Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

The new Harry Potter movie is going to be ready view this November, and they have just barely released the new trailer for it. If you haven't seen it yet, you can view it here. I'm looking foward to see how it turns out, good or bad.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Trailer

Dick Baker Invitational

This is news from way back in the spring, but because I just barely got my pictures taken off my phone, you aren't seeing this until now.

The Dick Baker Invitational is a track invite for a select few Oregon high schools at the 4A level. My school happens to be one of them. Despite being an underclassman I had the chance to go this past year and it was pretty amazing.

As you can see from the photos that I took, this high school is hooked up with cash, allowing them to buy super nice track equipment. It rivals that of bigger school's equipment. This is all because of Nike's donations. I sure wished I lived a little bit closer to Beaverton so I benefit from their generosity.

The stadium itself was probably only a few years old, let along the track and field.

The field was made of turf, and not the bad kind either. It felt good just to relax on.

Our girls team was excellent this past year, losing state by half a point due to some misfortunes. This proves it here when the girls swept the top three places in a throwing event, with top competitors in the state throwing.

The track was so nice that I couldn't stop looking at it, and had to snap a picture of it finally.

The sand pit for jumping was just as nice as the rest. Soft and very silt-like.

Olympic Training Center

While on the same trip that took me to Philmont, we stayed at my cousins for a few days in Colorado Springs. One of the things that we viewed while there was a tour of one of the U.S.'s Olympic Training Centers. The neat part was seeing where all the athletes train, especially with the Bejing Olympics coming this August. The training center focused on more indoor events, so a lot of the outdoor events train other places.

When we drove into the the parking lot this sign greeted us to state where we were.

A long sidewalk connected all of the buildings together. It also had every olympic sport portrayed with statues. You can see soccer on the right side.

This was the main training room for the wrestlers, who do two styles: Greco Roman and freestyle

There was a big pool where many of the water athletes practice such as the polo team or a lap swimmer. Unfortunately most of the big name swimmers train elsewhere, so we weren't able to glimpse Michael Phelps.

Inside the main building we could see an Olympic Hall of Fame made up of fabled Olympians from the US, like the 1980 Miracle Hockey team.

Outside you could see a statue of athletes holding up the world. It was very complex and detailed.

Here you can read "Amazing Awaits" which is the motto from the U.S. Olympic team right now.

This was a one of the gyms where the gymnists could practice. A basketball team could also use this facility, as there was a gym floor under the mats.

The weight room was huge, like it needs to be to build up an Olympian body.

Philmont LDS Mountain Trek 2008

I recently had the oppurtunity to go to the Boy Scout's Philmont Ranch in New Mexico. I have to say that it is a once in a lifetime experience. While my family stayed at the base camp training center, doing activities and being trained in the Church there, I got to go on a mountain trek and explore what the mountains there.

The experience was neat in the fact that you had a backpacking trip, along with activities to do. I tried real rock climbing for the first time as well as working in a blacksmith's forge. That only scratched the surface. We also had LDS devotionals each night, and I got to meet General Authorities like Pres. Dahlquist and Pres. Neider. If you ever get the chance go! Below are pictures from the trek.

This was picture taken on the last day. You can see the valley from here.

This was the reservoir where we held our Sunday service.

This is the rocky area where I took the first picture. You can see one of my rangers (counselors) Brock.

This is where we camped one night. It was nice for us because we didn't have to do as many bear precautions, a must with all the bears around.

I thought that this picture looked great and showed a trail we were hiking on.

Another valley picture.

When you live in Astoria its nice to see blue sky.

This is usually what our tent area looked like.

There was always a scenic valley picture and this was one of the best.

You get to see me in this picture, of the same valley.