27 October 2019

This is a photo from homecoming on October 18.  Abe went with his friends, Maddy, Ben and Abigail.  The homecoming dance this year was very casual.  The kids went to the football game and then the dance which started right after the game.

Abe joined DECA, a school business club, the week before their first competition.  He won third place in a management role play event.  Here's a photo of the Crater team.  In the front row: (from the left) Abigail, Elizabeth, Abe, Lily, Hannah, Brooklyn and Brody.  Back row: JC, Schuyler and Curtis.  

Gibson carved a jack-o-lantern at scouts this week.  The design is a snitch.

It was a big week for Crater's soccer team this week.  On Tuesday, they tied Ashland High school 2-2.  This was a huge accomplishment as Ashland was ranked 2nd in the state and Crater was ranked 27th. Following the tie, Ashland dropped to 3rd and Crater rose to 24th.  Here's a photo of the very happy team after the game.

 Abe scored one of Crater's goals.

 Saturday was the last game of the season and Crater won!  This was their first league win in 14 years.  It's been an exciting year to watch soccer.

Here's a photo after Saturday's game.  All of these boys are members of our ward.  From the left are Jayden (the other team co-captain), Malakai, Spencer, Jake, and Abe.

On Friday after school we rode our bikes around the neighborhood to look at Halloween decorations. This house went over the top with a skeleton pirate theme.  Gibson is standing next to a pirate that talks.

Here are some more decorations.  Helen liked the mermaid skeleton.

Saturday was the annual couples Halloween party.  Brandan and Becky went as Bob Ross and a happy little tree.  

20 October 2019

Helen's Health class made posters about a wide variety of health topics.  Helen and her partner made a skin cancer poster.  The class voted on the best posters and their teacher hung the winners up in the hall for parent/teacher conferences.  

 Abe's coach sent him this fun action shot from their game on Tuesday.

Abe had another game on Saturday, this time on the coast.  We tried to go to the beach before his game, but the road was closed.  We stopped for a picnic near a sand dune instead.  This is a photo of Helen and Gibson playing on the dune.

13 October 2019

Monday night we went to watch Abe play volleyball in the students vs. staff volleyball game.  The students won all 3 rounds.  Abe played great, especially considering he's played volleyball twice in his life.

Sofi, Emma and Nelson left us early Wednesday morning.  We were sad to see them go!  We tried to take a quick photo before Abe and Helen had to leave for seminary.  Nelson was still getting ready so he is not in the photo.  Hurry back!

The priests and teachers in our ward are making longboards.  Longboards are long skateboards, great for cruising along, but not for tricks.  Making longboards will introduce the boys to a few different kinds of power tools and woodworking techniques, but they are relatively inexpensive and simple to make.  The boys met outside the church this week to cut their boards out.  It gets dark early, so they used utility lights to work.  In the photo, Abe is using a jigsaw to cut out his board while another boy "clamps" the board to a picnic table by standing on it.

 Back at home, Brandan helped Abe sand the edges of his board smooth and then they used a router to put a nice, clean curve on the edges.  Brandan is also building his own longboard.  We'll post photos of the boards as they progress.

The kids didn't have school on Friday, but Becky did.  Abe was gone all day for a soccer game.  When Becky got home, Helen, Becky and Gib went for a bike ride.  It was a perfect fall afternoon.

Many trees are changing colors and are quite stunning.

 Our first stop was the church so Helen could practice the organ.  Our church doesn't have a bike stand so we parked our bikes in the coat rack area.  Good news: Helen auditioned for an organ scholarship this week and won!  This means her organ lessons for the next year are paid.

We dropped some fall treats off to our neighbors (no photos) and then rode to the library.  We only have one bike lock so we squished our bikes close together so the lock could fit around all three.

Our last stop was Lillie Belle Farms where we picked out chocolates for our music teachers and for Helen, Gibson and Abe.  We started a tradition with Sofi a long time ago of celebrating completing a music book with a truffle from Lillie Belle Farms.  Becky owed Gibson FOUR chocolates this time-- two for piano and two for cello.  It was hard to choose between all the delicious varieties.

It was cold and clear Saturday morning during Gib's soccer game.  Gib had a breakaway and scored a goal in the first half.  

We thought the ref for Gib's game was exceptional!😁

6 October 2019

Becky's school term started Monday.  She's taking three classes this fall: Calculus 3, Statistics and Number Structures.  Number Structures is a class about writing mathematical proofs.

Brandan and Becky went to see "All's Well That Ends Well" Friday night.  The play was outdoors so we wore our hats, gloves and winter coats.  We still froze, but the play was entertaining and thought provoking.

The University of Utah has fall break next week so Sofi drove out with a couple of friends for general conference and sight seeing.  Nelson grew up in Maryland and Utah and Emma grew up in Utah and this is their first trip to Oregon.  Emma and Nelson are both delightful and we wish they would come visit every week!

We've enjoyed every session of general conference.  On Saturday night the women in our ward met for the women's conference and dinner.

 In between sessions of conference, everyone helped Abe make a plan to ask a date to the homecoming dance.  He finally decided on a poster and some flowers.

The kids played a cutthroat game of conference bingo on Sunday afternoon.  However, none of the speakers said the word "pioneer" so everyone was blocked from getting blackout.  Note: the kids have played many games the past two days and every game is cutthroat, with lots of arguments about the rules and plenty of creative rule bending.  Counter clockwise from the top are Abe, Helen, Emma, Nelson and Addi.  

We've been working on a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of a map of the world.  The pieces are tiny and unusually shaped, but knowing a bit of geography makes it easier to put pieces together.

 Here's a photo of Sofi napping a little.  It's great to have her home.

Good news-- Abby said she'd go to homecoming with Abe.  He took the poster and flowers to her house after conference today.  The poster says, "I would be so h-Abby if you're Abe-l to go to Homecoming with me.  Abby's mom took this cute photo.