On Fathers day after church we with the weather clear and warm we took a drive just south of town to Lava Lands and took the shuttle up to the top of Lava butte for lunch and a short walk around the crater.
Today, Morning Star had their year end awards ceremony. Each child got a spiritual and academic award. We are very proud of all the accomplishments that they made this year. Their teachers said some pretty wonderful things about our children. They had a great year and we love their school. ❤
Weather was cool and overcast this weekend, so Sunday afternoon when Kelly took Abbie to her dance class, I took the boys out to one of the local caves we have not been to. Hunter and Noah have been to a number of them, a few before we started the blog when we first moved to Bend (Arnold Cave, Hidden forest cave), and some since the blog has started. (Boca cave on triangulation peak, South Ice Cave, and Skylight Cave). This, however would be PJ's first cave where he went in! He loved it and wants to go again.
We decided to hit a cave called Pictograph Cave. It was about a 20 min drive from our house south east, and then about a 1.5 mile hike with some cross country exploration required to find the un-marked hole in the ground where the entrance started.
There are actually two caves at the entrance - left and right. Since all caves around here are basically old lava tubes the entrance is simply where a part of the roof caved in to expose the tunnel. Based on my reading the 'right' entrance was a little less steep but still a challenge none the less. There was also a family of falcons on the rocks at the entrance and they were not super happy we were there. Also a possible set of pictographs as seen in the second photo.
Iphone's don't take great low light shots but here is a series of pictures from inside the cave. The last picture gives you a scale of the entrance size/depth. See Hunter and Noah hear the top of the entrance as we exited.
On the way back we decided to try and find the 'skylight' for the left side tube that we didn't explore today. Here is a shot of Noah and Hunter over the entrance to the skylight. Noah trying to pose close to edge to freak his mom out... it worked.
The kids have always wanted a tree-house so now that we have some space and some trees, we decided to build one this spring! The hard thing about trees is that you can't move the tree... but the great thing is that if the house isn't exactly square... oh well... its a treehouse right? We finished painting it this weekend with some extra paint from the house. They have been asking when the second story will be installed...
Here is a video that Abbie helped me put together that gives a tour.
The Spring Performance and Project Night was last night. The kids sang some great songs. Abbie is in honor choir and is in flower dress with a white cardigan. Noah is up near the top right in a green plaid shirt. Hunter is off to the far right in a blue shirt and you can see him with the shaker. Hunter is also playing the guitar at the bottom of the video.
In Hunter's class they designed and built a robot. The students over the course of the month integrated this into all areas of study. The driving questions were:
How can you use computer programming to modify your robot to better solve a problem for Benjamin Franklin?
How would taking this robot back in time affect the culture of the colonies in the late 1700's?
The students presented their robots and wrote persuasive papers. Parents then got to vote for what they felt the best robot.
Abbie's class had to design a seed dispenser that would disperse seeds over a large area. Noah's class did a study of the prediction of weather in the summer time. They surveyed parents and asked them their predictions of the weather over this summer.
Kelly shared her birthday with Mother's day this year! A double celebration for a great mother and a great person!
This past weekend Kevin was away at a men's retreat with our church at Washington Family Ranch in eastern Oregon. There was a good amount of playtime including this big swing. (Kevin on Right)
The kids had their big jog/walk a thon fundraiser yesterday. They raised money for their school for science and technology for the classrooms. They ran/walked all day. Abbie ran a little more than half a marathon, which was around 15 miles. Preston ran his heart out too and completed around 8 miles. Hunter ran a marathon, yes a marathon! He finished it with his teacher Mrs. Collins and a couple other students from his class. He finished 26.2 miles around 2:00 pm. Noah was bound and determined to run a marathon too. All the students had gone home and the jog a thon was being cleaned up but Noah was still running. The kids and I along with Mr. Bales the school principal stayed and waited for Noah to finish. He finished 26.2 miles at 4:55 pm. Noah is the youngest at the school to ever complete a marathon. A marathon was not the goal of the jog a thon, however, our kids were very driven and to meet this goal and had fun doing it while raising money for their great school. We are so proud of them! I think we may have some future cross country runners. Today our runners woke up very sore. It will be a relaxing day at home today as they recover watching movies and all being together.
Hunter turned 12 today. Hard to believe he is this old. It seems like just yesterday he was born. We went as a family to Sun River to a virtual reality place where the kids got to play. Hunter had his friend Nathan from school come along. It was a great afternoon for a birthday celebration.
Thank you Hunter for being such a gift to us. Thank you for making us parents. We love you Hunter!!
