Our family is really fortunate to live in such a beautiful area of the world!  Taking advantage of where we live, Scott has really gotten into canyoneering lately. I'm grateful that Scott can go with his children and share that interest in common.  Here's Scott's report on the trip they recently took: I took David, Everett, and Everett's girlfriend Caroline to Nighthawk Canyon in Capitol Reef National Park on Labor Day weekend. It's a fun canyon with an impressive 200' rappel at the end. We drove down the night before and crashed in an unofficial campground outside the park. We woke up pretty early the next morning, ate a hasty breakfast, and rushed to the trailhead. We worried that there would be a lot of people at the park for the holiday, and we didn't want to get stuck behind a slow-moving canyoneering group. Although there were several groups at the trailhead parking lot, no one was doing Nighthawk, and we had the whole canyon to themselves. The approa...

Recently I listened to a Jody Moore podcast with Kurt Francom.  I've enjoyed listening to Jody's podcasts because she frequently has some good insights into how to think about things to better handle our lives and emotions.  This particular podcast was about whether or not God can be disappointed in us:   https://jodymoore.com/gods-thoughts-kurt-francom/ .  It's well worth the listen. I'm going to try to sum it up here. Here's something to think about:  how does God feel about us?  We hear that God always loves us but how does he feel when we mess up?  Does he feel disappointed with us?  As a parent, I am frequently feeling disappointed with my children (or frustrated might be a better word) when they don't do what I would like them to do.  But I still always love my children even when I'm disappointed or frustrated. So is that how God is? Does he love us but still get disappointed in us? Kurt Francom says no.  He says that disappoi...

Back in the fall of 1993, our little family was living in Madison, Wisconsin in on-campus married student housing.  We had been there for 3 years.  Scott was doing graduate studies in physics.  We had two little boys, David was 3 and JanPaul was 9 months. Things were going well! This picture was taken just a few days before Scott got sick At the very end of September, Scott got sick.  I came home from a Madison Symphony Orchestra rehearsal on a Monday night and Scott said ominously, "I feel some pressure in my abdomen." The next day he threw up and we decided he had the stomach flu.  Scott decided he needed to go to the doctor.  I was gone somewhere with the boys and the car when he made the appointment so he decided to RIDE HIS BIKE to the doctor--unbelievable. The doctor told him it was probably stomach flu and sent him back home--not that helpful. We made a pinata and we had a little pinata party for David's half birthday (October 4) right outside our ap...

 The big question all summer was what the schools would be doing this year in educating students and combating COVID-19 at the same time.  In the middle of March every school in the nation closed down.  Our school district went immediately to online delivery while some other areas took a while to figure things out. The big mistake our district made was saying that everybody would pass no matter how much work they did.  So a lot of students just checked out. I really struggled with our youngest child in getting her to do her schoolwork.  My goal this summer was to figure out a way to motivate her to do her work no matter where she was doing school. So far things are going much better.  For the fall, our school district decided to give students the option of in-person or online schooling.  Most parents picked in-person, having already experienced the drawbacks of online in the spring.  The only difference is that every day is the early-out Monday sc...

 Last month Scott and Mindy celebrated their birthdays.  Mindy had a little party with a couple of friends.  Scott broke out the jackhammer and took out some broken sidewalk in the backyard.  On his birthday.  Well, the week before he had done his traditional birthday celebration of running or biking the number of miles according to the age he was turning. This year he's 55 so he ran and biked that many miles with a friend of his. The next week, Scott put in the new sidewalk.  It was more challenging than he anticipated. It was incredibly hot.  My goal was to keep him hydrated.

 Like most other Americans, this year we vacationed close to home.  We reserved a campsite at Flaming Gorge in Deer Run Campground and arrived on August 10.  The weather was great--not too hot and not too cold, although we were really happy we brought our new Coleman shade from Costco because shade is scarce.  The bathrooms with flush toilets and showers were very clean although I did not actually use the showers and I don't think anyone in our group did.  Half the showers were kept closed so they didn't have to be cleaned so that might have been problematic if we had used them. The campsite was also very clean.  It was pricey at $59 a night for a double site and we only got one picnic table. The water was plentiful and close. It was pretty quiet--no complaints. What's camping without s'mores? We arrived on a Monday afternoon and didn't do much more than set up camp and walk down to the boat ramp to check out the reservoir.  On Tuesday morning we did a...