...we are having a baby!

We wanted to find out what we're having so to make it fun we had a bakery make us a surprise cake. The doctor sealed up the gender in an envelope and we took it straight to the bakery.

To keep it festive and secret, they frosted it pink and blue so we couldn't tell what color the inside was.

We decided to cut into it at the same time.

It's a BOY!

we began our summer break with a trip to Moab. Spectacular! Utah just keeps luring me in. We got to go "Jeeping", tour the arches, and mountain bike. It was my first time mountain biking and it was awesome. Can't wait to go again.

Pondering life on a rock.


A view from the Jeep.


The classic, Delicate Arch.

I just finished the big, year long class called Mechatronics (combining mechanisms with electronics). The end goal is to build a completely autonomous robot (turn it on and it does it's thing without any further involvement) to preform some task. This years task was to navigate the aisles of a course, pick up specific crates, and deliver them to one of the home bases. Two of the crates give off infrared light, one has a magnet inside, you get point deductions for messing with the other crates, and two teams run at once so you have to avoid the other robot (no robot wars allowed). I'll spare you all the other details.
Suffice it to say that this was REALLY hard. We used motors, servos, a bunch of sensors, built circuits, designed lots of different mechanisms with strength analysis, made lots of SolidWorks drawings (CAD), and wrote SO MUCH CODE to run the dang thing. And in the end, we got first place. I'm so stoked on this. It's an amazing feeling to have all that hard work come to fruition. It feels especially good because we actually engineered this thing. By that I mean we didn't just make a ton of prototypes trying out different ideas. We actually did our math and came to solid conclusions before we spent money. Only a few things had to be changed after an initial prototype. The code is a real high point for me too. I spent a long time writing different algorithms for navigation and seeing the robot travel down the different aisles making decisions on the fly of where to go next was an awesome feeling. It was socially awkward nerd joy I think.


Here's a pic of the course to give you a visual.

We went to our first Real game and I don't think there could have been a better game to commence our professional soccer watching career. The players rocked, the new stadium is awesome, and the company was entertaining. The weather was cold so hopefully the next time we go it will be an afternoon game where we can soak up some sun.


Notice Chad's scarf. I had no idea that he would end up waving it in the air singing out ole, ole, ole, ole, ole. Soccer is so much better when you are with enthusiasts!

It just keeps getting closer.

*Update: We loved it! It was wicked awesome!

We flew in to Baltimore, stayed in Rockville, and walked all over DC. We drove back and forth, round and round, and to and from each city pretty much daily. There were bachelor and bachelorette parties to attend, dinners to go to, monuments to see and museums to visit all in four days. It was a great trip and celebration for Kevin and Lea's wedding and Josh's sealing and blessing. I am so glad that most everyone was able to make it and that we were able to be a part of such a wonderful time. I shamefully took no pictures of the bride and groom so you will have to check back here for the professional ones. Once I realized that there were about five or so nice big cameras and a video camera being used to capture the moment I put away our pitiful point and shoot. Here is the extent of what was on our camera.

The proud son and father of the groom. They are so handsome!



k3 and I looking lovely in front of the DC temple






Tomb of the unknown soldiers


Me in some sweet amphitheater next to the tomb of the unknown.

We can't wait to go back to see the things that we missed.