25 July 2010

Becky was back to work on costumes for the Suessical before we even unpacked from our trip. The show had a photo shoot for the playbills this week which meant that all 80 cast members needed at least part of a costume to wear. Becky spent the week sewing costumes for Sophie and one other girl. The photo is from the costume shop at the theater. Abe, Helen and Gibson are learning their way around the theater pretty well as we go to pick up and drop off projects. Sophie's costume is the green shirt and purple skirt hanging next to Helen.

While Becky sewed, Abe read. He's discovered the magic of Harry Potter and is reading Book 2 right now.  He's also reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and a Boxcar Children mystery. Like Sophie, he can keep several plots straight at the same time. 

Brandan took the kids to tour a P2-B airplane on Saturday. The airplane sits just outside the airport and we've driven past it hundreds of times, but this was our first time inside. We don't know a lot about airplanes, but judging from the interior, we're guessing that it's old. 

The airplane is also big as you can see from this photo taken next to a propeller. 

Saturday was Pioneer Day. There are no fireworks or parades where we live to commemorate the day. We had a little dutch oven dinner in honor of the day. We weren't too authentic as it was 102 degrees outside. It had cooled down enough after dinner to poke our heads out from the air conditioned house to watch an object lesson taught by a missionary. How is faith like a fork, a spoon, a toothpick, a glass and a match? It's probably better to stick to "faith is like a seed" for doctrinal purposes, but Elder B.'s demonstration did get everyone's attention. 

20 July 2010

We spent several days last week at a reunion with Brandan's family in McCall, Idaho. McCall borders Payette Lake and is a photographer's dream-- the lake is beautiful from every angle.

Helen enjoyed having her photo taken with the view from the Osprey Cliff overlook in Ponderosa State Park. Sophie added a little goofiness to the scene.

Here's Sophie in a field of wildflowers with some Ponderosa pines in the background. These flowers had a distinctive oniony smell-- maybe they're related to chives? We didn't eat any of them. 

One of our favorite activities was playing in the lake. We found several beaches with great sand for digging in. Here Abe builds a fort with his cousin, Logan. 

Grandma Linda planned several games for the cousins to play one afternoon, including breaking open a pinata. Helen takes a turn in this photo.

Back at the lake, Sophie and Parker balance on logs. 

Gibson likes throwing rocks into the water, but has no intention of getting wet. His swimsuit is entirely unnecessary.

Here's Helen with 2 more cousins, Salem and Sutton. Helen plays mostly with boys at home-- our neighborhood and ward seem to be heavily weighted towards boys-- and she was delighted to have 5 girl cousins to play with all week.

There were 26 people staying in 2 condos for the reunion. The cups on the counter give you some idea of the crowd.

On our first full day of the trip, we all went to a ceramic shop and the cousins each painted an item. In our family, Sophie painted a plate and the others painted Christmas ornaments. We love the rich, vibrant colors-- very different from the pale, dull colors of the unfired glaze.

Brandan's Grandpa Norman died unexpectedly at age 94, so we left McCall to travel to Utah for his funeral. Norman left a legacy of hard work and integrity for his 11 children, 46 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Here is Norman as a young man with his wife, Beth. 

11 July 2010

While we were on vacation, Gibson's Grandpa taught him how to play slapjacks. It's now one of Gibson's favorite games to play. Sophie rests her hands on top of his and he tries to slap one of her hands before she can pull them away.

Uh, oh. . . too slow. She got away.

Ha ha! He got her!

Sophie is rehearsing for an upcoming play put on by a children's community theater. Can you guess from the photo which musical they're performing? The theater relies heavily on parent involvement and Becky is helping sew costumes. The hat is the first thing she has made. The show will run August 19-21.  (The name of the show is The Seussical. Sophie is one of the Whos.) 

4 July 2010

We got home early this week from our trip to Idaho. We spent Sunday with Sarah, Joe and Zina's family. Sophie really loved Zina's chickens. We also got to see Zina's 4H pig, Leon. He seemed pretty happy playing with his other piggy pals in the pig pen.

Joe likes to hunt and he had a new trophy since our last visit-- a rug made from the skin of a cougar. The cougar normally hangs out downstairs, but Joe put him on the floor upstairs so the kids could look at it up close. This year Joe drew tags for an elk and a bear. We'll check back with him in the fall to see how he did.

Abe, Helen, Zina and Sophie built a hotel for fairies in a tree behind their house. They gave us a tour of the hotel and showed how the rooms and beds were cleverly camouflaged in the branches and leaves of the tree.

Back at home, it was back to work. Before we left on our trip, we had an arborist look at 2 trees in our yard that appeared to be dying. The arborist confirmed our fears and recommended we take them out. Brandan cut the trees down on Saturday. The photo shows our 40 foot eucalyptus toppling down. Thanks to Sophie and Abe's help, Brandan took the trees down without damaging the neighbor's van, the fence, our other landscaping, or themselves.

Here's a photo of Brandan amid the carnage. He also cut down our chitalpa. The chitalpa tree used to bloom with big pink flowers in the summer and we will miss watching hummingbirds flitting around it. Now we're looking for new varieties of trees to replace the ones we lost.