Colorado

  As you all know I also just got back from a weekend trip to Colorado with my roommates and other friends. I figured if I'm going to blog about one trip I might as well blog about another while I'm at it.
  We had ten people go: Dane, McKay, Rick, Andie, Charlotte, Veronica, Tyler, Trevor, Roo (Andie's sister), and Me.
  The trip started off excellently for me. Rick's girlfriend Andie is sort of a stress-case and always tries to be our mom. Welp, we were going to her grandparents' cabin so she was allowed to be in charge. She gave us extensive directions but then told us that there is no way we would find the cabin without her help. So I started driving and about 4 hours into the drive I saw a "Welcome to Colorado" sign. This was of minor discomfort because we had told Andie that we would meet her and the other car in Moab, Utah. In our car was Charlotte, Veronica, and Trevor.
  So I had the wonderful experience of calling Andie and saying "Hypothetically speaking, if I ignored all of the directions you had given me and was in Colorado right now, what would I do?" I'm pretty sure she had a minor heart attack but then gave me her Mom's phone number and I called her. I was given concise directions and arrived to the ranch about 20 minutes after the other two cars. I was pretty ecstatic because I was able to arrive in a timely manner without giving up my pride and hatred of being bossed around. Mature, I know:).
  Then the weekend was just overall amazing. We went four-wheeling and canoeing and swimming in the pond in their backyard the first day. This ranch is huge and beautiful. Way out in the middle of nowhere which makes it really relaxing. We roasted marshmallows a couple of the nights and did tin foil dinners one night too.
  Also, on the first night we played "Body Body." It's like the game Mafia but you turn off all the lights and people wander around in the dark and the killer "slices" someone's throat with his hand to kill them. That person then lays on the ground until someone finds his body and shouts "body body." Then someone turns on the lights and everyone tries to guess who the killer is. Super fun, and it was awesome in this cabin in the middle of the woods.
  Then for the Fourth of July we went into Ouray (pronounced Your-A) and their parade. For some reason this city is absolutely obsessed with water on the Fourth. Although they do throw some candy to the crowd, half of the parade is trucks with hoses or squirt guns and they soak the crowd. Took me by surprise. This one truck drove by and the men shouted "who wants to get soaked?" and Tyler stood behind me and pointed at me. We both got absolutely drenched.
  After that we went to a park where they were having kids do three-legged, wheelbarrow, sprinting, and other races. Dane, McKay, Tyler, Charlotte and I all stopped there for about an hour and we all made a pick of which kid we thought would win. It felt just like what I imagine a horse race to be, just no money involved. We were all screaming for our kids, so much fun.  It's those simple things in life that I just absolutely love.
  After lunch we went to Ouray's best tradition on the Fourth: fireman hose fights. They have two people on each side with a firehose, spraying each other until one team drops the hose. We watched from a dry point but there are people that stand right behind each team and just get destroyed. I found a link on youtube, check it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJoSmRU8fJw.
  That was awesome! However, the firework show in Ouray was the worst I have ever seen. Bummer, but the day was still great. I always miss you guys on the Fourth.
  The next day we did some horseback riding and more four-wheeling. Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting with just us at the cabin then we drove back and Char and I had dinner with Max and Corey. It was a really great trip.

  Welp, here are some pictures!

I think everyone has seen this picture, but here's Char and Me.

Veronica has been one of my best friends at BYU.

Trevor is a major homophobe, I'm shocked he even took this picture.

Me, Veronica, and Charlotte.

The campfire, about 20 minutes before Dane flicked a burning piece of wood onto his face on accident. It's going to be a sick scar!

Tyler, Dane, McKay, Trevor, Char.

Andie, Rick, and Trevor.

Trevor, Veronica, Char, and Me fourwheeling.

And finally, the view that we had. Loved the trip!

I love you guys! Can't wait to see you all next week.

Bolivia!

            So, I decided that it was finally time to give you guys the recap all about my trip to Bolivia. I’ve told you all bits and pieces and I will certainly answer more questions about miscellaneous parts of the trip but for now this is just a nice overview for you all to know what I was up to for almost three weeks.

            We flew into La Paz (the capital city) on Thursday, June 12 at about 7 AM. We were all pretty exhausted but I slept a lot on the flight to be prepared for the day. After taking way too long at Bolivian customs (filling out forms promising we’re not terrorists, etc.) we were picked up by our tour guides in La Paz and taken to the hostel where we were going to stay in La Paz. We got to the hostel, dropped off our stuff, then took a 2-3 hour bus drive (my timing is a little shaky in hindsight sorry) up to Copacabana, a little touristy town on the shore of Lake Titicaca. We then took a boat out to an island, Isla del Sol on the middle of the lake and hiked up to a hostel where we spent the night.

This hostel was by far the most ghetto accommodations I have ever been in. It wasn’t terrible; it had electricity but beyond that it was extremely primitive. The water for the hostel was brought up daily by mule, making it frigid and utterly insufficient. I think the whole place ran out of water for showers after like 5 people had taken a thirty second hypothermia-inducing-ice shower.

The view on that island was BEAUTIFUL though. We were so lucky to have a full moon that night, and when you’re on the highest lake in elevation in the world you feel like the moon is right next to you. The kids got some amazing pictures, I’ll upload them once the kids send them to me.

We hiked across the entire island the next day (beautiful hike, about 2 hours long) and skipped stones on this absolutely breathtaking beach. Then we drove back to La Paz for the evening and did some souvenir shopping the next day. I really love La Paz, it is a cool city. So packed, way too much for me to live in but fun to visit. The altitude is really killer though, I think it’s something like 14,000 feet elevation (I don’t have wifi as I’m typing so I can’t verify). A ton of people got altitude sickness, I was feeling pretty good though.

So Saturday night we flew into Santa Cruz, where we were to spend the majority of the expedition. That evening we were picked up by Brigam Barrientos, one of the greatest men I have ever met. He’s 30, the first counselor in the stake presidency, and our local coordinator down there. That means he arranges the obtaining of supplies, dinners, pretty much helping out with anything to make the trip leaders’ lives easier. He was such an amazing guy. Definitely a spiritual giant, but more of an Ohio style one. Like he cared so much about the gospel and wanted to share it, but he was also a normal person. You felt like you could connect with him as friends. I don’t know if I’m explaining this adequately, I’m just trying to say that there are some church leaders that don’t seem like human beings. Brigam is truly a great friend.

            We went to church the next day and had some of the greatest talks I have ever heard. One man talked about the restoration and it was so powerful. I hadn’t heard the First Vision told in Spanish since my mission. As I listened to this man testify of the prophet and the gospel I was truly overcome with the spirit. I can testify with all of my heart that Joseph Smith truly did see God the Father and Jesus Christ. It’s miraculous yet undeniable to me.

            After church we went on visits to less actives in the ward to invite them to a fireside that our kids were putting on. They ended up getting 17 less active kids to the fireside! Such a great missionary opportunity for the kids. One of the girls in our group was not feeling so hot and didn’t really want to go to the visits or the fireside but we convinced her to last minute. She ended up going and absolutely loving it!

            So the next day we finally started work on the school. It is in the countryside just out of the city; a super impoverished area. We were attaching a room onto a school that other HEFY groups in the past had built. We worked at the school every day from 9 to 4 and the kids finished the majority of the foundation by the end of the trip. The next groups mainly just have to do brick laying now.

            Every evening we did different activities with the ward to help reactivate the less actives. We had a game night, sports night, dance, talent show, so many amazing things. 10 of the less active kids came to church our second Sunday too! The ward was so appreciative and our kids’ testimonies grew in countless ways.

            Then our second weekend we all flew to Cochabamba to go to the temple. I had a layover with two kids and the mom that was on the trip so I just emailed Jack and skyped Mom and Dad and Charlotte. The temple is absolutely gorgeous though. The town it is in is super hilly and just has a wonderful setup overall. They also have a giant Christ statue like the one in Rio. They say it’s bigger than that one (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been to Rio). It’s fun though, when you’re at the temple you can see the Christ statue and it just makes me think about how wonderful He is. Truly our Saviour.

            Overall this was truly one of the best experiences of my life. I would love to tell you guys about every single kid and how much I love them. I love these kids so much and want to help them for the rest of their lives. It was an amazing experience; I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Temple trip.

Top Row: Jon, Me, Dema, Josh, Kyle.

Second Row: Haylee, Rebecca, Mady, Bobie, Cassie, Essy, Alyssa, Sam.

Bottom Row: Isaac, Aly, Madison, Rachel, Mems, Anna, Regan, Parker.

Dancing with Danova, one of our youth's favorite Bolivian youth. She was such a sweetheart.

All of the youth and Mary (one of my co-leaders) in the Miami airport on the first day.

Top Row: Parker, Kyle, Isaac.

Second Row: Mems, Cassie, Alyssa, Sam, Dema.

Third Row: Aly, Haylee, Rachel, Madison, Josh, Mady.

Bottom Row: Regan, Essy, Mary, Rebecca, Anna.

(Bobie, a girl, is missing from this picture).

Sunset at Lake Titicaca.

Me and my boys: Parker, Josh, Me, Sam, Isaac, Dema, Kyle.

Our adult coaches with the trip leaders: Jon, Mary, Trish, Julianne, Me.

This One Goes Out to the One I Love

There is simply no man in the world that I would choose besides this one to be the father of my children.  He has been an amazing dad to our babies, our children, our teenagers and now our adult children.  My greatest wish and hope for my future grandchildren is that they will have the privelege of having a dad who follows their dad's example.

Three promised links

Third time is a charm!

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant http://youtu.be/aZZRYUV3tDU

Hang on Sloopy/River of Dreams http://youtu.be/ZuiOcyb8FAM

Summer Highland Falls (sorry Max) http://youtu.be/l5eh8OxSRMg

I love you all,

Dad

Billy Joel Concert Memories

Sorry the links from last night didn't work.  I have included three tonight in this and the next two posts - Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Summer Highland Falls & Hang On Sloopy/River of Dreams.

This is just to give you a flavor of what a great time we had.  Billy is still an amazing performer and I only wish that all my kids could have been with us!

Maybe Madison Square Garden all together in the future...

Last Billy Joel Post for the night

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant with Lexi, Soph, Luke and Timo.

http://youtu.be/ZWYuD93zPsQ

Billy Joel "Hang On Sloopy/Middle of the Night"

I thought Sam in particular would like this!

http://youtu.be/4rc1j3sZRyo

Dad

Billy Joel Concert at the Q

It was an amazing concert.  One could hardly believe Billy Joel has been performing for 50 years.  I am not sure exactly how old he is, but his pipes are still in amazing shape and he plays piano like a 25 year old.  He and his band played for over two hours straight, every song a gem.  He could have played for another two hours and we still would have known every song.  

He is really mixing up his sets with each concert and played songs like 'All for Leyna', 'Summer Highland Falls', 'The Entertainer', etc.  The highlight as usual was the entire crowd singing Piano Man along with Billy - really cool stuff.  He also mixed Hang On Sloopy 'O-H-I-O' in the middle of 'In The Middle of the Night'.  I will try to put a clip of that on next.

I only wish Max, Sam, Corey and Jack could have joined us.

Love to all - my microphone does not smell like a beer tonight!

Dad

Senioritis

Fambam,

  Well after a four month hiatus of blogging it seems like a good time to restart. Dad kicked us off with the cruise post so I'm attempting to follow up in a sufficient manner.
  This semester has been so much FUN. As Max will certainly confess, I am still a nerd and study far more than he believes a senior (or anyone else for that matter) should. However, I've just been loving life and doing as many fun things with my friends as possible. I try not to dwell on the fact that I'll be out of Provo in July because I get sad and instead live for this valuable time I have left for my friends. It's an interesting way to live; at least for my social life I'm trying to follow Harold Hill's advice and not build up too many tomorrows so I don't end up with a bunch of empty yesterdays. Anyways, here are some pictures and the stories that accompany them:
  About a week or two after I got home I decided I was in a sledding mood. Veronica (the girl Phil dated last year and got really close to us) had texted me so she and another friend and I decided to go to a local hill. It hadn't been a very snowy winter so the hill was pretty much all ice with the occasional grassy spot. Such a blast! We bruised our butts big time but it was possibly the fastest sledding I had ever done, the ice just let us fly. We all woke up the net morning with our butts/knees/bodies banged up a bit. The other guy, Tyler, that came with us has become one of my best friends and I hang out with him almost every day. He's from Boston; great guy.

Me, Tyler, V

  We had a ward date activity in January. It was just random pairing and I ended up getting put with a girl that wasn't in our ward (because our ward has high guy activity but struggles with the girls). We were on a group date with six other couples and it was way fun, nobody really knew each other and we painted and played games. Fun girl, haven't talked to her since then.

I believe her name is Ashleigh

  I still absolutely adore my friends from D.C.. We've gotten together a couple of times since being back and this was just one little dinner thing we did in january.

Harrison, Sam L, Flaka, me, and Ivanna

Then we had an AMAZING trip to Colorado as roommates. Dane was the only one who missed out; he has an opportunity to make like $2,000 being observed for clinical trials so he opted for that. Can't blame him for that but we had such a blast. All of Andie's (Rick's girlfriend) grandparents live in the middle of nowhere Colorado and we just had a blast with them. The pictures are mainly from Ouray (a town near where her grandparents live).

Me, Creighton, Bronson (roommate), Sarah, Andie, Rick (roommate), Olivia (Phil's girlfriend), Phil (roommate), Tyler.

Not sure what I was doin with my leg there...

The guys of the trip

Really Macey's?

Roommate Guy's night: Creighton, Bronson, Phil and  me (Dane/Rick were with their girlfriends)

Festival of colors; possibly one of my favorite traditions out here. I thought we all looked surprisingly good! Creighton, Meghan (friend of Creighton's), and Mallory (a friend from last year's ward).

My Lakewood hat is finally the appropriate mixture of colors to properly represent our city.

Other than that, life's great; glad to be out here and loving my time. Stoked to see the Ohio family this weekend! I love you all so much. 

With love forever and always, Sam

Done Crusing

We had a really great time and there was even drama included - more to come on this!  As planned we met Max and Corey in Houston.  One of our bags was delayed so Luke and I went back to the airport to pick it up and met Max and Corey at the same time.  As it turns out Luke and I were on the shuttle for three round trips from the airport to the hotel so spent a total of 90 minutes in the shuttle.  All worked out well and everybody was safe.

Saturday morning we were picked up at the hotel at 9:30 and dropped off at the cruise port terminal around 10:30.  There was a line and some waiting but we boarded the Caribbean Princess Cruise Ship at around noon.  It was a big beautiful boat and our rooms were very nice.  Mom and I had a room with a balcony while Luke and Sophie were across the hall in an inside room with no windows.  Max and Corey were just around the corner from us, also with no windows.  They said they really liked the no windows so it was always pitch black and they could sleep in.  Of course this means8:00 AM for Max and 11:00 AM for Corey - they were to compromise for the week.

So about the drama...  The ship was to leave at 4PM from port.  We were relaxing on the ship and getting our bearings when an announcement came over the loud speaker that there had been a barge/boat collision at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico and the waterway was closed for brief time so we would be sailing later.  The good news is that we were already on the boat so all the services were available as normal - food, shows, movies, shopping, etc.  We were to have more information later in the day and on Sunday but the thought was from the Captain that the boat would leave on Sunday morning most likely.

Sunday morning came and the boat was still at the cruise terminal.  Fortunately with our balcony room we had a birds eye view of the terminal roof, the parking lot, an oil refinery and the port where containers are off loaded from ocean ships.  It was spectacular!  The word from the Captain was that we would hopefully leave that afternoon but might miss one of the ports we were going to (Cozumel, MX; Honduras; Belize) or might have to adjust the trip itself.

Luke and I played in the ping pong tournament that day, we hung out at the pool (kind of cold in Houston at 65 degrees) and enjoyed our time together.  We had great and plentiful food, (all you can eat at anytime) a lot of laughs, and saw a fun Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons cover concert.  Again, we hoped in the morning to hear about the Cruise ship leaving.

On Monday morning we were still sitting at port.  The view had not changed with the exception that there was now no activity at the cruise terminal or in the parking lot to occupy our time.  Fortunately there was plenty to do on the ship.  (Look at the last paragraph but add a magician/illusionist show which you would have loved instead of the concert for detail.)  We were also told that the boat would now probably not be leaving until at least Tuesday.  I went on line on my phone and found the collision all over the local and national news.  170,000 gallons of oil had spilled in the bay and it was totally closed to all traffic going both ways.  Multiple cruise ships were waiting to get in after their cruise and were stuck in the Gulf of Mexico.  Fortunately we had not left the port so weren't stuck anywhere and had all the amenities needed.  The only negative was the 60 degree temperatures we were experiencing.

Finally in the afternoon they announced that we might get to one port of call or might have to just sail for awhile if we could get out on Tuesday.  On Sunday they had announced that all passengers would be getting a FREE cruise and 25% off a future cruise due to the inconvenience.  (This announcement had actually come on Sunday evening when they realized the severity of the oil spill.) 

On Monday afternoon they were informed that the port would open and we would get to possibly one port.  Princess rescinded the free offer, even thought it was already out in writing, and said there would be a 50% discount for a future cruise if you remained on the ship.  This got people all stirred up on the boat after having such good will the day before and postings all over the internet about how great Princess Cruises is.  Now, there were instantly postings all over the internet to the contrary.  We were OK either way - we were all together, had plenty of food and the activities were continuing on.  As mentioned, the only down side was weather (in addition to not seeing parts of Central America we had planned to see.)

Within hours they were informed that the port would remained closed as more oil had been detected under the surface.  The original offer of a free cruise was again put in place.  Mom said it must have been a couple really bad days for the President of Princess Cruises who sent the letters out through the Ship Captain.  Peace was again restored and the masses were happy (except for probably those who had left the ship).

Tuesday came and we were still at port.  We again enjoyed the same activities - plenty of food, time with the family, etc.  Mom and I had started playing hearts with Max and Corey every evening which was a lot of fun.  Finally at about 4PM they announced the opening of the channel and the boat left.  We were to be at sea all day on Wednesday, go to Cozumel, MX on Thursday and head back to Houston on Friday arriving this morning.

Cozumel was great.  Luke, Sophie, Mom and I went to the mainland of Mexico to check out Mayan ruins for the day.  The tour guide we had was fabulous.  He was 2/3 Mayan and knew all about their history.  (I am not sure how he is 2/3 at this point.)  He told us all about Mexican history, Mayan history, cleared up misconceptions about the Aztec period, etc.  We really had an enjoyable day.  Max will tell you, but he and Corey rented a motor scooter for the day.

Sophie and Luke loved the Teen zone on the ship.  They made a ton of new friends, spent countless hours hanging out with them, and got to know the ship really well since so much time was spent on it.  There were a number of LDS families on the ship also - there are more and more of around all the time!  Max and Corey said a number of people on their flight were going on the cruise.

So at the end of the day, we got a little sun, had fun with our family and had essentially a free vacation.  How could things be any better than that?  We are now in the United Club lounge waiting for our flight.

Mom and I continued reading scriptures every evening on the ship which was nice.  I know more than ever that God lives and loves us.  He wants us to be happy and provides so much opportunity for us to find joy.  We are so blessed in this world.