12 November 2023

Every year Southern Oregon University sponsors a scavenger hunt for high school students, putting together a packet of about 65 really tough research questions. Teams get three days to answer and document sources for as many questions as possible. Abe, Helen and Gibson have all participated. The past coach moved to another school which meant Crater would not have a team this year. Although teams are usually led by social studies teachers, Becky signed up to be the coach just so Gibson could participate. Another math teacher joined as a second coach. We had a group of about 20 motivated students who worked crazy hard for 3 days. This is a photo of about half of the team after we submitted our answers. Back row: Ben, Jordan, Jacen, Malachi, Becky, Gibson, Abby, Grace, Jadyn and Halle. Front row: Victor, Will, Sarah.

Christmas is coming which means Christmas music! Gibson, Eddie and Mary started praticing "Silent Night" for our upcoming ward Christmas party.

We had a three day weekend because of Veteran's Day so we headed north to Wenatchee to visit Sofi and Nate. Nate and Brandan woke up early Saturday morning to go on a bike ride in the foothills nearby.

They saw a beautiful sunrise and a rainbow.

We drove to the nearby town of Moses Lake and did baptisms at the temple.

The Moses Lake temple was dedicated by Elder Cook on September 17 of this year. The temple repeats an apple blossom motif in stone, stained glass and wood, recognizing the predominant orchards in the area.

We ate a delicious lunch at Michael's Market and Bistro, where a live DJ played music.

We took a scenic route home, driving up the Grand Coulee, a geologic feature formed by floods at the end of the last ice age. Our first stop was a short hike to caves along Lake Lenore

Gibson crawled to the back of this cave.

Further up the Grand Coulee is Dry Falls. An ice dam formed at this location. As temperatures got warmer at the end of the ice age, water broke through the ice dam several times, resulting in massive floods that ran across Central Washington, down the Columbia River and into Oregon. The floods carved out the 15 mile long Grand Coulee and would have been the world's largest waterfall during the few days each flood lasted.

We could imagine water rushing along the basalt cliffs behind us.

Here's another view. The lake at the bottom of the cliffs was dug out by the crashing waterfall. Now ground water replenishes the lake.

Wenatchee is known as the apple capital of the world so we were excited to stop at a fruit stand and buy apples. We got some Pink Lady, Yellow Delicious and Fiji apples. 

Meanwhile, out in Provo, Abe was having breakfast with his roommates and Jake's parents who were visiting. Clockwise from the left are Malakai, Brant, Jake, Abe, Camden, Spencer and Ashton.