27 March 2022

This week was our spring break. Helen brought home a painting to finish up for her art class.

We hiked Roxy Ann with friends on Thursday.  In the photo are Jason, Ed, Gib and Helen.

Jason's birthday is in the beginning of March and Gibson and Ed's birthdays are both on March 26 so our families planned a Spring Break overnighter birthday party to Six Flags in Vallejo, California. We drove down in three cars on Friday night and stayed at a hotel near Six Flags. In the morning, we had a little birthday party in the parking lot before heading to the park. Andrea decorated her car truck and brought cupcakes and candles.

Here's a photo of our whole group, minus Brandan who was taking the photo. From the left are Greg, Angel, Helen, Jason, Scott, Ed, Gibson, Seth, Becky, Andrea and Blake. Seth was the only one of us who had been to Six Flags before.

This was Gibson's first time riding a big roller coaster. Here are Scott, Seth, Jason, Helen, Gib and Ed getting ready to ride Kong.

The roller coasters were pretty amazing engineering creations! We enjoyed a beautiful day, 70 degrees and sunny.

This is a photo of Jason, Gib and Ed with big smiles after their ride.

Becky doesn't like roller coasters so after everyone else rode Kong, Brandan went with her on the Monsoon, a much tamer ride. We got a little wet on the ride, but then we got a lot wetter after we took this photo and the boat behind us hit the water!

We walked through an aquarium and saw sharks, manta rays and other tropical fish.

While we rode the Monsoon, the rest of the group rode Superman.

Each roller coaster ride line was about 2 hours long. After riding Kong and Superman, Gibson decided he didn't want to wait in any more lines. He and Becky looked around the park at some impressive animals including these lions. We also went to a dolphin show and marveled at the smart, athletic dolphins. Jason got tired of waiting, too, and joined us with Blake and Andrea for the dolphin show. The others went on one more roller coaster ride, Medusa, which they said was their favorite. We drove home after a great day, with something for everyone to enjoy.

Back at home we celebrated Gibson today with dinner and a giant ice cream sandwich for dessert. We're thankful for Gibson, his steady good nature and his enthusiasm for a wide assortment of interesting topics.

20 March 2021

 For family night we watched the last episode of Vincenzo, a Korean drama we started watching when Abe left on his mission, and ate chocolate mousse pie in honor of pi day (March 14 = 3.14).

Brandan and Becky finished their Conversational Spanish I class on Tuesday night and received lovely certificates to mark the occasion. The class helped Brandan remember some of the Spanish he learned in junior high and communicate better with some of the Spanish speaking members of our stake. 

We celebrated the end of our class with dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant.

Becky made a dessert tray with cream cheese brownies and lemon bars to take to her final class for the winter term. Two terms down and five more to go!

Gibson found some plastic greenery while we were cleaning the church on Saturday and made himself a victory wreath. Being the only person younger than 40 cleaning the church deserves some kind of reward!

Brandan and Becky celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary this week. It just gets better and better!

Becky found this funny card while cleaning out a closet this week. When we got married, Brandan worked for a biology professor at the University of Utah named Dinah Davidson. Dinah wasn't married and didn't have kids and from her perspective found it a little terrifying that we were getting married so young.

It takes a bold person to include a note about the carrying capacity of a habitat in a wedding card and Dinah definitely did not hold back. This card made us laugh then and we're glad to have found it again. It's certainly original. And we don't feel sorry at all for having n = 4 children. 

13 March 2022

Becky substituted in Gibson's seminary class for the past two weeks. Teaching seminary is a lot of fun, but also is challenging, mainly because it begins so early. Substituting gives us more appreciation for seminary teachers who commit to a whole year and even multiple years. Gibson has an awesome class. They're full of energy and willing to try anything, including making inspirational posters about the law of chastity. Front row: Kason, Kate, Emilia, Ella, Lyle, Sarah, Mary, Shaun, Samuel, Ed and Nick. Back row: Tayvon, Gib, Brody, Gibson and Jason. 

Helen is interning with Miss Jenny this semester. Miss Jenny was Helen's teacher for 5th-8th grades at CAMP. Currently Miss Jenny teaches a blended kindergarten through 2nd grade class. Helen helps out in her classroom on Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday mornings.

Miss Jenny has assigned Helen to manage the sensory table during her internship. She swaps out the materials every 2 weeks. Helen's first installation was a spring theme with dried split peas for the filler and rocks and flowers for playing with. This week Helen traded the split peas for water. She added a bunch of containers for pouring and measuring the water and brought popsicle sticks to build boats with.  

The water table is very popular with the kids. Miss Jenny sent some photos of the kids building boats and playing in the water.

The daffodils that the youth from our ward planted last fall are blooming now. It's fun to see them as we walk around the neighborhood.

We're so excited that our temple has reopened! We love our 5 minute commute to a bit of heaven on earth. 

6 March 2022

It's been a busy week full of work and school and not full of photos. Since we don't want to skip a week from the blog, we're sharing these silly photos from our video call with Abe a couple of weeks ago. We look forward to talking to him every Sunday night using the messenger app. The app has some pretty funny filters that can use to distort your face so that you're unrecognizable.

Gibson started the fun with this photo.

 

So Abe responded.

Here's Sofi and her cartoon background.

Brandan wanted to see what he would look like as an anime character. This made him laugh out loud.