We are moving to...

...Seattle, Washington

Dave says: It's official. After 4 years of undergraduate course work, 3 years in law school, and another 4 spent working on a Ph.D. the end of my formal education is finally in sight as I have recently accepted a position as a professor at the University of Washington in the Foster School of Business.

It was a busy fall with trips to six states in six weeks. The job market is grueling but having this fabulous opportunity at the University of Washington makes it all worth it. UW is a good fit for my research interests related to ethics and I will also get to teach in this area. The position is for next fall and so we will be staying in Tucson through the spring as I finish my dissertation and teach a course related to leadership.

No doubt there will be a transition going from the desert to the evergreen state. However, we were in Seattle this summer and had a great time with all the outdoor recreation. Alisha has been tremendously supportive throughout this whole process and we are excited for this next stage of our lives.

O Christmas Tree

Alisha says: What a great Christmas we had this year, it was wonderful! We kicked things off by traveling with Dave's family to the Grand Canyon. Nine of us hiked down the Bright Angel trail  for a two night stay in a cabin at Phantom Ranch. The most impressive hiker award goes to my six year old niece Kaylee, who hiked the entire 17 mile round trip. The only time she cried was when we were eating dinner in the canteen and the only option for dinner was the stew, apparently she hates stew. Everyone else thoroughly enjoyed the hot stew dinner after a long day of hiking. I absolutely love the beauty of the canyon and enjoyed spending a few days there. We hiked up the Kiabab trail on Christmas Eve.

The hikers: Parker, Dave, Anne, Reena (Daniel's girlfriend), Kaylee, Daniel, Bailey (Katie's friend), Katie.

Christmas day was spent in Phoenix where everyone enjoyed opening gifts and the awesome sunny weather.

The day after Christmas, Tom took Dave and I hiking in the Superstitions. We did a fun loop that included some route finding. The scenery was beautiful and I enjoyed the uphills while Tom enjoyed the downhills. He hikes so fast going downhill that I was getting dropped. The last thing we did before heading back to Tucson was a stop at the Mesa Temple to check out the light display.

Thanksgiving

Dave says: October and November were both busy months for me. I traveled to several universities for campus visits and also worked on my dissertation. I finished my interviews just before Thanksgiving and was excited for a break. The original plan was to go to Moab like we did last year when we enjoyed sunny weather in the 60s. This year, the weather grew considerably worse right at the time of our trip. Our two-wheel drive vehicle barely made it through falling snow into Monticello and when we arrived at Moab there was several inches of snow on the ground. We changed the plan and headed over to St. George instead where they had been receiving rain but no snow. 

While Alisha spent some family time in Cedar City, Aleks and I hit some of the best mtb trails in the area for a couple of days. We started with Church Rocks and Zen on day 1. Day 2 was Barrel Roll along with some new cool trails in the area like Sidewinder and Suicidal Tendencies (ya, there is some exposure on this one) in the morning and Guacamole in the afternoon. We spent all of Day 3 at Gooseberry Mesa for some classic slickrock riding until we were absolutely exhausted. My Pivot trail bike excelled on all this terrain and it was a blast. I even got Alisha out for a loop on the Jem trail.

For Thanksgiving, most of Alisha's family came into town in Cedar City and we had a lot of fun hanging out with them. The kids have a lot of energy and are fun to play with. Every time we see them they seem to have grown quite a bit. After Thanksgiving, we stopped to see my family in Phoenix and had Thanksgiving part 2. We stayed with my grandparents which is always enjoyable and watched Arizona beat Duke. We hung out at Christine's and played with her kids. We also saw my parents and Daniel and Katie as well. So despite some questionable weather at the beginning, it ultimately turned out to be a great Thanksgiving break.