26 July 2020

Dan and Martha returned from their 2 year mission to Barcelona, Spain on Monday.  Brandan's sister, Becky, met them at the airport in Salt Lake City and connected the rest of the family with Zoom so we could welcome them home.  They are now quarantining at home for 2 weeks. 

We have saved all of our kids' worn out jeans with the intention to make a jean quilt for each of them when they graduate from high school.  With plenty of free time this summer, Becky decided to get an early start on Abe's quilt.  This is the stack of jeans before she started cutting them up.

Abe has grown quite a lot in the past 17 years.  He's holding a pair of jeans sized 18 months.

This is 18 month old Abe hanging out in his jeans.  Working on the quilt is a fun bit of nostalgia.  Because of the corona virus, Abe's senior year promises to be unusual, but we'll still find ways to celebrate this big milestone.

We looked at the neowise comet on Wednesday night.  With binoculars, we could see the comet distinctly, even in our well-lit neighborhood.  Our kids, with their young, healthy eyes, could see it without binoculars once they knew where to look.

The neowise comet is about 3 miles across and travels around 144,000 miles an hour.  Although the comet lives in our solar system, it won't be visible again from our skies for about 6800 years.  This photo shows what the comet looked like to us with binoculars.  This comet is remarkable for how bright it is and how easy is has been to see.

On Friday we returned to South Umpqua Falls, this time with Abe, Abigail, Aunika, Alena and Charity (the girls' mom).  Charity shared many of the great photos she took.  From the left are Aunika, Helen, Abigail, Abe, Alena and Gibson.

 The kids were much braver this visit.  This is Abe sliding down the falls.

 And jumping off the fish ladder to that is to the side of the waterfalls.

 This is Aunika and Helen floating down the river.

 Here is Gibson going over the falls.

 Helen bravely jumped off the fish ladder.  Abigail and Aunika also jumped.

 This is Alena and Gibson carrying their tubes to a good spot to start floating.

 This is Gibson going over the falls again.  

And here he is jumping into the river.

And here's Helen.

 We had a fantastic afternoon.  The kids especially enjoyed playing at the river with friends.

19 July 2020

Last Sunday our ward held a musical fireside on Zoom.  It was a great way to connect and enjoy the talents of many youth.  The missionaries ended the fireside with a  beautiful piano, cello and vocal arrangement of "Where Can I Turn For Peace."

Becky finished the quilt top she has been working on.

Our youth gathered together Saturday morning to do yard work for a service project.  This is a photo of Abe cutting down a large bush.

Helen and Gibson helped weed at another house.  They are on the left side of the photo, helpfully wearing their face masks.

We watched the movie Megamind in our backyard Saturday night.  In the past, we've waited for it to get dark before starting an outdoor movie, which makes for a late night in the summertime when it doesn't get dark until 9:30 pm.  We realized we have enough shade in our backyard now that we only need to wait for the sun to go down below the trees and we can see the screen very well.

 With joyful hearts, we returned to church on Sunday.  Beginning in July, our stake authorized wards to meet once a month, with the congregation size limited to fewer than 100 people.  Our ward is large enough that this meant dividing into two sacrament meetings.  We wore masks, stayed 6 feet apart from other families and had instrumental music only instead of congregational singing.  Gibson gave a lovely talk about how he walks with Jesus Christ and Brandan gave a talk about the gift of the ordinance of the sacrament.  Brandan spoke at both meetings while Gibson only spoke at one.  We were grateful to worship with our friends again. 

Helen made this beautiful and delicious cake.  It has 7 layers of vanilla cake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting.  The top is decorated with more berries and fresh roses.  She deliberately frosted the cake thinly so the layers would show through.

12 July 2020

With rising numbers of corona virus cases, Brandan is now required to wear a face shield in addition to a mask at work every day.  Most of the patients he sees day to day are elderly and at high risk of complications if they caught the virus so the double layer of protection is a reasonable precaution to take.

Helen made a corn hole game out of a cardboard box for her 4th of July party.  Our family has enjoyed playing each other.  Brandan is undefeated.

This is a photo of Gib, Abe and Abigail hanging out.  

We are delighted to have Sofi visiting with us for the week!  She came on Tuesday and on Wednesday we visited South Umpqua Falls.  Abe had to stay home for work, but the rest of us enjoyed a day on the Umpqua River.

This location is famous locally because the falls form natural water slides.  Except we think the water in the river was especially low this year.  Most of the rocks were only covered by about an inch of water.  Scrubby black water plants growing on the rocks provided plenty of traction and made it easy to walk up and down the falls.  There was not enough water to float down the river or slide on the rocks.

These mini falls were along the side of the river. 

The cool water was refreshing on a beautifully sunny day.

Sofi and Helen jumped into the pool at the base of the falls just before we left.

 We're eager to go back to the falls in a year where the water levels are back to normal so we can try out the water slides.

 On Saturday we drove out to the coast.  Once again, we enjoyed beautiful weather.

In this photo, Helen, Gib and Abe are watching crabs fight in the tide pools.

 

We love hunting for aquatic life in the tide pools like this pile of orange and purple starfish. 

 Abe, Helen and Gibson played in the water, even though the ocean was freezing cold.

 We also flew a kite.  The strong winds coming off the ocean made the kite pop into the air like a rocket.

The Oregon coast is one of our favorite places to visit and we added another gorgeous day to our memories of it.  

5 July 2020

Helen decorated her longboard this week.  She decided on a floral theme in black and white.

We hiked Grizzly Peak this week, a 5 mile loop trail.  With high rewards (views and wildflowers) and low effort, it's one of our favorite hikes.

The Price family met us at the trail.  Another advantage of the trail is it has high enough elevation that we didn't need to worry about poison oak, even when hiking through lush green undergrowth.  

In a normal year, we enjoy all of our small town's 4th of July celebrations.  However, all of the traditional activities were canceled due to the corona virus.  We still had a great holiday, filled with new activities.  We entered our town's 1st house decorating contest.  We didn't win any prizes, but it helped us anticipate the holiday.

Our town kept the annual military jet flyover as it was an easy way to mark the day while socially distancing.  As the jets passed overhead, Abe got on the roof of our porch and played The Star Spangled Banner on his electric guitar.  With the volume on his amp turned up, he attracted the attention of a few neighbors.  

Helen also played the national anthem.  Helen hadn't played an electric guitar before, but 10 years of playing the violin helped.

 While the traditional parade was canceled, a few volunteers organized a classic car rally that snaked through the entire town.  We sat outside and watched a group of motorcycles and a few classic cars drive by.  After a long break, we assumed the car cruise was over and went back inside.  A short time later, we saw another group of cars drive by.  The cars kept coming in small bursts for the next 2 hours, waving flags and honking their horns.

Helen invited three friends over in the evening for games and fireworks.  She spent a lot of time preparing decorations...

 ...and refreshments.  It was a lovely holiday and we look forward to celebrating with our whole town next year.