The Leaning Tower

The Leaning Tower, a photo by travisghansen on Flickr.

So...In the last few months Emily and I have had quite the adventures. We've been to Hawaii, Italy, and Vegas.

Hawaii was awesome. We relaxed and enjoyed the beach and waves. Good times.

Italy was great. We went to Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Venice. The Roman empire was amazing. It's incredible what a civilization can achieve when it reaches for greatness. So often in our world today greatness is left behind in the name of 'tolerance' and 'equality'. Sad. The David is an amazing piece of art. I really didn't think I'd care for it much but it ended up being a favorite. Lastly Venice was fun although I didn't have enough time there.

Emily was able to sing in numerous locations including St. Peter's! That was cool experience to hear her sing there with so many talented people :)

Vegas was Vegas. Emily had never been and as much as I don't like the place, I felt she needed to experience it at least once. We stayed oddly enough at the Venitian. It was nice and while there we saw 3 shows. The Phantom of the Opera, Le Reve, and The Lion King. To summarize, Phantom sucked, Le Reve was amazing, and The Lion King was good.

On the home front back in Logan, UT I've started up some martial arts training. I'm currently a yellow stripe headed for my yellow belt :) It feels quite good to learn something new and train my body. I wanted to train in something that specifically would give me better flexibility and better control. So far I feel I'm achieving that.

So Much Time

Well, it's only 1.5 years in the making, but here it is...a new blog post :) Here are a few things that have happened since then...

• Emily and I were married


• We honeymooned in Cancun Mexico


• I returned to the city of lights (see previous post)


• We moved


• That is all

City of Lights

Once again I have failed to write even 1 entry per month. This does not however mean I have done nothing. Jeff and I just returned from the ever-dirty Las Vegas and I was happy to leave (so were my lungs due to casino smoke). Although not all of our goals were acheived at the ISC West conference the important ones were taken care of. Jeff has not been feeling too well but felt ok in the days leading up to the trip. However once we arrived he started feeling woozy again and spent all of Thursday in the hotel room trying not to puke (which he failed at). We're home now however and doing fine.

The last month has been full of wedding plans. I have successfully (with the help of Emily)...

• Purchased a tux
• Worried about a honeymoon to Mexico given current conditions
• Made progress with the invites, should be printed this weekend

Emily has done too many things to count but she's doing great work and everything is coming together nicely.

I have also finally started my final class @ BYU! I actually signed up for it nearly a year ago (independent study) and have finally finished a few chapters. It's a general education class to fulfill a history 202 level class. So I'm studying the history of the world from about 1500 onward. Did you know...

• The chinese had massive ships well before Europe?
• 3% of total African slaves made it to the US? At least total that came to the Americas, which incidentally was more than 90% (I don't remeber the exact number)...very few ended up in the Ottoman empire
• The vast majority of all slaves were captured and sold by competing African tribes? Generally as POWs
• Kowtow is a sweet way of showing respect?

One Year

One Year
Originally uploaded by travisghansen

As usual the first couple months of the year have flown by. Since my last post I've had a birthday (Jan 16th), Emily had a birthday (Jan 26th), and Valentine's day has passed. A couple weekends ago Emily and I went to St. George with Kelsey and Spencer to enjoy a nice little weekend of warm(er) weather. It still wasn't very warm, but it was warmer than Logan. The next weekend we went back to Orem again for Presidents' Day weekend and had a good time. We had a chance to see "All Shook Up" at one of my favorite place the Hale Center Theater. It was a great production and I'd like to see it again. While I'm on that note I've also been helping the theater get some online ticketing rollling. Give it whirl here.

As the title says, Emily and I have officially been dating for a year now as well!

In other news, the wedding plans are slowly coming along. I have

• Ordered Plane Tickets
• Taken Care of Passports
• Booked Our Week Stay in Mexico :)

I still need to

• Write Up Some Memories
• Get a Tux
• Finalize Announcements
• Get Emily's Ring Back From the Jeweler

On the work side of things I have been busy trying to find an intern to help us with the work load. I've also been studying vigorously and fruitlessly how to send text (sms) messages with our server. I'm inching closer to a solution but have yet to actually get anything to work. Once that's done I'll probably spend a little time getting IM integrated into the software as well. I'm also getting ready to start a project with Facebook. I hate 'social networks' but maybe this project will be worth my time :)

Blog Blender

So I've had this nerdy little thing known as "planet" running for a while on my server but I've never really told anyone about it. In as simple terms as possible it takes a bunch of blogs and mixes (blends) them together onto one page. It even has 1 single rss feed for those of you who care...if you don't know what I'm talking about ignore that part. Anyway, for those family members of mine on the Berrett side I created a Berrett Buzz Planet that blends all of our blogs together...or at least those that I know of. Anyway, if you click through and you're remotely a Berrett you'll find a nice little link to send me an email at the top of the page where you can send me the link to your blog and I'll get it added to the list. A couple disclaimers...

• The url to the site may change
• It gets automatically updated every hour
• This is to supplement the Berrett Buzz newsletter...not replace it

Also, ever since I returned home from a mission to Brazil I have tried to make a little more Christmas Cheer possible there for those who have far less than I. Here are some pictures of this year's effort. Thanks to all those who have donated in the past to make this possible.

In other news I'll be heading to Raleigh, NC all of next week. Come say 'hi' if you can (I'm looking at you Shnidah).

Hansen and Snider

Hansen and Snider
Originally uploaded by travisghansen

During my trip to Charlotte the best part was visiting with my good friend Matt Snider and his wonderful wife Chelsee. I spent a couple nights with them eating good food and playing games. My favorite parts were..

• Playing Smart Ass
• Eating yummy food (Chelsee's cake and Zaxbies chicken)
• Chatting
• Showing off our musical talents
• and watching The Office

Thanks a bunch you guys..I love you!

Biggest Announcement of All

Sundance Resort
Originally uploaded by travisghansen

It's again past time for me to make another entry to my blog. I decided I better get at least 2 entries in this year :). Anyway, first off the biggest news of all, I'm engaged to the beautiful Emily Hecker! For those who don't know we've been dating since February and the plans are to get married in Logan on May, 5 2009 (cinqo de mayo celebration anyone?). Now, for a recap of the past few months...

Let's recap some trips

1. Emily and I did family reunions in Baltimore, Virginia Beach, and Ohio. First we went to Baltimore to visit with Jared and Christina which was great. Right after arriving we went to Famous Daves and I had some ribs and did my best to get bbq sauce all over my face. We also visited Mount Vernon while we were there and that was great.

2. We left Baltimore and headed for Virginia Beach. We got stuck in traffic and weren't actually able to make it to the beach in time to be there with Emily's family, but we still went to the beach and took in some waves. All of Emily's family was there and it was great to meet each of them and get to know them better. We visited a world war 2 era battleship and also saw Jamestown which I absolutely loved. Among other things I kicked some serious trash with Guitar Hero (sorry Anna) and had a sweet 80's talent show. If I remember correctly Peter got things off with some amazing dance moves.

3. We flew out of Virginia Beach into Cleveland. After arriving in Cleveland we left (after an insanely long trip to get to the car rental shop from the airport) for Kirtland to visit the LDS visitors' center of the reconstructed city and also the Kirtland Temple now owned by the Community of Christ. We unfortunately did not make it to the temple in time to get the tour but we were able to walk around the grounds and have a look at the outside. It's a beautiful and amazing structure. The restored historic city is great as well and I especially loved the N. K. Whitney store. Next we drove down to Seneca Lake for the family reunion (Emily's Dad Bill and his cousins) and had a great time visiting with family and playing on the boats and jet skiis. After the family reunion we headed back up to Cleveland to fly out but on the way we were able to stop at the Johnson Farm another LDS historical site.

All of that was in early august. Then in September I moved to Logan to be near Utah State where Emily is attending school. In October Jeff and I went to the ADT convention in Dallas and I played golf at the Dallas Cowboys Country Club. November I went to Charlotte, NC for some work and then it was thanksgiving in Rexburg at Emily's sister Jenny's house. December as soon as finals were out I came back to Spanish Fork to be with family and friends for the holidays. Christmas has come and gone already and it's New Year's Eve.

It's been another amazing 6 months and I'm looking forward to 2009.