Rhiannon and Mom take a girls' trip to UNR!

On Thursday afternoon Rhiannon and I packed the van and started our drive to Reno for a "Nevada Bound" campus day at the University of Nevada.  Boy, did we have a blast!  Rhiannon drove the first 3 hours to Mammoth where we stopped at Burgers Restaurant for a great dinner, and then I drove the next 3-4 hours up to Reno.  Driving in the dark through the mountains was the worst part of the trip--I definitely felt some heavenly help on those twisty, one-lane roads!

Jason reserved a nice Holiday Inn hotel room for us that night.  We watched the last few minutes of La La Land and 13 Going on 30, and then slept very, very well.  We were tired!

In the morning we got breakfast at the hotel's restaurant and then drove about 10 minutes to the campus.  Student ambassadors were already there, waiting to welcome us on the 6th level of the west parking garage.

It was a gorgeous, busy, FULL day, and Rhiannon came away from that experience with many questions answered.  I was impressed by the orientation, the time with just her College of Liberal Arts group and a fun student panel, a delicious free lunch for all, and seeing every open residence hall and individual dorm rooms.  The whole day was free--we just paid for the hotel room and gas to get there.

No, Rhiannon hasn't made her official college choice yet, but UNR makes her happy.  She likes the mix of old and new buildings, the possibility of experiencing 4 seasons, being close to Lake Tahoe, a busy but not CRAZY-crowded campus, and friendly people.  At the orientation that morning, the dean of admissions spoke about value and opportunities available at UNR, but he wanted potential students to remember the most important thing:  "do you feel like you matter here?"  I think Rhiannon definitely felt that and we appreciated all the efforts to make that happen during our visit.  The free t-shirts and goodies were cool--but the friendly atmosphere, fantastic tour guides, and answered questions were even better!

We caught a second wind and hit the road at 4 pm.  It was so nice to be able to see the beauty of the mountain pass in daylight hours this time, haha!  It really was gorgeous.  We stopped for gas and had to take pictures of the sunset!


      

That night we stayed at our friends' home, the Fitt family, and were glad to do that.  We were only another 2 hours away from home, but we were exhausted and appreciated the hospitality.

Rhiannon was the perfect roommate, co-pilot, and pilot.  We loved being together!

Spring Break College Campus Tour!

Last week we took off for three days and visited some college campuses for our family Spring Break trip.  We piled in the lovely, speedy Infiniti Q50S, with Jason driving, and checked out Fresno State, UC Davis, and University of Nevada at Reno.

We had a blast!  Enjoy the photo tour!

Fresno State:  We enjoyed this campus a lot more than we thought we would!
We also had a FANTASTIC lunch across the street from the campus at the Dog House Grill. 

Fresno State

Fresno State.  We also stopped by the LDS institute building there--
the institute director, Brother Russell, took some time with us, and we really appreciated it!

Jason drove to the LDS temple and Institute building in every city we stopped at--fun!
This is the Fresno LDS Temple.

UC Davis was a drive north from Fresno.  We stayed the night in Vacaville and then joined a morning tour at UC Davis.  The campus was stunningly beautiful!  Our tour guide was an energetic 2nd-year student who had already spent a few months studying abroad in Italy.  One interesting thing about UC Davis is its quarter system, as opposed as to semesters, meaning you cover a semester-long class in 10 weeks!  Whew!  There are definitely pros and cons to that!

After the tour we walked through campus to "downtown Davis" and had lunch at The Habit.
The walk was amazing--we were strolling past redwood trees!

UC Davis was the most expensive school we visited, but it's amazing!

UC Davis

We had good luck at the UC Davis LDS institute building, too, and talked to the director Brother Edmonds there.
He said the institute building was a converted frat house--so funny!!!

Sacramento LDS temple--the grounds were beautiful, too!

I80 to Reno--LOTS of snow!!

Beautiful drive

I80

We were spoiled with some really good eating on this trip!  

We stayed the night in Reno, Nevada and Jason took us up to the Reno LDS temple after dinner.  

We love these kids!

Reno sunset

The next morning we drove to the Nevada campus (Ridgecrest friends warned us that you say "NEVADA," never UNR or Reno, ha-ha!  Rhiannon and I had incorrectly assumed that there weren't tours available since it was Spring Break for their campus, too.  We got REALLY lucky and joined a large group for a 10 am tour.  Michelle was our lovely tour guide--a California native with a good perspective on what it's like for an out-of-state student.  She also mailed Rhiannon a postcard this week with a handwritten note on it--awesome!

One thing I really liked about this tour was its slower pace.  Not only did we get to see the state-of-the-art knowledge center (library), the brand-new rec building, and other obviously cool sites on campus, but Michelle also showed us quirky, campus-tradition things, like this statue.  During finals students pay "homage" to this statue and lay pencils, scantrons, and other goodies at the feet of it.  So funny!

The graffiti staircase--set aside for that purpose

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Graffiti staircase

Rhiannon liked the campus a whole bunch!!

We weren't able to go inside because it was closed and there was a painting project going on, but, like the other two campuses, it was really neat to see how close it was to campus.
This one was RIGHT across the street from the newest dorms

It was a wonderful trip!  We enjoyed being together, eating well, seeing beautiful parts of California and Nevada that we'd never seen before, and taking it easy.

Rhiannon was very happy to SEE these campuses in person.  She has some exciting decisions to make in the next few months!

Our Texas Thanksgiving Trip!

This is one of those updates that is best explained in pictures.  Our Thanksgiving trip to Texas was a fantastic experience.  We loved showing off Texas A&M to Rhiannon and Wade and seeing a football game in the new-and-IMPROVED-and-HUGE Kyle Field, spending time with Derrick, Traci and kids in Houston, enjoying a lovely Thanksgiving Day meal with Tom and Lydia and family, and lots of relaxing with Grandpa Rich, Grandma Donna, and Great-Grandma Sue.  Any time we spend in Texas is fantastic, but Jason and I agreed that this trip was just further clarification we will retire to the Lone Star State some day!

First up, College Station!  In one word--HUGE.  That place has grown like nobody's business, and it was massive when we were going to school there!

Dinner at Freebirds

Checking out our sweet Aggie purchases

Represent!!

Getting ready for Midnight Yell at Kyle Field

Bell Tower

Cushings at the new-and-improved Kyle Field!  It was so fun to be there together!

Future Aggies?  We'll see!

Game Day

We were pretty high up but had a great view of the game!

Wade was being silly--he was having more fun than it appears. :)

One of my favorite places on campus!

And Jason's second home!

The Bonfire Memorial was stunning and peaceful and VERY well done.

Construction going on at the Zachary Engineering building

And then on to Houston!  We had a fun time with the Houston Sheens--thanks, Derrick, Traci, Max, Maggie, and Moses for the delicious Thanksgiving meal with friends, a trip to the Houston Zoo, and a YUMMY Mexican restaurant dinner!  We had a good time visiting and playing games, too!

Moses made me laugh.  He was having a lot of fun emptying planters in the backyard.

Fun with cousins!

Houston Zoo!  The place was packed that day, but it was a great place!

YUM!

Our next stop was Grandpa Rich and Grandma Donna's home in Sachse.  Boy, we loved relaxing and visiting, eating, playing games, going to the Fantastic Beasts movie, shooting bb guns, going to the Dallas Temple, and playing disc golf!!!!  Love you guys!

Family Goal--check!

Frisbee golf was crazy and awesome!

We loved being around Grandma Sue.  She is witty as always!

Love you, Grandma Donna!  She is so fun to talk to and wants to know every detail!

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture!

And this one!

On Thanksgiving Day we drove north to Tommy and Lydia's home in Savannah, outside of Denton, Texas.  The meal and the company was OUT OF THIS WORLD awesome.  Thank you for all your hard work, Tom and Lyd and Rosemary!  We had a wonderful time and left there full and happy!!

Their cat MJ is pretty cool.  I'm not into cats, but if I had to be, I'd choose a cat like MJ.

Beck and Hardy were SOO cute and funny!

It was a wonderful 8-day trip, busy and relaxing and happy and fun all in one.  We loved being with Sheen family!