Houston - AFNI Boot Camp

After returning from Portland I was home less than 24 hours before I headed of to Portland for a week to attend an AFNI course. What is AFNI you ask - it stands for analysis of functional neuroimages. It is the software package that I have been trying to learn the past 2 years to analyze my fMRI data. I have made a lot of progress as I have taught myself, but when I heard about this course I was super excited because I still feel like I have a lot to learn.

I went with 3 other girls from my lab, who I love, so that made the trip even more exciting.

Neena, Traci, Lani, and Me

I have to admit though, that I was rather disappointed in the course. While I did learn a few good things, I didn't learn nearly as much as I hoped. The first few days were way too basic, and then the rest were way too advanced and they didn't have time to really go in to any detail about them, it was more just like a glimpse of the things AFNI can do, not so much how to do it. Oh well, at least it was fun.

My favorite things I did there were morning walks in Herman Park and visits to their museums (we stayed right by the park and the museums so it was very convenient).

My morning walks in the park

We also walked through the park on the way to and from class.

We played around one day after class.

We stayed at Hotel ZaZa - it is very modern and fancy-ish.

Views from the hotel

Inside the hotel

I liked it, but beware if you ever think of staying there, there are many pictures with girls wearing little to no clothing - it was too much for me. But it was very nice, my bed was super comfy and my breakfasts were tasty.

But by the end, I was so super excited to get back to Ryan, Only a few hours is not enough time to spend with him over 2 weeks.

Portland Conference - The Society for Psychophysiological Research

So, the inspiration for our trip to Washington and Oregon was so that I could attend a conference for work - SPR. Basically it is a conference for other people like me who love brains and use various methods to try to figure out how they work. I attended my first SPR conference my last year of graduate school, it was in Savannah Georgia. Last year I attended for my second time, it was in Berlin (I think it is pretty obvious why I had to convince my mentor why it was imperative that I attend). And this year in Portland, another place we were anxious to visit.


When I travel to conferences for work I get to stay in nice hotels and eat great food.

Awesome Hotel Modera

Since Ryan couldn't stay with me I invited my family to come. My sister Molly decided to join me - and we had fun.

Some of our favorite things we did were - attend our first Zumba class, walked through Washington Park,

Rose Test Garden

went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry,

Playing Around

toured Pittock Mansion,

strolled through the beautiful city parks, Cool Fountain Park We Passed Everyday

and ate really good food.



I had one day after Molly left and used it to visit the Hoyt Arboretum,

the Farmer's Market (way bigger than any I had ever been to before - yummy samples), Artichoke Flowers and Brussell Sprouts Bushels - I'd never seen them before, have you?

and the Saturday Market.



I did in fact work as well while I was there, really. But who wants to hear about work?

The Pacific Northwest

The first few years Ryan and I were married he had about one work trip a year, and I always went with him. We went to Houston, Atlanta, San Antonio, Las Vegas, and San Francisco for his work. But his company has cut back on his type of travel (training) and it has been a few years since they have sent him anywhere. The past two years I have started going on more work trips. Last year I went to Chicago for a training and Ryan met me – which is when we also got to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. I later went back to Chicago for a conference but he didn’t come that time because I left straight from Chicago to Berlin for a different conference and he met me there – and then we proceeded to travel around Europe for a week.

This year I had a conference in Portland. Although Ryan and I have both technically been to Washington (Seattle Airport on the way home from our Alaska cruise – and I spent the night in Washington when I went my friends’ wedding in Portland) neither of us had really experienced it – and Ryan had never been to Oregon. So of course we made a vacation out of it and knocked off a state for Ryan. We’re now down to 8 each that we need to get to.

We flew in to Seattle late on a Friday night.

Saturday we spent doing all the usual touristy stuff – a tour of the underground…

Pike Street Market…
Seattle Center…
and we even had time to attend the salmon homecoming (a salmon bake – nice welcome home for the salmon) and a Rangers game (they just happened to be playing the Mariners while we were there, Cliff Lee was pitching, and they won by a lot – it was fun).

Sunday we went to church, walked around UW campus, went to the Washington Park Arboretum (amazingly beautiful – so did not want to leave - I think the Arboretum was my favorite thing in Seattle.)…

Discovery Park (also beautiful)…

and the Chittenden Locks and fish ladder (very interesting).

Monday we took a ferry to the Olympic Peninsula so we could visit Olympic National Park.

We started off with a hike to Hurricane Ridge.




The next day we headed towards the Hoh Rain Forest, but made some stops along the way.

We stopped to view a couple waterfalls.

Then to a spot that we were told would be our best chance to see the salmon jumping. It was fantastic – difficult to get a picture (or even video) of them in the jump – but we saw one jump about every 2 minutes – we stayed over half an hour, so we saw a bunch. Although we LOVED our Alaska cruise we didn’t get to see any salmon jumping while we were there and have always been disappointed about that. So seeing them this time somewhat filled that need – definitely a highlight of our trip.

We made it to the Hoh Rainforest (when you look up what to do at Olympic National Park the Hoh Rainforest and Hurricane Ridge are the two most frequently and highly recommended – so that is what we did).


And since we had to go through Forks to get there we of course did some Twilight site-seeing...
including La Push (First Beach)
and Third Beach.



We left Olympic and went to Mt. Raineir National Park, via the Seattle Temple. The grounds were super pretty, and being a little older temple, everything inside was huge and super pretty. I think my favorite thing about the temple though was seeing a first edition of the Book of Mormon that they have in their entry.

We did just a few mile hike at Longmire when we got to Rainier because we ran out of day-light, but it was a very pretty hike none-the-less.


The next day we hiked a lot, I think it was 11 miles, at Paradise. We made it up to Panoramic Point (although we didn’t get the spectacular view you are supposed to get from there because the weather wasn’t cooperating) and then decided to take some trail off shoots – we got t hike across a glacier, which was fairly cool (and pretty slippery),
saw tons of wild-flowers as well as fall colors,
fun animals,
waterfalls, and just enjoyed ourselves.

Our next destination was the Columbia River Gorge. On the way we stopped to view Mt. St. Helens – we got some better views while we were driving but this is the best we got while we were stopped.


We met one of Ryan’s good friends, Adam, at the Gorge. Adam was Ryan’s second (I think) mission companion and I think Ryan was Adam’s last. When Ryan got home from his mission and went to BYU he moved in with Adam. And they have been good friends ever since.

We went to the Cascade Lockes, which weren’t super exciting as they aren’t in operation anymore (but I believe it is a National Historic Site), but then went to the Bonneville Lockes and Dam and fish hatchery, which was very exciting. At the dam we saw some information about how the lockes and fish ladder work, and saw the fish ladder, which was fun.

At the fish hatchery we first saw a bunch of baby salmon and trout, which was cool. Then we saw this aquarium that had enormous sturgion in it – this one was over 10 feet long – it was rather incredible.


And then we happened upon this place where they said the adult salmon were kept. They had them in this big pool thing, but there was water flowing into it from this other pool and the pools were separated by a wall that was about five feet high. These salmon tried time after time to make it over that wall, and some almost did – they would hit the top of it. So amazing to watch these fish jump straight up into the air. I think Ryan and I could have watched this for an hour or two, but we decided we should eat.


We spent most of the next day hiking along the gorge.



After saying good-bye to Adam we headed to Portland and spent the afternoon/evening in the downtown area. I am disappointed that we didn’t know more about Portland before we went – we didn’t know the nice places to go or the fun things to do. We got a little bored walking around the downtown – Ryan was not impressed at all, and from that experience neither was I.

We spent the next two nights at my friends’, Mike and Sommer’s. Mike and Sommer were in my freshman ward at BYU, so I have known them for a long time. Sommer and I lived together the semester before I left on my mission and she got married. After getting home from my mission I only saw them a couple times before I got married and not at all since, so it was so fun to see them and catch up.
(Sommer and me - not the most flattering picture of me, but that's how it goes.)

After church Ryan and I went to see the Portland Temple since he had never been there. It happened to be pouring rain that day so we didn’t take any pictures. That afternoon we went with Mike and Sommer to the coast – to haystack rock (?) which is in the movie Goonies – but it was still raining and pictures were not taken, darn it.

Monday I had to take Ryan to the airport – sad. I stayed to attend my conference.

Superbowl Kick-off – Tim McGraw concert

Ryan’s company is sponsoring the upcoming Superbowl that will be at the Cowboy’s Stadium. I am glad that they decided to do this because as a result they got complimentary tickets to the superbowl kick-off that not only included hearing from many Cowboy greats (including Emmitt Smith) but also (and infinitely more exciting to me) a Tim McGraw concert. Loved it! He is definitely one of my favorites.

Labor Day 2010

We decided to spend Labor Day morning hiking. We went to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Reserve – it was our first time to go. It’s a gem, one of one two places we have found in this area that actually has elevation change so trails are more than just a leisurely stroll. It was a little bit on the warm side, but not too bad. Ryan’s sister Heather, and my friend Hannah also came with us. I highly recommend going there.

Earl Family Reunion 2010

Almost every year my family has a reunion up at our cabin. Last year we didn’t get to go, but thanks to my brother-in-law and sister for their generosity and Southwest vouchers, we went this year.

I love being at the cabin – I love mountains, I love escaping the heat, I love how pretty it is there and the smells, and I love all the memories that being there brings back and the new memories I get to make each time I am there.

My grandpa built our cabin I don’t know how long ago – but it’s been a long time. At the time everyone on the mountain thought he was crazy for building such a big cabin – 2600 square feet. He told them he was building it for his grandkids. Well, our family has gotten a lot bigger and so we have more cabins now. My sister and her husband built a super big cabin two doors down from the one my grandpa built. Between the two cabins we can fit my gigantic family, and it is fantastic. Ryan and I actually stayed at my sister’s cabin, but we still spent a good amount of time at my family’s cabin. I loved it!

We were there for about a week – there was a lot of hiking, crafts, eating and cooking, games, oh, and stomach flu (not the best part – luckily for me I never got it).

Our brother-in-law Christopher is always thinking up activities for us to do. This summer we made tie-died shirts of a sort. We twisted them up and then sprayed them with spray paint. Pretty fun.

Ryan and I wanted to go on some hikes we'd never done before. We did some research and found this one along the rim of Cedar Breaks. Most of my family went along with us and we had a great time - again I was in awe that my family has a cabin in such a beautiful place.

Some of my cute family after our hike.

On a Sunday afternoon we convinced our brother-in-law Cam, two dogs (they didn't really need convincing) and several of our nephews to go with us to the Spring. Although we have gone to the Spring more times than I can remember, it is still one of my favorites - so peaceful and beautiful there.

Although I must have been here before, I have no memory of coming here and it was definitely a first for Ryan. This is Cascade Falls and the views were incredible. I see places like this and I can't help but be filled with gratitude for a Heavenly Father who loves us so much to have created such a gorgeous and diverse world!

Aspen Mirror Lake - very close to Cascade Falls. Christopher told his son Zander that if he swam across the lake he would pay him $20. I don't know if he would have done it but then Ryan told him he would also pay him $20 to do it. What teenager could pass up $40. It took him quite a while to actually get up to swimming across, but eventually he did, and we had to pay up.

And my sister Missy took some pictures for us to put on our adoption profile, since most of our pictures are of us on a trip somewhere. If we happen to get a picture of us together it is generally because we have asked some random passerby to snap one really quick. Anyway, I had a really good time.

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These were some of our favorites that my sister took. Which one is your favorite?

After leaving the cabin we had about half a day in Las Vegas before Ryan had to get back to work. One of my best-friends, Steve, works for Wynn Hotels and got us comp. tickets to La Reve. I had never seen it so we were pretty excited. We went to dinner and the show with my sister Emily and her husband Mark. It was fantastic! These acrobats do the most amazing things – things that don’t even seem possible. The ways they can bend their bodies and balance while being suspended by just a ring in the air is beyond me, and then they could dive into the water from 100 feet in the air – it was crazy.

After Ryan left I mostly spent time with my friends. I have two best-friends that I have known all my life, Wendi and Wendy. Wendi still lives in Las Vegas – I almost always get to see her when I am home. We got to spend several hours together one evening – we went to dinner, to this outdoor concert, and then just hung out. It was great. I love friends that you can always feel completely comfortable being yourself around because they know you so well that nothing you do will surprise or upset them – they clearly like you for you or else you friendship wouldn’t have lasted over 30 years. That is how my friendship with Wendi is. So awesome.

Wendy lives in Denver now but most of her family is still in Las Vegas so she planned a trip home at the same time as me so we could see each other. We also have that ideal type of friendship. It was so great to see her – I haven’t gotten to see her nearly enough since she moved to Colorado, which stinks. But I got to spend some time with just her and we had lunch with some of our friends from growing up – loved it.

The top 3 pictures are of my lunch with my friends - it was super windy and we were having my friends young daughter take the pictures, so considering these conditions I think it turned out very well. In the top right picture from left to right: Julie, Jamie, Wendy, Me, Katie - lov ethose girls. In the bottom pictures I am with Wendi's daughter Haylee and Wendi.

Steve, my friend that works for Wynn, and I met the second day of our freshman year at BYU. I thought he was cute so I sat by him in chemistry class, and we have been friends ever since (nearly 15 years – crazy). He is actually from Washington but moved to Las Vegas while I was on my mission, so in 2001 I think. We have another one of those fantastically blessed friendships. I’m always happy to see him. We went to lunch at this great little restaurant that I had never heard of but ended up being owned by a girl I went to elementary and high school with – small world.