19 June 2016

Helen, Abe and Gibson had their last day of school on Tuesday.  Becky asked them to make a face to show how they were feeling.  Gib is sad to see the end of school, mainly because he will miss his friends.  Helen and Abe are happy.  Abe is holding a whoopie cushion he won as a prize at Campus Day, the annual year-end carnival at the middle school.

We've set a goal to hike to the top of Mt. McLoughlin by the end of the summer.  With an elevation of 9495 feet, Mt. McLoughlin is a prominent feature in our landscape.  

The trail to the top of Mt. McLoughlin and back is over 10 miles long so we need to prepare.  Our plan is simple.  First, Becky and the kids are going to do the same hike every Wednesday and try to go faster each time.  Here's a photo of Helen and Gibson from our hike this week.

Then our whole family will go on a long hike every Saturday, increasing our distance every time.  This Saturday we hiked to the top of Grizzly Peak.  Depending on the source, this hike is listed between 4 and 5 ½ miles long.

Here are Abe, Gibson and Helen on top!  We had beautiful hiking weather. We left on our hike about 4 pm so we almost had the trail to ourselves.  Thanks to a wet spring, the mountain was covered in wildflowers. 

One side of the mountain burned in 2003 and a section of the trail is dotted with snags left over from the fire.  The forest is regenerating, though, and without the trees blocking the view, we could see Mt. Shasta to the south and the towns to the west.

Becky works out with a group of ladies at our church every Monday and Friday.  Abe, Helen and Gibson came along this Friday with plans to play in the gym.  However, the missionaries were holding a zone conference in the gym so we all had to squeeze into the nursery.  One of the moms took this photo of Abe reading to some of the kids.