31 January 2021

 Gibson found a cassette player and some cassette tapes Brandan made about 15 years ago by recording Sofi, Abe and Helen talking about themselves. He has enjoyed listening to the tapes all week long and laughing at their cute, tiny voices.

We met friends on Friday for a walk along the Rogue River. It was a highlight of our week. In the photo are Gibson, Eddy, Scott and Jason.

Gibson washed and vacuumed our van on Saturday to get ready for Helen's upcoming driving test on Monday.

Brandan was called this weekend to be the 1st counselor in our stake presidency. The entire process happened very quickly and culminated with the new presidency being set apart after stake conference today. Because of Covid, the general authority assigned to reorganize our stake, Elder Timothy J. Dyches joined the conference from Salt Lake City by video call. In the photo are Elder Dyches on the screen, Elder David L. Wright, Brandan, President Ryan Hungerford and President Justin Idiart (2nd counselor).

This is a photo of the 4 living stake presidents of the Central Point stake. From the left are President Ryan Hungerford, President Kelly Thompson, Elder David L. Wright and Patriarch Michael Robinson. Patriarch Robinson was the first stake president called when the Central Point stake was organized.

We're excited for the days and years ahead!

24 January 2021

Our state recently gave local school districts more control over whether students can attend school in person. Our school district has decided to begin in-person school 2 days a week for all students beginning in February. The middle school decided to host a series of in-person school days this month, with each student having at least one opportunity to go to school. Gibson got to go on Tuesday this week. His pod class stayed in one classroom and his teachers rotated in to teach. They played a game for US History and learned how to use geometric perspective to draw realistically for math. Gib thinks in-person school is much better than online school.

At Craterworks this week, the boys got a thank you card from the class they built the desks for. Also, their tinkercad design was finished 3-D printing and they could test it out. 

The boys designed three interlocking puzzle pieces. Each of them will keep one of the pieces. Next up: the boys are going to build speakers, combining their woodworking skills with learning electronics and programming.

Three cheers for our new president and vice president and the preservation of democracy! Becky waited until the inauguration to celebrate and enjoyed every bit, from the swearing in ceremony in the morning to the celebration of America in the evening.

We ate a festive dinner while we watched the show.

And had patriotic sundaes with red and blue sprinkles for dessert.

Our county organized its first mass vaccination event for health care workers and educators. Employees of both hospitals and the county were joined by the National Guard and dozens of volunteers for the three day event. With extraordinary coordination and organization, the event exceeded expectations and swiftly vaccinated thousands of people. Brandan volunteered at the event on Friday morning and took these photos. Drivers entered the event by queuing outside the county expo. People had the opportunity to complete paperwork online before they came or outside while they waited in their cars to check in.

Four lanes of tables were set up inside as vaccination stations. Eight cars could line up in each lane. Once a lane filled up, National Guard members would vaccinate each person while they sat in their car. When all the people in a lane had been vaccinated, that group of cars would exit the building and a new group would take their place. Outside the building, the cars would wait for 15-20 minutes, observed by paramedics, in case of a severe reaction. No one had a severe reaction.

Brandan worked behind the scenes with a group of volunteers preparing the vaccines for the National Guard.

Brandan's job was to add distilled water to vials of the Pfizer vaccine to properly dilute it. He then passed the vials to his partner who filled syringes so they were ready to use. Other volunteers carried the syringes out to the vaccination stations. Everyone worked smoothly so there was never a delay for the vaccinators.

This is a view of the process in action and gives a sense of the scale of the event. It was an amazing collaboration between community members and gives us a bit of hope that it will be possible to vaccinate enough people to end the pandemic.

Our ward youth went sledding Saturday morning, making the very most of a little bit of snow. 

From the left are Helen, Brandan, Elise, Ava, Luci, Jessica, Nikki and Annie.

17 January 2021

This is a photo of Sofi and Gibson learning how to ride longboards. Sofi returned to school this week to begin her next to last semester.

Becky, Helen and Gibson went hiking with friends on Friday. We hiked a new trail in Forest Park and happened on a small exhibit that highlights the area's history of gold mining. The entrance is sealed off, but a light triggered by a motion sensor lets you look inside the mine.

Gibson and Abe put together another mystery puzzle this week. The task for this puzzle was to find the unicorn's horn. This one was easier than the first since they knew what to expect.

10 January 2021

 We celebrated Brandan's birthday on Monday. We started out with breakfast together at 6:30 am before Brandan headed to work. He hit the ground running in his new position as area medical director for Providence for Southern Oregon and hasn't slowed down all week. We caught up with him again in the evening for a birthday dinner and cake. We love Brandan for his gentle goodness, work ethic, multitudinous skills and kindness.

Here is Brandan's birthday problem for this year. Hint: in Jewish tradition, seven is the number that symbolizes perfection.

We finished assembling our jigsaw puzzle this week. According to the story included with the puzzle, a giant comet was speeding towards us and would destroy the earth unless we assembled a laser to demolish it.

We scoured the puzzle for clues that would reveal how to build the laser. Some of the clues were easy to spot, others were more challenging and often we got carried away and made the puzzle even more complicated than it was intended to be.

We loved the clever solution to the puzzle. The clues hidden in the puzzle picture led us to 6 puzzle pieces, each labeled with a different number. By removing those pieces from their separate locations along the border of the puzzle and reassembling them together in the middle, we created the laser. It was a fun and satisfying conclusion.

Abe did school at a friend's house this week. It's an odd and frustrating school year, so we're especially thankful for bright moments like this one. From the left are Jake, Ashton, Malakai, Spencer, Camden and Abe.

Sofi finished painting her longboard and it looks beautiful. The Chinese character is the word for enlightenment, or the moment when a lightbulb goes off in your head.

Five of us hiked Upper Tablerock on a cold, sunny Saturday afternoon. Because of recent rain, everything was green and fresh.

Gibson found the remains of concentric rock circles and replaced some rocks to complete the design. The formation reminded Helen of viking graves we saw in Denmark.

Sofi heads back to school tomorrow so Becky coaxed the kids into a group photo after church. We've enjoyed having Sofi home very much and will miss her. Every night, Brandan and Becky have gone to bed to the sounds of our kids talking and laughing downstairs, just getting started with their late night jam sessions. It's a beautiful sound.

3 January 2021

Brandan took the week between Christmas and New Year's Day off work so we took advantage of a sunny day to drive to the coast. The Oregon coast can have terrific storms during the winter, but Monday was a balmy 60 degrees with no wind. Abe stayed home to work while the rest of us enjoyed the sunshine.  

We usually don't go to the coast in the winter and could feel the difference in seasons, even though it was a mild day. The sun was lower in the sky, the waves were larger as they crashed on the rocks and we saw different wildlife than we usually do.

Gibson brought his RC car and enjoyed driving it on the beach.

He built a jump from a log, some rocks and some sand to drive it over.

We had a mini sandcastle building contest. This is Gibson's castle.

Here is Sofi's.

This is Becky's.

This is a close up photo of Becky's mini castle with a piece of plastic for a flag.

Here is Brandan's.

Helen soaked in the sun on a rock while we built our castles.

Gibson built another castle. It wasn't quite swimsuit weather, but after getting wet up to his shoulders, Gib felt warmer with his shirt off.

We celebrated Helen's 16th birthday on Tuesday! Helen has so many talents and good qualities: she is artistic, organized, musical, competent, beautiful and helpful. She has worked hard to learn math and science with online school this year and is always willing to share what she learned with her friends.

Helen made her own birthday cake and it was delicious.

Gibson finished his longboard this week. It's ready to ride!

Sofi cut out a longboard while she was home this summer and then she painted it this week.

Our New Year's Eve, we started our evening watching a Pink Martini concert online. Sofi painted her longboard and Abe, Helen and Gibson had dinner and played a card game at the Weber's house.

Abigail, Aunika and Alena came back to our house with Gibson, Helen and Abe for more games and food. They made mini pizzas.

And pizelles.

As midnight grew closer, they turned out the lights and had a rave in the family room.

At midnight they went outside to light the world's shortest lived sparklers, then came back inside for a photo. From the left are Gibson, Sofi, Aunika, Helen, Alena, Abigail and Abe. Hooray for good friends who made the party extra fun!

Abe played a song to celebrate the new year.

For Christmas, our kids gave us an overnight stay at a bed and breakfast in Ashland. Helen painted this card to give to us.

We enjoyed our stay from January 1-2. We appreciated the delightful and comfortable B&B, including its gourmet breakfast, but also felt sad for the impact the pandemic has had on charming vacation towns like Ashland. The B&B owner has gone from having his 8 rooms and 2 cottages in high demand to having only 1 or 2 guests a month. Ashland was unusually quiet, with only take-out meals allowed for restaurants and shops closing early.