The Thurmans invited Abe to spend Memorial Day weekend at the coast with their family. They went to church on Sunday in Brookings. From the left are Logan, Abe, Malakai, Eddy, Camden and Ashton. Abe had a fun weekend.
The rest of us went for a bike ride along the Rogue River on Memorial Day. We went along a cute trail in Gold Hill. In this photo, Helen, Brandan and Gibson are standing in front of Ti'lomihk Falls.
There was a skate park next to the trail and Gibson tried it out on his bike.
Here we are riding back into Gold Hill. California poppies lined the sunny part of the trail.
Becky, Helen and Gibson spent Wednesday and Thursday on a class field trip to the Siskiyou Field Institute. SFI runs many programs for kids and adults that focus on local ecology. In the photo below, the kids are moving three footballs around and obstacle course. Anyone holding a ball couldn't move so the challenge was learning to work together to move the balls. If a person dropped a ball or had to step off the obstacle course, that person had to start over with the ball. It took the group about an hour to get everyone around the course. Helen is wearing a blue jacket and green hat in the photo.
The kids got to climb a tree as far as they felt comfortable. They wore harnesses and helmets for safety. Here's a photo of Gibson getting ready to climb.
This is Helen's super big smile after she climbed the tree to the top. It was approximately 50 feet off the ground.
The kids waiting for their turn to climb belayed the rope.
This is Gibson swinging on a giant swing.
And here is Helen. The swing is so high that they wear helmets and harnesses just in case.
The kids did a little bit of science exploration. This is Helen checking the pH of a creek. The creek's temperature is cool and the pH is almost neutral so it would be a good home for salmon.
The kids looked at macroinvertabrates in a different creek. They used nets to scoop tiny animals out of the creek and into buckets where they could look at them closely.
After they identified the animals, they put them back in the creek. The kids found a lot of larvae from many species, a crawfish and a tadpole. The tadpole is a vertebrate, but it was also interesting to look at.
Our last stop was the Oregon Vortex, a tourist trap we've resisted going to since we moved to southern Oregon. Our tour guide gave us three different and fairly nonsensical explanations for why people appear to change height when they are in the vortex. The tour was entertaining and mercifully short. In the photo Helen and Sophie are comparing heights. In real life Helen is about 5'3" and Sophie is about 5'10"
Here's a group photo of Helen and Gibson's class. Front row: Javis, Paige, Gibson, Sam, Lily, Mya, Nick and Alli. Middle row: Lucy, Aubrynn, Wyatt, Aubrey, Lillian, Kylie, Helen and Roberta. Last row: Michael, Clara, Ethan, Nicole, Caleb, Hannahmarie, Hannah, Sophie, Evan, Lily Mae and Chayton.
On Saturday we drove up to Portland to watch a professional soccer game between the Portland Timbers and the LA Galaxy. Abe got the tickets for his birthday and we all got the treat of going to the game.
Here we are walking into the stadium. It was a beautiful sunny day in Portland. Both teams played well. The game ended in a tie, 1-1. The crowd was almost as entertaining as the soccer game. By the time the game started, the 22,000 seat stadium was packed.
On our way home we stopped at Burrito Boy in Eugene for a cheap, quick, allergy friendly dinner and we made it back home by bedtime.
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