MaRyLaNd

Nate is currently working at a lab on campus where he designs, creates and flies UAVs (Unmanned Arial Vehicles or remote control airplanes).

He LOVES working here. He comes home nearly every day and has some exciting news to share about how airplanes did/did not fly... Usually it's how incredibly bad one of them crashed.

He was lucky enough to be on the team making a "Quadrotor" to take to a competition in Maryland. Here is what a quadrotor looks like for all of those out there who, like me, would normally have no idea what was coming out of my mouth:

 So you can see that it has four propellers and four motors making it a Quad-Rotor. 

Their's was the only quadrotor entered into this competition. Usually USU brings a fixed-wing UAV and gets 1st but they decided that it was time to challenge themselves - and boy, was it a challenge. There is so much that goes into making something fly and it gets way more complicated when you add 4 motors - not only that, but when you take it to another part of the country, you have to re-tune it to the current climate/elevation. The process was pretty frustrating for Nate and his team because it just wasn't working for the first 3 days of the competition. Miraculously, they got it to do some things that they didn't expect they would and ended up doing pretty well in the competition considering they brought such a hard UAV. 

After the competition, we celebrated by eating some awesome sea-food and going to the beach.

We also took a trip to Washington D.C. which was awesome. I have been here once when I was in 2nd grade and it was fun to go back. We started with the Museum of Natural History. I could have stayed for HOURS but they only gave me one.

But they got to spend FOUR HOURS at the Air and Space Museum! 

This was Nate's face as we walked in:

Wow right? That something so nerdy makes my husband so excited... Yikes.

I got to learn a lot of information about certain spaceships and planes there but I've forgotten it all now...

 I had a great time with my hubs and his team. It was really hard not to feel like Penny on The Big Bang Theory... And I did learn just how much of a nerd I married. I knew he was one before but I saw IT ALL on this trip. And guess what, I love him even more for it. :-)