1 December 2013 - Thanksgiving in Utah

For Thanksgiving, we took advantage of the major reason that we moved west this summer.  We drove to Utah to spend time with our family.  Here are the girls with Aunt Jennifer playing at park.

Phil took us rock climbing in Provo at The Quarry, a large indoor climbing gym.  The girls had a blast.

This camera angle is accurate.  Each of us took turns climbing parallel to the floor.

Madeline hanging out after a 30 foot climb and rappel.

Jessica navigating one of the more challenging overhang routes at the gym.

When Phil asked me if I wanted to go skiing on Thanksgiving Day, I worried there wouldn't be enough snow.  Then he pulled the boat out.

Both the air and the water temperatures were just above 40 degrees.  When we launched the boat, there was a thin sheet of ice where seagulls were standing on the south side of the marina.  The water was glassy smooth though -- perhaps the best water I've ever skied, and with the sun brilliant and Timp as a backdrop, it was a gorgeous day on the lake.

Here's one of Phil's turns on the ski with Timp in the background.  He lasted longer than I did, not because of the cold, but I just am not in water skiing shape.

Thank goodness for dry suits.  After our outing, I blew up my dry suit to make myself puffy man.  If it's water tight, it's also air tight.

After two days of climbing and skiing, it was time to sit down with our family for a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner.

 Joanne's made some Christmas decorations for her mom and sister.

We played games every night.  The girls even found Body Boggle and we all took turns spelling words Twister-style.

On Saturday we all went out to enjoy the sunshine and take photos.  The girls climbed the tree in the back yard for a few photos.

We coined a new word this weekend too.  If a self-taken photo of one person is a selfie, a self-taken photo of two people should be an us-ie.

While we were goofing off in the previous photo, we also tried to take a few photos that looked nice as well.

After nearly a week in Utah, it was time to come back home.  The girls were a bit disappointed, but it was easier knowing that we'll have visitors here with us in a couple of weeks, and then we'll go to Utah again at Christmas time.

24 November 2013 - Birthday and Excellent Young Women

For my birthday this week, we went out for Mongolian barbecue.  Here's Emily proudly displaying her bowl.

I had a most excellent birthday.  I got some Utah State and BYU gear, some tools for me new garage, some rock climbing gear and a book, and several other things as well.  Thank you to those who sent cards and notes as I turned another year older.

The same night as my birthday Jessica had Young Women in Excellence.  These are the desserts.

Each of the Young Women made a value dot.  Jessica's is the purple one in the center (Integrity).

We also finished up Madeline's science fair project this week.  We successfully used the graphite in a pencil as a resistor in an electrical circuit.

Madeline did very well on her science fair project and was proud of her poster.

17 November 2013 - Swimming and Science

Joanne got crafty again this week and decorated the doors for this new cabinet in the downstairs bathroom.

Madeline and I have been experimenting with electricity for her 4th grade science fair project.  We found that a potato (we live in Idaho now, after all) conducts only 4 volts of electricity from a 115 volt input, with 20 ohms of resistance.  We're testing various materials as resistors and a potato was just one of them.

Saturday was spent at the Thanksgiving Invitational swim meet in Boise.  Jessica and Emily both had great meets, improving three personal best times and winning four heats (two each) between them.  This is Jessica on the starting block for the 50 freestyle, one of the two heats she won.

On Saturday evening we went to the College of Idaho basketball game.  When the drill team came out for the half time show, Madeline noticed their skin tight, midriff baring outfits and let out an almost involuntary "oh....dear...".  Joanne and I couldn't help but laugh.  The College of Idaho won the game, so all was well that ended well.

10 November 2013 - Seattle

This week zoomed by for us.  I had to go to Seattle for a day for a college accreditation meeting.  Here is the lovely Sea-tac Doubletree Hotel where I spent my Wednesday.

And here is a fine photo of a bunch of us attending the meeting.

On Saturday Joanne and I did weight training together for the first time at the YMCA, then went kid-less shopping.  Afterward, the older two girls and I went to the C of I men's soccer game, where I neglected to take any photos.  Afterward we went to the Y (my second time on Saturday) to fit in some climbing.

On Sunday, dinner with Kathy and Eric and Lara's family was at our house.  I decided to try my hand at tres leches cake.  I made it with devil's food and dulce de leche from Argentina.  It was good, but a little dry, which bummed me out a little.  Not a bad first stab though.

3 November 2013 - All Hallows' Eve

For Halloween, Joanne decided to make another of her famous table runners.  This one is a Charlie Brown/Great Pumpkin theme with some vampire Hello Kitty peppered in for good measure.  It's actually very intricate -- click on it to enlarge and see some of the detail.

Costumes this year resulted in three witches, who roamed the new neighborhood collecting much of candy.  Jessica is not trick-or-treat, but did chaperone the trip while mommy and daddy stayed home and made cookies (to supplement the candy).

This week I ordered a swing set and on Saturday we put it together.  It's not nearly as elaborate as the one in Pennsylvania was, but the girls said it suits them fine so I was happy.  As you can see, it wasn't super warm out putting it together.

The girls were a great help in the assembly, and I genuinely could not have done it without them.

Once done, we all got to try it out.  There are actually three swings (one is missing in the photo below), and a 'tweety' bar.

27 October 2013 - Family Time

This week our family spent a lot of time together.  Joanne found a storage armoire on Craigslist for her to keep craft supplies in.  Madeline helped her fix it up and now it looks really nice.

The girls and I try to go climbing once a week.  Most of the time, especially since it's started getting colder, we end up at the YMCA.  Here's Jessica.

This is Emily on a chimney climb that is really challenging for shorter folks -- but Emily is determined, she made it to the top.

On Saturday, we had a Ward missionary activity.  Emily and Jessica had to be coaxed a little to do the missionary photo board.

After the activity, we all went as a family to watch the College of Idaho women's volleyball team play.  We won 3-0. Despite the way the photo makes the crowd look sparse, there was a good vocal crowd at the game and we had lots of fun.

20 October 2013 - Joanne in Utah

We hadn't been home from Puerto Rico very long when it was time for Joanne to go to Utah for Jennifer's birthday.  Being crafty, and being sensitive, Joanne made a love note for her girlies before leaving town:

Joanne and Jennifer have made a bit of a tradition of getting their hair done when they get together each fall.

While out exploring Provo, they went and found the apartment building where Joanne and I lived when we got married back in 1995.  We had a studio at $325/month in this building, about five blocks south of BYU campus.

While Joanne was away, the girls and I went exploring a little more for places to climb and rappel.  I had read about a place in Caldwell called the Dead Cliffs, which are actually located in the city cemetery.  We hiked all around them, but the relentless covering of Box Elder bugs on the rocks prevented any rope work this day.  Plus, they're pretty short.

There's a pretty view from atop the Dead Cliffs though, and it was a gorgeous day for hiking.

Since fall is setting in, Emily's been cutting roses from the yard and arranging them for display in the house.

Our book cases finally came in, so when Joanne got home from Utah, we unloaded the last of our moving boxes and can finally say that we're moved in.

Emily had her first middle school choir concert this week.  The lighting in the auditorium was terrible, but here she is with her choir.

Joanne, Jennifer and their mom also attended the temple during the Utah visit, then posed for a photo op with the fall foliage on the temple grounds.

13 October 2013 - Cookies-n-climbing

While Jessica and Emily were at swim practice on Friday, Madeline and I went to watch one of my students who's on the C of I women's soccer team.  Alas, they gave up an early goal and ended up losing 1-0.

With Joanne in Utah for Jennifer's birthday, we decided to have an outing of our own on Saturday.  We went to the Black Cliffs southeast of Boise.  Here's Emily on the rappel rope.

Madeline disappearing over the edge of the cliff.

After some rappelling, we got into some climbing.  Here's Emily.  This climb turned out to be a little too difficult for all of us.

Madeline made really good progress despite her relatively shorter reach.

Jessica got the highest of all of us (including me), but the top of this particular route eluded us on Saturday.

If you were ever around the North's house when we we were kids, you probably know that sugar cookies were a tradition at Halloween (and Valentine's too).  I missed the old sugar cookie days so on Sunday after church, the girls and I made sugar cookies.

We always had pumpkins and ghosts when I was a kid, so those were a must, but the girls also found a bat in Joanne's stash of cookie cutters, so we had three.

Here's a close up of the finished product.