Father's and Son's Outing Colorado Style

Last night and this morning was our ward's Father's and Son's outing. Unlike the Stake event that we used to do it in California, we have enough people in our ward to have our own event. Our campout was held at Wellington Lake, about an hour's drive from the house. Seth and I arrived at the campground about 2pm, and Seth's friend Trenton was already there so after we picked the best spot in camp and set up, Seth went off exploring with his friend. I started setting up my fly rod and eventually went fishing. Overall it was a great venue; the boys were out playing "Capture the Flag" until 11:30pm when the camp host suggested that we quiet down, and then the boys played cards until at least 1am. The next morning the Young Men's organization cooked breakfast, and afterwards had the obligatory "egg toss". Seth and I gave up our egg to a younger boy and dad so we stayed clean. After a leasurely clean up, we arrived home about noon having enjoyed good times with our friends in beautiful Colorado Rockies. Sure beats Firestone Park in Brea, CA!

(Sorry about the photo quality. I forgot my camera. These were taken with my phone.)

Our camp is located next to a lake at the base of Castle Peak. You can see our blue tent at the far right corner in the distance. The elevation at camp is about 8000 feet. The peak is about 9,200 feet.

Our "six-man" tent is just big enough in case of rain. You can easily fit four chairs inside.

Seth and Trenton & Chad Hamilton from our camp looking towards the lake.


Our drinking water came from this pump. Am I the only one that thought it odd that the pump is down hill from the kybo?

Saturday AM egg toss

Seth's Prom Pics

Seth finally got to attend the Thunderridge High School prom this evening (May 16). It was postponed in April due to a blizzard warnings last April that never materialized, but it was too late. Seth's date was Cassie Paries, an LDS girl that attends a different ward and high school (Mountain View) that he met through friends. The evening started out at our house with a few pictures in the front yard, and then dinner at Mikuni, a Japanese sushi bar and bistro that is at the mall about 7 miles away. Seth met up with about fifteen other kids there. We followed Seth and Cassie to the restaurant to take a few more pictures. After dinner, a friend drove them to the prom venue with was held at an air museum. Afterwards, they will attend "after Prom", which our high school does instead of grad night (they are still at Prom as I'm posting this). It is held at the high school from 12am - 4am, and is completely chaperoned and the kids are locked in. They have dessert, games, music and other entertainments. They even call your parents if you leave before it is over. We bought the tux jacket and pants, and rented the shoes, vest, shirt & tie. In the long run it will be much less expensive than renting the entire rig each time.

More Bahamas Fun

I'm finally done travelling for the rest of the school year (until September) except for one or two random conferences that might happen in July, so I thought I'd share a couple of photos from our day off in the Bahamas during the Disney Cruise I was on. We really put my underwater camera housing to good use and the water was warm and crystal-clear. While the picture quality is great, the photographers sometimes had issues. The folks in the pictures are my co-workers.

These are all Microsoft Evangelists attending the conference having lunch at Disney's private island "Castaway Cay".

Aboard a Hobie Cat sail boat. Sorry about the water on the lens. I've learned I need to check and blow it off.

Work friends and one professor (on the far right) getting ready to go snorkeling.

One of the underwater Mickey's that you can find. The diving cove ranges from six to eight feet deep, but the tide was out when we dove so it was pretty shallow.

I had a hamburger bun in a zip-lock bag for feeding the fish, and as soon as I took it out of my pocket they went nuts.

There were several sunken boats in the lagoon that Disney put there just for fun.

If you look to the right of the wheel, you'll see one of a pair of scorpion/lion fishes that were inside the wheelhouse of the ship. They have extremely poisonous spines.

This is a composite of all the videos that we took while snorkeling. Enjoy!