Family
Ryan is the second born of 7 children. He grew up in Utah with his family and had many adventures as you might imagine with 6 siblings. Some of his favorite memories are his family's road trips to visit his extended family in Canada. These trips have happened all throughout his life and he has fun, unique stories from each and every trip. His family is still incredibly close. They have regular gatherings to celebrate birthdays, holidays, and achievements. He also enjoys a yearly family reunion where many of his extended family members travel from all over the country to camp together in southeast Utah.
Hobbies
Ryan has been a big nerd all his life, and proudly so. He loves to play fantasy and sci-fi video games. Some of his favorites are among the Zelda series as well as the Borderlands Series. His love of video games extends to coding games. He taught himself Python coding for fun and designed an Asteroids clone over one summer in college.
He loves to read, especially books by his favorite author, Brandon Sanderson. In general he enjoys fantasy books.
Another thing that he loves to do is play board games. This is a hobby that is shared with his older sister. Both of them have an ever growing collection of card and board games. The love of board games that he has includes Role Play Games such as Dungeons & Dragons which he plays with friends and family on occasion.
Ryan is also big on outdoor activities. He runs every morning and often runs for local and charitable causes. He has a large collection of medals from his running achievements.
He has been playing Ultimate Frisbee since college, no matter the weather. Even an injury to his Achilles tendon didn't stop him from playing long once his doctor cleared him. His love of discs has recently grown into a love of disc golf. He can be found every few days playing disc golf with a friend or one of his brothers.
His summers are typically spent hiking and camping all over. Any trip he takes, he searches the area for new hikes with cool places to see along the way. He is always up for a new adventure in nature. Ryan has never shied away from being outside, even in the snow. He loves to snowshoe and sled all winter long. He has even gotten other people to join him on his frozen adventures. After all, the outdoors is better enjoyed with friends and family.
Finally, he enjoys watching sports. Ryan often watches Ultimate games, disc golf tournaments, races, and Soccer games. If he can go to a game in person, he is even more happy.
Work and Education
Ryan has always been smart with a love of math and science. He went to college and got simultaneous degrees in Mathematics and Physics from Utah State University. He has never stopped learning as it is one of his favorite things to do. A large example of this is that one summer he taught himself to code on a computer just because he felt like it.
He combined his love of numbers and coding and decided to work in data analysis. He began his career in data in 2015 and has always continued to expand his knowledge, much to the satisfaction of his bosses. He has always been a hard worker in every job he has had from a paper rout in his youth, to the job he holds now that supports his family.
Traveling
Ryan has a great love of traveling the world. From his childhood trips to Canada, he learned to love taking trips. He has traveled to both the Pacific coast and the Atlantic coast as well as many places in-between. He shares his love of traveling with Emerald as well as friends and family.
He has traveled to Canada many times over since his dad's side of the family is Canadian. These trips are almost never done by plane. The 40 hour road trips each way often include many stops along the way to visit national monuments, cool landmarks, and unique locations. Some examples are Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore, the Mall of America, and religious historical sights.
Ryan served a religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints abroad in Hungary. He still remembers some Hungarian that he had to learn for the mission and has fond memories of his time in the country.
Since being married, his travel has only increased. He and Emerald try their best to travel to a new place at least once a year.
Within the United States, they have traveled to Florida, Arizona, and Minnesota. If they are making a road trip out of the vacation instead of flying, they stop to visit places along the way as he always did with his family growing up. Outside of the United States, they have visited Canada, Honduras, Mexico, and Belize.
On each trip, Ryan likes to try something new. Some of these new things include holding unique animals, swimming in new oceans or lakes, hiking in new places, and trying out thrilling new activities. He is always finding new ways to have an adventure.
While he loves his vacations with Emerald, he enjoys occasional trips with friends and family as well. It only helps that his friends love to travel almost as much as he does.