25 February 2018

Brandan presented a short lesson about DNA to Helen and Gibson's class on Tuesday.  They have learned a little about what DNA is and how it works.  Brandan brought realistic animations to show them the process is even more complicated and fascinating than they learned.

He also brought popsicle sticks so the kids could scrape cells from the insides of their cheeks and look at the cells through a microscope.

Helen enjoyed looking at Brandan's cells.  She didn't know they would be so big.

Gibson liked the videos Brandan showed.

Helen is taking a mini class called "Cooking in Spanish" at school.  Or should we say, "Cocinando en Español." Every week they make a new recipe while only (mostly) speaking Spanish.  This week they made Mexican Street Corn Salad.

 Thursday was a snow day!  No school!  Helen pretty much played outside all day.

 Abe came inside after a neighbor's dog peed on his snow fort.  Here's a photo of Abe building his fort.

 We only had a couple of inches of snow so Gibson brought a shovel to help pile the snow for bigger snow forts.

 On Thursday night Gibson received his Arrow of Light award, the highest award given to a Cub Scout.  The cub master, Pam, made him a special banner to hang in his room and gave him a Boy Scout neckerchief.

 Gibson got to walk across a bridge to symbolize moving from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

 His new scout leader, Damian, gave him a Boy Scout neckerchief slide.  We're proud of Gibson who worked extra hard to earn his award a month before he turns 11.  

 Brandan went on overnighter with the older scouts Friday night.  They backpacked into our church camp at Lake of the Woods and slept in a cabin.  Here's a photo of the boys playing cards on Friday night.  Clockwise from the top are Abe, Malakai, Cameron, Jake, Camden, Ashton and Spencer.

 We've had a warm, dry winter, but there was plenty of snow in the mountains, thanks to the recent storm.  This is Abe buried halfway in the snow. 

 The boys made a sledding run between the cabins.

 They played all afternoon in the snow before hiking back to the cars.  Hip, hip hooray for leaders who give up their weekends so the boys can make such fun memories!

We've enjoyed watching the Olympics the past 2 weeks.  Some of our favorite events were ice skating, big air snowboarding, skeleton, bobsledding and slopestyle skiing, 

Gibson played the cello in Sacrament Meeting today as part of the Primary children's ensemble.  Addy and Mary played violins and Eddy played the piano.  They played "Teach Me to Walk in the Light."  They looked super cute in their dresses and ties and sounded beautiful.  This photo is from a rehearsal earlier in the week.

18 February 2018

With many activities every week, our afternoons and evenings can be very busy.  Abe and Helen have been helping out by making dinner once or twice a week.  It's a huge help.  This is a photo of Helen making Five Cheese Penne, one of her favorite meals.  Now we just need another driver. . . 

We ate breakfast together Wednesday morning for Valentines Day.  We had to eat early before Abe left for seminary.

Helen made this cute banner.  It says "I 💗 friends, music, books, piano, violin, food, family."

Our high school boys basketball team won their league championship on Friday.  Two of our next door neighbors are starters on the team.  Our whole town has enjoyed cheering them on this season.  Brandan and Abe went to the game Friday night.  This is a photo of the team cutting the nets down after the game.  You can see Abe in the left of the photo.  Look for a blondie with a blue sweatshirt.

Eighty percent of the migrating birds that use the Pacific Flyway pass through Klamath Falls, Oregon.  We made a day trip on Saturday to visit Klamath Falls for a guided bird walk that was part of the annual Winter Wings festival.

 The bird walk went along the Klamath River for about a mile and a half.  It took 2 and a half hours.  Bird watchers are not in a hurry!  Gibson found this shelter along the river.  The river is also a popular fishing spot.

 Our guide had eagle eyes and could spot unusual and interesting birds hidden in the bushes.  He would focus his scope on the birds and we could all take turns admiring their unique coloring.  Our guide would point out subtle characteristics, like pink shading on a Townsend's Solitaire, or the differences between a dark eyed Junco and an Oregon junco.  He pointed out a group of trees where a colony of Black-crowned Night Herons were sleeping.  We wouldn't have seen them at all without his help, but there were 170 of them.  Birding for a day made us realize how much we walk past without noticing.

 Here's a photo of our group.  Even the least skilled birders among us (Becky!) could spot the five Great Blue Herons flying along the river and the Red Tailed Hawks launching themselves from a bluff above the river.

 We learned how to distinguish Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes and Buffleheads which are three different kinds of black and white ducks.  Buffleheads are our favorites.  With their oversized heads, they are easy to identify.

 

Abe, Helen and Gibson took several side trips along the trail as the group stopped frequently to look at birds.  Here is a photo of Gibson and Helen in front of the waterfalls for which Klamath Falls is named.  The kids also liked throwing rocks into a canal that ran along the other side of the trail.  The water in the canal was frozen in many places and their rocks sounded like raindrops hitting a tin roof. Occasionally a rock would break through the ice with a satisfying smash.

After our bird walk we warmed up inside and ate our picnic lunch.  We brought along some of the Taiwanese candy Sofi sent us for Christmas.  This package of mango gummy candy was delicious.  The grenade gum she sent us, however, was hazardous to chew.  A piece of it makes your whole face turn red and your nose run.  Of course, we all had to try it, even after watching Abe suffer for 5 minutes until the heat wore off.  

 After lunch we drove to the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge along the Oregon/California border.  Although we enjoyed seeing birds along the river, we wanted to experience the Pacific Flyway and see some of the millions of birds we had heard about.  We saw thousands of snow geese, scores of swans, two bald eagles and plenty of other birds we don't know the names of.  We also saw this Golden Eagle, helpfully perched in a tree along the road where we had a clear view of him.

It snowed for about 30 minutes after church today.  It's the most snow we've had this winter.  The snow has all melted now.

11 February 2018

We've had spring-like weather all week so when a friend texted Becky asking if she wanted to go hiking, her answer was an enthusiastic, "Yes!"  Here we are on top of Roxy Ann.  From the left are Kylie, Christine, Andrea, Tiffany, Grace and Becky.

Brandan and Becky went to our stake's Valentine's dance.  Besides dancing, we played pool and Uno.

Becky won two prizes at the dance.  She won the post-it notes for finding the right heart on the dance floor and the hershey kisses for guessing closest to the right number of kisses in the bottle.  

 Abe is going out for the high school golf team.  The season hasn't started yet, but the team members met at a golf course to practice on Saturday.

 His friends, Ashton and Spencer, are on the team, too.  Becky's favorite part of golf team is the dress code: shirts with collars, slacks, belts.  They look so handsome!

Meanwhile, Gibson and Helen helped Brandan take out an overgrown shrub in our front yard.  We actually have 3 large heathers we want to remove, but just one is large enough to fill up our yard waste bin.  We'll have to tackle them one at a time.

We got this photo at midnight last night of Abe's friends stopping for either dinner or breakfast on the way home from a stake dance.  Ashton's dad picked them up from the dance and treated them to a meal.  From the left are Jake, Ashton, Malakai, Abe, Camden and Spencer.    

4 February 2018

We had lasagna for dinner on Tuesday night in honor of Grandma Linda.  Lasagna was her traditional dinner for celebrations.  It's also Abe's favorite dinner.

 Helen joined the Young Willamette Writers this year.  The group meets with an author once a month and works on their own writing.  This month they met a sci-fi author who gave them all a copy of her latest book.

 Helen, Abe and Gibson played baseball in the yard after church today.

 We're having a very mild winter this year.  This weekend has been sunny and warm.