29 May 2022

Gibson got his driver's permit this week. The DMV is still short staffed following covid so it took a couple of months to get an appointment for him to take the test. He's excited to start driving.

We drove to the coast on Saturday. Brandan suggested hiking to the Floras Lake waterfall, a place we had never been before. The hike started at Floras Lake, about 15 miles south of Bandon. This is a photo of Gibson climbing giant rocks on the beach.

There were cliffs along one side of the beach and we saw a natural arch that was left behind as the cliffs eroded.

The arch is eroding, too, as you can tell from the giant cleft on one arm of the arch.

This is the view of the arch from the other side, looking out to the ocean.

There wasn't a trail for the hike. We just walked out along the beach for 2 ½ miles to get to the waterfall. It was a bit rainy, windy and cool, typical weather for the Oregon coast. This is a photo of Helen in front of Blacklock Point and some sea stacks. The tallest rock in the ocean is called Tower Rock.

The waterfall came over the cliffs and right onto the beach. Normally we expect to see a pool at the bottom of a waterfall. The water here must absorb into the sand quickly. We saw a small crescent shaped pool at the bottom and then a trickle of water that barely made it to the ocean.

The waterfall seemed very quiet. It probably sounded like a normal waterfall, but the ocean was much louder than it was.

Helen and Gibson climbed the rocks at the base of the waterfall.

Helen wore her Forks sweatshirt because the Oregon coast is close to the Washington coast where Twilight was filmed and she wanted to recreate Jacob saying, "La Push, baby... It's La Push." We're staying in Bandon for the holiday weekend and will go home on Monday.

22 May 2022

Becky took this photo during Come Follow Me last Sunday. It was a golden hour spent together on a warm afternoon.

Lucky for us, Sofi messaged to let us know she was watching the lunar eclipse Sunday night. We hurried outside and saw the earth's shadow cover the moon. It felt neat to be looking at the same event hundreds of miles apart.

Gibson received an award for being on the Principal's List for his high GPA at Honors Night on Monday.

Helen got an award for Principal's List and a BIS LEADS award for demonstrating commitment, leadership, enthusiasm, academics, determination and success.

Here's a photo of the kids from our ward plus a few extras. From the left are Ben, Tayvon, Daniel, Mary, Annie, Hudson, Helen, Gibson and Scott.

We're happy for both of Helen and Gibson's hard work in school!

On Wednesday night we attended a dinner celebrating the DECA team. Mr. Rogan honored all of the students with a personalized and heartfelt speech. This is a photo of Helen receiving her certificate from competing in the ICDC competition.

After the awards, the team gathered for a huddle. It was neat to see their closeness and trust in each other. Mr. Rogan asked each person to pick a word to describe their feelings. Helen said, "Grateful."

Here is a photo of the 2021-2022 DECA team. From the left: Noah, Ryder, Colin, Aunika, Lucy, Mary, Malia, Rowan, Helen, Chloe, Tyler, Hannah, Lily, Tayvon and Mr. Rogan.

Helen had a fabulous DECA year, demonstrating a lot of growth as a competitor, traveling to new places and building new friendships. She's looking forward to another great year and will serve as the DECA president for 2022-2023.

For a very, very long time, Brandan has worked towards offering cooking and nutrition classes to his patients. Nothing like that exists where we live and dozens of his patients have expressed interest in learning how to make inexpensive, delicious and nutritious meals. Brandan had to create the model himself. Craterworks, our local maker space, opened in 2019. One of the last spaces in the building to be completed was a commercial kitchen that was available to rent. Finally Brandan had found a home for nutrition classes. Just as he was negotiating details of the class, covid came along and squashed his plans. For the past two years, he has been swamped with covid care. Restrictions on community gatherings were another barrier to starting cooking classes. After years of problem solving and persevering, the first cooking class met on Friday night. Brandan didn't want to make his patients feel self conscious by attending the class, but we stopped by for a few minutes to say hi and see how the class was going. And we came home with a stack of recipes we want to try ourselves!

Becky's birthday was Saturday and we celebrated by attending the temple together in the morning.

Then we went out for breakfast together.

The floor in the restaurant was tiled with pennies. We've never seen anything like it.

Helen created beautiful watercolors of three of our favorite national parks for Becky. We're excited to get these framed and hang them up in our house. 

It was the best kind of birthday, full of love and time together, and capped off with a bowl of ice cream.

15 May 2022

Gibson made dinner last Sunday for Mother's Day. He prepared the baked pasta dish after church before leaving for his symphony performance. Dinner was delicious! 

Helen and Becky attended his concert, another great performance. This is a photo of the symphony taking their bows at the end.

Gibson played the part of the donkey in his seminary class reenactment of the story of Balaam and his talking donkey. From the left are Jason, Gibson, Gib, Ed, Layla and Grace.

Brandan and Becky attended the Crater Foundation Awards event on Tuesday, held in person for the first time in 2 years. The event allows the scholarship recipients to meet their donors. The Crater Foundation celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and marks 22 years of giving every graduating high school senior who applies a scholarship. That's the only requirement: the students have to apply. The scholarships can be used for trade schools and job training programs as well as college. The Foundation makes it super easy for donors and we are so thankful to be part of a community that supports kids in such a meaningful way.

Gibson is collecting bugs for his zoology class. He painted a box this week that he can use to mount his collection.

Our ward had an international/ family history night this Friday and invited everyone to bring their favorite international dishes. Brandan made a platter of pannukakku, one of his favorite treats from Finland. Our family also brought a plate of ribs and a bowl of potato salad, representing America. Some of our ancestors have been in America for a long, long time so American food seemed appropriate for a family history night.

Here are Jason, Gibson and Ed.

Clockwise from Helen are Mary, Annie, Scott, Marcus, Ben and Luke. It was a great ward activity.

Brandan and Gibson went mountain biking on Saturday morning.

They picked some moderate trails close to home.

Here's the view from the top of the trail.

Gibson liked this stretch through a tunnel of trees. They had a great time and are looking forward to going again.

8 May 2022

We celebrated Sofi's graduation from the University of Utah this week in Salt Lake City. Sofi rode the train from work to commencement in her graduation robes.

Brandan and Becky attended along with Dan and Martha. The commencement program was terrific with great (short) speeches and inspiring videos.  Memorable quotes from the night: "Service to others is the rent we pay for living on earth" and "Making a living is not the same thing as making a life." 

Here's Sofi in the recessional afterwards. 

Time for photos on a beautiful evening! Sofi graduated magna cum laude with an Honors Bachelors of Arts degree in English with a minor in Chinese and a certificate for teaching English to speakers of other languages.

We're so proud of Sofi!

Nate sat with Sofi in the College of Humanities section instead of the College of Engineering. Nate graduated magna cum laude with an Honors Bachelor's of Science degree in Chemical Engineering.

Here's a photo of all of us: Dan, Martha, Nate, Sofi, Brandan and Becky

Sofi was half-hearted about participating in the big ceremonies, but was gracious to do it for our sakes. And she planned a terrific after-party. We celebrated afterwards by going to one of her favorite restaurants for fondue. Sofi has a lot of favorite restaurants and this one felt very celebratory. This is the cheese course.

And the chocolate course. The waiter ignited the chocolate fondue. Nothing says celebration like actual flames!

Here we are outside the restaurant, probably the last ones to leave. Sofi works in this same building in downtown Salt Lake City.

We were back at the University on Friday night for part 2: her college convocation.

Here is Sofi waiting for the program to begin. The rhetoric at convocation was less lofty, but the ceremony was extremely efficient and joyful.

This is our view of Sofi receiving her diploma cover. She already got her diploma in the mail.

We had a great view of her on the Jumbotron.

Dr. Roh, her thesis advisor, congratulated her afterwards. Graduation is a big milestone and now Sofi is putting her hard work to use as a project manager shepherding immigration applicants through the process of applying for green cards and aa a volunteer teaching refugees English.

Brandan and Becky stayed with Dan and Martha and took a walk Friday morning at Liberty Park. This fountain has been at the park as long as we've been going to the park and for Brandan, that is his whole life. We haven't thought much about the fountain, except stopping here to get a drink of cool water.

This time we noticed a sign posted to let people know why the fountain runs continuously. With a severe drought in Utah, it probably concerns people to see water running needlessly. Becky took a photo of the sign because there's a gospel message in her somewhere.

 

Gibson has three concerts this weekend with the youth symphony. This is a photo from Saturday night. Gibson is on the far right.

Here's a close up of Gibson. The symphony played music from Carmen, The Music Man and West Side Story, along with some Mozart and Berlioz. It was a fun and very accessible concert.

Helen went to prom on Saturday night with some of her CAMP friends. From the left are Paige, Helen, Clara, Sophie, Roberta and Lily.

Helen wore a beautiful coppery dress.

The girls went to dinner at Luna before going to the dance which was pretty much a mosh pit of kids jumping up and down. Helen had a great time and enjoyed reconnecting with friends.