Disney Cruise Day One

Last Wednesday I flew to Orlando, Florida for my fourth work-related cruise event. This one was aboard the Disney Wonder and went to Nassau, Bahamas and to Disney's private island. The cruise was for the most part a carbon copy of our previous events, and since I seldom handed my camera over to others, there aren't that many pictures of me to share. I shared my stateroom with my colleague Brad Jensen, whom I typically share with on events. I'm at the Orlando Airport right now and will be flying to Boston in an hour or so, but thought I'd start with a couple of pictures and a video from my first day at sea. Before leaving for this trip I purchased an underwater camera housing for my camera and will share some fun pictures I took sailing and snorkling soon.

My cabin (before they split the bed)

Me and some of the other Microsoftees hanging out at the pool


Towel origami on my bed

Testing out the new camera housing in the pool. I am trying to blow air rings; I finally get it to work on the last two.

More Spring Snow

This Spring has certainly been more "wintery" than the previous three years. Winter was relatively mild with almost no snow here in the city. Spring has been another matter entirely. I was travelling to Arizona and Seattle, WA last week and flew in around 11am on Friday. As I typically do, I went straight to work to try to get caught up on a few things and to make some phone calls. Jane called about 2pm and asked "have you looked out the window?". When I stood up I saw snow flake clumps that were at least an inch across coming down. A little while later our office manager closed the office early and suggested that everyone get on the road a bit early before the roads got too icy. I left about 4pm and had a pretty slow crawl home. Jarom and I were planning to go skiing on Saturday, but they closed the I-70 from Friday at 2pm until Saturday at about the same time, so we couldn't get up to Copper Mountain. It continued to snow until Saturday about 2pm, when it finally warmed up enough to turn to rain. Today (Sunday) was sunny and beautiful, and all the snow is melting but since we ended up getting about a foot of very wet snow, it will probably take another day or two to complete melt. We are very grateful for the moisture though.

This picture was taken at 7pm on Friday night

Allie and kids came down for the weekend and got to the house a little after it started snowing.

Video taken Friday night.

Easter at the Thornbrues

We spent Easter at Allie and James' today. First we went to church with them. Allie and James both commented that the kids never have enjoyed church so much, probably because of all the toys and snacks that Jarom and Melissa brought for Bryson. The Thornbrue kids got to sit on Grandma Jane's, Molly, Seth and my lap, so Allie and James got to relax a bit. Marie memorized an Article of Faith that she recited in Primary. I snuck out my cell phone and recorded it. Here it is. Sorry about the distance and resolution, but hey, what do you want for church?

Guthrie, Oklahoma

I was visiting in Oklahoma last week, and the last couple of times I've been there, I travel between Stillwater and Oklahoma City. About 10 miles north of Oklahoma is this tiny town called "Guthrie". I've heard about Guthrie for years, and last Thursday I decided to get off the freeway and see if there was anything to see (there wasn't). If you click on the picture you can see what there is in the distance, but its not much. I'm sure I missed the main part of town, but from what I could see there wasn't much. But here are the pictures I took just in case you've heard of Guthrie. Apparently it figures somehow into the Oklahoma Land Rush.

Novice No More

Yesterday was the next-to-the-last week of ski season. Its been almost three weeks since I went last, and the conditions three weeks ago were so horrible then that Jarom and I left after a couple of runs. Yesterday Jarom and I went up hoping the snow would be skiable, and we had a great day. After warming up on our favorite green runs (the ones with all the terrain parks) we headed over to the East Village where all the blue and black runs are. I've been watching some training videos at home and got some great tips that have really improved my skiing the past couple of times. After a successful first run down one of the blue runs (blue is intermediate), I had Jarom show me where one of the shorter black (expert) runs were. Conditions were perfect and I lead the way. I blasted down that black run at what seemed a million miles an hour in perfect control. When we met at the bottom Jarom said that as he watched me I made him worried I was going so fast. The next run I had a spectacular wipeout where I slid about 50 feet down the moutain skis-down with a spray of snow going everywhere. When I stood up I had snow all the way up under my coat to my armpits, and while sliding the snow had unzipped my pants part way and stuffed snow in my crotch. It was amazing! And I didn't even pop a ski. We did the same run a couple more times, and then all of a sudden it got too warm and the entire mountain turned to slush in about 30 minutes. We did one more run and then called it quits because we didn't want to ruin what had been a perfect day up to then. I had a couple of interesting observations over on the expert runs: (1) you sure get down the moutain faster on the blue/black runs. What takes us 10-15 minutes on the green runs only takes about 7-10 minutes on the blue/blacks and (2) it is a lot more work to ski on steeper slopes. I was really beat after about five runs on the blacks. I'm wondering what I can do during the spring/summer to get in better shape. Next weekend is the last week of ski season. There is some kind of wild life migration in the area and the resort has to close so there aren't people in the area. Its been a great season, with over 20 days of skiing. We are already missing it and can't wait for next season.

Blizzard of the Century vs. Prom

Hey, this is Seth. So this weekend was supposed to be my Prom. Tuxes had been rented, dresses and tickets paid for. Then on Thursday afternoon, the bombshell was dropped. On Saturday there was supposed to be a huge blizzard. The administrators didn't want drunk kids driving so far to the air hanger we were having Prom at in the snow. The wonderful event was rescheduled for May 16th, the Saturday before finals. Now my two friends (Austin and Coleton) dates can't go and Coleton's date was driving. So fun eh? Anyway, below are the pictures from our "blizzard" this afternoon.