At the Alma Mater

This week has been busier than most -- or maybe it just seems that way. Yesterday afternoon Christy and I took Zeke down to Provo with us (Dan & Deanne watched Sammy & Riley for us) for a visit to BYU. First we stopped to visit Emily Dunford, a friend of Christy's who lives Pleasant Grove. Emily had a brain tumor removed a few years ago that unfortunately left her with motor skills problems--just walking and talking are big challenges for her, although she's endured her trials well. Although she might claim otherwise, Christy has been a good friend to her, especially considering the distance -- she's made time to visit her and call her many times.

When we got to campus, we parked close to the Wilkinson Center (thank you, Saturday) and grabbed a bite at the Cougareat. Then we walked over to the BYU Museum of Art and looked at the Minerva Teichert exhibit for about an hour. It was great, but I think what really impressed me was the enormous Carl Bloch painting BYU has on display: Christ at the Pool of Bethesda. We strolled around the campus for a while after that, reminiscing and admiring all the new additions. I hadn't actually been on the main campus for years and I couldn't believe how much it's changed -- there seemed to be a new building or structure everywhere we looked. Probably the most impressive new building is the Joseph F. Smith building, which replaced the old Smith Family Living Center. It's huge, but beautifully done.

At 6 o'clock we met another couple at Ottavio's, a popular Italian restaurant on Center Street. Barett Christensen and his wife Heidi were nice hosts--he works for LDS Charities, and has been trying to get them into the Combined Federal Campaign for a couple of years, but meeting with some internal resistance. It seems most of those barriers have come down now and he expects they'll be able to apply in 2009, having barely missed the cutoff this year. Anyway, dinner was very good, and afterwards we went to the Marriot Center to watch the BYU dismantle the Air Force Academy in basketball. We had pretty good seats, in a section where BYU often hosts big donors to the school.

By the time we got to Dan & Deanne's house to pick up the boys, it was almost 11 p.m., and closer to midnight when we finally dropped into bed back at our house. But it was a fun day.

It snowed last night, after a week or so of relatively warm weather, in which much of the snow on the ground had melted. There must have been a hoarfrost covering the new snow, because it stayed on the branches despite the weather warming up again, and the effect was really pretty. I snapped a couple of pictures on my cell camera--hopefully they turned out OK.