29 July 2007

It's time for corn on the cob and we've been buying amazingly sweet, tender corn at a nearby farm. Helen helped pick out the corn we ate for lunch yesterday. She'll happily make a meal of corn on the cob alone.


When you're 9 years old, most playgrounds are too tame, but Sophie loves to climb a rope tower at a local park. It's about 15 feet tall. She's advocating for Brandan to build a climbing wall at home.


The kids waded in the stream that runs through the same park.

Gibson turned 4 months old this week and marked this important milestone by learning to roll over. We're pretty impressed that he can move his own mass.

22 July 2007

This is Sophie. I am teaching Gibson to sit. He still has a way to go.


We went to the county fair on Wednesday. There are lots of horses, pigs and cows, but the main attraction is the rides.


On Saturday we went on a picnic to Applegate Lake, a beautiful reservoir created by a dam on the Applegate River.

15 July 2007

Sophie baked her first pie with cherries she picked herself at a U-pick farm.


It was HOT this week- almost 100 degrees every day. The kids love to cool off by playing at a water park. The park has sprinklers with different sprinkling patterns that turn off and on automatically. Abe is standing on one of the sprinklers here.


Helen loves to wear her swimsuit, but she has no intention of getting wet.


The latest on the patio: We ordered 5,000 pounds of slate, but it looks like we'll need more to finish the job. Or to be accurate, for Brandan to finish the job. Brandan has lifted each rock at least 3 times. Becky lifted the phone to order the slate. The patio and walkway are about 3/5 the way done.


No photos for this news -- Sophie played the piano today in Sacrament Meeting for the musical number and did a terrific job. Becky was called to be a substitute Relief Society teacher, possibly the poshest job in the church. The Bishopric are careful not to overburden mothers with new babies.

8 July 2007

We had a great 4th of July culminating in a firework show put together by our neighbor, Matt. It gets bigger every year and is pretty spectacular. This year's show lasted over 30 minutes and included plenty of mortars (the big, explode-in-the-sky, fairly illegal sort). This is a photo of Matt and another friend, Spencer, assembling legal fireworks in elaborate combinations -- they hot glue the fireworks to boards, then string dynamite fuse between them for a non-stop show.


Sarah, Joe and Zina came to visit from Thursday through Sunday. We had a great time together. Here Sophie and Zina are standing in front of the black bear enclosure at a wildlife preserve. The preserve's main purpose is to rehabilitate animals and return them to the wild when possible. The bears look fat and lazy, but the fence is electrified.


We took a trip with Sarah, Joe and Zina on jet boats up the Rogue River. This photo is before we started up the river. If we had taken a photo afterwards, some of us would be soaked, none of us would have hats and our hairdos would look alarming. We toured down the river enjoying beautiful scenery and wildlife, stopped for a delicious dinner, then raced back up the river, doing 360 turns with lots of splashing and spraying. Great fun!


This is Sophie typing. At the jetboat dinner, we saw this young deer. It came right by the decks and ate food people threw to it. I was able to take this picture. It was awsome!

1 July 2007

Snuggling Thursday morning- such cute kids!

We're taking care of our friends' animals while they're out of town. The kids love being farmers for a week. Our friends have turkeys, chickens, 8 sheep, a cat, 2 calves and a llama named either Bob or Bill (we can't remember). Here's a photo of Helen with a texas long horn calf named Plain.

Sophie and Abe have swimming lessons every Tuesday and Thursday at the YMCA. Sophie has gone from hating water to a good swimmer in only 3 years. Abe likes swimming as long as he doesn't get his face wet. Sometimes he makes it through a whole class without getting his hair wet, either.

Brandan is teaching Sophie how to turn pots on his pottery wheel.

Brandan worked at laying some slate on the patio this week. We'll post another photo when it's further along. Abe and Helen love to play in the sand while Brandan works on setting the slate in place.