28 July 2024

Abe spent the last two weeks working as a counselor at FSY at the University of Redlands in southern California. The first five photos this week are of Abe, some of the youth in his company and other counselors.

FSY Redlands

FSY Redlands

FSY Redlands

FSY Redlands

This was a rare experience for Abe to spend two weeks in the same place this summer. Since he didn't have to travel to a new location on Saturday, Abe and some of the other counselors rented a car and drove to Newport Beach.

Another beach photo.

Abe's group met up with more counselors at another beach for a bonfire.

Eddy left on his mission Thursday morning. He'll spend 6 weeks at the MTC in Mexico City.

It will likely be three years before Ed, Gibson and Jason hang out together again.

Gibson, Becky and Brandan hiked Grizzly Peak on Friday afternoon. The larkspur were blooming, with some of the stunning stems reaching over seven feet tall.

Three cheers for Abe at home! Abe finished his FSY assignments and will be spending the rest of his summer break with us. Gib and Abe took turns beating each other in chess.

21 July 2024

 

Becky and Gibson woke up far too early on Monday morning and drove to Corvallis so Gibson could tour a couple of Oregon universities. Our first stop was Oregon State University. 

OSU has maintained high design standards since its beginning in 1868. The tree lined campus is filled with red brick buildings.

OSU is home to the Beavers, as shown on these door pulls.

While on campus, people can order food from dining services and pay a small fee to have the food delivered by robots like these. At lunch time we saw small groups of the robots crossing campus. We thought the robots were cute, friendly and very polite.

We walked off campus and got lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Gibson was a good sport to let Becky take his photo in front of these wings.

We enjoyed our day at OSU and learned a lot about the school, especially the College of Engineering. At the end of the day, we drove about an hour south to Eugene. We ate dinner at the very charming Fifth Street Market, This former poultry plant has been remodeled into a lovely space that feels like it belongs in a European country.

On Tuesday morning it was was a short drive from our hotel to the University of Oregon, home of the Ducks. By this point, Gibson had decided he doesn't like college tours, but he was still willing to pose for a photo.

This is a photo inside the very impressive palace of science (our name, not theirs).

The U of O campus also had a lot of trees. 

And also had beautiful historic red brick buildings.

A unique feature of the U of O is that it surrounds three sides of a pioneer cemetery. The cemetery was not part of the tour, but we could see a grey rectangle outlining the cemetery on the map of campus we were given. Becky dipped out of the tour for about 15 minutes to find the cemetery and take these photos. Gibson stayed with the tour and visited the student union building instead of the cemetery,

The cemetery was built in 1872, four years before the University of Oregon was founded in 1876. About 5,000 people are buried in the cemetery. As the U of O expanded and outgrew its original location, it tried to buy the cemetery and move the bodies. Three separate bills have been introduced in the Oregon legislature to condemn the property and remove the graves. Another time the university proposed an elevated building on cement pillars that would float above the cemetery.  In 1997, the cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places which ended any plans for the university to claim the land.

The guest bathroom in the Welcome Center was disturbingly positive. The other two walls were painted with the slogans "Way to Go!" and "You Did It!" Given the narrow range of activities one would expect in a guest bathroom, the murals seemed out of proportion to the space.

Currently the Willamette Valley temple is under construction about 10 minutes away from the U of O. We swung by the temple site before we drove home Tuesday afternoon.

A windstorm on Tuesday blew a tree over onto a power line which started a grass fire less than a mile from our house. The grass fire quickly spread to a trailer, igniting propane tanks that sent black smoke billowing into the sky, triggering memories of the terrible fires of 2020.

Fortunately, firefighters from several agencies responded quickly and extinguished the fire after it burned about 15 acres.

Unfortunately, a couple in our ward lived in the trailer. The couple and their dogs survived, but they lost everything they owned in the fire, a devastating loss.

Our stake held a Pioneer Day celebration on Saturday which included a pie baking contest. Becky and Brandan made a Mango/Key Lime pie Friday night.

Here is the completed pie. We didn't enter our piie in the contest since Brandan was one of the judges. We had a great evening visiting with friends and learning how to square dance.

Gibson went to the temple with Ed and Jason on Saturday morning.

Angel made the boys waffles for breakfast and then they played The Princess Bride board game.

Today was Ed's last day at church before he leaves on his mission to Chile. After a week of home MTC, he is ready and eager to go.

14 July 2024

On Sunday we attended church in Paris, Idaho. The church was next door to the Paris Tabernacle which was dedicated in 1888. Settlers gathered materials for 20 years before beginning construction on the sandstone tabernacle. We arrived in time to tour the tabernacle before church began.

Craftsmen finished the interior with white pine. The tabernacle has been lovingly maintained for over 130 years and is the pride of the community. The interior was decorated for a musical program held at the tabernacle on the 4th of July.

After church we visited Becky's parents in Pocatello and then met Sarah and Joe at the Haight Home in Oakley, Idaho. Elder David B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was born and grew up in this home. Currently the home is available as a vacation rental.

The owner has restored the home with comfortable antiques, honoring the history of the house while still making it livable/ Gibson tried out the old pump organ in the parlor.

Zina and Waylon also joined us. Waylon is an adorable 4 month old.

This is a photo of Zina and Waylon. He's small and strong.

Oakley is near several quartzite quarries and ships decorative rock all over the world. Some of the rock, like the pavers in this walkway, get used at home.

Oakley is also known for its historic houses. The town hosts a home show every other year. We enjoyed walking around and admiring the beautiful houses.

And these quaint bird houses.

Oakley used to have its own pioneer era tabernacle, but the tabernacle burnt down in 1965. Ironically, the site where the tabernacle used to be is now the location of the fire department.

On Monday we drove to the City of Rocks. This interesting geologic formation near the Idaho Utah border was created by two separate uplifts of granite. These pinnacles, the Twin Sisters, near the edge of City of Rocks show both types of granite. The sister on the left made from Green Creek Complex granite and is about 2.5 billion years old. The sister on the left is only about 26 million years old and is made of softer granite from the Almo Pluton. The younger sister will wear away before the older sister.

Cracks and joints in the rocks make them susceptible to weathering. Salt from the nearby Great Salt Lake playa and acidic plants combine with water to erode the granite into weird and wonderful shapes. We enjoyed exploring the landscape.

The rock formations defy gravity.

City of Rocks attracts rock climbers from around the world. The Green Creek Complex granite is speckled with large crystals that make excellent hand holds.

Other types of rocks have intruded into the Almo Pluton, forming dikes that cross the Pluton in distinctive stripes.

Here's a place where the water has worn a hole in the granite. 

We called this formation Hawk Rock before looking it up and learning that its official name is Hawk Rock. 

This is Window Arch.

We've seen arches made of sandstone in Utah. This arch is made of granite.

We stopped for lunch at the edge of a stand of Aspen trees. The grove provided shade, cooler temperatures and the opportunity to watch beautiful blue pinyon jays.

We learned more about the geology and history of the City of Rocks at the Visitors' Center.  One corner highlighted a woman named Clara Campbell who had a homestead in the area. The display caught Brandan's eye because it mentioned a man named John Hull.

Back home, Brandan learned that John Hull was the son of his great-great grandfather, William Gibson Hull, and the brother of his great-grandfather, Robert Hull. Homesteading in the City of Rocks was a hard life. After seven years, the family moved on, eventually settling in California.

We stopped in Albion for homemade ice cream. Clockwise from the top are chocolate, strawberry and cookies and cream.

Monday night we took another short walk around town and saw the very unusual sight of numerous owls flying between the trees. We saw up to six owls at a time, but there were probably more than a dozen. A few bats also flew past us as the sun set.

We drove home on Tuesday with greater appreciation for Southern Idaho. From the left are Gibson, Zina, Waylon, Joe, Becky and Brandan.

Here are the same people with Sarah swapped for Joe. We're thankful to the Hatches for a lovely visit.

Our friend, Stephanie, took her son to lacrosse camp at BYU and ran into Camden and Abe working at FSY. She sent us this fun photo.

Brandan and Becky enjoyed dinner and a play with friends on Friday night. From the left are Brandan, Becky, Brad, Erica, Greg and Angel.

We planted our new trees just before the current heat wave hit. We've had temperatures as high as 111 degrees. Brandan got some shade fabric to provide relief for our frizzled maple tree.

Abe sent a couple of photos from his week at FSY. Here he is with some of the youth.

Another FSY photo.

Abe and Camden have moved on to Redlands, California. Their next group of FSY will arrive Monday morning. In the meantime, they went to the Redlands temple Saturday night.