Competition in Reno, Happy Birthday to Ritchell

It's been awhile since I have gotten on and posted anything. The past few weeks have been really busy.

The other week, I was in Reno for the ASC (Associated Schools of Construction) competition. I competed on the LEED team, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. BYU took 8 different teams to the competition. We took 2 buses of students and stayed at the Grand Sierra Resort, where the competition was being held. For the competition, they gave our team a set of plans for a 36 story office building and for 18 hours straight we had to evaluate the plans and specs of the building and come up with a plan to certify the building as a LEED Silver green building based on a number of points developed by the USGBC. To make a long story short, we presented our findings to a panel of judges and won first place. Out of BYU's 8 teams, 4 teams got first place and 2 teams got second place. BYU had the most awards of all the schools at the competition. It was a good experience for me and everyone else on our team. There were a lot of different companies there as well trying to recruit us.

Other news, Ritchell and I got some pictures in the mail the other day from Ritchell's family. I have attached a few here of her Mother and sister, also one of her nephew and niece.

Today is Ritchell's birthday. Last night we threw a party for her. Ritchell invited a lot of her friends and we also had family over. It was a full house. We enjoyed having the company and had a good time.