Photo Highlights from FanX
(More pictures of us wearing costumes)

The week before FanX Ruth and I volunteered at a Cosplay scavenger hunt. It was fun to stamp people's cards when they found us and interact with them in character. 

Day one of FanX 

When batgirl turns 40.  Ha ha! 

I put some time in volunteering at the HEROIC booth. By taking photos with convention-goers we raised over $500 for local refugees over the course of the convention.

n Friday Ruth debuted her She-ra cosplay. She had worked so hard the few weeks before the convention. It was a super complicated costume and she made it all by herself. 

When cosplayers sit next to each other.  Ruth and I had struggles with our shoulder armor always bumping. 

Ruth was really popular with little girls. She kept getting stopped over and over to take pictures with them. Ruth would talk to them and let them hold her sword.  

We were so excited to meet up with other Avatar cosplayers and take pictures together! 

Kaitlin and Ben made their own costumes and they looked great!

We always have to take pictures with the Star Wars folks.  

Ruth looked amazing!

We love cosplaying together.  We were stopped for pictures all the time. 

While in line to take our professional photos, we practiced a lot of different poses. 

I snapped this photo just to document the fact that Chuck and Jared came to hang out with us on Saturday.  

If you are willing to wait in line, FanX provides free professional photography for all the cosplayers.  I think this is an amazing service and we had so much fun taking these. 

Someday Ruth with photoshop some fire in my hand so I'll look extra cool!  

Ruth's She-Ra has such impressive shapes! You can tell she is a designer. 

Shout out to Ben and Kaitlin for making this amazing Blue Spirit mask. People really liked it. 

Kaitlin had the best poses!  She also did some dancing for us while we waited in some of our panels.

What I love about our cosplaying together is that we have so much fun! We had fun conspiring together as we made our costumes and then bringing it all together for the event.  

Counting Down to School

School starts for both Ruth and Jared in a week.  Jared did some online school shopping and got all of his new classes sorted.  He will be starting at a brand new school that just opened to the public this week.  Ruth got an additional new job working for a marketing firm where she will be doing social media design for Utah County and also a few other companies as needed. 

Becky and Donna at Tuacahn

My sister Donna planned a fun little getaway to St. Geoge for her and I. We saw The Little Mermaid at the Tuacahn and we also took in a beautiful desert garden and an art museum in Cedar City.  It was great to spend some time together sharing our common interests and visiting.

20% Fun, 80% Terror 

Chuck and I took our dual-sport bikes out for another try at off-road riding.  This time neither of us spilled, so that was an improvement over last time.  Still, by the end of our ride, we had to admit that neither of us have the temperament for dirt bike riding.  We agreed that we would have had much more fun taking our street bikes on a scenic drive than we did braving the waterholes, ruts, and sand traps in the desert.  We'll probably be selling the bikes and using the money to upgrade our street bikes.

Summer Time!

We've had some quiet summer weeks around here.  Everyone's been working and doing little projects.  We painted a couple of bedrooms, sorted and got rid of a lot of junk,  and Ruth and Becky worked on cosplay projects.  We don't have any large family vacations planned this year but we did spend a good day at a local fun center.

Jared's First Job

Jared got his drivers license a few weeks ago and he also started his first job at Little Ceasar's Pizza.  So far he says he likes working in the back and making the pizza but he doesn't care for helping customers at the cash register.  His work is really close to home and he's been driving himself to and from.   In addition to working, I hear Jared practicing music of all kinds.  He is still drumming but his guitar playing is getting really good as well.

Chuck's Patent

Seven or so years ago Chuck worked on a team at eBay that submitted a patent for a virtual dressing room.  Wearing VR goggles you could see yourself wearing different clothes that were for sale.  The patent included a standardized sizing system where the computer would determine your body size to get a good fit for you.   As far as we know this idea was never adopted or put into use by eBay, but we did get notice that the patent was approved and filed.  So that was kinda cool.

Ruth's First Graphic Design Job

Ruth has continued to work at her marketing internship through the summer, even though she is not attending classes.  In addition, she got hired to design some mailers for a candidate for Salt Lake City council. This has been a really good learning experience for her as she's never worked for a client like this, and it's been a frustration to find the balance between meeting the client's wants and providing good graphic design.   Either way, it's a great resume builder.

Kate's Birthday Party!

Ruth and I drove up to Rexburg to be with Kaitlin on her birthday.  Kaitlin had planned a really fun Avitar: The Last Airbender party including snacks, games, and watching some episodes on a big screen.  Ruth and I had a great time making a creative, if not technically impressive, cake, and some elemental cupcakes.  We had to move the party inside because of rain, but everyone still seemed to have a good time and Kaitlin seemed super happy.  We had a great visit!

I Got to Meet the Voice of Pharah

Ruth and I went to Gaming Con last weekend, where I got to meet the voice actor that did all the lines for the character I cosplay.  She was super gracious and took pictures with me and signed my rocket launcher.  She even commented on my Instagram post!  It was pretty cool.


The second day of Gaming Con I competed as Hippolyta and finished second in the masters division.  Overall it was a good experience.  Ruth and I always have a great time at these events and we both got some pretty cool photos taken of us.

Jared finished the school year strong with an end of the year band concert and earning an academic letter for his great grades this year.  

The next weekend was Pride weekend here in Salt Lake City.  I spent one day of Pride volunteering at the FanX booth and then the other day Chuck, Ruth, and I went to the parade and out for lunch.  

Ruth and I had five minutes of fame this past week when we were featured on the cover of both the KUTV news story and the Salt Lake Tribune for the FanX Press announcement.  FanX offered us free tickets for showing up to their press conference in cosplay, so we did.   The photo captured by the tribune was my favorite and I printed a copy for the family cosplay wall.   Ruth and I also did a HEROIC event this week, a children's cancer run,  which was quite fun.   

Chuck's mom, and sister Liz, have been visiting with us for the past week.  They traveled out here via train, which they said they really liked.   We've gone on adventures like going to Costco and Target, thrifting, and taking walks.  They especially enjoyed walking around a local Fairy Festival. Jared even went and was a good sport! 

Last Week of School

Jared and I are on our last week of school.  Jared had his concert band concert last week and has one more percussion concert this week (who schedules a  concert on the 2nd to last day of school??) Jared finished the year with mostly A's and was awarded an Academic Letter for his high gpa.    I only have two days left of work and I am so ready to be done with my job. I will miss teaching. It was super satisfying to expose students to hands-on science and engineering and see them get excited about it.  But there isn't much future in my job and the pay vs stress ratio is a little out of balance.  I've put my resume together but don't plan on looking for work until the fall.


Happy Birthday and Mother's Day to Me

The weather has been downright depressing but I did have a very nice Mother's day and birthday this year.  For Mother's Day weekend we found a short break in the rain and planed the garden.  For my birthday we went out to dinner and then played Guitar Hero as a family (Jared is the best Guitar Hero Drummer Ever!).     Also during my birthday week, I appeared at a childhood cancer fundraiser gala at the aquarium.  The charity provided princesses and asked my group to provide Disney Villans. I got to spend the evening tormenting children as Mother Gothel and I even sang at the event.  It was tons of fun.

Spring was late in coming this year. While we usually enjoy several weeks of blooming trees and tulips, because of cold rainy weather, blooming was delayed and most of the trees' blooms came and went within just a few days.  Still, the longer days and warmer weather is a welcome relief.   We've spent several days in the last few weeks doing yard work.   Chuck built a box for our motorcycles trailer and we filled it with branches and prunings to take to the dump.  Because of my bad back last summer the garden boxes had gotten all grown over so I spent several days digging them out and turning the soil for a new growing season. 

Jared competed in the State Ensemble tournament with the same piece that I posted a video of last month. He also found out that he made it into Jazz Band at the new high school for next year. 

Ruth finished the school year at the U and finished Business Scholars. She got good enough grades to keep all of her scholarships and her internship agreed to keep her on over the summer even though she isn't taking summer classes.  Ruth is really excited to have a break from school as she didn't take any time off after her high school graduation.

Ruth and I have been busy with cosplay stuff. Ruth joined as a "prospective" member of HEROIC and went with me to a couple events this month. We put on a Marvel movie night for the Ronald McDonald house and then we also went to an elementary school fundraiser.   Ruth and I also competed in a little fanexpo cosplay contest this last weekend.  Ruth took 3rd place in her category with the Mandalorian costume she made a few years ago. and I won Best in Show which came with a cash prize. 

Chuck and I took our dual sport bikes out for our first off-road this weekend.  We had no experience and there was a steep learning curve.  We both dropped our bikes in separate incidents, Chuck hit a rut with his and I just took a big patch of sand too slowly.  We are a little scraped and bruised but fine, and our bikes are fine too.  It was a learning adventure.  Chuck got both spills on camera so maybe he will post them soon.