Here are some family photos from the last two months. The entire album is also at our Picasa site.
Nadine had her birthday in April. She's going home soon and we'll miss her!
Kayla and I had our choir concerts in April, in Spokane and Bonners Ferry. This is the first year Kayla has been able to join our community choir.
We went on a hike to Snow Creek Falls. The water was roaring with all the snowmelt.
Our friends the Ipsens came up and visited one day. Kayla and the kids took them out to see the wildlife refuge.
We planted the garden for Mother's Day. I experimented with a new way to even the ground for planting peas (using a board).
Two weeks ago we went on our first camping trip of the year, to Green Bay on Lake Pend Oreille. It is hands down the best place to camp in our neck of the woods, and we had the entire peninsula to ourselves.
Our new tent is completely waterproof!
Hyrum had a birthday celebration at school, even though it's not his birthday until the summer!
Ah.... I finished my first year of graduate school yesterday. Our last class session was in early May but we've been submitting final exams and projects for the last couple weeks. Toward the end of the schoolyear I was starting to doubt my initial motivations for taking on an MBA program while working. I have to say (being halfway done) that I'm still glad I signed up for this grueling two-year sprint. It's already enriched my career in many areas. Now I'm ready for summer!
Here are some photos from the last two months. You can see the complete album here.
A children's theater came to town a month or so ago. It was an interesting setup: they ran auditions at the beginning of the week, rehearsed all week and performed on Friday and Saturday. Nadine played one of the Merry Band in a production of Robin Hood (she's the left-most in the back row).
I missed the Easter egg decorating but apparently the kids had fun. We tried Nadine's method of blowing out the eggs first so you don't get that horrible boiled egg smell permeating through the house.
The Easter egg hunt at the park was also a success.
For Spring Break, we went to Seattle to visit Nathan and Monica and some friends we met while living in Kansas.
Monica suggested we visit the Fremont Bridge Troll, a concrete sculpture under a bridge. The troll is gripping a VW Bug in its hand.
Jeremiah and Nathan got along really well. Jeremiah was begging for Nathan to play with him every minute of the day.
Kayla and the kids went up the Space Needle while Madeleine and I strolled around the grounds.
The boys were so happy to play with their friends. Our friends have one boy and four girls, and I think he was glad to have Hyrum come visit.
On the way out of town we stopped by the LDS Temple and had a walk around the grounds.
The boys were glad to be home. A couple of days ago we had the neighbor kids over to play in the sandbox. The weather has finally warmed up and Spring is on its way!
We spent a long weekend in Seattle. On Friday it snowed all day, and (surprisingly for this time of year) the snow stuck to the ground overnight. Saturday we had a morning of decent weather, then heavy rain. The last few days were much better, cool with sunshine.
We stayed with some friends in Lynnwood and I went on several bike rides. We did the obligatory spring break visits: Space Needle, Science Center, Pike Place. We also visited some interesting landmarks, including Gasworks Park and the Fremont Bridge Troll. This was Nadine's first trip to a city since she first landed in New York last August, so it was a big deal. Lots of shopping! I got zero homework done, and felt good about it. The kids had a great time playing with friends and visiting Uncle Nathan and Aunt Monica.
One of my tasks while in the big city was to buy a bicycle for my trip to Denmark this July. I have a conference to attend for my MBA program, and the week before the conference I plan to cycle and camp in one of the world's most bicycle-friendly countries. I have a solid road bike, but wanted to get something more appropriate to touring and the possibility of the occasional unpaved road. The airlines, in an attempt to shore up revenues under rising fuel prices, have jacked up the fees to transport bicycles (Northwest charges $150 each way). I worked out the math and came up with three options: buy a bicycle and transport it, rent a bike in Denmark, or get a folding bicycle that would fit in a suitcase (and thus avoid airline fees).
I went with option #3, which at first blush seems a little strange. I wasn't familiar with folding bikes at all and thought they were something of a gimmick. However, renting and shipping were both unappealing because I am basically throwing that money away, when with a folder I have something to keep at the end of the trip. I did my research and found several options that are appropriate for touring and that would still fit in airline-approved luggage.
There are just a handful of companies that build decent folding bikes for touring, in descending order of quality and price: Moulton, Bike Friday, Birdy, and Dahon. Since this is my first folding bike I had no intention of plunking down $3,000 on a Moulton. I opted for a mass-market Dahon MU P8 which cost about $650 with racks and fenders.
My wife laughed when she first saw a photo of the bike, but after checking them out at a Seattle bike shop she agreed it would work well. Despite the 20" wheels, the bike has a great feel. Best of all, it's a simple and straightforward machine that you can take anywhere. I ordered from a shop in New York and should be able to take it on its first spin sometime next week.
We had my mom, sister and brother up for Easter this year. It was beautiful and sunny the day before, but Easter was cold with a mixture of snow and rain all day. Below is some video footage of the family.
The girls are out of town this weekend, so I spent the day with my two sons. It turned into a beautiful spring day with huge white clouds and sunshine reflecting on the snowy mountains. We turned a corner of our patio into a sandbox using some landscape blocks left over from our wall project. The truck, which has been buried under a layer of snow for the entire winter, took a while to start (I forgot to unhook the battery last fall). We finally got going this afternoon and drove to a forest road where a huge sand bank is exposed. I shoveled about a square yard of north Idaho sand for our new sandbox while the kids ran around. It was really a great find... clean, natural sand with absolutely nothing intermixed. When we got everything put together the boys spent an hour digging and arguing about who owned which part of the sandbox. All in all, a success!
We're experiencing a record year for snow in north Idaho. Total snowfall has been more than 100 inches, and we've had about 2 feet on the ground for quite a while now. Every parking lot is edged with mountains of plowed snow and walkways are beginning to look more and more like trenches every day. Of course this means we've had excellent sledding and skiing all winter. Our neighbors graciously allow us to tramp up their hill and sled down into our back yard, and it is a perfect sized hill for easily-tired children.
After a couple of months of winter I usually start to cook up some new ideas for the spring. One of these is raising rabbits. Ever since I bought my Mad Bomber rabbit-fur hat, I have been hankering after a herd that I could call my own. Tonight I am picking up two female rabbits, one a grey lop (short-hair) and one a white Angora (long-hair). The grey lop will, if my plans work out, serve as the maitron of a long line of rabbits raised for their pelts. The Angora's offspring will be luckier, since you just shear the wool (I'm hoping to make some felt products).
We had our first substantial and lasting snow on Tuesday. It's been cold all week so we still have nice powder on the ground, and the weather forecast is for another snow storm this weekend (which should get the ski resort open). Tuesday morning I woke up to 7 inches of snow and both our vehicles without snow tires. After a valiant attempt to keep my car on the road, I decided that driving without snow tires is suicidal, and worked from home. Lesson learned: get the snow tires on before Thanksgiving.
Two nights ago Kayla and I went out for some night skiing in our back yard and the woods behind our house. We both bought new sets of cross country skis at the end of last year's season, so this was the first time she got to try her new pair. The snow was perfect. To top off the night we went sledding down the hill a couple of times. I love winter in north Idaho!
Tomorrow is my last class session before Christmas break. We don't reconvene until the second week in January. I think I'm ready for a holiday. School has been very invigorating and very tiring as well. I'm hoping I can use some of my free time in December to come up with a topic for my thesis.
In the past Thanksgiving has been a time to see family and experience the typical flurry of holiday activity. This year, both sets of parents are out of town and we had a quiet meal at home in Bonners Ferry. It was very nice, especially in contrast to the busy and sometimes stressful events of the last few months.
We started the day off with a community football game at the park. Miraculously, no one was injured, and despite not having played football for about two years, I completed several passes (and was foiled once by an interception). Nadine played her first and probably last American football game, which she characterized as "boring". I had to agree with the assessment. American football is strongest as a game of strategy and fast, short bursts of activity. However, the constant stopping and starting, with most of the game spent standing around, gets a little tiresome. I still stand firmly behind the opinion that soccer is the noblest of sports, but that is mostly based on the fact that I am horrible at other popular athletic activities (read basketball, baseball and football). Soccer is suited to my physical style: lots of running requiring deep endurance, plus constant vigilance and foresight in terms of strategy. I like the fact that soccer is a fluid game in which offensive and defensive moves continue in a steady stream, with little letup in the action. In contrast, football does seem a bit dull.
This morning we took the family on a hike up to Myrtle Creek and the small dam that provides our town's water supply. It was about 18 degrees when we set out, probably the coldest morning we've seen this season. Everyone was bundled up, including Madeleine in her pink snowsuit. The boys and Uncle Matthew broke the ice in every puddle on the way to the dam, and had a good time seeing who would be the first to break the creek ice with a rock. Nadine has been making holiday wreaths and we spent some time collecting materials so she can sell some wreaths at the upcoming craft fair.
This evening we went downtown for the arrival of Santa Claus. He pulled up to the curb in a firetruck and all the kids lined up for a chance to meet the big man. I sang a few songs with our quintet (quartet tonight... one person couldn't make it). I had to take off my gloves to work the pitch pipe and turn pages, and after only four songs my fingers were numb. Luckily we went to the library afterward and warmed up. Our community choir performance is coming up, and Kayla and I have a duet in one of the songs. This is the first year she's been able to join the choir and it's been fun singing with her.
Tomorrow it's back to life as usual... I have homework to finish and lots of projects around the house. The holiday has been good while it lasted.
