Our First Letterbox

We went out yesterday for our first letterboxing excursion.  (Right before lunch, which may not have been the best time.)  We got on Atlas Quest to find a box that was marked as active, and chose the "Hoppy Easter" series at Titlow.  (So much for exploring new places--but I thought it would be good to start with one that we could actually find!)



At the site of our first box!  It was under a log and fairly easy to find.   I did take some pictures before this, and then realized that I didn't have a card in the camera.  (Doh!)



We put our stamp in the box's book...



... and put their stamp in our book.  (It occurs to me that when you're out in the woods, it might be difficult to find a hard surface to stamp on.)



"Hoppy Easter" is a series of six boxes, so we set off to find some more. 



We couldn't find the second one, but the third and fourth boxes were pretty easy.



Kate puts a box back in its hiding place. 



We had to get home for lunch, so we didn't have time to look for the other two right then.  (Maybe next time we should pack some sandwiches.) The kids got a few minutes at the playground before we left.



Doug's mom is coming next week. Maybe we can do some letterboxing with Grandma!

In which we consider taking up letterboxing, and make a stamp

I've had the thought that perhaps we should try geocaching.  We went with some friends once, when Kate was really little.  It seems like it would be a good way to get out and explore new places.  Doug and I are perfectly happy to just explore for the sake of exploring, but I thought Kate might get more into it if there was some sort of goal and payoff.  But we don't have a GPS, so that does present a bit of a problem.

We had a ward activity not long ago which included a brief presentation on fun (and cheap) summer activities, and one friend mentioned that her family has been enjoying letterboxing.  "Oh yeah, " I thought, "We could do that!"  Letterboxing is like geocaching before geocaching was invented.  (Sort of... the two exist concurrently now.)

The two things you need for letterboxing are some kind of little notebook and a stamp.  The book was easy--I have several little books from my bookbinding class at BYU that I've never done anything with.  I thought it would be fun to have Kate draw a dragon and then turn that into a stamp.





We decided to use the one in the middle (that's Toothless!)



I got a block of this rubber stuff called "Moo Carve" at Artco, and did a graphite transfer to trace the dragon onto it.



Carving!  Doug and I had the idea we were going to do some linoleum block carving, several years ago, and got a set of tools.  They've only been used on potatoes and they're rather rusty.



All done!  I need to get some kind of wood to mount on the back, but it works fine for now.



Kate added a scene to this one.

After this she wanted to make more stamps!  I suppose we'll have to do that.

"All Over the World" (multi-stake Broadway Revue)

We took the kids to the matinee on Saturday. Originally I was thinking I would just take Kate, but Andy had an early nap so we decided to make it a family outing and all go together. They both did really well.  Kate was not quite as engaged with some numbers, and Andy seemed a bit freaked out by the Phantom of the Opera, but they were both very good.  It was cute to see Andy clapping after every song.



My backdrop!  This is a really cute number.




"Trouble" from The Music Man.  I was impressed with Harold Hill.  He just nailed it.  (And it's not an easy song!)



"Shy" from Once Upon a Mattress.  I loved this number too.  Very well done!



Doug had a contribution as well--he made this doublet and hose for his SCA fencing.  That's Patrick Watson (the director) wearing them as Don Quixote, singing "The Impossible Dream." 



"There is Nothing Like a Dame"



The final number--"One Day More" from Les Mis.



I really enjoyed all the full-cast numbers. Powerful sound!

The whole thing was over two hours long, with more than twenty songs.  Everyone did such a great job.  The kids' favorite part was the "All Over the World" number (from Xanadu) at the end of the first act.  The cast ran out and made a circle around the audience, singing and tossing inflatable-globe beach balls. Kate and Andy each got to throw the balls back a couple of times.  (Audience participation!)

There are four more performances this next weekend!  I'm going to try to go again and get some video of Fiona's song and maybe a couple others.  If I do I'll add them here.

Painting Fiona's Library

This is what I've been working on for the past week and a half! I got a call from Helen Christensen, who I helped with the Mod Prom decorations, asking if I'd like to do some set painting for the upcoming Broadway Revue at the church.

We met JoLee and Patrick Watson at the church on Monday morning and went over the planned sets. Castle walls for Once Upon a Mattress, River City store fronts for The Music Man, vaguely Middle-Eastern-looking buildings for Aladdin.  There was also a library set for Fiona's song "I Know It's Today" from Shrek the Musical.  JoLee had printed off a screen shot from this video.  When I saw it I said, "Ooh!  Can I just do the whole library by myself?" and they said, "Sure!"  So I got to focus on the library while Helen did everything else. (Helen is good at getting things done.)



After Day 1 of painting. Helen had some electric pink acrylic paint. Very bright!




 The end of Day 2.



 On Day 3 I did the bricks--I stippled them with one of those sponge tools that looks like a sea urchin on a stick, and then scrubbed a thin layer of light blue back over the top.





"Still Life With Painting Shirt." I've been wearing this shirt since Bruno's. It has memories of all my projects on its sleeves.



 Day 4.  We had some metallic gold paint, but didn't think it would show up very well, so I did the book spines in white first, and then went over them with a couple of coats of gold.




 Books before outlining...



 ...and after.  Helen found some great (and cheap) markers at the dollar store that worked really well. 



Beginning the chalk shading.  I used Helen's pan pastels.  They're just perfect for this sort of thing.  Much faster than shading with paint. 



 The end of Day 5.  You can see which books have been shaded and which haven't.



 Day 7 and all finished!  I added some chalk shading to the bricks and the window frame, too.  (And then I gave it all a good spraying!)



 There are 27 books on each side.  This was not planned at all.




All together it took almost 40 hours.  Which is way too much work for a set painting, I know.  But I thought, hey, if I get to do something like this, and take pictures, I might as well do a good job.  Who knows--maybe I'll get some work out of it.

When I've been working on the train table backdrop at home, I really can't paint for more than an hour or two a day. It was nice to be able to go somewhere else and work. I never would have been able to do this if Doug hadn't been available to stay home with the kids. He was very patient and supportive through the whole thing. (It did end up taking a bit longer than I'd anticipated!) He made lunch every day and called me when it was ready so I could run home and eat. What a great guy.

At this point we don't know if they'll be able to use this piece again for anything else later (or even where they'll keep it--it's too tall to put out in the storage container or down in the basement).  But they're doing seven performances, so it'll be used seven times, at least!  I'm planning to take Kate to the matinee this Saturday.  Should be a great show.

Going and Coming

We flew out of SeaTac at 11:10 on the morning of June 25th.  Dayton is the closest airport to my parents, but they were able to find everybody direct flights into Cincinnati (over an hour away), so my dad did a lot of driving back and forth. After our unpleasant adventure going through Chicago two years ago, we were glad to not have a layover this time.



Preparations for the flight included lots of food and some new toys.  Kate got some new Zoobles, which she was very excited about.  Those kept her occupied for a good long while. (She knew from experience that plane flights mean new toys, and kept asking, "When do I get my surprise?")



Dad and Andy check out some letters while waiting to board the plane.



Andy and I were seated in one row and Doug and Kate were right behind us.  We decided that would be better than having three of us together and one person across the aisle.  It worked out pretty well.  The kids each had a window seat.




Looking toward Tacoma--you can see the Narrows Bridges(es) in the background.



Mt. Rainier peeking up over the clouds.



Peter's family and Barb's family came out from Utah.  Everyone's visits were kind of staggered, but we had an overlap of about three days with everyone there.  Chaos!  There are sixteen people in the family now.  Six grand kids, with Kate being the oldest.  It was great to see everyone again, and spend some time with the new little ones. 

We were in Ohio for eleven days. and came home on July 6th. We had a 9:20 flight out of Cincinnati, so in order to get down there in time I got up at 4:15. That was a very long day. (As it turned out, the airport wasn't busy at all, and we got to our gate with more than an hour to spare. Oh well. You can't plan these things.)

Andy fell asleep early on but only slept for about an hour, and spent the rest of the time trying to climb over the back of the seat, or over me.  I had my Kindle and MP3 player to keep myself occupied, but didn't really get to do much with them, with Andy acting up.  (I did let him type the alphabet on my Kindle over and over, but that only lasted so long.)  A five hour flight with an active two-year-old is a loooong five hours.

It is good to be home!  We got a pizza from Cerello's  and then took the kids to the Fircrest wading pool for a while.  Everyone was talking about how hot it was, but after Ohio it really didn't feel hot.  We've been enjoying the cooler weather.  The air feels lighter, somehow. 

We didn't have much trouble adjusting to the time change on the way out, but jet lag seems to have hit hard coming home. Andy and I did a lot of sleeping this afternoon.

The weary travelers return....

We are back from Ohio! We had a good visit and we are happy to be home. It's only 2:30 here but feels like it should be a lot later (probably because I've been up since 4:15 Ohio time). Long day!

I think I have about ten gigs of photos to go through.

Left Behind

I found this in the recesses of the oven. It used to be a tater tot.

Andy's Alphabet

Andy's fascination with letters continues. We have these wooden letters (from a Melissa and Doug set) that Andy likes to line up on the floor, over and over and over. He's been spending quite a lot of time lining up letters. He'll complete the alphabet, then come and get me and I sing it for him while he points to the letters, and then he starts over again.



I'm impressed that he never gets the b,d,p, and q mixed up.

He also picked up the sign language alphabet from watching videos on youtube. We got this video of him finger-spelling himself to sleep on Daddy's lap.