30 July 2017

A member from Clarkson, Utah sent us this photo of Sofi with our stake president and his wife.  President and Sister Thompson were in Utah visiting family where Sofi is serving.  President Thompson recorded Sofi teaching a spiritual thought and then surprised our ward (and Brandan and Becky) by playing the video clip at the beginning of our 5th Sunday combined meeting today.

Becky took Gibson and Helen to see a musical performance of Beauty and the Beast at the Oregon Shakespeare festival.

 The stage is built to look like the theater William Shakespeare performed in back in the 1500s in London.  Helen's former violin teacher was in the orchestra.  The orchestra was sitting on a balcony for the show and we had great seats for seeing the musicians and hearing the music.  Everyone agrees that the music is the best part of Beauty and the Beast.

 On Friday we went hiking along the Rogue River to a spot called Avenue of the Boulders.  The river is still high and parts of the trail were flooded.

 We spent about an hour climbing and exploring around the boulders before heading home.

 Here's a view of the river looking downstream.

If we could have looked 100 miles or so downriver, we could have seen this: Abe's scout troop rafting the lower Rogue.  Our family has rafted the upper Rogue many times.  The lower Rogue, with stretches of class 3 and 4 rapids, is restricted to professional guides and rafters with permits.  Here they are floating through Hellgate Canyon.  

 Here's a photo of the group on Thursday morning as they were getting ready to go.  From the left are Josh, Spencer, Jason, Ashton, Jared, Abe, Cameron, Camden, Malakai and Logan.  Brandan also went on the trip and took these photos.

There were lots of water fights on the river.

 They brought along a couple of inflatable kayaks that the boys took turns using.  Here is Abe.

 Here's a silly photo of Camden, Malakai, Spencer, Ashton, Cameron and Abe.

On day 2 of their rafting adventure they went over bigger rapids than day 1.  It's hard to take a photo while paddling through rapids, so Brandan had the boys pose for a photo later in the day.  They're standing next to a class 4 rapid called "Powerhouse."

 On day 3 they drove to a swimming hole.  This is a photo of Abe jumping into the river.  The trip was a good mix of relaxation and high adventure.  Brandan was impressed with the good attitudes and camaraderie among the boys.

 On Saturday, Helen performed with Siskiyou Violins at the Britt Classical Music festival.  Helen is in the front row on the left.  The group played beautifully, but they roasted in their black clothing standing in the hot sun.

23 July 2017

John, an older man in our ward, died recently, seemingly without family or other connections.  With a little detective work and some tender mercies, Brandan was able to talk to cousins John last saw 50 years ago and verify his military service.  This week he was laid to rest with military honors.  Brandan dedicated his grave at the veterans' cemetery.

 

Here is his memorial marker.  Although John lived a humble life on earth, the riches of eternity await him.

Becky loves to hike.  The kids don't like hiking, but love swimming and playing outdoors.  This week we met friends for a short hike and then swam in the lake.  This was a new hike for us called Grouse Loop, notable for old growth Douglas Fir trees and pretty views of the lake.

 Here are Helen and Abe swimming.

 This is a photo of Gibson and Eddy drying off before we drove home.

We went rafting with about 30 people who Brandan works with on Saturday afternoon.  We filled up four rafts.  It was a gorgeous day on the river, nice and hot, and no one minded the water fights or getting dunked in the river (mostly).

Our stake celebrated Pioneer Day with a Pie-oneer Day celebration.  The night started with Helen playing a couple of hymns on her violin.  She ended the evening by playing "Come, Come Ye Saints."

 The program included square dance lessons, singing and pioneer stories.  Gibson sang a couple of songs with the Primary kids.  You can see him in the middle of the photo.

 Everyone brought a pie to share and the evening ended with dessert.  Here's Abe with a gluten free peach pie.

 Brandan and Abe home teach an elderly woman who makes over 100 quilts a year.  She donates most of them to humanitarian projects.  She gave Brandan this beautiful quilt to thank him for being her home teacher, doctor and bishop.

Someone from Sofi's mission sent us this photo of Sofi and her companion.  Keep up the good work, Sofi!

16 July 2017

Abe made an ice cream pie with homemade ice cream for family night this week.

 The Young Men and Young Women in our ward went boating for mutual this week.  Here are Carter, Abe and Isaac.

 The boats pulled the kids in tubes.  Some of the kids got knocked around a bit.

 Helen was on another boat.  She is sitting in the front.

Our library's summer reading theme is "Building a Better World."  On Thursday, Abe, Helen and Gibson built flashlights out of Altoids containers at the library.  They wired the flashlights themselves, making a circuit with the batteries, lightbulb and a switch.

 On Thursday evening a big group from our ward met to help Carter with his Eagle project.  He installed four benches at our local cemetery.  The cemetery is classified as a historical pioneer cemetery and there are restrictions to the kinds of improvements that can be made to it.  For example, the owners cannot install sprinklers.  Except for an occasional clean up project, the cemetery looks forlorn.

 Carter's grandpa is buried at the cemetery and he put one of the benches near his grandpa's grave.  The earliest graves in the cemetery are from the 1880s.  In the photo are Abe, Sue (Carter's grandma),  Becky, Gibson and Helen. 

Speaking of Eagle projects, Abe finished his paperwork this week and turned his report in to the scout office on Friday.  We expect it will take the scout office a couple of weeks to examine his project before he has his board of review.

Helen had her last two performances of The Lion King, Jr this weekend.  This is a photo of the performers in their places backstage before the show begins.

 Brandan and Becky went to see Henry IV part 2 on Saturday night as part of their quest to see the complete works of Shakespeare.  It's a rather long history with lots of long speeches, that was saved by an outstanding performance of Falstaff.  During an intense battle scene at the end of the play, Becky was hit by an errant grenade thrown by the Earl of Worcester.  At least she thinks it was errant.  It might have been payback for Becky dozing off during the Earl's boring speech in an earlier scene.

9 July 2017

 We've had a great week, highlighted with a visit from Sarah, Joe and Zina and a wonderful 4th of July.  Here's Helen waiting for fireworks.

 Gibson has a pile of glow sticks to keep him busy while he waits.

 Here's Helen, Zina and Gibson.

Helen's friend, Jennah, took this photo.  One hand is Jennah's and one is Helen's.

 On Wednesday we hiked to the nearby Bigfoot trap.  Inspired by a set of large footprints a gold miner found in the hills, the North American Wildlife Research Team built the trap in 1974.  They caught a few bears, but no Bigfoots.  The trap is now bolted open to prevent injuries and is a popular hiking destination.

 After the hike, we played at Applegate Lake.  Here's a photo of Zina, Gibson and Abe.

 On Thursday we drove to the Redwoods and the coast.  We walked through the magnificent Stout Grove.  This is Zina and Abe.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Lone Ranch Beach.

We enjoyed looking for animals in the tide pools.

These two starfish were clinging to an overhang on a rock.

Zina found three very tiny starfish.  This is a photo of one of them.

Abe was the only one of us who went swimming.

On Friday we drove to Crater Lake, the deepest and clearest lake in the United States.

Even though it's July, there is still lots of snow at the lake.

Abe and Gib enjoyed trying to throw snowballs into the lake.  The lake is far below the rim of the caldera, however, and none of their snowballs made it.

If you were wondering where Brandan and Helen were in the photos above, Brandan was at work and Helen was rehearsing for the musical, Lion King Jr.  Her friends, Clara and Kate are also in the show.

Clara's mom took this photo of Helen pretending to play chess with a statue outside the theater.

We went to see the play Saturday afternoon.  Helen was a lioness.  The animals in the play were mostly portrayed abstractly with lots of tribal prints and earth tones.  Helen did a great job.  Here are Abe, Zina, Helen and Gibson after the show.

Sofi has been assigned to the Logan Utah Mission while she waits for her visa to Taiwan.  We learned this week that her first area will be Newton, Utah, population 789.  We are waiting to hear from Sofi, but we received an email from her mission president that let us know she arrived in the mission field and gave us her address.  He also sent us this beautiful photo of President and Sister Allred with Sofi at the Logan temple.