""All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother." - Abe

We are back in the shadow of Pike's Peak. Such a stunning mountain. Getting here was a multi-day affair, the highlights of which were realizing that after 5 college visits, Noah wants desperately to go to Utah State University (who knew?), and Abe Lincoln (more on that later).

Ike really loves to see the temple. Logan, Ut

As you regular readers already know, my 17 year old son, Noah, is unusually involved with classical music, namely the piano. He plans to be a professor of music and the next John Williams. So we have been feverishly working out his college strategy. Turns out, if you want to major in music there is a plan. Here (as explained by countless music teachers, judges, and professors interviewed this summer) it is:

The Plan:

1. Choose the undergraduate school with the best teacher.
2. Don't worry about the big sexy schools.
3. Find the best teacher/professor.
4. Go there.

The best teacher will help you become the best pianist you can be and then you move onto the famous music schools for graduate work. As luck would have it, the 2 top teachers are in our neighboring states at University of Nebraska and USU.

Noah, his music camp dudes, and USU's Dr. Amano, apparently a musical genius.

Noah just spent a week at USU's music camp and has decided that he would rather die than go anyplace else. So, I guess that is taken care of.

To top off Noah's dream summer we dropped him off in Huntsville, Ut (very pretty place) for a Priest Quorum camp out, in a cabin, with jet skis, and guitars, banjo, and harmonica. Lucky duck.

After we ditched Noah, Ike and I continued on our trek home through wild Wyoming. Some people might say (and they have) that the Wyoming drive is ugly. I disagree. There are hours of rocks, miles of trains, and acres of windmills with big fluffy clouds as a back drop. And oil refineries with sparkling, blinking lights on the smoke towers.

So, imagine our surprise and delight when in the middle of nowhere, someplace between Laramie and Cheyenne, we happened upon a huge roadside memorial to Abraham Lincoln! His features are enormous and somewhat exaggerated. It is stunning. We had to take a picture and then use the fancy facilities.

Ike literally had to drag me away.
We heard 3 different languages (if you include the English we were speaking) while there with the other tourists.

We stumbled home 2 hours before my stake camp meeting where I acted like I had everything under control and knew exactly what I was doing. It was great.