24 September 2023

We're enjoying beautiful and delicious Asian pears from our tree right now. We used pheromone strips for the first time to keep coddling moths away and the strips worked.

As the last kid at home, Gibson now has use of two bedrooms and a bathroom to himself. He uses Helen's room as his office.

Brandan made a quick trip to Portland to meet with medical students and residents and  recruit for positions in Southern Oregon. Providence frequently holds recruiting events. This time they went to a Timbers soccer game. Most of the residents were more interested in free food and the soccer game than in talking to medical directors. Brandan networked with the other medical directors and explored ways to have residents complete rotations in Southern Oregon as part of their programs. This is a photo of the stadium and pitch. The Portland Timbers won their game against the San Jose Quakes. 

Our ward youth had a Bob Ross painting night for an activity this week. Here are Gib and Emma's finished paintings.

Brandan and Gib went mountain biking on Saturday in Ashland. They biked the BTI trail which was more technical than they anticipated, but they made it down without any spills.

Andrea was in Utah recently and sent us a photo of Abe and his friends outside the door to their apartment. From the left are Malakai, Jake, Camden, Spencer, Ashton and Abe.

Ashton's grandma lives in Provo and sent us this photo of their intramural volleyball team. From the left are Jake, Abe, Eliza, two girls we don't know. Annie, Malakai, Camden and Spencer. Eliza and Annie are Ashton's sisters. Ashton is not in the photo.

17 September 2023

We had two trees removed from our backyard this week. One of the trees was the Raywood Ash on the left of this photo. It rubbed on the roof of our neighbors' garage and was a liability. We waited until September to have them cut down so we could enjoy their shade during the heat of summer. This is the before photo.

And this is the after photo.

The second tree was a Blue Atlas Cedar. It was a very messy tree that dropped needles and sap and made our side yard difficult to use. It was also encroaching on our house. It's remarkable how big our trees have grown in the 18 years since we planted them.

Here's the after photo.

Brandan asked the arborist to leave the tree trunks. We'll keep some of the wood and give some of it to our friend who heats her home with a wood burning stove. Now we have a empty, sunny space to plant.

The tree company also left the chipped up leaves and branches. We'll use this around the yard and in our garden as mulch.

On Thursday Gibson and Becky went to a showing of the movie Napoleon Dynamite followed by a Q&A with Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Efron Ramirez (Pedro) and Jon Gries (Uncle Rico). We stayed out WAY too late for a school night, but it was fun to watch a classic movie and then hear some of the backstage stories. We learned it was super low budget film and if you saw it in the movie, that's how it happened. For example, Uncle Rico really chucked a steak that hit Napoleon in the face. When Jon Gries tried lobbing the steak, it didn't travel far enough. He had played baseball in college and was confident if he put enough force into it, he could hit Jon Heder. The part where Pedro pedals offscreen was unscripted, but Efron moved out of view of the camera before he ruined the shot by laughing out loud.

On Saturday Brandan and Becky participated in a suicide awareness and prevention walk. We met with a small group of people who walked to honor loved ones who have died by suicide, those who are supporting someone who struggles with suicide ideation and those who struggle themselves. The organizers passed out honor beads to walkers to give a visual representation of the broad impact suicide has in our community. 

Community resources were available at the walk, ranging from medical professionals to a table where people could both leave supportive messages or take a message they needed.

10 September 2023

Brandan and  Gibson spent Sunday in Utah and drove home on Monday. This is a photo of lunch with Helen and Gibson on Saturday after moving Abe in to the dorms.

 

Abe went to a football game on Saturday night.

Back home, Becky made a new family night wheel for a new era.

Then, feeling nostalgic, she pulled out all of our past family night wheels to look at. Family night on Mondays is a beloved tradition.

Tuesday was Becky's first day of school. It was a crazy week with packed classes and lots of student schedule changes. Still, starting her second year felt a lot easier than her first year.

Since Gibson is a junior, his first day of school was Wednesday. He's taking AP Calculus, AP Computer Programming, International Business, English and Chemistry.

His math teacher assigned his class to make a poster introducing themselves. This is Gibson's. The names in the right corner are all of Gibson's nicknames.

On Thursday Brandan and Becky did another 4 am-7 am shift on the platform picker at the pear farm. Here's a view of the sky lightening up just before the sunrise, a welcome sight since it meant our shift was almost done. The pear harvest for this year ended on Saturday. Each year the pear farm produces about 2 million pounds of pears that are processed and distributed throughout the United States for those in need. 

Gibson and Mary played Enchanted by Taylor Swift at Hailey Stanley's wedding during the processional. Hailey's mom asked them to play a few weeks ago. Mary's mom, Allison, found a violin duet of the song Hailey wanted and Gibson transposed one part for the cello. At the rehearsal, they learned the song was too long and did some creative splicing in order to time the song with the wedding party walking down the aisle and found the perfect measures to correspond with the moment Hailey and her dad appeared. The wedding was on Saturday and Gibson and Mary sounded amazing.

3 September 2023

Ashton returned from his mission last week and spoke in church on Sunday, along with Camden and Jake. Ashton was the last of the six friends to return. Malakai already left for BYU, but here is a photo of five of the friends reunited. From the left are Spencer, Abe, Camden, Ashton and Jake.

Malakai's younger brother, Gabe, jumped in to substitute for Malakai for a photo. Malakai served in the Los Angeles California Mission (Mandarin speaking), Spencer served in the Denver Colorado and Fukuoka Japan Missions, Abe served in the Syracuse New York and Busan South Korea Missions, Camden served in the St. George Utah Mission (Spanish speaking), Ashton served in the Seoul South Korea Mission and Jake served in the Kumasi Ghana Mission.

We picked lots of pears this week. Brandan drove the platform for another 4 am shift and Becky and Abe went along to pick pears.

Becky was back in her classroom this week, attending inservice meetings and getting ready for school to start after Labor Day. Her school asks all of the teachers to create posters to introduce themselves to new students. This is the poster Becky made for herself. 

Brandan, Abe and Gibson left Friday morning to take Abe out to BYU. The back of the car was packed, with a little space for Gibson.

They drove through rainstorms across Nevada and saw this beautiful rainbow.

Some of the items in the car were for Helen, including her violin and a guitar. They brought Helen her things on Saturday morning and picked Helen up to spend the day together.

Here's a photo of Gibson, Abe and Helen on the campus of BYU.

Becky has been calling Abe her big freshman and Helen her baby freshman. The truth is they are both competent and capable adults with excellent judgement and the desire to learn. We're super proud and excited for them.

Abe ran into Ian Jensen while checking in. We knew him as Elder Jensen and he served in our ward while Abe was doing home MTC two years ago.

Helen and Gibson helped Abe move in to Heritage Halls. Abe is sharing an apartment with his 5 friends from Oregon.

Ashton is Abe's roommate. They're looking forward to speaking Korean with each other. From the left are Spencer, Ashton Abe, Helen and Gibson. Abe's bed is on the left of the photo.

There's a practice room off the lobby of Abe's dorm building.

After Abe moved in, Brandan, Helen and Gibson walked around campus with him and helped him find his classes.

Helen found another couple of pianos to play.

This is a photo of a beautiful corner of campus. Helen has finished two weeks of classes. Abe will start on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, Sofi and Nate were hiking and sent us beautiful photos from their adventure.

Here's another stunning photo.