27 August 2023

Abe cooked another Korean feast for us and the Weaver family on Sunday. Lance served a mission in South Korea about 30 years ago. Abe made bulgogi and japchae and taught everyone how to make kimbap. From the left are Chance, Cason, Chase and Crew.

Pear picking started on Monday. We picked a lot of pears this week.

Chance showed us the biggest and smallest pears he pound. Charlie is holding an average sized pear in between Chance's pears for comparison.

On Tuesday Becky drove a little truck used to move the pear bins closer to the pickers which was a new experience and kind of fun.

Abe has been at the pear farm every day, either with our family or with friends or with both. This is a photo from Thursday when he and his friends did back-to-back shifts on the blue platform. The platforms or the most efficient way to pick pears, but the orchard only has two of them so they need to fill in with old fashioned ladder picking in order to get all of the pears picked before they spoil. Abe is in the middle of this photo.

Meanwhile, Gibson got his wisdom teeth removed. His face is swollen and his mouth is sore, but otherwise, he is in good spirits. We're happy to pass the milestone of having the last wisdom teeth pulled in our family.

After picking pears on Friday, Abe came to school with Becky to help her set up the technology in her classroom. After a year of teaching, Becky has a much better idea of what she needs and wants. She got a standing desk for her laptop and document camera that attach to a smart board. Abe connected everything, downloaded the appropriate software, showed Becky how to access it and even tidied up the miles and miles of connecting cables.

Gib went bowling on a double date Friday night, swollen face and all. His friend, Levi, asked Adele and Gib asked Claire. From the left are Levi, Claire, Adele and Gibson.

Brandan trained to drive the orange platform this year. On Saturday Brandan, Becky and Abe were back at the pear farm and Brandan drove for the first time. 

Brandan can add platform driving to his already impressive list of skills. Our shift was from 4 am to 7 am which wasn't that bad once the initial shock of waking up at 3:25 wore off.

Over in Utah, Helen finished her first week of classes and settled in to college life.  This is a photo of Helen with her roommate, Venecia, at a ward soccer game.

Helen and Venecia went roller blading with the YSA women.

This is Helen and Layla.

This is a photo of Kiley, Hannah, Paige and Layla getting ready for a group photo with a bunch of other students.

20 August 2023

 

Abe cooked a Korean dinner on Sunday and taught Brandan how to make kimbap, which is Korean sushi. The difference between sushi and kimbap is kimbap only has cooked ingredients and uses sesame oil to season the rice.

Besides kimbap, Abe served beef bulgogi, kongnamul and kimchi. Everything tasted very good.

On Monday, Becky, Abe and Gibson drove Helen to Utah to help her move in to the dorms at the University of Utah.

Move-in day was Tuesday, August 15. Helen is living in Sage Point on the eastern edge of campus.

Abe and Gibson were extremely helpful and goofy at the same time.

We made time to watch two sets of Sasha's volleyball team against East High School. Sasha plays for Jordan High School.

Maks enjoyed playing with Abe, Helen and Gibson as much the volleyball game.

After the game we met up with Becky and Aaron's family, Drue and Maggie's family and Parker and Halie for dinner. Sasha's school mascot is the Beet Diggers so Sasha is making a beet with her hands in this photo. 

This is a photo of the cousins after dinner. Front row: Maks, Nico, Sasha and Xander. Middle: Halie. Back row: Parker, Gibson, Helen, Abe, Salem and Sutton. Salem and Sutton came straight from soccer practice to dinner. Their school mascot is the Miners as you can see from the pick axes on their shirts. Becky thinks both Beet Diggers and Miners are funny mascots.

On Wednesday we shopped for a few items Helen needed for her dorm. This meant more opportunities for goofy fun for Abe and Gibson.

We said goodbye Wednesday afternoon, leaving Helen to finish unpacking and get settled in. Her classes will start on Monday.

Abe found this cute throwback photo from 2014. In the meantime, Abe and Helen have traded schools.

We stopped to say hello to Grandpa and Grandma in Pocatello.

They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on August 7. Grandma is pretty much homebound, but both are in good spirits.

We drove by the Pocatello temple which was completed while Abe was on his mission.

Our next stop was Sarah and Joe's house. Sarah cooked some of the salmon that Gibson caught while we were on our Alaskan cruise. The fish tasted delicious and we congratulated Gibson on his excellent catch. Sarah and Joe sent us home with more salmon so Brandan can also try some.

Sarah and Joe took us to breakfast at Konditerei, an Austrian restaurant located in the Sun Valley resort.

The restaurant was beautiful inside and out with extraordinary food. Gibson and Abe shared a large cup of hot chocolate while they waited for their orders.

We spent Thursday at Red Fish Lake located in the Sawtooth mountains. It was a bright clear day and about 20 degrees cooler than the temperatures in the valley.

Becky enjoyed visiting with Sarah and Joe while Gibson and Abe played in the water, a delightful and relaxing day.

We drove through 4 states in 5 days and tried to visit as much family as possible. We stopped by Joe and Keri's house. Joe is a geologist and the chief minerals examiner for the Department of the Interior which means he has a great depth and breadth of knowledge of US history and policies from the Louisiana purchase up to the current day.  

Here's a photo of the cousins: From the left are Gibson, Abe, Hayden, Kolter, Gage and Sy. Sawyer was at football practice during our visit.

By the time we arrived home, thousands of insects plastered the front of our car. Abe and Gibson kindly cleaned them off. Kind for Becky. No comment from the insects.

This weekend was our stake conference. Abe sang in a missionary choir composed of newly returned missionaries, soon to leave missionaries and the missionaries serving in our stake. They sang "As I Have Loved You" in English, Spanish, Japanese, Swahili, Korean, Marshallese and Finnish, the languages which these missionaries taught in or will teach in. Abe is 4th from the left on the back row.

This is a photo of Abe with Gideon, a member of our ward. Gideon is a month younger than Abe and has Down's Syndrome. He spreads the same celestial sunshine now that he did when he and Abe were in Primary together-- lots of hugs. A note about Abe's necklace: before stake conference began, Abe met a 12 year old boy who offered to make members of the congregation necklaces during the conference. He had a sign up sheet with space for 5 people to sign up. Abe received the finished necklace at the end of conference. 

13 August 2023

Abe was released as a full time missionary on Sunday afternoon by our stake president. Here is a photo of President Hungerford, Abe and Brandan.

 

We invited friends and neighbors over on Sunday evening to welcome Abe home. This is a photo of Abe with Elders Nielsen and Jones, who serve in our ward, and Malakai.

Clockwise from the top are Helen, Cason, Gibson, Jason, Crew, Ed , Chance and Helen.

Many of our friends got to meet Nate and congratulate Sofi and Nate on their marriage. From the left are Diane, Sofi, Nate, Jen, Ryan and Chris who is holding baby Evelyn.

Becky often sees deer while walking, but has never seen a buck this big so close to home. This deer was snacking on apples with his two buddies who also had impressive racks.

Jason, Gib, Ed, Emma and Helen made pizza on Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday the boys headed to Lake of the Woods for Aaronic Priesthood camp. From the left are Ed, Jason, Cason and Gibson.

Abe also went to AP camp as a cabin leader.

Helen and Emma headed out on a girls trip to find hot springs along the Umpqua River.

The hot springs are several pools above the river and are refreshing even in the summertime. The temperature is cooler in the mountains and trees shaded the springs. 

On Thursday Helen went boating at Lake of the Woods. From the left are Chase, Helen and Emma.

Abe shared a few photos from the AP camp. His cabin had a group of young boys, but they had good attitudes and embraced the camp activities and challenges. This is a photo at the hatchet throwing event.

This is a photo of Abe at the summit of Mt. McLoughlin with two boys from his cabin, Nathan and Diego. Mt. McLoughlin is the tallest mountain where we live and an accomplishment to climb.

The last camp activity on Saturday morning was building and racing cardboard boats. This is a photo of Abe with his team's boat. It held together for about half the course.

We went to the temple to do baptisms on Saturday afternoon, after the boys had time for a shower and a nap.

Helen invited friends over on Saturday night. She made this cake to wish them farewell as she leaves for college on Monday.