Western rodeo trip

So as a last hurrah out here in the West, Liz and I took a week off work to travel to Nevada and California to see Grandma Geiger and Aunt Karen in Reno, and Brian and Brooklyn Braithwaite and their family in Monterey, California. It was an awesome trip (and a small taste of our move to come). We stayed in Reno on Monday and Tuesday and hung out with the Geigers, eating tasty food, watching The Price is Right and Dancing With the Stars, and enjoying good conversation and of course some games of pinochle! Grandma is as much of a talented card shark as always, and she loved playing!


For dinner on Tuesday night we went to Toucan Charlie's at the Atlantis, which was amazing as always (thanks, Grandma and Karen!), followed by our game of pinochle. I had made an attempt to make buttercake as well, which turned out okay, though not great (less yeast and a smaller pan next time!). We enjoyed that during our meals.

After Reno we went to California, stopping off in San Francisco for a day. We had grand plans to see much of the tourist spots, but we underestimated the traffic, parking, and difficulty in biking around. When we finally found a parking spot and got our bikes out, we figured that we should first head for the Golden Gate Bridge. After a few mishaps (e.g., accidentally getting onto a highway with no bike lane), we found the right road to get to the bridge, though Liz's bike suffered an accident when her bike cleat got stuck in the pedal and came off her shoe. She was a trooper, though, and kept going even with that. We finally made it to the Bridge!



We biked across the bridge, weaving our way through oblivious pedestrians (Liz's bell came in handy). It was very windy, but offered a beautiful view of the bay and the ocean. I was a little nervous at times, given my fear of heights, but I survived making it across. When we got to the other side a pleasant German couple asked us to take their picture and then returned the favor.



On our way back to the car, I got a flat tire, so we decided to end our adventure in San Francisco. We managed to barely beat rush-hour traffic and escaped to Highway 1 to enjoy the scenic route down to Monterey. We got to the Braithwaites' house and enjoyed a fun first evening with them (the kids were very friendly from the outset). Adam and James had shaved their heads to be like dad, and they look like little tough guys. The next day we were tourists with Brian and Brooklyn, visiting the Fisherman's wharf, Carmel's expensive shopping district, and the beach. We ended the night by teaching pinochle to Brian and Brooklyn (they caught on quickly!).





The next day was full as well. In the morning we went to the military's language institute to see their International day, where the native teachers from various countries performed traditional dances and had booths with fun. It was pretty interesting, and it was fun to see everyone saluting Brian. After that, we did a short hike into a nearby canyon that had some redwoods.



After the hike we went to the Monterey Bay aquarium, which was really neat. I think my favorite was the octopus they had; apparently they are very intelligent creatures and can recognize humans by our 'taste' on their tentacles. Of course, there were also a few "save the planet" posters (or a lot of them).



Our last day we went ocean-kayaking, which was a blast! Unfortunately all of the pictures are on Liz's camera, which is currently packed away somewhere, so we will have to post them later, probably on Facebook. It was fun, though, especially with all of the sea lions around. I tried to get them to chase up by splashing water at them, but that didn't work. Oh well. They are very loud and very smelly, though, especially the big bulls that just spend their time sun-bathing on the rocks.

We bid farewell to the Braithwaites and spent the next night with Grandma and Karen, playing a final game of pinochle which went down to the wire! We both went under once and at the final hand were both playing for the game (the score was 116 to 108). Liz won the bid as the bidder, and she and Grandma went on to beat Karen and I by ten or so points to complete their comeback bid. Oh well! It was a lot of fun! We finished the trip back home exhausted but very happy that we were happy to see everyone we did before moving out to Boston!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! There is nothing quite like waking up on a beautiful, sunny Sunday Easter morning. It shouts out, "life is wonderful!" and, I think, testifies to the grandeur of God and the reality of Christ's resurrection. I love how, at least here in the northern hemispheres, Easter (typically) coincides with the start of spring, when life renews itself again for the year.

Well, a lot has happened since the last time we updated this post. The biggest news, in case you haven't heard, is that we have finally decided on a law school--Harvard! It was a difficult decision, coming down to Harvard and a full-ride at Virginia. I flew out to visit both schools, and liked both of them, but Liz and I both felt that, over the long-term, HLS was the better option. I just sent in my acceptance letter and first deposit (which is what they really care about) a week ago, so everything is official. I am sorry to my family in Michigan that we didn't end up going to UofM, but hey, at least we are a day closer! And Boston is a great place, so now you all have an excuse to visit us as well.

I finally heard back from Stanford yesterday--waitlisted. I was expecting it and so it comes as no surprise. A few months ago I figured that even if I got into Stanford, I would still want to go to Harvard (better clinicals, clerkship placements, more journals, etc.), so I am completely happy with where I ended up. (I almost withdrew from SLS but wanted them to have to work to earn the $100 application fee.)

And in more surprising news, we are moving to Cambridge at the beginning of June! I saw an open spot as a summer research assistant for a professor at HLS, Einer Elhauge, and so applied for it. The work is remarkably similar to what I do at CRA, and so I was well qualified for it, and they offered me the job! I am excited (and a little nervous) for it, because not only will I be doing some data analysis for the job, but I will also be responsible for drafting up expert reports and, likely, also managing some cases over the summer. It is somewhat daunting to consider being in charge of a case's progression, but as I consider it, every new thing that we do is daunting at first. Growth and experience really only come when we move out of our comfort zones, so this job will be a catalyst in that. Liz is also excited to move out early, both to (1) have more time to settle into Cambridge without the stress of law school, and (2) hopefully have an easier time finding a job since we will be there earlier in the summer.

We have already found a very cute (we hope) townhouse in Cambridge to live in. If you google "Shaler Lane Cambridge MA" you can find a link to the street. While I was at HLS for their admitted students' weekend, the LDS students hosted a little get-together at a different house on Shaler, and it was a nice little place, so we are looking forward to it. We took some measurements and it is approximately the same size as our current apartment, so thankfully we are not moving into someplace much smaller. We will have a second bedroom, so anyone who wants to come visit has a place to stay (at least until a baby comes...)!

So those are the biggest developments for us. We just bought a new road bike for Liz yesterday; she had sold her mountain bike a few weeks ago, since I have a road bike, and we had been looking around for a good deal. It is being shipped here, so we hope to have at least a few weekends to do some biking and/or hiking before we head out to Boston. Our new apartment is right next to the Charles River and a city bike/running path, so Liz is particularly excited about that.

It's rather strange to think about moving in a little over a month (and leaving CRA in three weeks). We have always known we would be leaving Utah this summer, but it had seemed so far away, and now we have the date circled on the calendar for packing and moving. It will be a huge change for us, but we are excited about it. Another branch of the Geiger family staking out a part of the country for itself. We are taking the opportunity, before we leave, to visit Grandma Geiger in Reno, NV, and Liz's brother Brian and his family in California. I have never been to CA, apart from the small section of Lake Tahoe that is in it, so that will be fun. They live in Monterrey, which is close to the ocean and also San Francisco. We are also hoping to visit the redwood forests, if we have time. Any suggestions?

And to end as we began, here is Elder Holland's Easter talk from last year...

Dave's Birthday / Valentines Day

Dave has been working on a huge project at work that in January took up A LOT of his time. But he finished on the first week in February. So, to celebrate, we decided to do something fun. We considered Vegas and St. George. But then we decided we didn't want to drive far. So we went to a B&B up in Midway. Midway is a really cute little Swiss town up by Heber, UT. We went the night before his birthday so I gave him his birthday present up there. I got him a Kinect for the the XBox. He loved it, of course. And I've enjoyed it too!

A Happy Birthday, for Liz

I don't like to draw a lot of attention to myself---but this post is actually about how wonderful Dave is.

So, for my birthday last Friday, 14 Jan, he bought me an Ingrid Michaelson piano music book and the BBC movie "North & South". Unlike Christmas, I had no idea what to expect so I was pleasantly surprised at what he picked!! I thought he was very thoughtful :)

I think Dave is wonderful and I'm so happy we're married now. Now I just need to decide on his birthday present!

I'm really excited now about buying piano music to learn. Dave's parents gave us a really nice keyboard for Christmas (thanks!) and I really am going to try to make use of it :)

A Very Merry Christmas!!

Dave and I had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The previous post shows that we went shooting with a lot of my brothers. And after that we went eat delicious soup my sister-in-law Ann made. Then we came home, put dinner in the crock pot, Dave went to Costco to get his snazzy new glasses, I put together our never-too-late cookie plates and then my brother Joe and his wife Liz and son Peter came over for dinner. So we ate dinner and played UpWords (AKA best game ever). Then when they left we delivered the rest of our cookies. Hardly anyone was home, as expected. But it was fun anyway! We ended the night by watching one of our favorite movies, "White Christmas". 

The next morning we awoke early so we could unwrap our presents before talking with Dave's sister Juliana on the phone. She is serving a mission in Portugal, so Dave's family all conference called with her. It was nice to hear from her (especially since I don't know her well, we've only met once really).

Dave and I really enjoyed giving each other presents---we both did a good job, I feel, on picking what the other person really wanted. So it was fun. We also made sure to start our own tradition of reading about the birth of our Savior in both the Book of Mormon and New Testament. And we watched a portion of the video "Reflections of Christ" which is really good!

After we finally go ready for the day we drove up to Perry to have dinner/celebrate with my family. It was a lot of fun. We played games, opened more presents, ate lots of food and just hung out. I even started to learn how to knit--thanks Brooklyn!!

We had a wonderful Christmas and are so grateful for the reminder and emphasis on Christ's birth each year. We went earlier in the week to the production "Savior of the World" at the Conference Center downtown. It was so beautiful and so great to see their portrayal of Christ's birth and resurrection. I highly recommend you go next year, if you are close to SLC. We love you all and hope you each had a wonderful Christmas as well!!

 Our beautiful tree. We bought a star finally :)

I bought Dave an argyle sweater---I finally convinced them they weren't just for old men. And they go very well with his new glasses, don't you think?

 And here are the pajama pants I picked for him---I wasn't sure that he'd like them---but he does! Much better than basketball shorts :)

 And here is a coat I actually picked out myself. I love red coats! 
Thanks Dave :)

And here is a sweater that Dave picked all by himself. Good choice honey!!

Opening another present! By the way, the red pajamas were from Dave too :)

 Dave has been talking a lot about a game called "Dominion" and how much he LOVES it. So I got it for him---now I just need to learn how to play it!

Boots! Love them :)

 This is Dave closing his eyes because he was so scared that I hadn't gotten him StarCraft 2. He's been asking  me for the past month, "Did you get me StarCraft 2? Did you get me StarCraft 2?" So, now he can rest. He'll be taking the Monday after Christmas off, even though I work, so he can hopefully get it out of his system :) Time will tell....

Ah, true love (above!)

 But this is even better true love :)

Dave in his new Santa hat holding "Despicable Me" from his sister Becky. Thanks Becky for everything.

And thank-you to everyone one else too!!

Shooting Guns = A Great Christmas Eve Activity :)

My brother Brian is in town from California so we decided that one of the fun things we could do while he was here was to shoot some guns. So a lot of the brothers and brothers-in-law and just one sister (me) went out by Will's house in Saratoga Springs and did some target practice and skeet shooting. Lots of fun!

Getting ready for Christmas!!!

Dave and I had a lovely Thanksgiving with his Grandmother and Aunt Karen in Reno, NV. We did some Black-Friday shopping too and found our lovely Christmas tree! Aunt Karen gave us a lot of great ornaments for our tree, which we love!! Plus we got most of our Christmas shopping done, which was very nice.

Here are some pictures, right after we put up our new Christmas tree and lights:

NYU & University of Pennsylvania

In the past month Dave has been admitted to New York University and University of Pennsylvania. They are both very good schools---but being admitted was a bit anticlimactic after getting into Harvard we felt. But it's still very excited and we're glad he was admitted!

We're still waiting to hear from a few more schools and to know what financial aid and scholarship options are before we make our decision. So we hope to know by March.

Harvard Law!

So this Monday continued the string of excellent news regarding law school admissions! I was sitting at my desk when I got a call on my cellphone from a (617) area code. I am working a lot with our Boston office on a case, so I immediately recognized it as a Boston number, and I thought I recognized the number as the one that called me from Harvard a week prior, but I didn't dare get my hopes up. When I answered the phone and the caller identified himself as Josh Rubenstein, the assistant dean of admissions at HLS, I knew instantly that it was going to be great news--and it was! He offered me a spot in the class of 2014. To say the least, I was--and am--very excited, as was Liz.

The information package got to us on Saturday,which was a wonderful "welcome home" letter to find after spending a wonderful Thanksgiving with Grandma Geiger and Aunt Karen. Liz and I spent some time looking through it, and needless to say, we are very excited about the prospect of going to Boston for law school! It will be a bit tougher financially, since Harvard does not give merit-based aid and I doubt we qualify for need-based aid, but it would probably be worth it in the long run. That's not to say that we have decided anything, because we haven't, but it is definitely something that we are very interested in!

So what do you all think? UVA, Michigan, or HLS?

University of Virginia

This past Monday, November 15, was another big day for me (seems like Mondays are good for me and law school!). I had a phone interview with Harvard Law around lunch time. I am still not entirely sure how well it went, mostly because it only lasted for seven minutes. He asked me two questions: (1) why am I deciding to go to law school now, after being at CRA for 2.5 years, and (2) why Harvard Law? I think I had good answers to both of them, particularly the second one. HLS has a large number of clinics, and one of them places students with the US Attorney's office in Boston to work on economic crimes, which immediately interested me, so I mentioned that as one of many reasons. He then asked me if I had any questions, and I had three, but I think the first two were not the greatest questions (i.e., I already knew the general answer), so I hope that does not count against me. After looking some more into HLS, it really does look like an amazing school, and I would have a great and enriching time there.

To make my Monday even better, I got an email from the Director of Admissions at UVA a couple hours later asking me to call him about my application. I figured he would ask me some general questions about why UVA, but it was not that at all. When I called, he commented that I had emailed them a few months ago, asking if my previous application/withdrawal three years ago would hurt my chances of getting in. He said he wanted to disabuse me of that idea because, in fact, they were admitting me! I was a little shell-shocked, and so my response may not have been optimal, because it was along the lines of, "oh, wow, that's awesome!" He then went on to say that he had more good news, because in fact they were offering me a scholarship of $75,000 over three years (he in fact said "at least" $75k, which gives me the hope that there may be some wriggle room). So that was awesome news. He told me to keep an eye out in the mail for the official package, and lo and behold, it arrived on Friday afternoon!

First law school acceptance - University of Michigan!

I started the application process back in the beginning of October (I actually had everything ready in September, but I was waiting on a letter of recommendation...), and by the beginning of November I was starting to get impatient about receiving replies back, even though I knew that the typical application process would take two months to finish. So, we really should start hearing back from most of the law schools in December, hopefully. That would make a nice Christmas present. Anyway, I periodically (read: every day) check the "Online status checker" for each of the schools to which I applied. Last Monday (Nov 8) I was very pleasantly surprised to see that Michigan had already made a decision on my application. It had been only about two and a half weeks from when I had sent in my residency application, which does figure somewhat into the application process. I guessed that such a rapid decision could only mean admission, since my numbers are good enough that I don't think they would reject me out of hand, but it would be several days until I got the actual letter in the mail with the decision--or so I thought. To my delight, I came home that night and found a large packet in the mail!!

Well, large packets typically only mean one thing--admission!

So, needless to say, Liz and I are very excited about the opportunity to go to Michigan!
In other news, I have a phone interview with Harvard Law School tomorrow! I had a good chat with a friend at HLS today, and he assured me that the chances of admission are fairly high once you have been given a phone interview. So, here's hoping (and praying!!) that we get offered a spot there! And at Stanford. And maybe Yale.

Michigan Trip!

So my sister Rachel got married two weeks after Liz and I did. It was an eventful trip, beginning with a lightning-delayed plane that forced us to miss the actual sealing ceremony (which was awful!) and ending with a lovely corn maze with Mom, Becky, and Becky's kids. It was a lot of fun.

PLACEHOLDER

Honeymoon in Caribbean!

Dave and I went on a Caribbean Cruise for our Honeymoon. All the cruises we wanted to take left on Sunday, so we had to take a red-eye flight to make it to the cruise on time. It was a long night, but we made it safely to our port in Puerto Rico. The cruise line we picked was Carnival.

The islands we visited were St. Thomas, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Kitts and St. Maarten. We only had one really rainy day. The others weren't too bad---some sprinkling, but nothing terrible. We were able to do a few excursions. We went snorkeling twice and we went kayaking. So all in all, it was a great cruise!

Wedding Reception

The reception was lovely---a lot of friends and family were able to come. The backyard was beautiful, the flowers were lovely, and the cake was beautiful and delicious.

My friend Nichole Hatch arranged my flowers, and my friend Stephanie Hughes made our cake. I am so lucky to have so many talented friends who were willing to help us make it a beautiful day!

Wedding: Salt Lake City Temple

Dave and I were married and sealed for time and all eternity on September 25, 2010, in the Salt Lake City Temple. The best day we've both known so far!! The ceremony was wonderful, and we were surrounded by a lot of family and friends. Perfect day.

The pictures in this slideshow were mostly taken by our photographer, Alice. But some were also taken by my sister Becki.

Bridals at the Capitol & Memory Grove

My sister Becki is an amazing photographer---but she lives so far away, in Alabama. But she flew in the week of my wedding--so the day she arrived I asked if she could do some more Bridal pictures for me. So now you can see for yourself how amazing she is :)

Bridals by the Saltair

Alice, with Indigo Road Photography, took my bridal pictures by the Saltair and the Great Salt Lake. I had seen pictures done there before and I really loved them, so I decided I wanted mine there too. I really like how they turned out too!