Mark Zucherberg came to BYU. I was pleasantly surprised by the forum. Props to BYU for getting him there. He had some great insights on starting companies, company hiring and doing things you are passionate about.

Lyndsey Cosgrave put on an amazing event called the Bean Benefit 5k. It was a freezing cold

morning, but I was able to get out and run. They raised a lot of money for a struggling student. I was so impressed with how well it turned out and her hard work and dedication. Good job Lynds. You’re an amazing example to me!

Last weekend we went to Logan to see Amanda and Trent. Parker is an idiot and was too lazy to try on his new pair of shoes and ended up with a pair 2 sizes too big. He looked like a clown.

It has been an absolutely crazy month and a half. Garrett’s business, QR Code City was a semi-finalist and then a finalist in the BYU Business Plan Competition. They chose 8 semi-finalists. From there, they presented in front over a dozen or so judges. I believe they told the teams that there was over $134 billion dollars in that room. Garrett said his presentation went great. They were asked the perfect questions. Later that night, they had an lovely dinner for the Founders from the Center of Entrepreneurship at the Hinckey Center. Everyone had the nicest things to say about Garrett’s presentation that day. It was a long dinner and of course, they waited until the very last second to announce the 3 finalists that would present the next day in front of the public. They announced the companies in alphabetical order… Adviral… Kalood… and QR Code City. Garrett was SO hap

py he made it to the finals. He was mostly grateful for the head of the competition, TJ, who encouraged them to enter the competition from the beginning, because they weren’t going to. You could totally see the sense of relief as Garrett’s name was announced. He had worked SO hard. There were a few good all-nighters made by him, Kirk and Ben. Garrett kept saying how all he wanted was to share his business with everyone. He was so proud of his team and what they had accomplished so far and just wanted to share that with everyone.

Well, he got his wish and presented at the finals, the next day in the JSB in front of over 800 people. Garrett was the first to present. He did AMAZING. He probably shines more than ever when he is up in front of people telling them about something he loves. He looked great (all stylish in his skinny tie, cardigan, and JEANS… I wasn’t a fan of that) and was really confident. Their presentation was AMAZING! Ben had done some incredible videos that really made the presentation engaging, instead of just a guy blabbing on. Every time they would say something, the whole crowd would cheer. With 175,000+ downloads, an invitation to the Twitter Conference, and hundreds of users already, they were LEAGUES beyond the competition.

Garrett said when the next team who presented sat down, they asked, “how come they didn’t cheer for us, like they cheered for you?”

The other 2 companies are well on their way. But even despite my bias, we all thought QR Code City won it. The other companies got railed on in their Q&A, while Kirk and Garrett were completely solid. Plus, their presentation, by far was the best.

Sadly, QR Code City got 2^nd place. Which we shouldn’t complain about, they still won $30,000. To our defense, Kalood (the 1^st place team) had a handful of the judges on their advisory board. They also presented in front of the Founders the month before. But… no excuses… they did amazing and are THRILLED about the way it turned out.

My mom was in town, Parker and his girlfriend attended, a bunch of our friends, and the entire BYU Men’s Soccer Team. There was an amazing support group and we are so blessed to have the love that we have.

Well… it’s not over yet. Garrett’s company was the only one from BYU invited to the National Competition at Rice University next weekend. Over 500 teams entered, and 42 were selected. So, things have not slowed down.

The BPC was such a great experience. I don’t doubt that the company wouldn’t have worked out, but because of the BPC, they got the momentum that they needed. Garrett has had multiple investors calling him, various partnership opportunities and countless people offering assistance. I really think he can do very well with this. We are STOKED about the opportunity and grateful for the blessing that the BPC has been to us.

I told Garrett that he could stop working on Capital G Design projects and focus on QR Code City. Its been harder on us financially, but there is no doubt that this thing will take off in some way or another.

It’s official. I have caught the Gee Travel Bug. The week after California Part 2, I went with Lyndsey down to Vegas to watch Garrett and Cory play UNLV. It was actually my first time TO Vegas and not just driving through. We stayed at Lyndsey’s Aunt’s parent’s house. We had such a fun road trip driving down, singing and dancing.

Probably the best part about the rip was Yoga. It was the first time we had both done Bikram Yoga. Her aunt and unc

le talked us in to it. I had wanted to do it for a while. It was awesome. Well… it was hell. But it was great! Fifteen

minutes into the class, I was dripping in sweat. It was a 90-minute class of absolute hell. But afterBut afterwards you feel AMAZING but smell AWFUL.

Seriously, I’ve never smelled so gross in my life. It was a great class and interesting to see the different types of people. No one is really wearing close. And man alive, some people sweat like a fountain. A guy in front of me was wearing a Speedo and sweat was streaming off of his limbs. Sick.

We went over to the game at 1:00. It was gorgeous out! The best part… Garrett actually played. His first time on the actual BYU team he played about 30 minutes. He actually played REALLY well first half. He had this amazing run where he took a guy on, juked him out, then another guy, hit it far post… and then it bounced out. Garrett had even started a victory dance. But it didn’t go in. L He played amazing! Second half… let’s just say everyone sort of struggled.

That night we went to The Strip. Vegas is lame. Let’s be honest. We spent like $30 bucks splitting a mac-n-cheese and frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.

That was fun. We walked about a block up to the Bellagio fountain, and I was spent. We parked by

Caesar’s Palace. I of course, had to gamble. I was the only sinner of the group. Garrett gave me $5 to do some slots.

We went from $5 to $7.50 and then cashed out. Lyndsey wanted to teach me a lesson and have me spend the $2.50 that we won. So I did… except I won $100 buck off of it! Hahaha. It was awesome. Garrett had just been to collect his $7.50 from the teller and she looked at him like he was lame. Then went back to get $100. Good times. It paid for our trip there and back. Satan is good.

Overall, I think I maxed out on Vegas for my life. It’s a depressing city. You lose faith in society.

You can find out more about our trip from Lyndsey, here.

Two weeks after we went to California with the Cosgraves and Hadfields, we went back for the baby birthday part at Disneyland. Violet, Brady and Olivia were all born about the same time of year. Last year Garrett and I missed out on the bash in Arizona because of Tahiti (longing sigh…) where they did a cowboy-themed party with a real live pony.

This year they took it up a notch at took everyone to Disneyland. We stayed at one of Rich’s resorts about 2 blocks from the parks and had a few different rooms. I drove down with Chris, Eric and Joe. Garrett had soccer and met us there the next day.

It was nice to be in the warm-er weather. Friday we all went to the beach and had some fantastically, awful beach volleyball. It might have been one of the most boring games ever. We enjoyed lots of time with the family cooking, eating, watching fireworks from the balcony, and seeing the little kids play dress-up.

Saturday we all went do Disneyland. The older kids (I guess that's us) got a hopper pass and spent the majority of the day in some pretty long lines. But we had a blast. We did get the chance to see the kids ride some rides and see Donald Duck. So cute! We were there for the majority of the day. I was able to watch BYU kill San Diego on Garrett's iPhone while we waited in line at Toy Story.