Get away to Florida

This past week i decided to go to Orlando to visit my cousin Nathan. He has been in the air force for the past 6 years, and has been deployed 3 times, and stuck in North Dakota the rest. The last time i saw him was nearly 4 years ago.
Growing up Nathan and i were the closest out of all of my cousins. We were best friends. Luckily his mom lived up here in Utah, so i got to see him along with my other 2 cousins often. When he was in California we used to write each other letters all the time, since talking on the phone was expensive long distance. I remember one time getting a letter from him, and he used a mickey mouse sticker for a stamp and it worked. I got the letter.
When we were in high school all used to go to my aunt Katie's house in Kennewick WA. for a month and have the best time ever.
After high school everyone went their own ways, and now i hardly ever see any of my cousins. Nathan is now married and has two little boys: Michael, (named after Nate's youngest brother) and Titus. Nathan has been married for nearly 3 years. His wife's family is from Florida near Orlando, so they are trying to establish themselves there. Nathan doesn't like it there, because of the heat, but his wife won't let him move their family to Utah.
This trip was a good bonding time for Nate and i. His wife worked a few of the days, so we stayed home and babysat the kiddies. Little Michael is 2 years old, and looks just like Nate. We think little Michael has a crush on me, cause he always kept coming up to me and giving me a kiss on the cheek along with a hug. The other kiddo, baby Titus was just a good sport the whole time, and doesn't fuss a whole lot.
I got to help Nate redo his resume. We spent quite a bit of time coming up with ideas for things we could put on there so Nate stands out better. He's looking for a security job and is having a tough time finding work.
My brother Brandon and his family came down for about a day and a half. We met up with them and went to the beach in Melbourne. It was a lot of fun. I got to play with my nieces the whole time. The water was warm, and the waves were perfect for body surfing.
We went and checked out Downtown Disney and saw all of the shops there.
The trip was short, but a lot of fun. Luckily i was able to get on a flight back home. Flying with a buddy pass means you fly standby. You might get bumped. I took the last seat on the plane and was able to fly home with Brandon and his family. Brandon and i pretty much battled each other with the on flight trivia game they have on the plane.. i think i won her more than he won me :)

First real hike of the year

Today was such a beautiful day, and with no work to do, i thought i'd get out and do a little bit of hiking. Yesterday for our ward family night we went hiking around Dry Canyon which is located at the base of Mt. Timpanogas at the foothills of Lindon. I liked the area and have never been hiking up there, so i returned today with my camera to document the hike.
It's a neat hike.It has a beautiful view of the valley and the lake on the west side, then the snow capped peaks of Mt. Timpanogas on the east side.
There are bunch of trails that lead to all over the area and at the base of the hike there is a parking lot that has some maps of the trails and where they lead to. I'll have to come back again to be able to seek out where the other trails go.

Graduation is final

As most of you already know I finished my Communication degree in December, but it didn't feel official until after today. Getting all dressed up in my cap and gown and walking across the graduation stage as they called out my name made it all feel official. Today was full of waiting around, talking to friends, and listening to people talk.
It was fun to see all of my classmates again and see who actually did graduate. I thought there would be more PR students graduating, but there really were not many of them that did this semester.
Public Relations is a newer four year degree at UVU and when it first began a couple years ago there weren't many people who majored in it, so I have had all the same classes with the same pr students for the past 2 years. We have all worked together at some point or another and helped each other to get to this point in our lives; graduation. It will be interesting to see the directions that everyone takes with their careers.
Unfortunately my family was unable to attend the graduation, so I had to take advantage of taking pictures myself and having friends take some for me. Luckily my best friend Dave and a friend from my ward Lindsay came to support me today. It was nice to have them there. They also helped me to get some good pictures.
This graduation was a milestone for my school, because it was the first graduation of the school since it became a university nearly a year ago. To help celebrate this event the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was in attendance. President Monson was the commencement speaker, and he and his wife were honorary degree recipients.












President Monson iterated 3 guiding points: 1) Glance backwards and thank those who have helped you learn gratitude and realize the valuable lessons of life while you live them. 2) Reach outward doing service to get rid of your ego, and use your education to help others by lifting and inspiring them. Lead, don't mislead. 3) Press forward in your career and never stop educating yourself. Don't just keep up; keep ahead. Life is like candid camera; it's not going to wait for you to pose. Your strengths are always greater than your weaknesses. People tend to focus on their weaknesses, but rather should focus more on their strengths, because they are always going to be your greatest attributes. Don't just be a dreamer, but be a doer. Vision and work equals success.
These are all true principles, which is what the gospel teaches. (Thanks Dave for taking notes for me)

While I was waiting in the hallway downstairs for the commencement to begin, I saw President Uchtdorf in the hallway, so I hurried to get my camera and got a picture with him. He's the second counselor in the first presidency. He is one of my favorites, because he is a retired 747 airline pilot from Germany and flew for Lufthansa. I love aviation and he has so many great stories to share about tying aviation stories in with gospel principles. He’s a really nice guy and I love his accent which reminds me of Governor Schwarzenegger’s accent.

It’s good to be done with school for now, but I don’t think I will feel like it was valuable until I am able to find a job that allows me to use what I learned.

The usual Justin outing

Today was such a beautiful day and i needed to get out and do some thinking, so what better way than to go on a nice rollerblading trip up Provo Canyon to get away, relax, and enjoy life. :)

I did my usual routine of about 12 miles round trip. I have always been wanting to stop along the trail at one spot and go hiking up to a waterfall called North Falls, so i brought my tennis shoes to be able to make that happen. It was only about a 10 minute hike off the river trail. You know when Spring time is finally here when the plants are beginning to start budding, and the leaves from the trees come out. It was beautiful all around.














I tried hiking up to the top of the falls, but it was a little windy and i didn't want to get blown off a cliff, so i turned back.
I love days like these where i have time to be able get out and exercise and enjoy mother nature. It's a great way to clear my mind and be happy

My last outing

So i realize that i have been lame lately for not blogging about anything. Normally i have all kinds of adventures to blog about, but lately it just doesn't seem like i have been doing much. I figured it was time to blog again so i can keep my followers happier than little campers.

A few days ago when the weather was looking spectacular, i decided to get in some good leg exercises; rollerblading. As most of you already know, my old school roller blades of 14 years recently passed away and have been laid to rest in the dumpster. Currently they rest in peace at the Orem City dump. Needless to say, i ended up replacing them with some sweet K2 inline skates.

My favorite place to skate is on the Provo River Trail that starts at the mouth of Provo Canyon, and goes up past Bridal Veil Falls to Vivian Park. To Bridal Veil the trip is about 3 miles one way. To Vivian Park it's about 6 miles one way. The trail is always so much fun to skate on, because of the surrounding mountains and the beauty of the river that runs along the trail. Going up is a slightly uphill. I was hoping to make it all the way to Vivian park when i suddenly came across the remnants of an old avalanche that covered the trail. I didn't want to risk ruining my wheels, so i decided to turn back. Going back is great since it's mostly downhill. What a great way to enjoy mother nature and exercise at the same time!

I have recently started working this week doing asphalt maintenance. I'm totally bummed that i can't find a job that will allow me to use my degree in public relations, that i recently got just a few months ago. No one seems to be hiring these days.

Hobo Birthday Party

My friend Lacie had her birthday party yesterday and for some reason thought it would be a good idea to do a homeless party. She had a pretty good turn out. We played Mario Kart on the Wii, and Rockband. The highlight of the night was splitting into two teams and doing a race to see who could find certain items out of trash bins that she had prepared in her house.
It was fun party, and would not mind dressing up as a hobo again.

Educational fair in Goshen

Today my brother Brandon and i got the opportunity to be judges at the Educational Fair at Goshen Elementary. For those who don't know where Goshen is, it's west of Santiquin.. if you're still lost.. find a map....
Last year my brother and I were judges and judged the Math category. This year we did the Science projects for the 4th - 6th graders. We recognized a few of the kids that we met last year when we judged their projects, and even remembered a few of the projects that they had done.
Most of the kids were pretty nervous to explain their projects to us. Some of them even had memorized the things that they wanted to tell us.
That was pretty impressive to have them have something with hard vocabulary memorized.
The most interesting project was from a 4th grader who put food coloring drops in milk and then added soap. You can see how the soap attacks the fat molecules and swirls around the colors. The less fat found in milk, the less effect the soap had on it.
We also got Silver coins for helping out with the project. Now i wonder if we'll go back for a third year next year.