5 June 2016

Our family drove to Portland and Vancouver Saturday morning for Memorial Day weekend.  Carson was working on his Eagle project on Saturday, too, so we stopped by to check it out.  Carson's family and friends painted an enormous map of the Untied States on the playground of an elementary school.  Abe grabbed a paintbrush and helped paint Arizona and Kentucky during the 15 minutes we were there.

 Our first stop in Portland was OMSI, the science museum.  Abe's favorite exhibit was the harmonograph.  The harmonograph uses pendulums to draw spiraling pictures.

 We met friends at OMSI and Tim took us on a short walking tour of Portland's newest bridge: bikers and pedestrians only.

 The Mays shared their favorite Thai restaurant, E-San.  We liked everything we ordered.  Abe is cleaning out the last of the fried rice which was served in a pineapple bowl.

Karina is a talented actress and we were lucky to watch her perform in The Legend of Pocahontas on Saturday night.  Karina played a woman named Luna and opened the show with a dramatic solo.

 Sunday we dropped by to visit Tony, a man Brandan home taught 15 years ago.  Brandan and Tony are kindred spirits and have been close friends ever since.

 Tony has wide and varied interests.  He's an artist, an inventor, a horticulturist, a hairdresser, a student of the gospel.  He sent us home with a bonsai tree and a few models he's realized he'll never get around to building.

 We stopped by historic Fort Vancouver and walked around the beautiful English gardens planted outside the fort.  Gibson is meditating on a post at the center of some roses.

 We talked our friends into hiking the Columbia River Gorge on Monday.  After living in rural Oregon for 12 years, we had forgotten what traffic in the gorge is like on a sunny holiday.  With some luck, lots of persistence and Brandan and Tim's willingness to shuttle the rest of us around, we enjoyed a gorgeous hike on the Eagle Creek Trail to Punchbowl Falls.  From the left are Sullivan, Karina, Sofi, Gibson, Abe, Helen and Ethan.   

Brandan and Tim have been friends since grade school.  We love his smart, sweet, funny and very cool family!

 We made it to the falls.  The kids took turns climbing out on a rock to get a closer look of the falls.  The photo shows Abe having his turn.

 Going down was easier than hiking up to the falls.  Most of the trail was shaded and surrounded with thick vegetation.

Helen and Gibson's class researched famous people to go along with their state and country projects.  On Wednesday they had to dress up like the famous person they chose to represent their state or country.   The class formed a living museum.  Each student gave a short talk about their person.  Helen dressed up as Ximena Navarrete from Guadalajara, Mexico.  Ms. Navarrete is an actress who won the Miss Universe pageant in 2012.

Gibson dressed up as Alejandro Amaya, a famous bullfighter who was born in Tijuana, Mexico.   Bullfighters traditionally wear pink socks so we borrowed a pair of pink soccer socks from our neighbor for Gib's costume. 

 Sunday night was seminary graduation.  The two local stakes joined together for graduation with about 45 students graduating altogether.    The students at our high school attend early morning seminary, so their graduation represents a big effort from the students, the parents and the remarkable teachers who volunteer their time.  Josh and Carson also graduated.  Josh is headed on a mission to Arizona in July and Carson is going on a mission to Ohio in August.

 Joey is working on turning her mission papers in.  She turns 19 in September.  Sofi has been blessed to have a group of strong and true friends.