4th of July

Kevin,

It’s the 4^th of July here! Grandma B and Richard came to visit for a day. You will see the picture of the picnic table, with mom’s handiwork in the background.

We started the day with the ward breakfast. We made eggs again, that seems to be the tradition that’s developing. Get up in the morning, and make 5 dozen scrambled eggs. Then we went to the parade at noon. Rachel marched with the Westview band, and played clarinet. That afternoon we had a barbeque. That’s when the picture was taken. After that Grandma B and Richard had to go, so they missed the fireworks.  The fireworks were great, as they are every year.

Rachel went camping with another family. She had a great time, but was so zonked after the trip she missed church.

Jessica has a job with a family watching a couple of kids. Things are going really well – except one of the kids was playing on the trampoline, and she did some donkey kicks, fell over and broke her arm. Jessica was mortified. It’s not her fault though, there was not much she can do. The child was on the trampoline by themselves, under supervision, and just fell on their arm. She had to call the family, have the parents come home from work, take the child to the hospital, etc. Luckily the family realizes it was an accident and she still has a job J.

Jessica seems to be having a great time at the singles ward. The place is really hopping…. Monday FHE, Tuesday institute (sometimes with an activity afterwards), and usually some other kind of activity during the week. Between her job, odd jobs (tutoring , and watering plants), and the ward she seems pretty active. She is also learning to play the organ, so she goes to practice at the church on a regular basis.

Melissa got her AP scores, 2 3’s and 2 4s. She did really well last year, and we are all proud of her.

Jennifer has 2 weeks left of school and she is out for the summer! We look forward to seeing her for the break. One more semester and we will have a college graduate on our hands. She is posting her work in the art building, and working on her portfolio.

Well, that’s  all for now.

Work hard, baptize lots, do the right things.

We are proud of you.

Dad

June 8-14, 2011

Wed June 8 Me and my folks went to the Jr. Grand floral Parade.  It was in the Hollywood district- on the other side of the river near the residential area (where we parked) and old town stores (kind of like downtown Beaverton).  It was a long parade- mostly all middle school bands and various youth groups.  Unicycles, drill teams, cub scouts etc.  It was fun.  After Rachel marched by I followed to meet her at the end.  They took 3 busses to get there, but only had 2 to get them home so I gave her and 2 of her friends a ride home.

 

That evening for combined mutual activity the priests took us on a hike up to Pittock Mansion.  I was a driver so dropped my carload at the trail head then drove up the rest of the way.  We set up yogurt with toppings by the front lawn of the mansion for when they got there.  They had been sent up with maps on different trails in groups of 4.  Each group had a very heavy back pack to carry up.  Adults were stationed along the way to suggest other trails.   When all the groups reached the top they ate yogurt parfaits, enjoyed the view and Nathan and the Bishop lead a discussion of their journey up the trail.  The theme this month was Endure.  The bishop said the hike didn’t quite turn out how they had hoped- the guys with the backpack were being studdly and didn’t share the burden with their group.  Also everyone stuck to the trail on their map.  However they got some great discussions and thoughts shared.

Thursday June 9^th  was graduation day! It took us a long time to get there with bumper to bumper traffic.  We were to be there at 6:30- made it there after 7.  Melissa and the band took another route than we did , they left at 5 and got there as people were let in at 6:30.  The band sounded good- they were in the bleachers this year behind the podium in the corner.  The Chiles center was packed.  We sat in the bleachers  behind the graduates.  The choir sounded good.  The speeches were nice- the whole program seemed a lot shorter than last year, but the graduating class was huge and it took a while to read through all the names. It was a pretty mellow ceremony- only one beach ball came out and it was quickly confiscated. (Jessica said that her class was pretty boring). We took pictures and made it home with barely enough time for Jessica to open her cards and gifts.  She took a piece of her graduation chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting to eat in the car as I took her to the school to catch the bus at 10:30pm.  I picked her up the next morning at 5- she was tiered, but had a great time.  She won some smiley faced boxers and a camera.

Saturday, June 11, was the Grand Floral Parade.  We met up with Sis Walker at her usual spot to enjoy the festivities.  It was a cold day- but no rain.   Rachel brought her friend Serena- they had fun shopping at Pioneer place and drawing rainbow pony on the street. Grandma and pa now can boast that they have been to a rose parade in both California and Oregon.

 

After the parade, the band had a party at the Oak Hills rec center, and Rachel and Serena went swimming at the pool.  The clouds cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day.  Jessica and Melisa went to another grad party that evening.

Grandma and pa left here Monday morning- next stop for them at Uncle Jon’s, then off to Uncle Jim’s to meet up with some cousins visiting from Australia to tour the Disney studios and go to Yosemite. 

Things are calming down here now that the concerts, parades, and graduation is over and that company is all gone. Melissa has been doing finals.  Must not be too hard cuz I haven’t seen much studying going on around here. Jessica has been sleeping in and then spending time with Nate.  Today she, Lanea, and Chelsea kidnapped the guys  from the band room after finals and took them blindfolded to OMSI for the Narnia exhibit.  They are now upstairs playing Mario carts.  Brother Chin and Adam are now our Home teachers and visited this evening.  Melissa and Jessica have been spending her spare time preparing for girls camp.  Grandma helped when she was here painting.  Rachel has been exiled from the bonus room where all the camp secrets have been stockpiled and worked on.  Tomorrow is Rachel’s 8^th grade graduation party.  I will be going to help in the BINGO room with Mrs. Kennefick.

Meadow Park Concerts

This has been a fun week of concerts for the Meadow Park Middle School. To make it even better, Grandma and Grandpa Greenall came up to join us!

Wednesday the 10th was the Winter Band Concert. Rachel had her first performance in the 6th grade band playing the clarinet. She even announced a number. They played selections from their Standard of Excellence Book 1: Hot Cross Buns, Au Claire De La Lune, Down by the Station, Country Walk, Good King Wenceslas, and Jolly Old St. Nicholas.

Melissa played her trumpet in the Jazz Band playing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". She played in a trumpet trio on mutes for part of it. In the Advanced Band she played Celtic Air and Dance, and Evil Ways. It was a very nice concert.

On Thursday was the Orchestra Concert. Rachel played in the beginning group on the cello. They played: Song for Christine, Natalie's Rose, Dreidel, For Pete's Sake, and Ode To Joy. The beginning group consists of two violins and two cellos.

The Advanced orchestra is a little bigger- they have 6 violins (one wasn't there)! They played: La Bamba, and Swallow Tail Jig.

The big finale number was Jingle bells, which both groups played together. It sounded great as Rachel played the melody, and Melissa played a ornamental part on top (along with the other players too of course). The school choirs performed performed after the orchestra. I hear they were good, however Grandma, Jennifer, and I didn't stay and headed off to the RS Enrichment Christmas party. We made it just in time. We missed the appetizers and dinner but got there as they were serving dessert. As we sat down the High Priest servers brought us in dinner. It was tastey! We had time to eat before the program started. It was a program titled "Sounds of Christmas". It had narration, music numbers, and slides. It was beautiful.

It was a very nice evening. Oh, one more thing. . . we have added another instrument to our family. Melissa brought home a tuba!