Camping

We camped in the White mtns. this past week. I am not sure if the best part was beating the heat by being in the mountains or the fact that Jared did alot of the cooking. I think these were the best pancakes he has ever made. Sammy was always prepared to lick something clean or catch a crumb or two. Just doin' his job.

Victoria and I built a fairy house.

Kirk and the boys constructed a swing. They practiced all of those handy knots that boyscouts know. Daphne brought her pocket knife and carved a knife out of wood. Kaleb carved a little duck head with a pointy end and Jared...well, he wasn't sure what to carve. His turned out to be a "dog whacker". Not sure what it's used for. Probably to whack the dogs with. I should taken a picture of all that they carved but I didn't. Daddy is giving Victoria extensive instructions on carving. She carved a pointy stick about the size of a pencil. We watched this osprey catch a fish and fly over head. Last year the boys fished for quite a few hours only to be shown-up by this osprey who swooped down between them and scooped a fish right out of the very river that they were fishing. Kaleb caught whatever he could get his hands on. He caught tadpoles, tiny fish, a dragon fly nymph. We decided not to catch the little water snake. Victoria's hair got a little curly from the moisture in the air. It only rained twice. Not bad considering that the forecast had predicted rain all week and into the weekend. Swamp thing. Oh wait, that's Kaleb. These two are quite the characters. They love everything about camping. Mostly being off the leash in meadows to run in and swimming in the river. Sam was so funny to watch in the water. He doesn't particularly care for pools but he sure did enjoy the river. At first he was going to cross by jumping from rock to rock. Which wasn't going to happen. The more he ran through the water the more excited he got. He even grabbed Henry's leash and tried to pull him in as well. This is the life, holding my baby and reading a book sitting in the water. A sure way to stay cool. Too much swimming I think. We made our first Up-side down cake in the dutch oven. It turned out perfect. I couldn't believe it. The girls mixed it up and the boys baked it. And I turned it over. We have never baked a dessert before. My cousin Kathy knows how to do all of those things. We were all very impressed. It was kind of wierd eating fresh cake while camping.

How many?

How many kids can you fit in a teeny tiny room? Jared was sitting up on the table next to the pile of legos. He didn't fit in the picture. Tamar displayed her great organizational skills by containing all of the lego heads in one place. So this does prove that the boys have way too many legos. I now have proof!

Cousins

Tamar and Nahlia came to visit all the way from Modesto, Calif. These are Erin's (Kirk's sister) girls. We had alot of fun. The kids did the usual swimming to stay cool, put together two puzzles, tye dyed t-shirts, stayed up way too late, made friendship bracelets ( I think I still have embroidery floss left) watched movies and talked, talked, talked. Well, maybe it was Tamar doing all the talking. Boy that girl can talk. We always enjoy their company and are never at a loss for anything to do. We love them and miss them already.

Ballerinas

I think Victoria's little ballet class was sweet. The teacher really knew how to inspire all of the little girls to just enjoy the opportunity of dance. No pressure...just pleasure.

Ben and Sam

I came across this picture of Ben ignoring Sammy. Though it looks like Ben isn't paying attention, you can see his ears are straight back listening just in case Sam pulls a fast one.

Airbrush Class

Kirk's airbrush class went wild experimenting with paint and getting the feel for the airbrush on these banners. Afterwards, Kirk just highlighted and did a few touch-ups. They turned out awesome. Makes you want to do it yourself. It looked like fun.

Art's Camp

Art's Camp at church was amazingly crazy! Kirk and I taught a total of 9 classes between the two of us. There were 230 kids, and 60 classes to choose from. It was open to kids K-10th grade. At the end of the week they performed their musical called Lost at all three services. It was kind of a modern day Gilligan's Island. All of the art project were on display in the narthex. Daphne helped teach sign language, Emily helped teach the K-2nd graders all of their music, Susanna helped teach the tye dye classes with me and a build a bug class. Rachelle, Jared, Kaleb and Victoria participated and were able to choose which 5 classes they wanted to take. Since Jared refuses to sing he managed to squeeze into the tech class and got to man the spot light. It was a good job for him. I taught two more ceramics classes and Kirk taught one wood burning class, two architectural building class and two air brush classes. It was such a relief to finish the last performance on Sunday. I heard heard talk among our kids and the Dart girls that one wanted to drop their orange shirt off at the thrift store on the way home and another thought perhaps burning it would be more appropriate. The shirts were definately bright. And we have 6 of them...oh Yay...

Project Dove

Kirk was commissioned at our church to create something to hang over their baptismal font. He came up with something he has never done before. I had some minor doubts but knowing that God is way bigger than any idea that Kirk could think up I knew he could deliver. Well, he delivered all right. A task that was expected to take only a day to hang turned into two and a half 18 hour days. I was so nervous with him 20 ft in the air on this scissor lift that I was in constant turmoil the entire time. I ended up staying with him the whole time. I wasn't sure if I was staying for moral support...to be the runner and get whatever he needed...be on the ground to call 911 in case he falls...or to just see how much torture I can endure. It was a very stressful week but with wonderful results.

All of these hand poured water droplets had to be strung and hung on the copper tubing that swirls around the dove. I did the stringing, Kirk did the hanging. I volunteered to stay on the ground.

This scissor lift had a chain guard that clanked every move that Kirk made. The second day at about 11 p.m. I was lying on the pews to close my eyes and was starting to get delirious every time I heard the clanking of the chain. I was just glad that wasn't me up there.

Kirk is pretty amazing. He took an idea and made it real. It looked exactly like his model and design on paper. We had a few disasters along the way. We had some spiritual warfare that was cleared up with scripture that the boys posted all over our garage. His ideas are always in a very large scale and beautiful too. He is using the gifts that God has given to him. Sometimes I wish God gave him gifts in brain surgery or accounting or something. But then it wouldn't be Kirk and our life would be so dull around here. I mean...what would life be without drums of liquid acrylic in the garage, paint splatter, overspray, plastic hanging from the ceiling, or a blockade in front the washer and dryer that prevents any laundry from being done. It kind of makes you look forward to the next project... Well..