November School

Joy's Earth Science class has been studying the formation of canyons and how glaciers move and change land underneath them.  Interesting how catastrophic events much more easily explain how our earth was shaped and formed much better than a slow process over millions of years.  Why science has to remove God from all equations when the Bible provides such valid explanations for how things happened is puzzling.  

Griffin, Jake, Jonathan, and Bryce work on Earth Science.

 

Hannah, Garrett, and Bryce work on their ORAD for ICC.

Griffin and Madeline play a game while their siblings work.

The Earth Science lab working with water, sand, and corn starch, among other things.

Garrett leads the activity at ICC.

Cats & Trees & Fish Bowls

Our neighbors had a tree branch fall on and put a minor dent in their car, so they wanted our large tree out front to be pruned.  We still very much enjoy the shade that the tree provides and hope that the severe trimming will help the tree to grow healthier.  While the tree company was here, we had them trim the large grapefruit tree out front to shape it better.

On the cat front, Kylo has returned after his half-year stay at the retirement house, bringing with him his buddy Anakin.  Apparently, word must have got out to another of their friends and we have named the new guy Wrecker, who has a thick black coat and looks like the Bad Batch big guy.

The large tree on the left was trimmed heavily, while the grapefruit tree on the right was shaped.

Cat Bane, Anakin, Kylo, and Wrecker--our four black cats lined up in the back to eat.

Qi'ra eats inside and inspects the happenings in the backyard as four other cats eat.

Cat Bane relaxes against Bryce's side.

 

Afternoon cats at attention:  ready to eat, we are sitting up straight!  Is it time yet?

Home group social:  Fish bowl game was a hit!

First game was adults vs kids; second game was males vs females.

Halloween @ the Jungingers

This year, we were invited by the Jungingers to help them run a bunch of fun activity stations at their house for their neighborhood to come by and participate in.  The theme was Peanuts.  Our original idea had been to be Star Wars Mandalorian characters, but the opportunity to serve alongside our friends was much more attractive than sitting in our driveway having no visitors like the year before.  The next challenge was to come up with costumes that fit the theme in under a week.

Eric as Charlie Brown tests out the field goal kicking station.

 

Joy, as Lucy, answered questions for 5 cents.

Brett, as Wintergreen Willy, gave hockey instructions on Pepper Mint Patty's ice rink.

Garrett, as the Red Baron, manned a nerf gun shooting station targeting aircraft.

Griffin as Snoopy and Bryce as Woodstock supervised the dancing station to earn you candy.

Testing out the station, Brett realized he was blocking too many shots and the goal was to have kids actually score goals, so went into an instructional mode and then would use his stick only as a moving target much like a putt-putt golf station.

The whole crew including Vijay and Heidi's family too.

Our family picture.

The dancing station for candy.

October Adventures

Griffin went to the driving range and attracted some cats in a tree that came down and were very interested in coming home with us.

 

Joy was the party emoji for a work competition.

Qi'ra laid next to Bryce to comfort him after he slept on the couch after getting his cast.

Aunt Joy relished her Halloween card from niece Naomi.

The golf kittens tree home.

Follow through...maybe still a bit too much baseball influence in that swing?

Line up the ball.

Proper back swing.

Anika and Alex's Wedding

One of the doctors in Joy's clinic married another doctor in one of the other county clinics in town and we were invited to join them for their celebration.  What a celebration it was, from the parade around the parking lot with music and dancing to the details of the tradition of the wedding ceremony, we found everything interesting and beautiful.  The vegetarian meal was a purposeful sampling of many dishes that we would not normally eat as well, but it was quite tasty.  This was the furthest we have gone and left our kids in charge of the house for the day.

You can't forget to take pictures together when you are all dressed up!

Anika and Alex face each other during the ceremony.

Anika is walked down the aisle by her father.  Interestingly the umbrella was a repurposed Oakland A's umbrella fancily decorated for the occasion.

We are pretty sure this is about what our kids were doing while we were gone.

 

October School and ICC-CFC Conference

The boys missed the West Coast ICC-CFC Conference because they were participating in their debate club's First Look Conference.  As a result, they got to join the East Coast ICC-CFC Conference which started at 545am Pacific time.  For Garrett who was presenting during the conference, that meant getting up even earlier to shower and change.  This was a bit of a stretch for our boys, but in the end it was a successfully attended event.

Earth Science class:  Griffin and Noah work together.

 

Bryce learning to cope with an arm cast after his ER visit.

Griffin struggled with the early rising time.

Garrett selected his place to be free of the distractions of others.

Griffin presents his proposed science project.

Chubby bunnies!  Were you supposed to eat those marshmallows?

Garrett had a few presentations during the on-line conference.

Griffin's posture improved as the time became a bit more normal...

Bryce gave a brief presentation as well during the conference.

Geo-caching field trip to two locations for Earth Science.

Qi'ra takes notes during LTW class taught by Mrs. Heatwole.

Garrett and Sasha teach the devotion at ICC.

Bryce works with Ruby on the Earth Science lab, this one got a bit sticky with corn starch.