Weekly Update (8-17-10)

Yes I know, it's not a Sunday. Why late? Because of a weekend reunion for my wife's family near Morgan, UT! More on that later, but first let's explore the rest of the last week.

So as I mentioned last time, last week was the last of summer term here at the Y. I had my French test and Julie had a test and a paper, and with Julie working at graduation it's been quite busy with school things. My test went fairly well overall I'd say--it's amazing how much you learn in so short a time when you're taking class in the summer term. Julie commented that she was very proud of how much she got done, reading over 8 books in 7 weeks.

Alongside school has been work. I've completed my first MCNP code, though it apparently had a few bugs in it. It is interesting work since I don't actually run it myself, but rather have to send it to the professor. I don't know why, but I guess the people who made it only wanted the professors to use it. :P Aside from that little oddity, though, it's nice to have things settling in there. And while I'm just settling into my job Julie is finishing her time working as an usher for University events, with her last time being graduation last week. She will however be looking forward to being a grader for one of her German professors, and the work will at least provide more hours and at least equal pay.

Of course with school over, we haven't slowed down much yet. We headed out Saturday morning toward Morgan for Julie's family reunion. We made a stop along the way to a nursery in Salt Lake City called Cactus & Tropical where we got yet another bonsai, a serissa which we have affectionately named Siggy (after some deliberation). We'll be sure to get pictures up within the next few days. So after our pit stop in Salt Lake we kept on our way to the reunion, getting lost a bit and ending up taking about an extra hour or so before we arrived there. It was a big get together with groups from Julie's maternal grandmother's descendants. It was an interesting experience, but fun since I know some of Julie's cousins already since I grew up in the same ward as them! We had fun being outside, camping, stargazing, and having a fun program put on by some of the people there. We stayed through the late morning the next day.

Even with the reunion finished, our family visiting wasn't over. We went from Morgan to visit Julie's brother Adam along with the rest of Julie's immediate family. We had fun talking, sharing dinner together, and going to the local elementary school to play some basketball, foursquare, and to hit up the jungle gym with the younger kids. We then went with Julie's other brother, Robert, back to Provo to spend the night.

The next day we headed north once more, this time to meet up with everyone at Lagoon. After some issues meeting up we got in the park by noon and stayed until almost 10 that night. There were lots of fun rides for all of us. The more adventuresome of the group rode the Sky Coaster, the Rocket, and Colossus while others of us (namely Julie and I) rode the ferris wheel, Flying Aces, Hydro Tube, and Paratrooper. Julie and I also had some fun playing the midway games where we won a few fun prizes, including a stuffed alligator and a stuffed dragon. By the end of the day we were all exhausted, and at last we said our farewells before going our separate directions.

For the last bit of news, I thought everyone should know that our website is up and running a bit more now, and should be getting those pictures up before long!