Soooo… It has been quite a while since our last blog… We left Hawaii on June 10th and went and spent a week with my parents (this is Scott writing this time) in Texas. We had a great time. It was so good to see them and get to reconnect. We were able to catch a Rangers game, spend Fathers Day with my Dad, and went swimming quite a bit. Oh yes, and lots of the Ticket To Ride as usual. We also got to spend a lot of time with Caroline and Ryan, my sister Emily’s kids. We had a blast as we went to the Museum, and we went to Six Flags with Emily and Jared. Ryan was a very brave 5 year old and would go on as big of roller coasters as he was allowed to, though he was slightly more apprehensive after vomiting on my feet and legs as we were waiting for a ride… Its official people, I have conquered all OCD tendencies involving fear of germs! So, that was a ton of fun and we really enjoyed being home with Mom and Dad. We are soo blessed to have parents we like so much.
So after a week we headed to Utah to stay in Heber. We stayed in the basement apartment at Scott and Joys house. We had a great time there. Kelsey got an internship doing customer support for Medicity. She was nervous at first because it was her first office job, but within the first week her boss had told several other people that he wanted to keep her on full time when we went to Hawaii. He recognized how sharp she was and was persistent on making sure they kept her. So, Kelsey has a job!!!! Yippee!!! Hawaii is a tough place to find a good job, so we feel fortunate for that.
I worked for Mountain Summit Partners over that period of time. It is a mergers and acquisitions firm that Scott (Kelsey’s Dad) is affiliated with. I absolutely loved my internship and I realized that I think M&A is what I would really like to do Long-Term. I worked for a guy named Terry Pitts who really mentored me through the process. It was really an unusual experience because I got to pick his brain as we worked on different parts of the business. He seemed to think I did well and has asked me to stay on part-time while we are back in Hawaii.
While we were in Utah we were lucky enough to go to Lake Powell twice. It was an almost spiritual experience for me. Having grown up spending lots of time on the boat I have never seen a lake that you could find perfectly smooth water, on a weekend afternoon, the weekend before 4th of July. I was pretty much all smiles the entire weekend… both weekends! I also was able to see how the entire lake can erupt into a windy mess with absolutely zero warning. Kelsey was able to ski and did really well. It was great to spend time with her family. We played board games with Colby (Kels’ Brother) and Jessica (his girlfriend) until late at night on the house boat. I hate losing to that guy… luckily, it doesn’t happen much… BOOM!!!!
While in Utah we really enjoyed spending time with the family. We had quite a few dinners with Tait and Liz. We had a blast playing with their two girls Tien and Lyla (spellcheck both those names).
I had an incredibly cultured week during the 4th of July when I went to 2 concerts and 2 plays in the course of 4 days! We went to see Hairspray. I always assumed was about a transvestite who worked at a hair salon. Shockingly it wasn’t. The bigger shocker is that I really enjoyed it. Then we went to Provo and Saw the Beach Boys play at Stadium of Fire for the 4th of July, which was fun. Then Brent, Janeese and I got to go see my cousin Eric’s band The M Machine play in Salt Lake City. I was really shocked at how much I enjoyed their electronic music and Eric was a really great host to us. Then, we went and saw Liz perform in Fiddler on the Roof, which shockingly had very little to do with Fiddling on Roofs. For real… Why cant these people who write plays come up with a title that is not so misleading?
So, while in Utah we also went and spent a couple nights down at Sidney (Kelsey’s Sister) and Tyler’s (her husband) house. I think I have only met 2 people in my life who genuinely have more sports knowledge than I do. I am proud to say I am related to one of them. Tyler is a machine. One night we had a great time by going through all of the NBA drafts back to 2000 and naming the college that every player went to. Now you need to know, it takes a special person to be good at this game, one with a chemical imbalances, but I am happy that I have someone else in my family who I can relate to on this “nerdy genius:” level.
It was also great to see my Brent (my brother) and Janeese (his wife). We had dinner together almost every week. Brent and I had a good time taking the ATV’s out in Heber. Kelseys folks house backs up to a huge chunk of Bureau of Land Management land. We took them out for several hours the last day that he was there before he headed to LA. It was a blast! Kels and I really liked being around them. Brent and I have pretty much always been buddies thanks in large part to him just being a really loyal big brother, so it was really nice to get to spend time with him.
Sooo…. That takes us to our newest stop. Hong Kong! We are staying with Sunnee (Kelsey’s Sister) and David (Sunnee’s Husband). I was able to get an official internship with them which means the school gives me credit and paid for our flights. I came out here intending on helping him start a branding company for universities, but after the first day we decided I could be more help and get more done if I worked with him on Soap Cycling. It’s a non-profit that he started earlier this year. We take slightly used soap bars from hotels and reprocess and recycle them and send them to areas where children are dying from preventable diseases such as Pneumonia and Diarrhea. Which kill more children then AIDS and Malaria combined. He has been able to get his message across pretty clearly, and the company is progressing quickly. It is neat because I am learning a lot, but I am really doing something that I believe in.
Hong Kong has been awesome! I will not talk too much about it because this has been an unusually long post already. But we will post more of our adventures before too long!
Kelsey's Note: Since this is our 'ketchup' blog post for most of the summer here are some of the pictures of our summer activities in Utah!
These are pictures of the family dinner we had the first Sunday me and Scottie got into Utah.
Tait and Lyla.
Cutie Lyla was teething.
Liz.
Colby and his girlfriend, Jessica.
Tien and Elliana giving me some sassy poses.
Tyler has been training Trey from an early age, he already loves the football.
Our first Lake Powell trip Scott was giving Ellie and Tien swimming lessons!
Ellie and Scottie.
Tait and Tien.
For our second Lake Powell trip Reid's family came!!! Here is Magali, primped and ready to get up on the 'EZ-Ski'. It's a mix between a ski and a tube. It trains kids to learn how to ski, but we got a few adults up on it too.
Scott, Colby, Reid, and Reid's friend Jose, anchoring the boat.
Colby, shredding the gnar-gnar on the slolemn ski.
Citlali on the EZ-Ski. This thing was AWESOME!
Tien on the EZ-Ski. Gibing us the sign for 'slower'. This was a rare occasion. Most of the time it was 'faster, faster, faster!'
Or, in Yaot's case faster was "Lightning McQueen" and slower was "'Mater", because of his love for Cars.
Here is Scottie 'submarining'. Basically you just hold onto a rope behind the boat, no vest, straight like a pencil, and try to breathe whenever your head pops up. Very safe, right?
Mom got up on ski's on our first Lake Powell trip this summer, but we got a better picture of her on the second trip, and here it is!!! Congrats Momma!
Dad even got up on skis!
Here is Scottie on the slolemn ski!!!
Tien and Citlali blowing bubbles. Tien adores Citlali, and Citlali is a great older cousin.
....And here is Colby, sensually blowing bubbles as well.
And lastly, here is Colby and Scott. When we first arrived they had the same haircut, and then during the same week they got haircuts, and here are the results! Wahla- the exact same haircut again!
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