28 June 2009

Third time's a charm!  This is the third summer Abe has taken swimming lessons. At the end of two weeks he could swim by himself across the width of the pool.  Thanks to a super-talented teacher, he gained a lot of confidence in the water and enjoys swimming very much.

This was Helen's first session of swimming lessons.  She liked sitting on the steps and playing with princess dolls when it wasn't her turn to practice skills with the teacher.  She likes pretending that she's doing a sit dive from the stairs in our family room, then "swimming" around the room.

We're unrepentant bibliovores around here.  A weekly trip to the library is as essential as a trip to the grocery store.  We recently learned that our library has a limit of 60 items per library card which exceeds even our appetite for books.  Here are the books we currently have on loan: books on the Constitution for Brandan, an eclectic mix for Becky, adventure/fantasy for Sophie (she's halfway through 2 trilogies right now-- Lord of the Rings and the Bartimaeus Trilogy), lots of Magic Treehouse and other easy readers  for Abe, strictly fairy tales for Helen and a couple of picture books for Gibson.

21 June 2009

Happy Father's Day!  Brandan is certainly our favorite around here, even before he took us to the coast for a couple of days.  The weekend included everything our kids think makes a perfect vacation: a swimming pool, cable TV and french fries. Our favorite activity was a hike to Thunder Rock Cove and Secret Beach.  We love a hike that begins at a bridge, an auspicious beginning.

Here's the view of Thunder Rock Cove.  So beautiful.  If we lived on the coast, we'd shave our heads.  The wind blows constantly, tangling our hair into countless snarls.

Miner Creeks ends in a waterfall onto Secret Beach where it spills into the ocean.

Here's a photo of Secret Beach.  Really, really idyllic.  The beach is small and surrounded by cliffs.  The rocks shelter the beach from the wind.  Sophie would like to live here-- we could call her Sophie Crusoe.  

The forests on the coast are very lush.  The trail was a narrow strip in a green tunnel.  Driving along Highway 101 we saw turnouts every 1/4 mile or so, each leading to another breathtaking view or beautiful beach.  This hike delighted us so much that we've begun a hunt for our favorite hike along the Southern Oregon Coast.

14 June 2009

These radishes are the first things we have eaten from our garden.  They are blister-your-mouth hot, but roasting them mellows their flavor.

Here's a fun trick to try at home-- if you squeeze a sugar cube with pliers until it breaks, you'll see a flash of light.  We found it works best to do it in a dark place and squeeze slowly.  Crushing the sugar creates positive and negative ions.  Energy jumping between the ions reacts with nitrogen in the air to create the flash, also known as triboluminescence.  

We've had lots of rain this week which makes beach quality sand in the sandbox.  Gibson loves to dig.  

"Helen" conveniently rhymes with "watermelon" which is one of her favorite summer treats.

7 June 2009

Sleeping Beauty-- Helen fell asleep on the floor in a pile of pink.

This photo is from family night.  Sophie is Nehemiah, busily building the wall around Jerusalem.  Abe is the bad guy, Sanballat, trying to get her to stop.  We read President Uchtdorf's talk from conference "We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down."

For the past 5 years, Brandan has walked Sophie to school and then has ridden his bike on to work.  Sophie starts middle school next year and the middle school starts an hour later than elementary school.  This week was Brandan's last week to walk Sophie to school, at least for a while.  Maybe they can walk together when she's in high school.

Flashback to 2004 and Sophie's first day of first grade.  She's kept her enthusiasm for learning, love of her teachers and fun with her friends throughout elementary school.

We went to meet Abe and Sophie coming home on the last day of school.  A bittersweet day.  We have lots of fun planned for the summer, but they both really love school and will miss their teachers and seeing friends every day. 

Brandan didn't waste time putting the kids to work.  He's putting baseboards in the bedrooms that he laid wood floors in this Spring and let the kids paint them first.