5 January 2025

Together we made this poster to commemorate our big events from 2024.

 

Brandan and Abe biked near Applegate Lake last week on Friday afternoon.

Helen kicked off her birthday celebration with a midnight run to In-n-Out with Sofi, Gib, and Abe.

We made the cake on the cover of a cookbook Adia gave us for Christmas for Helen's birthday. Becky baked the cake and Helen decorated it.

The whole family was home to celebrate Helen's 20th birthday. Helen is a force for good in the world, working hard at school and in the community in Salt Lake, bringing people together in many ways.

The cake was delicious as well as beautiful: three layers of ginger-spiced sponge, filled with brown sugar buttercream and topped with blackberries and pomegranate seeds.

Abe and Gib helped our friend, Andy, with yard work on Monday morning.

Nate branded the bookshelf Brandan made for Sofi and him. Brandan and Nate worked to finish the bookshelf so they could take it home with them. 

We had a Chinese/Taiwanese inspired feast for dinner on Monday night. Sofi made Lu Rou Fan (braised pork), Abe made Mapo Tofu, and Becky made pickled vegetables.

The kids went rock climbing on Tuesday, along with Camden. Everyone pushed their skills and enjoyed themselves.

Here's a photo of Gibson on a climbing wall.

We worked collectively over a few days to create bingo cards for 2025, anticipating events that might occur in the new year. Gibson and Adia worked together on this card. We might give them an extension to finish their card. Otherwise, they are at a disadvantage to actually win a prize.

Here is Helen's card.

and Abe's

and Nate's

and Sofi's

and Becky's

and Brandan's. If anyone gets a bingo, we'll be sure to let you know.

Helen got a haircut and now has shorter hair than she's had her entire life. Her collarbone length looks great.

Abe gave Gibson a cooking lesson while he was home.

They cooked chicken and vegetables which was a standard meal for Abe on his mission and continues to be a staple at college. Gibson appreciated the coaching and thought the chicken tasted very good.

We went snowshoeing at Crater Lake National Park for Brandan's birthday on Saturday. The park has gotten 8 feet of snow just in the past 2 weeks, adding to previous snowfall this year and headed to the 45 feet of snow the park gets in a typical year. The park rangers lead snowshoe hikes every weekend.

Ranger Scotty took a photo of all of us together.

This looks like a charming cottage, but we're actually standing outside the third story windows of the research station at the park.

Ranger Scotty invited us to make snow devils by landing face down in the snow. It was surprisingly fun. This is a photo of Brandan face planting.

It snowed the whole day, adding to the approximately 2 feet of powder we waded through on the surface of the snow. We enjoyed our snow day very much.

Back in the valley we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant and had cake at home. Here is Brandan's birthday problem, written by Abe: A group of 81 people attended the zoo field trip. For the trip to the zoo, 60 people rode the bus and the remaining people were in cars with 3 people in each car. on the return trip, the same cars carried 4 people each, and the remaining people rode the bus. How many people rode the bus on the return trip? Becky edited the text to fit the main idea of the problem on Brandan's cake, if not all of the details.

Brandan's birthday date has meant a lot of birthdays spent on the road coming home from a trip or harried days headed back to school and work or even the occasional Fast Sunday birthday. Brandan is always a good sport whenever his birthday lands, but it was super nice this year to spend the entire day celebrating him!

The recipe for Brandan's cake also came from Adia's cookbook. It was also delicious, even if it looked humbler than the cake in the photo.