Orlando and Elk

In the middle of October I headed to Orlando for EY's Taxation of Mining Conference.  The seminar was at the Waldorf Astoria (so nice!) and because Ryan used to travel so much and has so many points I was upgraded to a suite!  It was SO nice!  I had my own little balcony and everything.

My old boss was there so one night he treated me to dinner and drinks at Ocean Prime with a couple other EY folks.  We even got our server to have a shot with us.

The next night everyone at the conference was treated to dinner at The House of Blues and then the Cirque du Soleil show, La Nouba.  The show was amazing!  The strength and beauty of the human body blows me away.  Here my colleague, Anastasia, and I are getting back on the bus after the show.

While I was in Orlando, Ryan was elk hunting with Roy, a friend from church, one of Roy's neighbors, and my brother Mark.  WARNING:  There will be a picture included below if that makes you at all queasy and you would like to skip it.  Anyway, between the four of them they had five cow tags and had four days to fill them.  They rented a condo out by Edwards, Colorado near the ranch they were hunting on.  It wasn't a guided hunt but apparently there is some deal that ranchers make with the state to allow a certain number of in-state permitted hunters to hunt on their land.  For that, the ranchers get a certain amount of elk tags to sell to out of state hunters (or something) where they do act as guides (I think).  Anyway, the boys filled all FIVE tags!  I think we have plenty of meat for the rest of the winter!  Ryan has already made elk chili with homemade cinnamon rolls.  MMMMMMMMMMM.

And below is a picture of Ryan with his first elk.