25 November 2012

We made our annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage this week to visit our families.  We started the week in Utah.  The City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake opened since our last visit.  Gibson liked the Christmas displays in Macy's store windows.  All the Christmas decorations were made of candy.  This giant ornament looked like a honeycomb topped with little candy bees wearing Santa hats.

The kids enjoyed playing in the children's section of the Church History Museum.  Here Gibson is pretending to fish with his cousin, Sasha.

We took a tour of Welfare Square while we were in Utah.  It was our first time to visit and we were very impressed by the very large capacity for welfare relief made possible by lots and lots of small individual contributions.

Welfare Square has a Deseret Industries store on site and Sofi enjoyed looking for thrift store treasures. She found 2 cute dresses and a couple of pairs of shoes.

Brandan's family had to go to work and school while we were visiting, but we enjoyed getting together with them in the evening.  One night we played a word game called Quiddler.  It's kind of a cross between Scrabble and poker.  The older cousins formed Team SASS and held their own against the adult teams.  In the photo are Sutton, Salem, Abe and Sofi.

The cousins also played a Michael Jackson dance off game on the playstation.  Our kids found they could get just as high a score dancing gangnam style as they did trying to copy Michael Jackson.

We drove up to Idaho on Wednesday.  Zina showed Sofi how to catch the chickens.

The best time to try to get a photo of the cousins on Thanksgiving was at the kids' table right before dinner.  Starting on the left, the photo shows Helen, Gibson, Sawyer, Hayden (his blond head is barely visible above Gibson's shoulder,) Sofi, Sy, Gage (Hayden's twin,) Abe and Zina.

We drove to Hailey on Friday with Sarah's family.  The weather was pleasantly warm for Idaho in November.  We went to a newly designated nature area along the Wood River.  This photo shows the Bow Bridge which was designed to look like a giant bow.   ~   We drove a lot in a week, but the opportunity to spend time with our well-loved family members made the time spent driving worth it.  Unfortunately we brought a little stomach bug with us.  By the time we got back home, Brandan was the only one of us to escape it.  Hopefully, we didn't spread it too far--we want to be welcome to come back next year!

An enormous arrow juts from the ground near the Bow Bridge.  Sarah's husband, Joe, machined the nock on the end of the arrow.

We also visited the Ernest Hemingway Memorial along Trail Creek.  Hemingway spent his summers in Ketchum, Idaho for over 20 years.

18 November 2012

Helen made some sun catchers this week by filling metal frames with tiny plastic beads.  When she was finished with her designs, we baked the sun catchers to melt the beads.

Sofi's school had an exhibition night to showcase the students' work from the first trimester.  Sofi's social studies class prepared a display about the industrial revolution.  Sofi reported on the invention of the typewriter.  Unfortunately, the display space was too small for all the reports and so the displays were stacked 3 deep.  We moved Sofi's poster to the top of the stack to take a photo.  With all the time the students spent preparing for the exhibition night, we were disappointed that the exhibits weren't carefully displayed.

Sofi's model of the expanding universe was easier to see.  Sofi also had a short story she wrote for her physical science class and a logo she drew by writing equations for her pre-calculus class at the exhibit.

We've been decorating a turkey with blessings written on paper feathers this month.  Gibson drew a cute turkey with buttons for eyes and a belly button.  It's fun to read what other people are thankful for and to see the cute ways they decorate the feathers.

11 November 2012

We cleaned out our vegetable garden this week.  We still had tomatoes, but they tasted mushy and mealy.  Tomatoes grown in November do not have the same flavor as tomatoes grown in August.  We had our first freezing temperatures this weekend.  In the photo, Helen is stomping on the plants so we can fit more into the yard bin.

Most of our trees still have their leaves.  Abe raked up the few leaves that have fallen in our yard, hoping to get enough of a pile to jump in.

Abe and Gib both received the "Ramtastic" award at school.  Each trimester, the teachers recognize a boy and a girl from each class who shows good character.

 

On Friday we went to see Nanda, an acrobatalistic Ninja group.  The newspaper described their show as Lord of the Rings meets the Matrix meets the Three Stooges meets Jackie Chan, which pretty much sums it up.  Sofi and Helen got the group's autographs afterwards.

Gib made Ninja headbands for himself and Koala.

Today was our ward's Primary program.  Abe, Helen and Gibson all participated.  Helen played "Stand for the Right" in a trio of violins.  The photo shows her warming up before church started.

4 November 2012

Happy Halloween!  Gib was a green triceratops this year-- his favorite color and his favorite dinosaur.  Sofi was Katniss Everdeen.  She wore a fancy red dress like Katniss did when she was being interviewed before the Hunger Games began.  Helen was Supergirl with an extra sparkly tutu.  Abe was a hot dog.

Helen started a mini pumpkin plant with her second grade class last year.  She brought it home at the end of school and planted it in our garden.  She harvested 9 mini pumpkins this week.  We roasted 6 of them and made pumpkin soup to eat on Halloween.

Brandan and Becky both voted this week.  We love Oregon's vote-by-mail system.  The only way it could get any easier is if we could vote online.

Three cheers for Sofi who got her learner's driving permit this week!  She had to show pretty much every piece of identification she has collected in her 15 years of life and pass a written exam.  To get a regular driver's license, she will need to be 16 years old, log at least 100 hours of practice driving with her learner's permit and pass an actual driving test.  Brandan took Sofi driving for her first time on Saturday. 

Abe's fall soccer season ended with a tournament on Saturday.  His first game started at 8 am.  Brandan coached Abe's team again this year.  Abe has a lot of hustle and plays with his brain, with some fancy footwork thrown in.  He's fun to watch.