Trevor's profile.
Diana, he LOVES the little lamp!
The sparklers were a hit. These little things are nowhere near as sparkly as the old kind. It's more difficult to burn yourself on these. 
lack of money for a big show in the park, no one knew to donate, so no big show this year (yes - the whole town was in an uproar). But people tend to like fireworks anyway, so we just had a lot more illegal fireworks in the sky - they sneak them in from Washington State. We could see most of them from our house, which is not the case with the Jaycees fireworks, so it worked for us! 
Today we didn't have summer school (obviously) so we all relaxed a bit more this morning. Over coffee & scrambled eggs (thanks Lee!) we worked out a shopping list for things needed for today & Connie's trip. And they had to get fireworks! I stayed home and baked a sheet cake for Trevor & Mikael's combined birthdays. I also got the dutch oven ready to use in the fire pit!
After Connie & Lee got back from shopping, we made a picnic lunch and went off to do another hike to a different waterfall. This one is called Susan Creek, and it's a very easy trail, but it's a little longer - almost a mile to the waterfall. Once we got there, we let the kids all take off their shoes & socks and play in the cold snowmelt water. They scrambled over the rocks, caught little fish & crawdads and had a great time.
Last night, my sister Connie arrived with her 3 kiddos & a friend.
liked the hike because there's a nice end to the hike (coming in, a waterfall; going out, your car).
Then after dinner tonight, we baptised our new firepit with... well, fire! After a smoky start (the kindling wasn't dry enough) we got the wood going pretty well and everyone ate their fill of marshmallows - including Liberty, our dog. After a while, she just started burying the marshmallows. I don't know if she was trying to hide the fact she didn't like them, or if she actually wanted to eat them later - She kept begging for them!
I had been thinking about a fire pit, like to use for roasting marshmallows & possibly cooking some salmon - or even having a place to cook burgers for our meat-eating friends! I gave Lee the idea I was thinking of, and he did it this weekend.
First he excavated a good-size hole in the grass where we wanted the pit to be. Then he made it level again by putting in river rock & pea gravel. Then the upper layer is sand. He stacked the retaining wall blocks - very nice & level!
And here's the finished product - ready to use! .gif)
If you don't watch "Earl" - he also did the voice for this guy...
Back on topic - On Thursday & Friday, Trevor & I went to Klamath Falls to visit the OIT campus. He registered for classes, got his dorm assignment and we sat thru a bunch of Q&A sessions, as well as the financial stuff and general info about OIT. We also drove around K. Falls a bit to check it out. We didn't figure out where the Taco Bells were until after we got back to the room & looked it up.
The campus has various architectural styles. The College Union was where we spent most of our time. It has the food court (with a Subway), as well as the main cafeteria, a bistro and plenty of seating. It also houses the Bookstore, Post Office, the main auditorium, various other meeting rooms/classrooms and the Outdoor Club stuff. The Dean of Students has her office there as well. It's a cool, techy looking building.
apparently. I'd have to look it up, but I felt like I'd turned a corner and walked into Ocean View H.S. It was almost creepy! Big ol' cement blocks suspended invisibly with wood accents. Not my favorite style, but okay. My HS was built in 1976. I was in the first graduating class.
It was a 3-hour drive to get there - same length of time as going to Portland. Lots of open country, mountains, views of snow-capped peaks, and then Klamath Lake.She comes across a little excited.. I'm glad her feet are doing okay. We were told to make sure they had good shoes because you can't do much if you can't walk!
I'm actually at OIT in the library, and I wasn't able to do a happy dance when I saw we finally got an email. Trevor is taking his placement test at the moment, so I'm messing around in the library. I'm thinking of getting him a nice vest & jacket from the bookstore - he turns 18 tomorrow, and it would make a nice present.
Yay Diana! (P.S. She is perfectly capable of using capital letters - this is just how they all write nowadays. I blame texting on the cells).
HI MOM!!!!! i am using an internet booth! it is just like a phone booth, but better! i luv you!! i am gonna call too, really soon! so u may get an answering machine message from me! my legs are sore :P tylenol is great. i have made some friends... the ubahn is soooo crowded! i luv u! tell everyone i said hi! love ,Diana!
I flipped the image because I liked the view better this way. 
climbing the 509 steps to the top of one of the towers! I guess it's a good way to exercise your legs after a 12-hour flight :)
Whoops! After I fill out this luggage tag, I should probably sign my passport!!
Eagles" flight. Trevor & Diana had done it before, but not Connor. Up until he saw other kids getting out of the plane, he insisted he did NOT want to fly! Once he saw the kids with the big smiles disembarking, he asked if he could touch the plane. Lee said yes, and then Connor asked, "Get in the plane?" So Diana took his hand, and off he went! Yay!
You can't be friends with people for the last six years, and not have some kind of party when some of the group are going to be gone a while. Diana leaves for Germany tomorrow - Renee will be leaving for Boot Camp pretty soon (not sure of the date yet).
To work off all that dessert, we went bowling, using the free game tickets they'd gotten at Talent Show. Renee managed to beat out Diana, even in a mini-skirt.
Tonight is the final episode of Stargate SG-1.
Here's Troop 371.
The kids had to walk toward the middle, shake hands & get the diploma, and then walk back down the center aisle. They had to stop at the photographer for the professional photo (which I really should look at) and then continue to their seats. The middle shot is from Opa's camera. 
They had 401 in the graduating class. 12 of those were Juniors graduating early (one of those being my own scout, Renee - go Renee!)
There was pizza, chips & dip, soda & iced tea. We had a nice sheet cake, and I totally forgot to make the coffee (whoops!). 
Today is Trevor's High School Graduation. Weather is a little iffy, we may have some rain sprinkles on us, but we only have 4 tickets in case of rain. So, we don't mind a little dampness - and at least we won't roast! 
I took a personal day yesterday to accompany Connor on his class field trip. We visited Wildlife Images in Merlin, which is like a zoo with native animals that are not able to be released back into the wild. These animals either were injured and not able to recover enough to take care of themselves, or they were imprinted too much by humans. This was more true of the bigger animals, like the bears and a cougar. The birds (eagles, owls & hawks) were generally unable to fly anymore. There was also a badger (Mr. Stubbs) who had been kept by a human when he was a baby and then got too wild to keep (there's a reason you're not supposed to mess with wild animals!). 
After Wildlife Images, we had a picnic at a park and then the kids got to play there. Connor's classmates were not previously exposed to a merry-go-round before. This was a smaller one than I grew up with, and only allowed about 5 kids on at once. Connor already knew how to make it spin and how to stop it. I had to tell his classmates though. Later on, some older kids were spinning the younger ones, and they yelled to stop, but the big kids kept spinning. Connor stuck his foot out to drag & slow down, and clipped one of the big kids (who promptly stopped pushing the spin). Hee. 
