31 July 2016

At cub scout pack meeting this week Gibson helped cut out shoes from old jeans.  The shoe pieces will be bundled together and mailed to Africa where they will be sewn into shoes.

On Thursday our family went to an outdoor concert by the Piano Guys.  We enjoy watching their music videos on youtube.  Their concert was lighthearted and inspiring.  They played to a sold out crowd.

Here's a photo of Sofi and Abe sitting down during intermission.  

Our youth prepared and served lunch at a homeless shelter on Saturday.  They served barbecued sandwiches, macaroni salad, pudding, oranges and cookies.  Abe is second from the left.

Brandan took Abe, Helen and Gibson to swim in a creek Saturday afternoon.

Abe bought a new hammock at scout camp this year and enjoys relaxing in the shade in our backyard.

24 July 2016

We enjoyed a very quick visit from Dan and Martha for Brandan's ordination to the office of bishop.  

Our activity day girls came over Wednesday night and we cooked a dutch oven dinner in honor of Pioneer Day.  We cooked chili mac and peach cobbler.  From the left are Sierra, Annie, Olivia, Mary, Helen and Addi.

Abe went to an advanced robotics camp this week.  The class worked all week to program robots to complete a variety of tasks.  Their teacher set up a mat with a complicated storyline involving stopping a bank robber from escaping with a bag of money.  The teams earned points by completing a task and lost points for touching their robots during a task, knocking into the wrong things or driving off the mat.  They had 5 minutes to accumulate as many points as possible.

Abe worked together with Jackson all week (in the baseball cap).  They learned the importance of precise programming and durable construction.  If their robot was programmed half an inch off, they would miss their target.  Similarly, a weak tool would break off of their robot instead of completing the task it was intended for.  The boys reworked their program dozens of times.   Their patience and hard work paid off and they won the competition at the end of the week. 

 On Saturday, we hiked Mount McLoughlin.  We've been working all summer toward our goal.  Although the trail is long and hard, it's a very popular hike and many people get lost on the mountain every year.

 A large sign at the trailhead emphasizes the importance of staying on the trail.  The sign seemed a little much at the beginning of our hike.  After we finished, we understand how easy it is to get lost.  The last 2 miles of "trail" to the top are very undefined.

 We expected a steep hike and enjoyed the hike up to the tree line.

The trees gave way to a bare cinder cone.  The last mile to the top looked like this.   Someone helpfully spray painted pink dots every few yards to mark a path to the top.  Sometimes just getting to the next pink dot was our goal.  For part of the time we walked up loose cinders, sliding backward for  a half step or more for each step we took.

 The view!  We were so high up at the top compared to the surrounding landscape that it almost felt like we were looking down from another planet.

 We were so proud of our little family making it to the top together!  Earlier in the summer we talked about "grit" and sticking to a job even when it's hard.  We wore matching sisu T-shirts for our hike.  Sisu is a Finnish word that means something like super-grit.  We stayed on top for a long time-- marveling at the view, eating lunch, signing the summit register, napping in Sofi's case-- then we finally headed back down.  This meant creeping back down the steep slope carefully watching for pink dots.  Abe rolled his ankle and Gib practically ran the last 2 miles because he was so disgusted by the mosquitoes, but we made it home again!

 At scout camp this year, another troop invited Abe's troop over for a fireside and dessert.  They set up a huge buffet of candy like rolos, peanut butter cups, starbursts, snickers and cinnamon bears.  Each scout could choose a piece of candy, wrap it in biscuit dough and deep fry it.  The scouts loved the dessert, but Abe couldn't eat it because of the wheat.   He asked Becky if we could try to make the same dessert allergy friendly.  This is a photo of Abe and Helen getting their dough ready to fry. 

 Helen and Abe tried filling their dough with starbursts, chocolate kisses and chocolate covered caramel popcorn.  They thought the dessert was delicious!

17 July 2016

Abe left for scout camp bright and early Monday morning.  He had a great week.  Favorite activities were learning to drive a motor boat, a camp wide relay race and sleeping in a hammock.  Abe hasn't stopped eating since he got home from camp Saturday afternoon.

Monday was July 11, otherwise known as 7/11.  Gibson and Helen got free slurpees at our 7-Eleven store.

Sofi and Joey visited a local lavender farm this week.  Joey took some great photos of Sofi.

Gibson and Helen attended a robotics camp this week.  Our friends' daughter, Samantha, also signed up for the camp and the three kids worked together as a team all week.  Every day the class built a robot to complete a challenge like hitting golf balls or catapulting plastic balls at a lego castle.  Their last challenge was to build a sumo wrestling robot.

Here's a close up of their final robot.  The robots competed with each other by trying to force other robots out of the wrestling ring.  Their robot won 3 matches and lost 3 matches.

Gibson and Helen helped out in Primary today by sharing stories from their pioneer ancestors.  They have a lot to choose from.  Gibson told about William Gibson Hull winning a shotgun in a shooting contest.  Helen told the life story of Ann Green, her 5th great grandmother who was Joseph Smith's neighbor in Nauvoo and lived to be 94 years old.

Abe was worn out from scout camp so we took an easy hike Saturday afternoon.  Brandan used this opportunity away from distractions to tell the kids he had been called to be our ward's bishop.  He was sustained and set apart today.  

Family Reunion

We spent Thursday and Friday at Redfish Lake, one of the prettiest spots in Idaho.  We traveled to the lake with Sarah, Joe, Zina and Becky's mom and dad and met Joe and Keri's family.  This is a photo of Abe, Sofi and Zina at the end of a dock.

We ate lunch at Orval Hansen Point Beach.  We had great views of the lake and the Sawtooth Mountains.  From the left are Becky, Grandpa, Grandma and Joe H.

After lunch we checked into the Redfish Lake Resort.  The cabins were small and rustic and we were divided between three of them.  Small cabins just gave us another reason to play outside.  This is a bridge on the Fishhook Creek Nature Loop.  From the left are Grandpa, Gibson, Sy, Sawyer, Abe, Hayden, Gage and Brandan.

 Grandma and Joe H. were the main contributors to a jigsaw puzzle set up on the porch of Grandma and Grandpa's cabin.

 Sawyer, Gibson, Hayden and Gage went to a junior ranger program about the Sawtooth ecosystem.  Becky and Brandan tagged along because Becky loves ranger talks.  We learned the area around Redfish Lake has the coldest climate in the lower 48 states.

 Ranger Sadie invited everyone to chew on the needles of a lodgepole pine.  Native Americans and early settlers boiled the needles to make a tea which was an excellent source of vitamin C.  

 She also let us sample the sagebrush.  Pronghorn are pretty much the only animals that eat sagebrush.  While it isn't edible for humans, it's not poisonous either.  Hayden's face can give you an idea of how it tastes.

 Sofi found a sunny spot to read in front of the resort lodge.

 Friday was windy, but not too cold to play in the lake.  Hayden and Gage are ready to get in the water.  Joe L. is ready to keep an eye on 5 active boys in the water.

 Here's a little bit of the action.  Gibson, Helen and Gage are riding the paddle boat.  Becky is helping Hayden steer the kayak and dodging his paddle.  Sawyer, Keri and Kolter are on the right of the photo.

 Here's Gage's turn in the kayak with Sawyer helping him maneuver.

 Zina was a natural on a stand up paddle board.

 Sawyer's turn!

 Abe and Sy took Kolter, Hayden and Gage for a spin on the paddle boat.  Kolter loved riding the boat.

 Here are Sy, Helen and Zina.

 Sofi's turn!

 Kolter is as sweet as he looks.

 Here's a photo of Abe working on the puzzle.

Joe H. took Abe, Gibson and Sy fishing.  Gib caught his first fish!  Gib thought the fish was too slimy to hold so this is a photo of Joe holding the fish and Gib holding Joe's hand.

 On Friday night the lodge hosted a bluegrass band named "Dewey, Pickette & Howe" and we gathered on the lawn with the other guests at the resort.

 The band played a low key mix of music, perfect for the setting.

 Sofi and Gibson enjoyed dancing with Kolter.

 Here's a photo of Grandpa enjoying the music.

 Early in the day, Gibson overheard Joe L. promise Hayden an ice cream cone if he was good all day.  Gibson asked Becky if he could have a cone, too.  Becky said Gibson could have a cone if Hayden got one.  Looks like Hayden was good!

 Here are Hayden and Gage enjoying their well-earned ice cream cones.

Here's Joe H. wheeling Kolter around on his bike.

Maybe every kid likes playing in the back of a pick up truck.  From the left are Sawyer, Gibson, Abe, Brandan, Hayden (red jacket), Gage, Helen, Kolter and Sofi.  We think those are Sy's fingers making bunny ears behind Sawyer's head.

The resort has a "no cooking" policy in most of their cabins, so a group of us drove a short distance in order to fry the fish Gibson caught.  Joe H. helped Abe clean and cook it.  Everyone got a bite and thought it was delicious.

Working in the dark by flashlight, Sy, Sawyer, Abe and Joe H. finished the puzzle before going to bed Friday night.

Abe felt chilly so he wrapped up in whatever was close by.  He looked kind of like a patriotic granny ninja.

A highlight of our reunion was spending time with Grandpa's Aunt Mary.  She is his mother's sister.

Mary and her son, Marty, drove over on Friday and spent the afternoon and evening visiting.  Aunt Mary is completely charming and has a great sense of humor.

Here are Becky, Sarah, Grandma and Mary.

We'll end with a group photo.  Front row: Abe, Helen, Gibson, Gage, Hayden, Sawyer.  Back row: Becky, Brandan. Grandpa, Mary, Marty, Joe L., Kolter and Zina.  Also at the reunion, but not in the photo were Grandma, Sarah, Joe H. Keri, Sofi and Sy.