Princeton

I flew out to the east coast again this year. This time to Princeton, NJ for another work conference. We stayed at the historic Nassau Inn during the week which is located in the middle of downtown (Palmer Square) and right across the street from Princeton University. I very much so enjoy visiting and touring around different college campuses, and Princeton is definitely a beautiful one.




Some of the highlights of Princeton: First night i had some of the best pizza I have ever eaten at Teresa's Cafe. It had wild mushrooms, hot italian sausage, and smoked gouda on a white sauce. Wednesday night I attended a volleyball game of the Princeton Tigers vs. Penn. I also enjoyed hanging out at the Frist Center (student union) and wondering how intelligent these students must be. I tried to find the institute class there, but was unsuccessful. It seemed like everywhere I looked around campus the architecture of the buildings looked very gothic and castle like. I bet it's even more beautiful there in spring and autumn.

New York 11-18-08
I also was able to get away for a half-day trip to New York City to celebrate my birthday! I took an hour train ride up to the city. I arrived at Madison Square Garden and walked up Broadway, through Central Park, and up to the Met museum of art, before I headed back down along 5th avenue to midtown. Jared and Debi Lee took me out for dinner to this cool little place, Kashkaval, where we ate cheese and bread and fondue. It was certainly a cold day but the weather was not too bad.

Family Photo

I wanted to add a recent photo of my family for those interested to see everyone growing up. This was taken at Nate and Melissa's wedding in Rexburg in August.
Dad and Mom. Ben, Lindsy and baby Carter. Nate and Melissa. Me, Noah, Jakob, Jeremiah, and Johanna.

OSU Homecoming

Homecoming at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater is a pretty big deal every year. It began in conjunction with the festival of the harvest which has led to one of the biggest football homecoming celebrations in the nation. Besides the actual game, the celebration which headlines homecoming is the "Walk-Around". You must be there to truly appreciate the size and intricate work of the decorations as well as the vastness of the 'sea of orange' as the whole city converges on the streets of south campus. Here are a few pictures of the event.
This year's theme was 'Generation Cowboy' and each Greek house made unique decorations accordingly. It is all made by gluing tissue paper on chicken wire. All for tens of thousands of onlookers on a Friday night. Pretty impressive.

First Year Coaching

We just finished our 2008 High School season last night with a loss at Regionals. I never thought I would be coaching in high school, especially for girls volleyball, but it was a great experience. I definitely learned a lot of things as I tried to teach, motivate, encourage and just have fun with the girls. Most of my time and effort was spent with the 8th graders, but I also served as an assistant with the Varsity and JV teams.
Here's a photo of me with my Ponca City 8th grade girls after they took 2nd place in the Bartlesville Tournament. It's not what's on the front of your jersey, but what is in your heart that matters.

Madison-Wisconsin

Trip to Madison, WI for work. Another fun university town as well as the state capitol. I will add more photos soon.. hopefully!

Connecticut-New York City

Me and my best friends from BYU have an annual reunion. This year we got together in small town Connecticut.

Monterey CA

I spent a week in beautiful Monterey, California in March of 2007. One of the perks of my job is the opportunities to travel to different parts of the country I wouldn't typically have visited. Though most of the days were spent in meetings, I was able to take some time and tour around. The view from the coastline was gorgeous. Lots of rocky beaches, sea life, trails, etc. This was my second ARM meeting... definitely the best one so far. I also ran into some friends there which was nice as well. We went out and had Mexican food one night, probably the best I've had. From the hotel it was a short walk to the beach and then a short bike ride into the canary row and pier. The highlight of the week was the afternoon adventure on bikes we rented. It was a beautiful day, with a slight breeze as we biked along the coast.
The beach was nice as well.
Then I went on a bike ride along the coast down to Pebble Beach.

For work, annual meeting. First we hit the Monterey Bay Aquarium.