28 May 2017

Helen is taking charge of our vegetable garden this year for one of her Young Women's Personal Progress projects.  She planted tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, watermelon and artichokes.

You may have heard of the fidget spinner craze.  Brandan is helping Gibson make one out of a piece of walnut and skateboard bearings.  If their prototype goes together well, Gibson would like to make a few to sell and his next class marketplace day.

 Here's a photo of the rough cut spinner.  Gib will shape the wood more before gluing in the bearings.

We had plans to go to Portland and Vancouver for Memorial Day weekend, but Gibson got sick so we decided to stay home.  He's been a patient patient and has spent most of the past two days reading and sleeping.

Since we were in town unexpectedly with no plans we were able to spend a few hours helping on an Eagle Scout project.  Our church owns a girls' camp on the edge of a beautiful lake.  The wooden stage at the camp had rotted so the scouts are building a new stage out of stone pavers.  We helped fill the space where the stage will be with large rocks.  One of our stake's high councilmen keeps an excavator at the camp and the excavator was useful for moving the largest rocks.

 Here's a photo of Abe rolling a large rock to the stage area.  We left after the rocks were placed.  The next steps in the project are to level the stage with gravel, compact the gravel and finally place the pavers.  It's a big project that will take a few days to complete.  The first group of girls will arrive in 3 weeks.

 Becky used the extra time at home to finish Sofi's jean quilt. Ta da!

 Sarah picked out the back of the quilt.  It's a fun print from Cotton and Steel with trains, a forest and lots of forest creatures.

 Sofi says she's going to wrap up in it for the next three weeks.  With temperatures around 90 degrees, we'll see.

21 May 2017

 Helen's class spent Monday and Tuesday at on outdoor school program called the Siskiyou Field Institute.  Brandan went along as a parent chaperone.  They started their experience at the Oregon Caves.  This photo was taken near the entrance to the caves.  From the left are Clara, Helen, Lucy, Aubrey and Hannah.

 They used nets to pull "macro invertebrates" from the stream coming out of the caves.  A park ranger taught them the process of catching and identifying the critters.

As they collected invertebrates they transferred them to an ice cube tray so they could identify them.

They used a chart to identify the critters, which were mainly mayfly and stonefly nymphs.  Once they identified which invertebrates were living in the stream they could tell how healthy or polluted it was.  The stream they visited was healthy.

 Back at the Field Institute, the students played on a ropes course and did some teambuilding activities.

 Here are Clara, Helen and Hannah.

 Here's Helen at another stream taking a water sample to measure pH.  They learned about pollution and fertilizers that run off into streams and change the pH.  Tuesday was a rainy day.  Helen thought the rain helped them focus on their work better and not goof off as much.

 Helen's class went home on Tuesday and Gibson's class arrived.  His class stayed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Both classes got to use the bigger ropes course.  Here's Gibson trying out a catwalk about 2 stories above the ground.  He was harnessed to a rope so he could be belayed to the ground if he lost his footing.

 Here are Brandan and Gib just before Gib gets harnessed into the giant swing, a cable suspended between 2 large pine trees.

This is a photo of Brandan being pulled to the top of the swing.  Each person could choose how high they wanted to be pulled by the rest of the group before they started swinging.

Here he is swinging.

 More swinging.

 And swinging.

 Here are Gibson and Brandan around the campfire where they roasted marshmallows and sang camp songs before going to bed.

 A retired birding expert taught the kids about some of the birds that live in the area, then took them outside to walk and look around.  Here's Gibson doing some birdwatching.

In addition to all of the activities at the institute, the kids found ways to make their own fun.  Here Gibson and his friend are playing war.

After we got back from camping we borrowed a friend's truck and picked up some bark for our yard.  Helen and Sofi helped shovel the bark into the wheelbarrow, and Brandan and Becky distributed it around the yard.

Abe's school held its annual honors night on Thursday.  Abe got awards for being on math team, having a 4.0 this year (Academic Excellence Award), having a 4.0 throughout middle school (Principal's Award) and having good citizenship and character (Solid as a Rock).  His friends also received many honors.  From the left are Abe, Spencer, Ashton, Malakai, Camden and Jake.

On Saturday Abe participated in a sonatina competition.  A sonatina is a shorter, lighter form of a sonata.  He had to memorize the entire piece and play it for one of the faculty in the music department at the university.  Although sonatinas are shorter than sonatas, it's still the longest piece he has memorized-- over 5 minutes long.  Abe played Sonatina. opus 55, number 1 by Friedrich Kuhlau and won first place in his division.  

Besides the trophy, his prize for winning was performing his piece at a recital held at an assisted living home for the elderly.  The top pianists were invited to play one movement from their sonatinas and the first place winners in each division were invited to play their entire piece.  Abe's performance stood out for its musicality and expression.  This is a photo of Abe warming up before the recital.

14 May 2017

Several times while she lived in Salt Lake, Sofi would text us the name of a park and ask, "Is this the park where Dad proposed."  Nope.  We couldn't remember the name of the park, only its location.  On Sunday we dropped by the park to show the kids.  It turns out the park is the Lee Charles Miller Bird Refuge and Nature Park.  No wonder we couldn't remember the name.

 This is the very bridge where Brandan proposed, a very romantic location.

 Lots of good things started here.

Brandan's family in Utah got together Sunday night to celebrate Wade and Aaron's birthday.

 Steph got Abe his own pint of mango sorbet for dessert.

Logan saved his money for a 3-D printer.  Here's a photo of it printing a pencil holder.  In front of the machine are a fidget toy and a model of the Salt Lake Temple he made with the printer.

 Here's a photo of all the cousins. Top of the stairs: Abe, Parker, Sofi and Logan.  Next row: Salem, Kaylee and Helen.  Next row: Dallin, Sutton, Sasha, Maks and Gibson.  Front row: Niko, Xander and Emma.

 Brandan used his amazing packing skills to fit all of Sofi's gear from school, plus 6 people and their luggage in the van for the drive home.  

 We have a kind of informal dinner club with our friends, the Stamps and the Badizadegans.  Desi hosted us Saturday night for pizza and baclava.  For the left are Iona, Chuck, Becky, Gibson, Helen, Masood, Desi, Ari and Abe.

 Becky made baclava for the refugee concert a few weeks ago using Maggie's mom's recipe.  Masood loves baclava, but had never had it with pecans or coconut.  Maggie's mom uses shortcuts making her baclava that dramatically cuts down on the work involved.  Desi and Ari wanted to see her method so we made a pan.  In the photo Helen is pouring syrup over the freshly baked baclava.  The syrup sizzles and cracks when it hits the hot pastry.

Sofi coordinated with Brandan, Abe, Helen and Gibson to create these fun photos for Mother's Day.  She found a few favorite photos from the past and recreated the poses.  Love these kids!

7 May 2017

Becky finished piecing Sofi's jean quilt this week.  It ended up 60 inches by 80 inches, big enough for a queen size bed.  Here's a photo before it gets quilted.

Sofi's freshman year of college finished up this week.  Here's a photo of Sofi with 4 of her roommates: Claire, Michelle, Jenna and Julia.  Not in the photo are Sia, Tehya and Jenni.

Here's a photo of Sofi with some of her friends from across the hall: Tian, Stencel, Sofi, Reeves, Nick and Connor.

We arrived in Salt Lake this weekend to help Sofi move out of the dorms and bring her home to Oregon.  Gibson and Helen were great helpers.  This is the second bin of stuff we brought down to the van.  We'll have a tightly packed van for the drive home.

While Sofi, Becky, Helen and Gibson were cleaning out Sofi's dorm, Brandan and Abe went to watch Drue, Wade and Parker play soccer.

 After Sofi was checked out, we picked up Brandan and Abe and went for a hike in the foothills behind the U.

 Our destination was the living room, an arrangement of sandstone slabs put together like armchairs and couches on a ledge with a great view of the Salt Lake Valley.  The chairs have been there at least 25 years, when Brandan and Becky were students at the U and we guess they've been there much longer than that.

 Here's a photo of the view.

 Here are Brandan and Abe.  It was a beautiful afternoon for hiking.

 Here we are heading back down the trail.  It's a short hike, but steep.  The view (and the novelty of enjoying the view while sitting on stone furniture) is worth the effort.

 Sofi and Gibson were hiking buddies.

 Spring doesn't last long in the foothills that surround Salt Lake.  We enjoyed the green vegetation and wildflowers along the hike.

Drue and Maggie had tickets to the Jazz/Warriors playoff game on Saturday night.  Maggie wasn't feeling well, so Drue invited Brandan to come to the game.  A friend of Drue and Maggie's works for one of the Jazz's corporate sponsors and gave them the tickets.

Each seat had a T-shirt on it and when the fans put the T-shirts on, the T-shirts created a pattern of green, yellow and blue stripes.  Brandan and Drue were sitting in a green section.

 Here's a photo of the game, taken from their seats on the 13th row.  The Jazz lost to the Warriors.  We live closer to the Warriors so we could support a win either way.