Joshua Kian Hochstrasser

I have another new nephew! His middle name is pronounced Key-an. He looks like he will be a real cutie. Now I have seven nephews and one niece. Here is a picture of him and then him with my other nephew, Jared.

Special Olympics

I was able to volunteer at the Special Olympics the last few days. We are lucky that it is held right here at BYU for all of Utah. It has been a wonderful experience. On Thursday I worked at the awards booth with Suzy. She did the necessary tasks of organizing who got what medals and I got to hand out the awards. On Friday, Michael T, Amy, and I went. We cheered, organized a tug-o-war, and a watermelon eating contest.

After doing two contests there was still watermelon left, so Mike, Amy and I had our own contest.

Amy won!

Today I cheered some of the people racing on for awhile. Then Christina and I went over to the awards to help hand those out again.

It has been a joy the last few days being a part of this. Some of the athletes were so happy and would cheer everyone on. Even if they got third or fourth, they would be cheering really loudly for the second and first place people. I recommend everyone takes the time to go help out when it comes around to their state. You won't forget it.

I Saw Pixar's Up!

Pixar amazes me. It kind of worries me that my expectations are so high. That means they can easily be disappointed. Up did not disappoint.

I didn't see it in 3D, so I can't tell you about that. It was still a wonderful hour and a half. The first ten minutes of the film shows little Carl Fredrickson (the grumpy old man) as a child. Then within minutes you are emotionally connected to him and his wife as it plays through their life without talking--only well orchestrated music. After that montage, I knew that this would be a great movie.

The rest of the movie is filled with adventure, a lot of humor, odd characters, and an evil villain. I, and those around me, laughed a lot. After seeing the previews, I was afraid that Russell, the little kid, would get tiresome shortly into the movie. But he didn't. I'm not quite sure where this fits in my list of best Pixar movies. I'll have to wait and let it sink in.

One of the reasons Pixar succeeds is they are willing to take risks. There were several times during the movie that there was complete silence on screen and in the audience--as Carl flips through the Adventure book his wife had made and thinks about her, for example. And just the idea of doing a story with an old man as the main character was thought absurd by many because it's not marketable. But, Pixar doesn't follow conventional wisdom. And I am so glad they don't.

Hiking Adventure!

On Memorial Day a group from my ward hiked up a huge mountain! We didn't know the name of it, but I have now discovered it is called Maple Mountain (before we knew the name Brandon called it Monticello Ridge, which I like). It is directly south of Y Mountain. We hiked to the TOP (9088 ft). All in all it was quite an adventure and pretty amazing. Here are some pictures.

Here is the view from the Y. We hiked up to the Y and then kept going south. Remember this view, it's puny compared to the top of the mountain we climbed.

About an hour after the top of the Y we arrived at this meadow. This is where the trail ended and we started bushwacking straight up the mountain. I really like this picture.

A cool view along the way.

A little snow on the way to the top.

Beautiful view from the top.

The whole group!

Michael T and I got in a fight atop the mountain.

On the way back down it was sometimes more fun not to use your feet.

Eventually we made our way back onto the trail and down the mountain. All in all it was quite a bit of fun. There were cuts and scrapes, people falling in snow caves, wet shoes and bums. But we emerged victorious. My love for nature continuous to grow. It felt like such an accomplishment making it to the top and looking around us to all sides--down to Utah Valley or behind us at the other beautiful mountains. I hope for many more adventures like this.

Come see Pixar's "Up"

This Friday night I am getting a group together to go see the new Pixar film, Up. If you would like to join us let me know by 5pm on Wednesday. That is when I will be going to get the tickets. We will either see the 8:50pm showing at Cinemark University Mall, or the 9:55pm showing at Carmike at the Riverwoods. So let me know which time works best if you would like to come. Keep in mind we will leave AT LEAST an hour before it starts to be able to get there and get good seats (it will be sold out).

The normal cost is $8.50. And it's in 3-D, so there could be an extra charge for that. So be ready to pay about $10 (I don't want anyone getting mad at me when they have to pay me back if I didn't tell them). If there is no extra cost, then yay.

Later Alligator (A Tribute to Jeff Ward)

My former roommate and good friend Jeffrey Scott Ward is leaving tomorrow. He's shaking off the dust of this little town and heading out into the real world--Houston Texas, where he has a job with Teach for America. I wish him the best on his new adventure and will miss him. I'll miss the tennis games, the randomness, his humor (one of the funniest guys I know, even if half of it is because you can't believe he actually said that), and his hugs. Come back and visit sometime Jeffy, and good luck.

Taking a little nap on the couch after a long, unexpectedly rainy day of BYU football.

At Nathan's wedding. (Yeah, I know everyone's seen this picture cause I posted it recently, but it's a good one!)

Go Nuggets!

I'm not a huge NBA fan. Give me the NCAA tournament any day. But yesterday I watched the Denver Nuggets and LA Lakers go at it. I was very happy to see the Nuggets pull it out. Mainly cause I don't like the Lakers (they're like the Yankees of basketball to me, although they haven't won as much).

But also, the Nuggets have the former Sonics head coach (from their glory days in the mid 90's), George Karl, it's pretty close to Utah, and Chauncey Billups seems like a cool guy.

Did I mention I really can't stand the Lakers.

Guitar Skills

This kid has some amazing skills. This one was pretty impressive.

Some of the other ones I like that he does is Moon River, l Will, Billie Jean, and a few others. Check 'em out.

City Museum

This is definitely not a normal museum. It's a giant play-place. The toys are old recycled junk (at least it looks like it). There are long metal slides, all sorts of dark spaces and caves to crawl through (many places I couldn't fit in to), ball pits, all kinds of windy things to climb on, and a hamster wheel. A lot of the places to climb on and in and out of looked like modern art. Here are some pictures to give you a better idea--but you have to be there to really get a feel for it.

Walking into the mouth of a giant whale (which leads to all sorts of places).

Danny looking at us from a little nook up above.

Jared comes down the slide, then me. I go a lot faster then him. It's like some kind of weird bum massage.

Craziness

Looking out from some cave.

The little kids giant ball pit. My brother Ryan is about to bonk his son on the head.

The little hamsters in their wheel.

My favorite part of this is the bus coming off the top of the building.

I don't know how this place passes safety regulations, but it was definitely a fun place--especially for the kids.

St. Louis Visit

My nephew, Jared, learning to ride a motorcycle.

The Arch (as wide as it is tall and taller than the Space Needle)

Sitting on a giant turtle. This place is known as Turtle Park. We almost didn't want to leave to go to the zoo.

Danny on a turtle or snake. I'm not sure.

Welcome to the St. Louis Zoo. A very large, free zoo.

Jared with his dad's sunglasses.

Me with cutie patootie. My mom bought the same pair of sunglasses for her three sons this last Christmas.

Here is the actual reason we all got together. My brother Jason can now be called Dr. Hochstrasser. The second in the family (although my mom's is a Ph.D, not MD).

Other fun things I got to do.

-Go swimming in a pool that was part indoor and part outdoor. I've always wanted to do that!

-Eat as much popcorn as I wanted provided in the hotel lobby.

-Play tennis in super windy weather.

-Ride the metro to the airport.

More pictures to come of this place we went to on Friday morning called City Museum. It's nothing like what the name says. In fact, it's nothing like anything I've seen.

Off to St. Louis

I'll be gone tomorrow through Saturday to St. Louis for my brother's graduation from medical school (St. Louis University). Yay for seeing my nephews and niece!

Jerusalem

Elder Hochstrasser,

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary--oh wait, scratch that. start again.

Dear Jordan,

Congratulations! You have been given initial placement on the 2009 Fall Semester Program at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Dates of this program are from September 1 to December 17

Your official acceptance, however, is pending until you have a Final Admission Interview with a member of the Jerusalem Center staff. Applicants who have received initial placement will be admitted for study at the Jerusalem Center based on their preparation for and ability to benefit from study at the Jerusalem Center, as well as their ability to contribute to the success of the experience for others in the unique Jerusalem Center setting.

etc.

My friend (Suzy) tells me that the interview is just a formality and that you most likely won't fail that. (I sure hope I don't now, or I'd look pretty dumb.) So this is pretty exciting news.

Nicknames

Nicknames are a funny thing. People can become known solely by their nicknames. I never called my old roommate Brian, only Bwood. I've had many nicknames over the last few years. Some of these nicknames were widespread, but usually it was a certain group of people that called me it and others outside the group would be confused if they heard it. Here are the ones I can remember from most recent to earliest:

Jor Jor (my current ward, started by Nathan)

Jordan Bjorgason (pretty much just Jeff Ward calls me this)

Hawktrowsers (an elder on my mission called me this)

Das Lichtenstein, Das Licht, or The Licht (I think it was Kevin my freshman year that made this up because it was long and sounded German, like my last name)

Uncle Buster (my brother-in-law Christian came up with this for my nephews to call me, and it's stuck)

jho (12th grade choir)

hogtrotter (11th grade choir)

Jo

Jo Jo (only my oldest sister ever uses this anymore)

Anyone else have any interesting nicknames? My personal favorite of my friends is Michael T. Barney (all I did was add a T because he doesn't have a middle name. But we often refer to him as just Michael T.) Then there's B-Master Flex for Bryan Tanner. Our EFY kids came up with that when we were co-counselors.