26 November 2017

The doorbell rang Sunday afternoon and we found this handsome missionary on the porch.  Gibson learned about missionary work in Primary and got his own missionary badge.

 There's a big jump in price when shipping overseas after 4 pounds.  Our goal was to send Sofi a Christmas package close to 4 pounds without going over.  We got pretty close.

 Becky helped the kids in her service group at school make 4 baby quilts to donate to the NICU.  It turned out to be a bigger project than she anticipated, but the quilts are done!

The newspaper printed a short press release about the new Eagle scouts in our ward.  The online version of the paper included a great photo of the scouts being sworn in.

 We started our Thanksgiving with the annual Turkey Trot, a 2 mile race.  It's a fun way to celebrate the holiday.  We're used to bundling up for the race, but this year was unusually warm.  After the race, Brandan, Abe and Gib played football for a few hours.

We spent the afternoon with our friends, the Edwards.  The kids played with the Wii while the grown ups visited.

 Friday was a little cooler than Saturday, but it wasn't raining.  We joined the Thurmans and their cousins for a hike up Upper Tablerock.  In the photo are Helen, Eddy, Camden, Charlotte, Olivia , Abe and Gibson.

 This photo was taken looking across to Lower Tablerock.  The kids thought it would be fun to set up a zipline between the two plateaus.

 We got pretty muddy from the trail and from exploring the top.  After the hike, the kids went to the Thurmans to shoot arrows in their pasture and got even muddier.

 Before we say goodbye to Thanksgiving, here is a photo of the paper turkey we made with things we are thankful for written on its feathers.

Gibson raked up the rest of the leaves in our backyard to earn some money.

On Saturday the kids helped Brandan hang our Christmas decorations outside. 

We also put up our Christmas tree.  Gib was feeling especially festive and dressed up like Santa Claus using a Cruella DeVille costume turned inside out.

19 November 2017

Our computer monitor stopped working a few weeks ago.  Brandan looked online and found the problem was the two capacitors were swollen.  He ordered parts from Amazon.  This week Brandan and Gib removed the damaged capacitors and soldered new capacitors in place.  The monitor is now good as new for the low price of about $30.  Or maybe better than new since Gibson got to learn something about electronics.

Gibson has been working on his Fix-it activity pin for scouts.  One of his requirements was to change a light bulb.

We had a busy and fun day on Saturday.  First our family all ran in our stake turkey trot.  We didn't take any photos.  There were 1 mile and 5 K distances.  Abe was our family's top finisher and came in 4th place, even after taking a wrong turn.  After the race, Abe went to pick up cans for scouting for food.  This bag was too heavy and the cans tore through the bag.

Helen's violin group was invited to play Christmas music at a local store's holiday open house.  It was fairly crazy.  The store was large, but it was also packed with merchandise and a couple hundred shoppers.  They were holding raffles and passing out samples at the same time.

The violinists were spread around the railing on the second floor.  Helen stood in front of the kitchen section of the store.  The group didn't rehearse before their performance, but the event was casual enough that it didn't matter.  The store gave each of the performers a gift card to say thank you which was a fun surprise.

Meanwhile, Abe, Brandan and Gibson were helping on another Eagle project.  This time they were building benches for the arboretum.  Men with chainsaws shaped big logs.

The boys sprayed finish on the cut logs to help prevent decay.

 Everyone helped move the logs to the arboretum and fasten them in place.  This is the third Eagle project our troop has completed at the arboretum.

Saturday evening we had the Badizadigans and the Stamps for dinner.  Ari and Desi's boyfriends joined us and we had a great evening.  The Badizadegan's taught us how to play Persian Rummy, a complicated card game.  The first round we played with all our cards showing so they could help us learn.  Sitting around the table are Becky, Brandan, Zach, Desi, Travis, Ari, Masood, Iona and Chuck.

 We ended about 9:30 pm, partly because Masood needed to run to the grocery store for his mom.  He showed us her shopping list, written in Farsi.  The words go right to left and his mom included cute descriptions like "the very beautiful oranges."

12 November 2017

Friday was a rainy day, but the kids didn't have school so we raked leaves in less than ideal conditions.  

We borrowed a couple of rakes from neighbors and the kids worked quickly to finish the job.  With more leaves still on the trees, we'll be raking again soon! 

Our ward held it's annual Young Women in Excellence night to celebrate the girls' achievements in personal progress.  The theme was "Share the Light" and the Relief Society room was decorated with lots of lamps, artificial candles and strands of Christmas lights.  Each girl got a helium balloon and wrote a way to share light on it.  Helen wrote "serve."

At the end of the night, we all went outside.  The parents held up sparklers while the girls released their balloons.

Brandan helped serve refreshments at our city's annual Veterans' Day commemoration.  The event honors veterans, living and dead, and allows community members to recognize and connect with our local veterans.  A group of bag pipers played as part of the ceremony.

5 November 2017

Our school district has a 5K race each Halloween for all the 4th and 5th graders.  It's called the mini-marathon and began in 1974.  Gibson is in 5th grade this year so it was our last year to have someone in our family run it.

Parents are welcome to run alongside their kids and both Brandan and Becky ran with Gibson.  The race takes place out in the country and it was a beautiful fall run.  Gib had a great race, coming in 242nd place out of about 750 runners.

Even though they're in middle school, Helen's class had a Halloween party with a photo booth.  Here she is with Kyleigh, Lily and Hannah. 

Helen and Gibson went trick or treating for a short time this year and then came back to our house to watch a movie with friends.  Abe went to a friend's house.  This is a photo of Helen swapping candy with her friends, Sophie, Clara and Hannah.

On Wednesday our ward held a court of honor for 9 boys in our troop that earned their Eagle rank.

Here are the boys going over the program before it began.

Dessert was also part of the decorations: a huge American flag made of doughnuts.

 Here are our three handsome scouters.

 Two of Abe's buddies, Ashton and Jake, also received their Eagle award.

The evening started with dinner and a slideshow that featured photos from all of the boys' projects.  Then the awards were presented.  Each boy escorted his parents down a path representing the trail to the Eagle award.  Their scoutmaster presented his Eagle award and the scout presented pins to his dad, mom and a mentor (or two mentors in some cases).  Each scout gave a short speech to thank those who helped him earn his award. 

 Brandan gave each boy a knife and a letter expressing his love for them.

 Our troop has great leadership which enabled so many boys to earn their Eagle this year.  The scoutmaster, Bob, has over 25 years experience and serves faithfully.  The advancement chairman, Andy, has close to 50 years of scouting experience.  He spent countless hours reviewing requirements and going over applications to make sure they were in order.  Andy made sure each scout met the same high standards.  Brandan presented Bob and Andy with a signed photo of the boys in appreciation of their work.

Here's a photo of all the boys and their leaders. Back row: Brandan Hull, bishop; Pam Olsen, cubmaster; Bob LeBel, scoutmaster; Eric Olsen, Logan Thurman, scouts; Cliff Holden, Eagle advancement committee; Carter Bennett, scout; Sarge Gallegos, assistant scoutmaster; Andy DeKorte, advancement chair; Bill Froehlich, scout committee chair.  Front row: Tate Broesder, Abe Hull, Ben Idiart, Ashton Idiart, Jake Harnois, Dillon Dritchas, scouts; Damian Idiart, 11 year old scout leader; Jared Idiart, Young Men's advisor.

Gibson and Helen raked the first of our fall leaves into a pile. . .

. . . and jumped in them.

Most of our leaves are still on the trees so there are more leaf raking days in their future!

 Gib rearranged the holds on our climbing wall to make it more challenging.  Abe helped him rotate a couple.