26 April 2008

The school year is winding down for Katherine and Ben. Spencer, being a year round student this year, is just going strong. K&B have finished their last PE credit. They finished their BYU tennis class. Katherine has been officially accepted at BYU, has her class schedule, her housing, and her club. Now all she needs is money. Wal-mart contributed $1000 dollars. (Thanks Sam.) She should have half tuition from BYU, is looking for a full-time summer job and a part time job while at BYU. Hopefully she will see some funds from the A E Hinckley family scholarship and then she should be able to make it.

Spencer's school had its fund raising carnival. Our family hung out at the raffle booth since that is what Vicki volunteered to run. It was 1-1/2 hours of peace followed by 30 minutes of chaotic greed. We saw some people their with five rolls of tickets that they had purchased in hopes of winning the Grand Prize which was a Wii. After all the prizes were drawn, the winner of the Wii was a seven year old little boy whose Grandma had bought 5 tickets. It had that Charlie Bucket feel to it.

Vicki has started making Christmas presents. I could tell you what they are but then I'd have to kill you. I am amazed at how she can start these things in April but she is a planner.



I was going through some more pictures and wanted to share one more from Death Valley. I'll tell you what, when our family sees a sign that says "Sea Level" we get excited!

TTFN
-Ron

13 April 2008

Our Children are Angels

Last week Katherine and Ben performed in the Henderson Nevada Anthem stake's presentation of Savior of the World. My favorite part was in the balcony of the set where actors represented angels. Every now and again, you would see an angel reach out when some character on stage was struggling. Ben seemed to be especially kind in his reaching out. Katherine was probably a little more leary about getting to close to the edge. In an earlier practice, she had dropped her sandal (from 15 feet up) onto the stage. The overall performance was wonderful.

Katherine and Ben have finished up their BYU Tennis course. When the kids signed up for BYU PE credits, they thought it would be easier than doing it at high school. They were wrong. I drive by high schools and watch kids walking around a track. BYU tennis required performing skills at higher and higher levels for the grade desired. For swimming, they had to swim multiple times each week for 3 months. That got tough in October.

Spencer was one of ten students from his school chosen to sing with 100 other students at a staff developmental day. He really enjoyed it, once it was over.

TTFN
-Ron

23 March 2008

Some busy weeks have kept me from up dating but I will try to get things back in place.

23 March 2008

This week includes activities from the previous week since we went to Death Valley on Friday 14 March. It was a great time to go since the temperature was moderate and the spring flowers were blooming.

We left Friday afternoon. The kids spring break started with the last school bell of the day and our trip started as soon as I got home from work. Death Valley is only 2-1/2 hours away and we made decent time. We got the trailer set up and Spencer's tent set-up so he could start earning camping days for his camping merit badge. I was banished to the Tahoe because my CPAP wouldn't work off the battery in the trailer. I was able to use a converter and make the CPAP work in the Tahoe.

Saturday morning, there were lots of complaints of the the wind blowing. I never noticed. After a quick breakfast of syrup-less pancakes, we went to Mosaic canyon, the sand dunes and Scotty's Castle which really wasn't Scotty's Castle but you'll have to go on the tour to figure that out. The elevation difference between the dunes and scotty's castle was 3000' We didn't notice the difference much while in the car but with a cold front developing at the same time as we were changing elevations, it felt like we had lost 30 degrees.

As you look at the pictures, you can see how Ben jumps the dunes, Katherine has a difficult time navigating the busy streets of Death Valley and Spencer hikes on slick rock.

Sunday we went to church in Beatty, NV. The branch had about 40 people attending. Spencer was the 6th child in primary. The Elder's quorum was the young mens group because they had no young men. Katherine went with Vicki to RS because they had one girl in YW and Katherine is so close to turning 18 (March 30 greetings can be sent to 12smile4 at mstar dot net) she figured she would just go with her this time. I liked what they learned in RS. The canning leader was talking about food storage and encouraged the women to can wheat with the reminder "The whiter your bread, the sooner your dead!" Share that quote if you like.

Sunday afternoon, Vicki and Katherine headed back to Las Vegas because of a previous commitment to perform in a Women's fireside with a promise that they would be back at 11pm. 11pm came and went. 7 am came and went, and we marked each passing hour. Finally, I hiked to a pay phone to call Vicki (no cell service in Death Valley). She told me that they had developed a radiator leak 20 miles outside of Death Valley and were just finishing getting the radiator replaced.

Vicki and Katherine made it back by 3:30pm and we were off again. We visited the lowest point in North America called Badwater Basin, the Devil's golf course, and Artistic loop.
We made it back to the campground and had baked potatoes, dutch oven pork chops and freshly baked dutch oven rolls. As night turned into really dark, the kids made smores and marshmallow torches.

Tuesday we went to see how borax was mined and processed got the Boys their Jr. Ranger badges and went to see the Pup fish which are only in Death Valley. With that we were headed home.


16 March 2008

Spencer went on his first official boy scout camp-out. He told me in no uncertain terms that I was not sleeping in his tent. Amazing how a four man tent can barely fit two 11 year-old boys and all their gear. This camp was organized to help the 11 year-old scout progress towards rank advancements. They did orienteering, first aid, indigenous plants and animals and knots and lashings.

Spencer's scoutmaster was having trouble making a shear lashing look like the finished illustration in the book. Meanwhile, independently, Spencer was tying the lash and making it in look exactly like the finished illustration in the book. Come to find out, Spencer had found that the book had a wrong illustration for an intermediate step. We encouraged Spencer to write the national scout office to inform them of the error, but he's not interested.

TTFN
-Ron

2 March 2008

Spencer started his track break by getting the flu. Talk about wasting a good vacation. He was so sick on Monday and Tuesday that he just laid around and didn't even get out of his jammies. By Wednesday he started feeling better and Katherine got the same sickness on Thursday. With school pressing in on her, she could only afford one sick day and then back to school on Friday. Spencer will be out of school until the Monday after Easter. So he still has some time to play.

Katherine and Ben continue their practices in Savior of the World. They will perform on April 10, 11, and 12 at the Henderson outdoor Pavilion. We printed off our tickets today.

Vicki was prepping the soil yesterday to plant our garden. She asked Ben for help and Spencer for help but Toasty was the only one to volunteer. I guess we shouldn't be mad when he harvests the garden even if he only waited one day to start pulling up the strawberry plants.

Today, Vicki, Katherine and Benjamin had gone to choir practice. Spencer was working on making a game on the computer and the dog was asleep on his pillow. I thought the dog had a great idea so I lied down on the couch in the family room. I hadn't even dozed off and the dog came up and started licking me on my eyes and nose and mouth. Yuck. It reminded me of when Katherine was small and would lift my eyelids up to see if I was a sleep. Well I wasn't asleep anymore. Either time.

TTFN

-Ron