22 May 2016

Helen and Gibson's class went on an overnighter this week to the Siskiyou Field Institute.  Their class slept in tents and yurts, went hiking, played in the creek and learned about the local ecology.  Becky went along as a chaperone.

The educational part of the trip focused on birds, including identifying birds and learning different features of different species.  Helen and Lucy are sad that this Anna's Hummingbird is dead and preserved in a plastic tube.

The campus included a ropes course.  The kids took turns trying out the obstacles.  It was fairly easy to climb through this net.

It was much harder to step from swing to swing like Gib is doing in this photo.

Here's a photo of Helen walking along a cable while holding a rope to steady herself.

One of the kids' favorite activities was playing in the creek.  On the first day, they went to the creek with an instructor to look for insects.  A couple of kids fell in and the rest just jumped in.  The second day the kids had free time to swim in the creek.  The kids had a lot of freedom on this trip to explore and do risky things like play in a creek, sharpen a stick or try to start a fire. 

Wednesday we went to Sofi's school Honors Night.  Her school recognizes excellent work and character with "Raise the Bar" awards.  Sofi was honored for "Best Project."  Her teachers gave her this award based on many high quality projects she has completed and they brought two examples to share.  In the photo, Sofi is standing to the left, one teacher is holding up an illustrated poem Sofi did at the beginning of the year and another teacher is talking about Sofi at the podium.

Here are Sofi and Mishawn after the program.  Sofi also received awards for valedictorian, the principal's list and having the highest SAT score in her class.  Sofi is wearing one of Grandma Linda's dresses.

Abe wasn't at the awards night because he was washing cars with the other scouts.  They hold a car wash every year to raise money for scout camp.  In the photo are Malakai, Abe and Tate.

We all went to Abe's school awards night on Thursday.  Abe received awards for math team, academic excellence and the Solid as a Rock award.

Abe has a smart group of friends!  Here are Camden, Abe, Ashton, Malakai, Spencer and Jake.

On Saturday we drove down to Northern California to hike at Castle Crags.  It was a cold, rainy day.  Our trail crossed the Pacific Coast Trail.

The trail started in thick forest and led up to interesting granite formations.  Here are some of the crags the park is named for.

The kids thought this rock looked like a head.  Gibson added some dogwood petals for eyes.

We all enjoyed this beautiful hike, but we'd like to go back when the weather is clear.

Abe spent Friday and Saturday at a scout campout.  The boys' favorite part was catching salamanders and racing them.  In the photo are Abe, Ashton, Malakai, Camden, Ben and Spencer.

Saturday was also Becky's birthday.  Brandan got her an ancestry DNA kit as a gift.  The kit includes a plastic tube to fill with spit and a mailer to return the sample to a lab.  She'll get the results in 6-8 weeks.  She's expecting a northern European mix of ancestors-- stay tuned!

We had birthday cake for lunch on Sunday when everyone was finally home together!  We appreciate these opportunities to celebrate Becky, from Mother's Day to her birthday.