Tucker Wins! Tucker entered a coloring contest at a local pediatricians office -- Color Country Pediatrics. A couple of days before Christmas, we got a call that he had won second place -- a $50 prize! Congratulations Tucker!
Savannah Wins the Coloring Contest For Halloween, our weekly county newspaper included coloring pages that could be brought in to local businesses for rewards and prizes. Most businesses gave Tucker and Savannah some candy for bringing in their colored pages. A few days after Halloween, Savannah got a call from Lin's -- our local
tucker Tucker's Candy Machine This is the candy machine I made out of legos. put a nickel in the slot... and out comes the candy! Also, this is me, Tucker writing my first blog post!
Savannah's new cake-making kit Savannah got a cake-making kit with some birthday money. She really enjoys baking, and this kit allows her to make up little cupcakes and a princess cake with a fondant skirt.
Scooter Repairs Shortly after he had left for college, we received a call from Carson. The electric scooter he was riding died and left him stranded. We picked him up and drove him to class for the day. A little bit of soldering and some new parts and the scooter is back
Carson's Motorcycle Repair Carson pushes the little electric Razor MX650 motorcycle pretty hard on the dirt trails. On a recent ride, he blew out the rear suspension -- it was literally in pieces. So we found a much nicer mountain bike shock on eBay. It has better dampening and is a little longer. The
Scooter Repairs With Carson starting college, he needed transportation. After some research and discussion, we ordered a Xiaomi M365 Scooter. Washington, D.C. had lots of similar scooters for rent to get around town, so we thought we'd give it a try. We eagerly awaited its arrival to find it
carson Carson's Custom T-Shirt Carson designed a custom T-shirt last week. He designed all of the graphics by himself -- including an original font. Midnight Design is Carson's online moniker.
All fixed After some significant work, the car is running again. We replaced the fuel pump, which we believe to be the primary cause of the issue. The issue has been intermittent, so we aren't positive it was the issue. The fuel pump is inside of the fuel tank, so
Broken Down This weekend, we drove through the beautiful Cedar Canyon, with its narrow two lane road and steep rocky cliffs. As we pulled into Woods Ranch Park, the engine died. Of all of the places for it to die, this had to be the best. We had a nice green park,
Woodworking with Grandpa Knight Grandpa Knight thoughtfully took time with each of the kids while we were staying with them. They each picked out a woodworking project and he helped them make it. They each had a great time and learned valuable skills. Thank you Grandpa!
Fixing Bicycles We went for beautiful bicycle ride by the Truckee River with Grandpa Knight. After a while we stopped and noticed thorns all over Tucker and Savannah's tires. In all, we found about 11 holes in their tubes. So we did some bicycle repair.
Legos With Grandpa Grandpa Knight got a 1967 Mustang Lego set for his birthday -- so the kids were excited to help build it.
Girls' Pinewood Derby We were told that there was going to be a girls' pinewood derby race here, so since Tucker wasn't here to participate in a cub scout race, he made a car with Savannah. Here, he is boring holes in his wood block to make it look like
Working with Grandpa Gene The kids and Keith went with Grandpa Gene to the fields to help him with the sugar beets. Measuring two different trials of sugar beets. Savannah recorded the weights of the beets. Hammering in a measuring stick to view heights of plants. Cutting tops off to prepare for weighing. Taking
Historic Nauvoo, IL, Hands on Experiences History Nauvoo features many re-enactments and hands on lessons. The kids loved the lessons. Bricks were critical in the building up of Nauvoo. We learned about the history of making bricks in Nauvoo and how they were made. In the Browning Home, a volunteer taught us about Jonathan Browning
Broken Down on the Side of the Road Yep, that's us at about 10:00pm broken down on the side of the road. When we returned to the US, we found that one of the tires on the car was flat and that the batteries would not hold a charge. So we brought it to a
Costa Rica Retrospective: Food The food in Costa Rica was delicious. Angela quickly learned the seasonings and sauces commonly used here and applied it to her cooking. Costa Ricans don't like a lot of spice in their food, but they have some delicious hot sauces. The grocery stores our of San Jose
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Savannah's Pictures These are pictures that I took -- Savannah. Slender Anole Resplendent Female Quetzal fiery billed toucan. Green lady bug. Caiman. Iguana. Humming bird. Slate- Throated Redstart . scarlet macaw. Resplendent Quetzal male. . Crested Guan.
Rock Stacking at the Rio Machuca We perfected our rock balancing and rock stacking skills at the Rio Machuca.
RockCreek Holiday Party Our children loved the annual RockCreek Family Holiday Party. It featured a balloon artist, face painting, a magician, crafts, movies, candy, good food, and even Santa and one of his elves. They especially enjoyed the family gift (a video game console).
Scout Campout Carson, Tucker, and I went on a quick camping trip in Oakton, VA, in the Scout Leaders yard. The kids prepared their own foil dinners with hamburger, carrots, and potatoes and cooked them over the fire.
