Rocket Day

For the past 3 months Gabe has been focused on his rocket project in his Honors Science class since it is a significant portion of his grade.  It is a super bottle rocket.  They were all about 5 feet long with fins, an altimeter, and even a parachute to guide it down safely.  He was on the parachute deployment team, so he focused on the parachute.  We heard about it nearly daily for the past few weeks, although he has been talking mostly with Jeff about it lately.  This weekend all the teams set off their rockets.  It was very fun, about half the time the parachute didn't work and the rocket would come crashing back to earth like an enormous lawn dart, then crumple upon impact.  But every once in a while, one would function properly with a great parachute deployment and come floating back to earth.  Gabe's teams first attempt was okay, the rocket went up, but the parachute came out way too early, and ripped on the way up, so it didn't really gently fall down.  It was a little crumpled, but not nearly as bad as many others.  His second attempt was perfect.  The rocked just shot up really high, then just as it was starting to fall, the parachute flew out, and it gently glided back to earth.  It took a while to find it because the wind caught it and it landed on the roof of the buildings.  But once they found it, they were thrilled!  It went 352 feet into the air, and set a new school record.  He was very happy about the parachute, and the height, their rocket did very well.

Hawaii

Since my parents are on a mission in Hawaii, Jeff and I decided it was time to take a trip there to visit them.  Jeff's sister, Jill, and his mother joined us for most of the trip.  We spent 10 days in the tropics soaking up the sun and enjoying the fairer weather.  We spent most of our time on Oahu, but took a quick trip over to the big island, Hawaii, to see Volcano National Park.  It was a very worthwhile trip.  We were able to walk across a dormant volcano, see the glow of an active lava lake and watch the lava flow from a cliff into the ocean.  It was amazing to see the power and force of nature at work.  We also enjoyed the black sand, where we saw sea turtles, and green sand beach.  On Oahu, we saw the enormous North Shore waves and the reckless surfers that braved them.  We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center to learn more about the Pacific Islands, and honored our Navy at Pearl Harbor.  One of our favorite activities was snorkeling.  It took us a few minutes to get the hang of it, but once we did, we were off to explore the world under the surface.  The sea life was amazing.  We had a great trip and have come home with many memories.

Seeing Double

Jeff was very tickled to get us all set up on our computers.  It seems that we have had an extra monitor or two sitting around the house for several years.  Jeff finally decided to do something about it.  He set up a double monitor for each of our computers.  After months of trying to fix the kids computer, we not only have two working computers, but two monitors on each of the working computers.  It makes for quite a view from my kitchen counter.  I wonder if I can do a panorama of a a city in Europe, or maybe an ocean wave coming.....

Thanksgiving

This year we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Jeff's brother and his family.  Despite the fact that we have both lived in Southern California for the past 15 years, we have never had Thanksgiving dinner together.  It seems that one or both of us are always engaged somewhere else every year.  So we were pleased to find that our schedules aligned and we got together for the day.  We had all the traditional foods, turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes and stuffing.  Then it was off to the park for an interim volleyball game.  It was a very interesting game.  My neices and nephews attention spans ranged all over the place.  There were a few times where I was leaping over a somersaulting child, or running around a twirling ballerina to get to the ball.  It was just an extra challenge and made the game very fun and memorable.  My favorite part was Gabe's jump underhand serves.  After the game, we ate pie, then chatted for a good portion of the evening.  It was a nice thanksgiving.

Stout Family Extravaganza

In November, we had the pleasure of celebrating my Jeff's parents 50th wedding anniversary.  They didn't want a big party, but rather a simple family celebration.  Conveniently for us and Jeff's brother, they traveled down to Southern California along with Jeff's other brother and sister to spend the weekend together.  We had a great time.  Our neice was baptized on Saturday morning.  Then we spent the evening at the beach taking pictures and roasting hot dogs and marshmellows.  On Sunday, we took walks, and played games before having a simple family tribute in the evening.  Grandma and Grandpa told us the story of how they met and their first date.  Jason and Lisa sang a lovely song, Jon wrote a great poem, Jill gave a moving speech, and we finished the evening with 50 years in pictures.  It was a great weekend spending time together.  We love them very much and are so grateful for everything that they have done for us over the years.  They are wonderful people. 

Frightful

Last Friday night, we went to Fright Fest at Magic Mountain as a family.  We have season passes there and have really been enjoying going there for small bursts at a time.  Despite the fact that Jeff  was in Monterey, it was the only night that Allie, Gabe and I could go together this season.  Then, Jeff's testing was unexpectedly cancelled and he came home in time to meet us at the park.  It was a fun treat to be there with all my local family.  We enjoyed the scary decorations, went on a few fun rides, and had a good time together.  We went to the hypnotist show.  None of us were interested in being hypnotized, but we sure enjoyed watching the others on stage do lots of silly things.  I may have even let out a quick scream or two when one of the roving ghouls caught me off guard and gave me a scare!

Walking in sunshine or not?

Many years ago when we first moved into this home, the previous owners took all of the window dressing with them.  It was rude, but we decided to just forget about it.  I quickly worked on putting curtains in the bedrooms, and left the kitchen for naught until one very bright day in November.  The kitchen windows are south facing, and on that particular November day, the sun had dropped low enough in the sky that the sun shone directly through the windows and was reflecting off my stainless steel sink so brightly that I was blinded!  I thought this will not work!  So I tromped off to the store to get something that would alleviate my discomfort, but stay within my budget (which was near to nothing at that time.)  I put up some very inexpensive shades as a temporary solution.  I have done a few things to try and dress the cheap shades up over the years, but haven't replaced them because I couldn't really figure out what to do with those windows.  I have finally found a solution, and put up the curtains of my choice!  One of my dilemas was the sun.  I wanted the sun to come in during the winter and warm up the house, but I didn't want it to blind me while in my kitchen.  However, during the summer months I wanted to completely block the sun from those sunny south windows to keep my house cool.  So I devised a two part plan.  I put up some light curtains that allow the light to come through during the winter, but diffuses it enough that if won't reflect quite so badly (I hope, we haven't reached November yet), and some thick roman shades that I can let down during the summer to keep my house nice and cool.  They look great and much more polished than the awful shades that have been adorning my kitchen windows for the past decade!