Dan receives his Master's degree from Berkeley University

It seemed like the minute we got back from Mexico, we boarded a plane to go to California.  Dan had chosen to walk in his graduation from Berkeley.  He finished in August, but the ceremony was on Monday, Jan. 13.  It was a fun weekend with Dan and Jieun.  We spent Saturday in the De Young Art Museum.  We lucked out and ended up there on a "free" Saturday.  There was an interesting special exhibit called, "The Soul of a Nation."  by black artists in the mid 1900's expressing themselves and their desires for freedom. 
We ate at Pier 39 at a seafood restaurant, and enjoyed some other good food while we were there.

 Sunday we enjoyed the local color at Sacrament meeting in Alameda.  We were told if we really wanted local color we should go to the Berkeley ward, but it was a little further away. 

Riding the subway to San Francisco 

We used public transportation this trip, which is always interesting.  Both times we've been to San Francisco, since we moved back from Atlanta, we've been surprised at what a dirty city it is.  We would have thought that with the reputation Californians have of being "green," their city would look more the part.  They have quite a large homeless population as well. 

We never rode a trolley, but they are fun to see.

Of course, the highlight of our trip, as well as the reason for our being there, was attending the graduation.  It was  a small group of graduates in a couple of specialized programs.  Dan's group graduated in Machine Learning.  The other group graduated in Cyber Security.  Dan received a special award (along with his group) for his Capstone project, the final  project of his program.  He and his group designed an APP called "SNOUT."  It's free in the APP store.  It is a mushroom identifying APP that you can use out hiking to identify any fungi you come across.  They stayed away from saying which mushrooms are safe to eat--too much liability, but the APP is well designed with great artwork (by Jieun)  The dean said that they won because, not only was the app functional, but it was fun.

 The Campus at Berkeley.  Below is where Dan's major is housed.

Dan and Jieun just prior to the graduation

Dan, receiving his reward for his mushroom APP with one of the members
of his team.

Dan, receiving his fake diploma.

As is usual for the past several years, we were gone on Caitlyn's birthday.  She turned 20.  

On arriving home: 

Roy and I dropped by Tom's grave and took some
Spring flowers.

Crista sent us this picture of Bridget in her Christmas
pajamas.  There were no trico nightgowns in her size--
these were more functional.

Dojin came over to visit and no one was home.  He was fine, though.  He just played in the backyard until I got there.  He loves coming to grandma's.

I spent a couple of hours with Nick's girls on Friday night while Roy, Nick and Sara and Nick's friend Toby went to dinner.  I could have gone to dinner instead of Sara, but decided I'd rather spend time with my granddaughters.  They were darling.  We played games, read stories and ice skated on the downstairs floor (it's slipperier).  Avie loved our family picture we had taken at Jennie's wedding.  It's still unframed on my bedroom floor.  At one point she ran out of my room holding it.  She is starting to say a few words, one of which is "fra" which means she wants to watch "Frozen."

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.  Effie gave me a huge hug, she was so glad to see me.  

I already sent along this piece of good news, but it deserves to be repeated and recorded.  Andy and Carrie Cook added a new member to the Bruce Cook family this week when they adopted their new son: Luke David Bruno Cook.  Congratulations to their family.  We need to still keep Uncle Bruce in our prayers as he is still struggling from his illness.

Ward conferences started.  It's a blessing to be involved in visiting all the ward and associating with the other stake officers.  This year our theme for ward conference is (no surprise) the restoration of the gospel.  We have been asked by our prophet to immerse ourselves in studying the restoration, so this is a good start for me.  We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives--the Book of Mormon, the Priesthood, temple covenants, the plan of salvation and on and on, all because of the beginning of the restoration of all things.  I have a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and his role in restoring all of the things I mentioned above, as well as many other things.  I am grateful for his sacrifices.  I'm also grateful for the sacrifices my ancestors made as they accepted the gospel so that I could have these blessings in my life.