SMTX

Marshall and I have been pleasantly surprised by the town of San Marcos, Texas. It is home to Texas State University and known for tubing.

After making our way down from Austin on Wednesday night, we waited for Drake to get done with some meetings and found a place to eat and walked around the San Marcos Square. It was great to get some time with him before a busy tournament.  After sitting at the lake on Thursday, we cleaned up at the hotel and grabbed some Mexican food at a local place. The University of Louisiana Lafayette team (10x National Champs) were there as well. We then took a drive around the university.

On Friday, we picked up tubing supplies, dropped off some supplies at the lake and headed to Don's Fish Shop to tube down the San Marcos River. It was a fun four hour float with very few people. We were able to enjoy some beers and a leisurely float before we caught the tail end of some skiing on day two. 

Some cooling down at the hotel was needed after a hot day in the sun. Drake joined us for dinner at a lively spot in downtown San Marcos. It was nice to have him to ourselves for a bit before we dropped him off at the social event for the night. 

What a nice surprise mini vacation we have had here in top of the water skiing. 

Bat City

My team meeting was (thankfully) in Austin this fall and it was a really nice event. Good team building activities, skill development sessions, working sessions with product  and just time to collaborate and build relationships. We did kayaking and a fun cooking class at a super cute venue. We also had some fun social outings at some bars and some time at the pool as well. And for those of us from Denver, it was so nice to be somewhere new. Thankful for a fun and strong team and leaders willing to invest in these events for our remote teams. 

And thankful Marshall could make the trip with me and I even got him out on Tuesday night. 

3rd Place

A 3rd place finish for the MOHI Ultimate team in their home tourney. The team played well and they had fun together which is so great to see after some challenging seasons. Fortunately, Tanner and I were able to catch an early flight on Saturday morning from Cedar Rapids so he could play in all the games Saturday. While busy, I'm super glad I was able to watch his tournament. 

24 hours in Iowa City

Tanner and I had a short and sweet trip to Iowa City to visit the University of Iowa. We arrived into Cedar Rapids around midnight on Thursday night and drove the 30 minutes up to Iowa City - very convenient. 

We walked over to the check in spot around 9:30 am and was greeted by the Colorado admission a counselor who was very excited to have Tanner on campus. 

The tour kicked off at the heart of campus in the Old Capitol Building which was very cool. We then got a tour of the west side of the campus which is quite walkable and compact. We quickly grabbed our free lunch at the dining hall before Tanner met up with kids from the Ultimate team at a park right on campus. I'm so glad it worked out! 

We then had a session at the engineering school conducted by the Admissions Director and some students. It was a very informative presentation and definitely gave us a flavor of the philosophy of the school. 

We then got a tour of the engineering building and several of the labs which was nice. The engineering ambassadors did a great job and you could tell they loved their school. 

We walked through the downtown which is right next to campus on our way back the hotel where I snuck in a little nap and Tanner chilled out. We then hit the disc golf course along the river which was a beautiful tree course on a fall day. 

After a quick change of clothes at the hotel, we walked to dinner to use our VIP coupon (our tour badge) at Pop's BBQ. The worker happened to be an engineering major and came over and chatted with us while we waited for our food. He was a senior and a great ambassador for the engineering school. Midwestern hospitality right there! 

Buy one get one half off at Yoropia with our VIP coupon was our last stop. We enjoyed our froyo on the walking mall doing some people watching. Lots of people out and about and the bars getting ready for the college crowd. Nice to be able to see some of the Friday night feel. 

For a short trip, I think we made the most of it. 

On to Natties!

Miami is on to D1 Nationals in Texas next week. Drake created a program to predict the rankings and he was spot on. Miami earned the 10th seed. The top six seeds are acholarship schools so tenth is great outcome! 

Academic Honors

 SUPER proud of Tanner and his academic achievements. 

OSU Tour

A gorgeous day for the official Oregon State University tour.  We started at the new welcome center at the stadium and had a very thorough tour of the school. Tanner and I then had lunch at the student union, checked out the library (and 3D printers) and moved the car. We then got a tour of the engineering school (which had 7000+ undergrad students) and learned about all the different disciplines. We then checked out the cement canoe before heading back to Portland.