Our 6' 5" birthday son

Andy celebrated his 23 birthday on September 20. Claire and Skippy were in town visiting, so we had the chance to go to dinner with them and Cousin Rom. Since last year, he's had quite a few adventures and has made some good decisions, such as:

• he lived at home last fall and saved $$ to go to BYU Hawaii winter semester
• friend Jesse moved in and lived with us for six months, even while Andy was gone
• he had more fun and adventures (some completely unsafe) than anyone I know in Hawaii while "going to school". He also got to visit the island of Kauai with some friends and explore that island. We're glad friend Tanner went along - we love Andy's friends
  
• he was a cafeteria worker on the Hawaii campus to earn some play money
• he went skydiving and he learned to surf
  
• he declared his major in Neuroscience and he is very interested in the brain and its function (or lack thereof). He plans to go into the medical field. I hope he doesn't do any damage to his own brain since he has a fascination with jumping off of things.
  
• he coached a little league baseball team along with some of his friends in the spring and had a great experience with the boys (less fun with the officials)
• he went to Havisupai with some friends and again had a great hiking adventure (with more waterfall jumping)
• he went to Moab for some four-wheeling and hiking adventures
  
• he jumped off a bunch of rope swings, went wake boarding, jumped off ramps on bikes & went camping since he couldn't do any of that last summer because of his shoulder surgery. I was praying the whole time that he wouldn't have more injuries and surgeries...
• he went to a bunch of weddings of his friends and mission buddies
• he got invited to work as an research assistant with a very impressive Neuroscience professor who he enjoys a lot
  
• he completed the CNA course and passed the test to qualify as a nurse assistant
• he's taking some very hard pre-med classes this semester
  
• he job a great job on campus (which is hard to do)
  
• he moved out into an apartment with friends
• he continued to date a bunch of different young ladies
• he went to a bunch of outdoor concerts in SLC over the summer and got very dirty in the process, he even went to a rodeo and loved it
  
• he discovered our old 40 year old Schwinn 10 speed bikes and he and his cousin have been riding them around like crazy. I guess they're so old that they are now considered "retro" so they are cool again.
  
• he continues to translate from English to Mongolian at the MTC when asked
  
• he's serving in his student ward and working hard in school, doing research and working hard at his job. He's one busy young man.

Rick and I love Andy very much. It's always fun to have him around and we appreciate his good life, his good decisions, this great sense of humor and the good work he is involved in. Happy 23rd birthday dear Andy!