25 May 2014 - Garden and Graduation II

The church orchard has started to have apricots and peaches coming onto the trees, and they tend to come on so heavy that they have to be thinned.  We went out on Tuesday to work in the trees and although a thunderstorm threatened, we didn't get rained on and even got to enjoy a double rainbow.

We finished preparing the garden and got some stuff planted.  I do the prep work and Joanne does the planting.  The weedblock was my doing -- I wanted to minimize weeding if I could.

Joanne has tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and I think there's some more.  Hopefully I can post a photo in about a month showing off some lovely produce.

On Friday, Eric's son Parker graduated from Columbia High School in Nampa.  This is actually a photo of him receiving his diploma, but you can't much tell from the angle and distance I was at.

Here's a little closer shot after the ceremony.  Joanne made him a little graduation gift with chocolate and origami figurines made out of money.

18 May 2014 - Graduation and Garden

Saturday was my first commencement at The College of Idaho.  Since I haven't been here very long and taught mostly 100-level classes, I didn't know a lot of the graduates this year, but I did know a few.  It was a beautiful day for a graduation ceremony on the quad.

We've been whipping the yard into shape.  We had these utility boxes in the front yard, and while we can't obscure them entirely, we did put a little flower bed and some planters around them.

We also cleaned out the old dog run the former owners had, and prepared it for use a a garden on the side of the house.

Eric's family has been raising chickens and they built a chicken coop so we went to meet their chickens.  Of course Madeline wanted to get one of her own.

11 May 2014 - Quilts and Egg Drops

Jessica's science class (it's actually a STEM class at her school) did the infamous egg drop project this week.  Here is Jessica's structure.  She designed and made it all herself, and her egg survived unscathed.

On Friday night we attended the girls' annual swim team awards banquet.  There are over 300 kids on the Boise YMCA swim team, so it was a lengthy event.  Emily and Jessica were each selected by their coaches to receive the work ethic award.  I was very proud of them.  Certainly winning is fun, but in the grand scheme of life, I think a recognizable work ethic will lead to lots of winning where it matters.

Speaking of work ethic, I cannot begin to fathom the amount of time and effort Joanne has put into her latest quilt.  It's now over at Aunt Kathy's on her fancy gigantic quilting machine.  That should help wrap up the binding and finish work in short order.

4 May 2014 - Baker City, Oregon

This week the girls had a swim meet in Baker City, Oregon.  It is an old Oregon Trail town that still retains much of its pioneer feel.  The girls had a great meet.  Here is Emily on the starting block for her Individual Medley.

Jessica is in the green suit, ready to start her backstroke event.

Emily took 6th overall in the 100 Fly and brought home three ribbons.  Most of Jessica's events would have been on Sunday, so she only got to swim two Saturday events.  Despite her disadvantage, she took first in the 200 Back and third in the 100 Free.  Both girls improved their times in every event they swam.

Before leaving Baker City, we stopped for some Mexican food and a photo op at the Oregon Trail marker in town.

27 April 2014 - Wicked, Temple Trip

Last summer we had the opportunity to go see Wicked in Philadelphia, but it was short notice and after finding it would be in Boise this spring, we decided to wait.  This was the weekend and as with the previous times we saw it, it was excellent.

Three days after Emily turned 12, our ward had a youth temple trip.  I was able to work in the font for her first experience in the temple.

The girls with their friends Savannah outside the entrance to the Boise temple.