Bon Voyage BYU Students

Last Wednesday we had the privilege of hosting a group of 19 travelers to Europe from BYU. Our son's Mechanical Engineering class from the Y along with another professor and his wife are now touring several countries in Europe visiting manufacturing plants and factories. Missy will be joining Chris for 18 days as of Tuesday. They will be going to Budapest, Poland, London, Paris and a few other places over the next several weeks. What an exciting opportunity for Chris and Missy and of course all the other traveler's. Just one more benefit to attending or teaching at the Y.

They started their trip by visiting Stanford University and then came out to the East Bay for a visit to a manufacturing company owned by a man in our ward. The next logical stop was our house for dinner. They only got to stay for about 2 and a half hours but it was just great to see Chris and meet his students. What a wonderful bunch of young men and two young women.

Everyone crammed into the family room
as it got a bit cold outside after dinner.

Jim and I always love throwing a party as it gets us motivated to get the house and yard in tip top shape and get our flowers in for the summer. I'll have to do a post on the backyard this week so you can see it when it still looks decent. I am not the best at keeping flowers alive...to me they are like pets...always needing attention. Ugh! But I love them so I make the valiant effort in the name of beauty all around. My main foilers are the squirrels and the deer. The deer eat the flowers tops and the squirrels eat the roots. Lovely combination of pests, don't you think? Deer are only cute in someone else's yard...trust me on this one! But I have digressed...

So, for dinner we cooked lots of tri-tip and polish sausages on the barbie and I made 15 pounds of potato salad, a fruity green salad I made up and sour dough French garlic bread. We had a variety of gourmet brownies from the bakery for dessert. This group was hungry and I think they all left pretty full~it was like feeding 19 missionaries. It was such a pleasure to have them and we loved being with our son if only for a few hours. We tried really hard not to embarrass Chris the whole time. I know Dad was tempted a few times when a student would say, "So Ok, then tell us about the real Dr. Mattson..." But Jim held back ~ so that was a relief!

We love you, Son, and are so proud of your
good work at the Y and everywhere else!

Have a great reunion in Budapest, Missy! We know you will have a ball. Give our love to the group, especially Doc Mattson! Enjoy your birthday abroad! Your birthday bucks along with Zach's and Owen's will await you at home upon your return. I am sure the gang at home will take good care of them and each other while you are gone!