31 August 2008

Brandan's sister Becky and her husband Aaron are expecting their first baby, due any minute. Becky made them this quilt to welcome their baby girl.




Becky pulled the TV out Thursday night to watch Obama's inspiring speech and soon all the kids were lined up to watch, too. We're raising the next generation of informed citizens.



We spent the last Saturday of the summer on the Jedediah Smith River in the Redwood Forest. Brandan, Sophie and Abe floated a section of the very lazy river. It took them 1-1/2 hours to float less than 1/2 a mile.


Becky learned from them and floated a shorter section with Abe and Sophie.


Helen liked floating on the inner tube in a shallow spot near the beach.

There were lots of tiny frogs in the river. Sophie caught and released a few. We saw a couple of snakes, too, but no one tried to catch them.

Gibson's idea of heaven is digging. He spent a couple of hours at the edge of the river digging holes and filling them in again. When we were ready to go, Brandan dunked Gibson in the river to clean him off and Becky carried him to the car to change for the drive home.

24 August 2008

Our stake's welfare assignment is a pear farm. Every August, hundreds of volunteers harvest thousands of pounds of pears. Sophie has wanted to go pick pears since we moved here. Brandan woke her up at 5:30 Monday morning to go pick pears with him before work. Picking pears lived up to Sophie's expectations and she can't wait to go again. In the photo, the orange ring she is holding is for measuring pears. The canneries only want pears that are 2-1/2 inches in diameter or larger.


Abe and Brandan made an F-15 fighter jet from a paper kit and took it out to the field for a test flight. They used a big rubber band and a stick to catapult the airplane into the air.


Our kids continue to surprise us. Helen, our princess of all things pink, asked for a Spiderman toothbrush. We're not sure why she likes Spiderman, but it's easy to please a 3 year old for less than $2.


The kids asked what we were having for dinner Thursday night. Falafel. "NOOOO! We hate falafel! We'll starve to death!" Yeah, not much chance of them starving to death. It took them about 15 minutes to finish them all off. Maybe they had falafel confused with something else.

We had great fun at a pool party Saturday night. The photo below shows Gibson trying to hit a shuttlecock with a baseball bat.

17 August 2008

Sophie calls this "practicing the piano." Her piano teacher has been in China for the past 6 weeks and she hasn't had a lesson in that time. Becky still makes her practice every day, but Sophie's definition of practicing is fairly flexible.


Thursday and Friday were both record setting days with temperatures of 108 degrees. Yikes! The icy water of the sprinkler park felt terrific.


Becky was the only person at the park older than 12 playing in the sprinklers, but she's not a nice enough mom to sit and sweat at the park just so her kids can play in the water.


Usually when we have the missionaries over, they bring a game or an object lesson for us. Yesterday they challenged us to balance 3 butter knives on top of three overturned mugs which they had carefully spaced from each other in a triangle. They stumped Brandan and Becky, but Sophie found the solution. Impressive!

We've watched gobs and gobs of the Olympics this week. We even let our kids stay up late (9 pm) to watch their favorites. A week of this schedule is wearing on them and they tucked themselves in to a cozy row to watch Friday night. We've loved the beginning track and field events, the 200 mile per hour badmitton serves and Sophie and Abe's special USA hand clap when our team does something great. And we think Debbie Phelps deserves something-- maybe one of those pins like the boy scouts' moms get.

10 August 2008

For the second summer, we're doing a Kids' Summer Book Club. It combines 3 of our favorite things: books, crafts and food. We invite friends to read the same book, then meet together to talk about the book and do activities. For July we read The King's Equal by Katherine Paterson. We made bread and wolf masks at our book club meeting. Great fun.


Sophie pulled a 7 inch carrot from her garden this week. She's posing in front of the tunnel o' beans that she and Abe built between their garden beds. The beans have completely enclosed their bamboo supports, creating a lushly shaded hallway.


Abe had his last swim lesson this week. He still manages to swim without getting his hair wet, but he's gained a lot of confidence this summer and really enjoys the water.


We don't bother planting corn because we get the most delicious corn at a nearby farm. It's picked fresh the morning you buy it, very sweet and very tender. We had some for dinner along with Becky's current favorite sandwich: carmelized onions and Emmenthaler cheese grilled panini style. Add some fresh fruit for the perfect summer dinner.

It's time for the Olympics so we've pulled the TV out of the closet and are enjoying the games. Sophie and Abe spent most of Saturday watching TV (it's only every 4 years, right?). Sophie's favorite event was fencing, Abe likes fencing and swimming. Abe only wants Americans to win. The opening ceremonies were stunning. Brandan and Becky loved watching Michael Phelps break the world record in the 400 meter indivdual medley-- good competition, high performance, his mom screaming "Go, Michael, GO MICHAEL"-- the best of the Olympics (and the American won).

3 August 2008

We visited one of our favorite parks for the first time this summer and Abe was excited to find he could easily climb the 15 foot rope structure in the center of the park. In the photo, Abe has a piece of cotton between his teeth. Before going to the park, Abe had a cavity filled and the piece of cotton kept him from biting his cheek while his mouth was numb.


The same park has a lazy stream with a perfect wading hole.


Brandan took a chance on ordering a pair of glasses online. He got these great looking frames with lenses, UV protection, anti-glare and scratch resistant coatings, plus shipping for $30.00. You need the details of your eyeglasses prescription, then you order online. He used GlobalEyeglasses.com.


Becky ran in the Cascade Lakes Relay this Friday and Saturday. Sixty teams of 12 runners each ran from Diamond Lake to Bend. The race is 217 miles long-- Becky ran 19 of them. The teams divide into 2 vans and take turns running round the clock until the finish line. Becky was in van #1 for our team and the photo below shows us after our last runner finished his last leg. It was an amazing experience and will be remembered for 5 fantastic new friends and the breathtaking scenery we ran through.

If you're ever in a relay, do your best to get assigned to van #1. Benefits include clean porta-potties along the way and the chance to take a shower and eat while you wait for van #2 to finish. Our team took about 30 hours to finish. We're hopeful of placing in some catagory -- maybe mixed sub-masters, but final results haven't been published.