Sorry I'm Late

Hey everybody, sorry I am so late this month. I wish I had a better excuse than I just kept forgetting. Pi'ikea and I got back from Hawaii about a week and a half ago and it was a lot of fun. However the trip home was somewhat rough because me being the great husband didn't listen to Pi'ikea when she said I needed to put sun screen on my legs. I was fried. My feet and legs became super swollen and I could barely walk. Everybody in my major was making fun of me as I tried to walk around to my classes. I am better now of course. But onto the good stuff.

As was announced already our team received 3rd place at the competition. We felt that we did better then that but third place in the nation isn't to shabby. One really good thing about this competition is that is shows how consistent BYU is. Every year we are in the top 3 in the nation. Nobody else has been able to do that. It basically shows that regardless of what project is thrown our way we can do a good job. Below is a rendering of the project.


The contract was to build everything from the concrete slab at the bottom of the tower to the bridge. The tower is about 90 feet tall and the bridge spans over a set of railroad tracks and connects to an existing parking structure. One thing they don't depict here is that the tower is actually sitting on top of the Alabama River. It was a very interesting project and was very fun to be a part of. After we turned in our proposal the top five schools had to present to a panel of judges acting as the owner. Our professors told us that we blew them and the judges away with our presentation. The main judge told us that every year BYU has the best presentation, she said we are always confident and composed. She also said we were "the coolest team" at the competition. The rest of the standing were as follows: Cincinnati received 2nd place and the University of Washington got first. We beat out other big schools like Virginia Tech, Ohio State, University of Houston, LSU, and University of Florida. Last year Florida received first. The rest of the time I spent with the team cruising the island and also with Pi'ikea and her family. Here are some of the pictures from the trip.

This is a picture from the award ceremony on Saturday Morning.

Sunset at the beach, this is about a five minute walk from our hotel.


This is the beach right next to the Hilton Hotel where our conference was held.

The trip was an amazing opportunity to see what the construction industry is like and I loved it. I compare the 2 months working on the project as a whole semester or two of school crammed into two months. Next year the competition is in San Diego. I haven't decided if I will be doing it next year or not.

Pi'ikea loved the time she was able to spend with her family. She was able to bring over her Urban Botanics to sell to her mom and her mom's friends. It is something that a friend a massage therapy introduced her to. It is basically nice smelling oils that replace the need of smelly candles. You can also make lotion out of the oils and it smells amazing. Pi'ikea hopes to incorporate this stuff into her own massage place once she gets to the stage of her life. She is finishing up her 3rd term this week and as normal doing very well. She came home earlier in the week sad because she received her lowest grade on a final since she has been there. It was a 93. She has also started doing clinic every Saturday. This is when anybody can just come in and get a massage and the students get their experience. So fair Pi'ikea has been doing very while and has received great reviews from the clients that she massages. This August is when she graduates. She has decided to do the Master's program which is massage school's equivalent to any school's Masters program. It is an extra two months of full-time schooling in Salt Lake. There they learn specialty massages like stone massages and other cool things. Again sorry for being late this month. Hope everybody is doing well and we will talk at you later.