent a lot of time in Minnesota when I was a kid). Too bad the Twolves didn't whip the Jazz's trash again. The other game was against the Nuggets--Roy's favorite team. Good thing that the Jazz beat the Nuggets by 27 points otherwise Roy would have been in a bad mood. We kinda knew the deal was sealed when the Jazz had 77 points by half-time.

Just a recap on who I watched the games with: the Twolves' game I watched with Andrew, Kim, and their son James, and the Nugget's game I watched with Roy, Brenna, and their son Caleb. I just realized that Utah has changed my life forever--my friends have kids and I like watching Jazz games!

I took a quick picture of Caleb right after the game--hopefully you can see his awesome mohawk. (Don't mind the shadow from my hand). After the Nugget game, we watched two episodes of Law and Order--I am surprised that Caleb slept through the last Law and Order since it was a pretty intense episode!


I just stole a picture from Trista's Facebook account. This picture is from my trip up to Idaho--the Celestial Kingdom to some of my friends--last month. (Here's more proof that my friends have kids. I don't think that Dave and Trista watch the Jazz games. I know they watch the Yankees ...or was it the Boston Red Sox? Just kidding! Don't disown me for that comment!).

March

Two weeks ago, I went up to Idaho Falls to see Dave and Trista bless their baby girl Amani (Swahili for Peace). Amani is a really cute; she spent most of that Sunday asleep on my bony shoulder. Hopefully, Trista will post some pictures so I can snag them for my own blog. It's pretty fun to be deemed Amani's uncle. Dave and Trista have a really nice place up in IF; however, I don't really care too much for Idaho. I don't like having things so spread out, like having to drive for forever to get to the next town. I will keep my mouth shut since a lot of my friends are from Idaho and I figure that if they come from Idaho, the whole place must not be sooo bad. This doesn't mean that I will live in Idaho; that is a whole different story.

That same weekend, I was up in Ogden, Brigham City, and Logan. I really made good use of my three-day weekend! I spent some time with Bart and Shantyl in Ogden (and in Brigham City). We went and saw Jumper (not a very good movie) and had lunch at Maddox's restaurant in Perry/Brigham City. (Bart and Shantyl had their reception in the Maddox lodge last year). I gather that her parent's frequent the place because we were seated in 10 minutes even though others had to wait for an hour or more. The food at Maddox was pretty good--maybe good enough for a special trip up to Perry.

Contrary to popular belief, Logan is not that bad of a place. My sister's in-law's live up in Logan, not too far away from the temple. Whenever I go up there, I always have a really good time. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I rarely do any homework, I watch a lot of TV, and I eat plenty of homecooked food.

Just a quick update about the tax lab: things are getting much easier since we put in an appointment system. I can easily judge how much time and effort is needed so that I can get out of the lab not too long after the official closing time. Before it was hard to know when to stop taking new people. I would leave the lab around 6:30, only an hour and half after the closing time. Those who are in the area can check us out --> vita.byu.edu