First Time to New Orleans

 I have traveled a lot of places in the United States for work, but this was the first time that my travels took me to New Orleans.  ServiceChannel held a product hackathon and the leadership team attended to vote on the winning project.

I didn't have any commitments on Monday evening so I decided to walk around the French Quarter

Bourbon Street

St. Louis Cathedral

Cafe Du Mond

The rest of the week involved work, so I didn't get to do much more.  We have added this to the list of locations that we want to come as a family. 

Met Life 2026

 When Kay was younger she was joking with her cousin-in-law Jackson Barton.  One of her remarks was "I've played on the field of Met Life more than you have."   While that might seem like a mean remark, it was meant in good fun and Jackson laughed.  Well, I can say after being a marching band parent for this long, I have been on the field at Met Life more than all of them. 

This year our props made getting into and out of the stadium more difficult than past years.  No photos of that, because we were scrambling to get props in and set up and then to take them down.

It was a great show

School Pics

School pictures from our remaining K-12 girls.

Sadie - 10th Grade

Claire - 8th Grade

Some Soccer Photos

 

All Weather Sport

 Shortly after our bike ride, he rain came in.  A person might ask themselves, "do marching band competitions get cancelled when it rains?"  The answer:

Can you see how wet her hair is?

These photos are from the half time show at the football game.

We the packed up the trucks and headed to Lenape Valley for the competition.  While we packed up the trucks the students did their best to dry off (in particular the color guard who do not have rain coats to wear during the show).

After getting all the large instruments and props ready, we hid in the truck to stay away from the rain.  The poor kids were practicing.

Right before our field time the rain stopped.

First Flat with Rose City Riders

 I think I've mentioned before that I was peer-pressured by James Smith, Brad Kaegi, and Andrew Koehler into buying a road bike and joining their riding group, Rose City Riders.  I've been part of it for over a year.  And it has gone so well that I didn't ride prepared when I got my first tire blow out.

But none of the others were prepared as well (i.e., no one had a spare tube).  So I had to call Mindy to come pick me up.  Don't worry, the lesson has been learned.  I am now ready for the next tire issue.

Forum on Faith

 Working with Elder David Marriott has been wonderful, but it has also been exhausting.  He does NOT think small.   When he and I started working together I did my best to get him up to speed on all the great communication work (faith and community leader outreach) that the teams are doing in the New York, NY and New Jersey.   He had attended a few of our events in New York, including the NYLDSPA dinner and the Light the World reception.   He loved both, but he wanted to do something bigger.  His first thought was a rootstech east, then it became a small forum on family concept, and finally, after feedback from some of our interfaith friends, it developed into the Forum on Faith.

The forum brought together leaders from religion, government, business, education and the community to talk about the benefits of faith in strengthening individuals and societies. New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the Rev. Al Sharpton were present, among many others, not to mention all the Church leaders that attended (including Elder Quentin Cook, Elder Allen Haynie and President Emily Belle Freeman).  

Elder Marriott's intent was that this was not a Church event, but instead an event that was being held by several interfaith leaders in the New York area.  We were advised by Aaron Sherinian, Managing Director of the Church Communication Department for the Church, that it would be best if we organized our own 501(c)(3) organization for the event (of which I am a Director).   We set up a steering committee and a board of advisors.  But ultimately, 99% of the planning, organization and execution was done by Elder Marriott, Jennifer Wilcox, Michelle Boss, Megan Ann Rasmussen and me (all members of Elder Marriott's team). 

You can see a lot more information about the Forum on Faith (including recordings of the conference) at https://forumonfaith.com/.

It was an amazing event.  It was the largest event the Church had ever done in the New York area, and it was executed by Church volunteers - pretty impressive.   There was such positive feedback, and both NYU and Princeton are fighting over the opportunity to host the Forum on Faith in 2026.

Governor Kathy Hochul

Elder Marriott with Rev. Al Sharpton

And even though the day was long an exhausting, there is no rest.  Mindy and I went with Elder and Sister Cook, Elder and Sister Haynie, Elder Marriott to a sukkot celebrate with our friends from the New York Board of Rabbis right after.