28 January 2024

 

Helen and Brig met up with Abe and Cece in Provo.

This is a photo of Abe and Cece getting fondue with friends.

Becky spent three days at Stanford at a Math Leadership Summit led by Jo Boaler. Jo is an innovative educator who researches mathematical learning. Becky's principal arranged for the math team from our school to attend. From the left are Caitlin Math teacher), Becky, Jo, Jen (principal) and Will (math teacher). 

The summit was held at the conference center at Stanford with seating outside for breakfast and lunch. About 200 people attended. Most of the participants were from California, but countries from around the world were represented, including New Zealand, Taiwan and South Africa. The entire experience, from the content presented to the location and accommodations, was first rate.

Becky was a little excited to actually be on campus at Stanford and may have brought home some swag.

One of Jen's former students, Aubrey, is currently a student at Stanford and met up with us to give us a tour of campus. This is photo of Jen and Aubrey.

This is a photo of Becky standing in the quad with the iconic Herbert Hoover tower in the background. We came home with mountains of information to process and integrate into our teaching and renewed enthusiasm for taking on challenging work.

21 January 2024

 

Sunday in Watford was relaxed.  We went to church at their ward which is a group of delightful people from all parts of the world, including Africa, India, east Asia, Europe and America.  After church Martha treated us to spaghetti (both gluten and gluten-free) and sides.

We were blown away by the savory sweet potatoes.  It was so good it made Gibson pull a Burton Guster face.

Martha keeps clippings on her fridge from the produce to show where in the world they are from (top to bottom): coriander (cilantro) from Spain, green onions from Egypt, banana from Costa Rica, bok choy from Spain, apricots from South Africa, clementines from Spain, apples from France, avocado from Chile, apples from Netherlands, pears from Namibia, cherry tomatoes from Portugal.

We put together a fun circle shaped puzzle ... in 1 hour!

Monday we headed into London on the tube.

Grandpa and Grandma too!  Despite clear skies, it was in the 30s so we bundled up.

We visited the Tower of London and saw the crown jewels.  Opposite the current building where the jewels are kept is this Martin Tower where the jewels were stored from 1669 to 1842.  Grandpa researched the Cary family we are related to, and informed us that Edward and Henry Cary were both keepers of the jewels!

They kept the jewels in this tower where they also lived.

We walked along the River Thames next to the Tower Bridge.

On the advice of the gatekeeper, we walked to the docks and found this charming Dickens Inn where we had an English lunch.  Abe, Helen and Gibson had burgers and fries; Grandma and Grandpa had sausage and mashed potatoes, and Brandan had pearl barley risotto.  It didn't hurt that football matches were on the TV nearby.

This phone booth was just outside the pub.

We rode the tube to the British Library which has an incredible collection of British Treasures, among which are ...

... the Magna Carta,

... William Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament in 1534,

Shakespeare's first folio containing 36 plays, published in London in 1623,

a draft of Florence Nightingale's famous visual depiction of British soldiers' deaths due to poor sanitation,

and a handwritten letter from Mahatma Gandhi to the Viceroy of India.

On the ride home we stopped at Wembley Park station, a short walk to the football stadium where the national England team plays.

We stopped in the stadium store where Abe, Helen and Grandpa bought England football team jackets.

The grocery store has a full "free from" (gluten) section that Abe and Helen selected some treats from.

We stopped at Tesco's to stock up on English Cadbury chocolate as gifts for those back home.

Settling in for a direct flight from London to Salt Lake.  Helen couriered a suitcase full of clothes and chocolate for Grandpa and Grandma so they don't have to ship it home when their mission ends in March.  We were so grateful to spend time with them.

Not related to the trip.  Here is the posting of Brandan's Mission Spirit Award at the hospital.

14 January 2024

Dan and Martha are currently serving a 2 year mission to England and will finish in March. Brandan planned a quick trip to visit before they come home. Here is a sampling of photos from their trip so far. On Thursday, Helen and Abe met at the Salt Lake City airport to begin the trip.

Meanwhile, Brandan and Gibson departed from the Medford airport.

They met up in Seattle.

Dan picked them up at the airport and took them sightseeing to some famous locations. They visited Windsor village and saw Windsor castle.

It was a nine hour flight to London and they arrived Friday morning.

They walked around Oxford University and town. This is a photo outside the Bodleian library, one of the oldest, largest and most famous libraries in Europe.

On Friday night they went to see Wicked at the Apollo Theater in London.

Our kids know all of the music from the show from listening to a CD that Sofi had when they were younger, but they didn't know the plot. The performance was excellent and they loved the story.

On Saturday they drove across England to attend a Premier League soccer game in Newcastle in Thyne. Newcastle played Manchester City. Man City won an exciting game by scoring in the final minutes. The 52,000 seat stadium was packed. Brandan, Abe, Helen and Gibson will fly back to the US on Tuesday and share more of their photos and adventures.

Back in Oregon, Becky was home alone, which is unusual. A highlight of her weekend was attending a Pride and Prejudice watch party with friends. We actually never turned the movie on. Becky loved spending the evening visiting with dear friends. This is a photo of the lemon mascarpone filled tarts Becky took to the party. 

7 January 2024

We started our New Year with a 5K fun run sponsored by our stake. Brandan and Becky had an early night on New Year's Eve so waking up for the run was easy. Props to Abe and Gib who went to bed much later and still came along for the fun. We're feeling optimistic about 2024 and looking forward to a lot of great opportunities.

 

Before the pandemic, Brandan and Abe started building a harmonograph. A harmonograph is a machine that uses pendulums to create geometric designs. Brandan worked insanely long hours through the early years of covid and work on the harmonograph paused. By the time his schedule eased, Abe had left on his mission. Brandan and Gibson have worked on it a little bit over the past year and then they finished it up with Abe since he was home for his winter break. They decided to install it in Becky's classroom so more people would have the chance to try it out.

Here is the completed harmonograph.

The harmonograph has three pendulums, 2 which swing at right angles to each other and a third that is mounted on a gimbel and can rotate in a circle. When all three pendulums are moving, the pen inscribes a figure known as a Lissajous curve, which can be described by the parametric equations 
which is more advanced that math than is taught in high school. Becky's students have enjoyed creating their own designs. Some of her students sign the creations they are most proud of and leave them for other students to admire.

We ended the day by trying out Korean face masks.

On Tuesday Becky and Gibson went back to school and Helen and Abe drove to the coast. They hiked to Secret Beach.

The coast is seldom warm, but always beautiful. This is a photo of Helen on the beach.

Nate and Sofi brought a puzzle with them which we completed last week. We completed 2 more puzzles this week. We typically get 1000 piece puzzles, but with puzzlers this quick at putting them together, we might need to move up to 2000 piece puzzles.

Gibson was nominated to be the Chemistry Student of the Trimester by his teacher, Michelle Shaw. He received a certificate at The Breakfast of Distinction on Wednesday morning.

Gibson and friends get lunch at El Poblano's every Wednesday. Abe, Becky and Helen joined them this week. From the left are Abe, Casey, Keven, Cason, Chase, Ed, Gib, Helen and Becky.

Brandan had a packed day with work and church interviews on Thursday, but we met up in the evening to celebrate his birthday. 

This is a photo of Gibson demonstrating how to eat Brandan's birthday dessert. Hot raspberry sauce melts the chocolate dome, revealing a brownie filled with mascarpone cream and more raspberries. The raspberry sauce and melted chocolate combine to make a decadent accompaniment to the brownie. 

Here is Brandan's math problem for this year. The answer equals Brandan's age. We passed a milestone this year with everyone in our family learning calculus so Becky decide to write a problem that could be solved by taking a derivative. Brandan already wrote the answer on the notecard if you're having trouble solving it :)

It snowed on Saturday, an unexpected and fleeting surprise.

Our stake met Saturday morning at a tiny home village to help prepare some of the tiny homes to be painted. The tiny homes are part of a network of housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness. The homes are close to services like medical care, drug treatment programs, counseling and job readiness training while transitioning people to permanent housing.

The homes consist of one small room with heat, air conditioning and electricity. Shower. laundry and kitchen facilities are shared on-site. While the homes are bare bones, they give residents stability and security while they work on improving their situations.

Ed and Jason were also at the activity. There were more volunteers than supplies. All of the work except for the actual painting was completed before we finished taping one tiny home.

Sofi and Nate gave Brandan a pasta machine for his birthday and we tried it out on Saturday. Homemade pasta is a 2 person job. The pasta machine rollers stretched the dough into long sheets. It took one person to manage the sheet and another to turn the handle of the machine.

We made spaghetti.

Brandan made a simple sauce of olive oil, garlic and lemon to eat with the freshly made pasta. It was delicious. We're looking forward to making more.