27 January 2019

We held our annual MLK day of service on Monday.  Becky was a little tired of making the blankets we've done for several years and suggested making paracord bracelets for the military.  A non-profit named Operation Gratitude collects the bracelets and includes them in care packages to troops stationed around the world.  About 15 friends came to help.  This is a photo of Tayvon wearing as many of the brackets as he could fit on his arm.

Brandan and Gibson went on a campout with the scouts on Friday night.  It was a cold night and they woke up to a cold morning on Saturday.  Other than a poor kid who had the flu, everyone had a great time.  In the photo are Gibson, Josh, Tyrone, Bob and Aiden.

 Gibson collected interesting rocks and made a circle of rocks out of them.  He wanted to make a double circle, but the campout ended before he found enough rocks.

 Sofi spent the weekend in Provo with Joey.  She sent us a photo of herself and Joey outside the Provo  City temple.  

Jeans with tears in them are fashionable right now, which baffles Becky.  Helen likes the style.  She had a pair of jeans in which she felt the tears were too small.  She spent several hours on Sunday enlarging the holes.  In the photo she is using sandpaper to fray the edges of the hole over her knee.

20 January 2019

Today was a big day for our family!  Brandan ordained Abe to the office of a priest.  Then Abe conferred the Aaronic Priesthood on Gibson and ordained him to the office of a deacon.

Our family met in Brandan's office after church for the ordinations.  With the changes for ages of advancement, Brandan has a lot of interviews and ordinations to arrange this month.  He's worked hard to make sure each person gets the same care and attention.   

 Here's a photo of the 5 of us who were present for the ordinations.  Abe and Gibson are ready for their new responsibilities and have an increased capacity for service.

Helen made this piece of art to give to her friend, Roberta, for Roberta's birthday.  She made the shape of a jar with nails and string and filled the jar with flowers.

We have more bikes than riders right now and sometimes we trip over bikes going in and out of the garage.  Brandan, Abe and Gibson installed new bike holders on the ceiling for less frequently ridden bikes.

There is the finished project.  The bikes are attached to pulleys so they can easily be raised and lowered.

13 January 2019

On Monday we drove home from Utah.  We made a quick stop at Sofi's house to drop off a few things and say goodbye.  It was sad to say goodbye so soon after we had said hello, but we've been able to text and call her every day.  Sofi finished her first week of classes this week, reconnected with old friends and made some new friends.  She's off to a great start!

We headed back to work and school on Tuesday.  Becky started graduate school at Southern Oregon University.  Her goal is to become a high school math teacher.  She's attending part time and plans to graduate in June of 2022.  

Becky is taking 2 classes this term, Math for Elementary Teachers and Calculus 1.  

We started a 2000 piece puzzle before Christmas and haven't made very much progress on it.  It's a snowy scene so most of the pieces are shades of white and grey.  A friend gave us a colorful puzzle that also has 2000 pieces so we've decided to cut our losses with this puzzle and start on the new one. This one may appear at a Goodwill near you.

6 January 2019

Helen and Abe celebrated New Year's Eve at the youth New Year's dance.  Brandan, Becky and Gibson celebrated at home by watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Becky took this photo of Emma, Helen and Abe when she picked them up at 12:30 am on January 1.

We left the morning of January 1 to drive to Utah.  Before we left, we wanted to move our 3rd car into the garage.  It wouldn't start so we had to push it.  Gibson got to steer the car.

Sofi finished her mission to Taiwan on Wednesday, January 2.  Her spring semester starts on January 7 so she flew straight to Salt Lake instead of coming home.  We drove to Salt Lake to meet her and help her get settled back in school.  This photo is from the airport.  Gibson and Brandan are checking the arrival screens for her flight status.

 We made a poster to welcome her home.

Brandan was the first to see her arrive.  Sofi traveled with two elders, Elder Lofgren and Elder Hoffman.  The three missionaries are on the left in the photo.

 Becky was the first to give her a hug.

Family photo at the airport.

Back at Wade and Steph's house, Sofi skyped with our stake president in Oregon so he could release her from her mission.  We are so thankful for his flexibility and the interest he showed in Sofi.

 On Thursday we met Ruth and Lizzy for lunch.  They live in San Diego, but Lizzy attends BYU.  School starts on the 7th for her, too, so we were in Utah at the same time.  From the left are Brandan, Abe, Sofi, Lizzy, Helen, Ruth, Becky and Gibson.

 Sofi and Lizzy haven't seen each other in a few years, but hope to hang out now that they are both in Utah.

 One of our main tasks on Friday was to help Sofi move into her dorm.  Her roommate wasn't in while we were there, but it looked like she had decorated their room for Christmas.

 Sofi's dorm this year is in the officers' housing which was once part of Fort Douglas.  The duplex has been remodeled into a single house with room for 12 students.

 The Fantastic Four are reunited!

 After we finished at the U, we took a tour of the Humanitarian Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Every week the center gets 400 bales of clothes from Deseret Industries that didn't sell.  The clothing is sorted and repackaged for humanitarian needs.

 A main purpose of the center is training people to work and teaching English as a second language. A wall displays flags from all the countries where employees came from.  Sofi found the Taiwanese flag.

 On Friday night we celebrated Brandan's birthday with his family.

 This is Brandan opening presents.

 Becky decorated the top of his cake with a math problem.  This time she created a magic pentagon where the numbers on each side of the pentagon add together to equal Brandan's age.  Five of the numbers on the pentagon were missing.  The math problem was to find the missing numbers.

Brandan solved the math problem before he ate a piece of cake.

 Gibson banged his nose against his knee very hard while doing a somersault.  We thought he might have broken it, but it looked fine the next day.  Here is a photo of him icing his nose on Friday night.

 On Saturday we drove to Idaho to visit Becky's family.  And we didn't take any photos.  Brandan took a photo of Becky's great-grandfather's family that hangs on the wall in Becky's parents' living room.

 We woke up Sunday morning to more snow.  Abe helped shovel the sidewalk before church.

 After church we drove to Park City for dinner at Drue and Maggie's house.  Xander showed us the computer he built.

 Abe played a game of chess with Ines, an exchange student from Spain who is living with Drue and Maggie's family this year.

 We met Bernie, their very friendly dog.  After dinner we dropped Sofi off at her dorm.  She learned 4 friends from her freshman dorm are living in the same house and they made her feel very welcome.  It looks like school is off to a great start for her.