Dallin's Door

Jenna came home with us for a week after our trip to Indiana.  She and Taylor are always finding creative things to do.  This time they decided to focus on Dallin's door.  They had surprises waiting for him when he woke up in the morning.  I got pictures of two of them.

The first picture took a lot of planning.  They waited until he was sound asleep and used saran wrap to trap balloons over his door.  They came spilling into his room when he opened his door in the morning.  The girls laughed hysterically, but Dallin didn't give them the response they wanted.  It was more along the lines of silent and grouchy :)

The second was a graph they found online about Batman.  I think he liked that one better.

Family Pictures

We spontaneously took some family pictures.  No one was really color coordinated or dressed up, but I'll take what I can get :)  This family is going to grow and change in so many ways in the next 10 years.  Most of the kids will go to college, on missions, and get married.  I'm happy to have this snapshot in time and look forward to how it will change.

Visit To Indiana

Reid got home from his mission just before school started.  They headed to Indiana for a family reunion on Cheryl's side of the family.  We decided that if we wanted to see him before he went to BYU we better meet them in Indiana too.  It was a crazy long trip for a weekend, but well worth seeing everyone together.  There is just something special about cousins being together.

Chalkboard Wall

I recently painted a wall with chalkboard paint in the basement.  I thought they might like it, but I wasn't sure.  This is what I found after the first night.  I guess I was right.

College Trip #2

Ed and Dallin had an awesome trip to California to check out some schools for Dallin.  They had a lot of fun.  I'm not bitter, really.

Last October we took Dallin to tour BYU over conference weekend.  We had such a blast!  You can see those posts here, here,  here, and here.  Over the last year we have had many conversations about where else Dallin might want to apply.  We have spent a lot of time thinking and praying about it and have come to a few conclusions.  One - Dallin really wants to see if he can get into an Ivy League school.  Two - It's only worth not going to BYU if the school has a great engineering/chemistry program.   Three - Ed and I are only OK with his pre-mission year being in a place where there is a strong institute program and singles ward.

That leaves us with a few choices.  Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT and Harvard.  Yes, we know... they are very difficult to get in to.  Dallin is also a white male from a middle class family in the suburbs and we have no connections whatsoever.  He also has a 4.3 GPA and nearly perfect standardized testing scores.  He doesn't want to say "what if" and I don't blame him, so he's going to give it a try.

There first stop in California was at Stanford.  They did the standard tour and then took off on their own to explore and ask questions.  They had a great meeting with the chemical engineering department and Dallin fell in love with the campus.

After their tour they drove all the way to Chico (3 1/2 hours north) to see Bill, Esmeralda, Austin, Kennan, and baby Giselle.  Again, I'm not bitter, really.

The next day they flew to Cal Tech and toured the campus in the morning.  Most buildings were closed and (don't read this Grandpa) they weren't very impressed with campus.  The buildings were pretty run down and it was very small.

Next they met up with Tom, Heather, and the adorable Shelby and Cameron.  Just to clarify... not bitter.  They got to hang out for a while and then went to eat at another "Man vs Food" place in LA.  After not even coming close to finishing the burrito, they got to tour UCLA.  Gramma Seguine and Tom are both graduates and Dallin was really impressed with the campus as well.

It was a great experience for Dallin to realize that he really likes the big campuses and he had a great time hanging out with his uncles.  He could easily be a California boy :)  We have one more trip to Boston in October.  We'll see how he likes that town and I won't be bitter... because I get to go!