Sonatina Festival 2012

Saturday was the Sonatina competition at the college in Twin falls and the kids did an amazing job!  All four of them made it to the top 2 for their level.  This meant they were able to play off in the concert. Hailey came away with the trophy for level 10, Taylor won the trophy for level 11, Heidi earned the trophy for level 1, and Torsten was the first runner up for level 12!

Taylor with his buddy Henry.  It was fun to see so many of our homeschool friends there at the competition.  Many of them won awards too.

I asked our wonderful piano teacher, Barbarba Mix, to pose in a picture with the kids.  I'm so grateful for such a talented teacher and for kids who love to play and practice the piano!

Just a quick random post to try catching up with some October pictures, since we're now (unbelievably) almost a 1/4 of the way through November!

Part of the family in our Halloween garb. The boys were still in the showers getting cleaned up from a day of working on the tractor and hauling trees so I missed them.

Taylor captured some cheerful autumn colors in the Lower Salmon park.

Leif loves being pulled around the house in his clothing bin.  We always laugh because he looks like a little package being delivered.

Hailey and Heidi were a big help in scraping Great-Grandma Bishop's house.  It was an all day job!  The next week, the local church painted it.

The same day the girls were helping me scrape the house, the boys were with Grandpa and Joel cutting and hauling away some weedy trees in Grandma's pasture.  Here's Taylor and Reagan taking a load off to the burn pile across the road.

Lately, Leif really hates to miss out on anything, so he tries to escape a nap if at all possible.  But eventually, that nap catches up.

 Even if it has to happen in the standing position.

My little peanut

I couldn't find Leif the other day so I went searching all over the house.  I found him in the pantry.  He had discovered the bag of peanuts from Costco and he'd decided they were easier to access if they were in a big pile on the floor.

I told Leif maybe he'd better sit in time out for a while.

Just joking.  I didn't put him in time out! :-) (does your last baby ever get put in time out.....?)

Actually, Taylor was dusting and had taken all the pictures and the little chair off the shelf.  He'd forgotten to put the stuff back and when I walked in, there was Leif sitting on the chair, looking at our old family portrait.  The kids and I had a good laugh and had to take a picture. 

Cross country--- our dabble into organized sports

This year Torsten, Hailey and Taylor participated in cross country.  Our town of Hagerman doesn't have a cross country program so we drove to our neighboring town of Buhl.  Yes, we were out of district homeschoolers, but Buhl was very welcoming regardless.  To be honest, I must admit that 40 mile round trip to Buhl got a little old sometimes, especially the 7 a.m. practices, but other than that complaint, it was a good experience for all.  The kids enjoyed getting in shape, meeting new friends, and gaining appreciation for the grueling sport of running.  Hailey said doing cross country made clogging seem like a piece of cake.  (But then Hailey has always made clogging look like a piece of cake!)

Speaking of Hailey, here she is after a race getting a hug from Dad.

 And with her friend Kia, a longtime friend she knows from both homeschooling and clogging.

Taylor getting close to the finish line........and then below that, clutching a bottle of Gatorade, wishing he could jump in a nice pool and cool off.  Wow, the cool weather and frosty nights this week made me forget how recently we were HOT.  It was a very hot afternoon this particular day.  2 girls fainted part way through the course and they had to call the ambulance.  I was sitting in the shade of a tree with my water bottle thinking- "Seriously kids?  It's really not too bad out here."  No, no I wasn't actually thinking that.  What I was thinking, is how did Joel stand it that season he ran cross country in Phoenix?  That sounds like it would have been pure TORTURE.

 And lastly, some nice action shots of Torsten running.  Wohoo, go Torsten!!

The Historic Columbia River Highway--- it'll make a tree hugger out of you!

We loved our trip to Oregon so much that I have to share some more.......

Our first day there we went to the aquarium.  It was so interesting!  The amazingly beautiful jellyfish, sharks, seals and huge spider crabs......but in my opinion, one of the most memorable exhibits was the tide pool area where we were able to touch everything and marvel at the colors and textures of these strange creatures.

Afterwards, we visited a lighthouse that was very beautiful but was being infested with kelp flies that afternoon.  It about drove us "buggy"!

Torsten took a nice picture of the misty coast from the penisula.

We explored the tidepools in the cove near the lighthouse and it was so exciting to make discoveries of our own, after seeing the creatures at the aquarium.  

Tiny crabs....

Strange creatures that I'd never seen before......  This one that Taylor and I were examining looked like ancient dinosaur feet on the end of thick stems.  I found out later it is a type of barnacle.

A cute little seal.......

The boys used their new GoPro camera to take this underwater video of an anemone.  Let's see if my clip works.....

Now, the tide pools we found the next day, in a different area, were AMAZING, just dripping with starfish, anemones, urchins and large crabs.  It was very close to dusk when we went out, because that was when the minus tide was the lowest, so the lack of light wasn't good for pictures but it was wonderful for discovering . We were picking our way around the rocks and reefs with only 2 flashlights for 5 people which made for a lot of excitement but not much safety.  Next time, I would like to plan our trip around the tide so that we are there when extra low tide happens in the day instead of the night. We had 2 night/dark tidepooling expeditions during our stay and it made me a little nervous.

In love with Oregon.....

We spent a week visiting the coast of Oregon.  It's the first time my kids have ever seen and experienced the ocean.  It was so amazing!  I was feeling bad that they were so old before getting to the ocean, but in a way, it certainly made it very special.  The first morning Leif, Reagan and I walked down to the foggy, stormy beach.  It seemed so mysterious and unreal.  Reagan was amazed and in awe said "The ocean is way bigger than I ever thought!  I'm so glad you took me here Mom!"  I whole heartedly agreed.  

I grew up going to the ocean when my family lived in North Carolina, California and Okinawa, but it's been so long that it was all new again.  I could spend hours watching the waves come rolling in and crash against the rocks. 

The kids could spend hours jumping in the waves-- and they did.

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I'll post more photos of Oregon later......this computer is taking forever to upload pictures.......