High Desert Airlines

The content taught at Ethan's school is all thematically based. They've just begun their study of deserts in the theme of Over, Under and Across Oregon. Because it's winter and it's not a good idea to take an actual trek across the mountains to see the actual Oregon High Desert, they were greeted on Wednesday with this "field trip". The kids had no idea what was going to happen that day. One teacher was greeting them at the door giving out their tickets. The other teacher was just inside the door chiding them for trying to bring baggage onto the plane and using a wand to scan everyone for "security" purposes. (Reportedly, they also were not allowed to have pillows, blankets or other materials on their laps during the last hour of the flight.)

Below is a description sent from his teacher at the end of the day.


The Intermediates were greeted today by a desert guide who checked them into a flight aboard the High Desert Airlines.


Students were given a boarding pass, underwent stringent security measures, and then took a seat aboard the airplane. (Below is Ethan's ticket. He was in seat 3A.)



(Below is Ethan being "wanded" by his teacher. He wasn't sure what to think at this point.)


On their seats they found an information packet (courtesy of High Desert Airlines), complete with a Fun Facts page, desert themed wordsearch, and several detailed information sheets about the types of desert regions, the 4 US desert regions, and the Oregon High Desert. After reviewing safety guidelines the plane took flight on a tour of the US desert regions: the Sonoran desert, the Mojave desert, the Chihuanuan desert, and the Great Basin desert. While flying the Intermediates learned about the desert regions through an engaging powerpoint presentation and in-flight videos about each desert type. The flight attendant even brought around a complimentary snack for the travelers. When the Intermediates landed they were greeted by their teachers who introduced new desert inquiry choices: create a song about the 4 desert regions or design a poster with mystery cards about the different desert regions and types. Based on our exciting experiences with High Desert Airlines, students are eager to demonstrate their knowledge of deserts through these inquiry choices.

This teaching method is based, at least partially, on research about how the brain learns. Piquing curiosity like this is a great way to physically get the brain ready to learn with the proper chemicals and neurons firing. Exciting stuff!

A Family Affair

Well, now it seems that Tim is getting into this, too! Ethan and I were fighting the crowds at Walmart for groceries, and he was supposed to be at home sleeping. Turns out he was learning how to blog from his iphone. Gee! I think he's feeling a little better after all the extra meds he got today. I feel a little yucky, but hopefully it's just the sleeping on an airbed and taking care of Tim that's making me tired. I go back to work on Monday and don't have time to get sick now. Syllabi to prepare and classes to plan. The new semester starts Jan. 11 (which just also happens to be our 18th anniversary!)

Swine Flu

All the news hype about swine flu turns out to be true! Tim was diagnosed on Wednesday after two days of fever, body aches, chills, etc. Antiviral meds seem to be helping, but his asthma condition has been a complication. Another doctor visit today, a breathing treatment, a steroid shot and more antibiotics will hopefully help. Fine way to start out the New Year :-(

It's been misery for all of us. Our biggest challenge now is keeping the rest of the family from catching the flu. So we are sleeping in separate beds and staying beyond spitting distance from one another. And I've taken to wearing one of these as a precaution...







You don't really think about how many things a family shares until something like this happens and we shouldn't be touching the same surfaces. With one PC shared between three users, Tim has taken to using his iPhone instead. Ah, the challenges of staying healthy in the modern world!

- Posted by Tim using BlogPress from his iPhone

A Mixed-Up Year

So...I'm just now figuring this thing out. I'm on a roll, so I'll keep posting now, but I've realized it's out of order when you read it! Sorry about that. :-(

The man who invented the Erector Set and lots of other cool things was from here, so downtown there's a whole children's museum dedicated to him. This is a 200 foot erector set for the kids to play on. Lots of fun!

They have so many fun science experiments and displays.

Bubble making...

Puzzle completion...

Echo chamber...

and the biggest rocking chair I've ever seen!

In April, we drove up into the Cascades for a bit more winter. Just a couple hours drive and we were surrounded by snow. The roads were cleared, but the higher we got, there more snow there was on the sides of the roads. Below are some pictures from the tubing we did that day.

The mountains in the distance...

Beautiful evergreens and a picture-perfect stream.


Getting closer...

Look at those posts on the sides of the roads. They were there to show where the edge of the road is even when the snow gets this deep!


Beautiful creation...

Yes, this is Ethan standing in front of the restrooms. I only took the picture to show how deep the snow was. Did I say this was in APRIL!!!

Now the fun begins!

Later when we were leaving, we saw several guys coming out of the trees down this path. They have been cross-country skiing. I'm a Midwestern girl - I don't think I could do that!

Couldn't resist making a few snow angels!

Eyeing the view down the hill. Ethan wasn't sure if he really wanted to slide down that or not.

But, it didn't take long for him to decide to give it a shot. I held my breath and prayed.

Thank goodness for that snowbank at the bottom.

He survived!!!

Tim even gave it a whirl. They said it was lots of fun, but I just had to take their word for it. I might be brave enough this year. We'll see.

The view from the tubing hill.

We took this picture the next day. Amazing to go from winter to spring with only a short drive.

Well, that's got you caught up to April. I'll try to post more in the next few days. Happy New Year!

A Look Back at 2009

There are certainly things I'd like to forget about 2009, but we had some fun times, too. Here's a quick look at our year.
Ethan changed schools in February and was soon invited to a birthday party. They went to a local place much like Chuck E. Cheese's. He hit the jackpot on this game. Was he ever surprised!!! He did get a little impatient waiting for all the tickets to print out. I think there were over a 1,000 in total.
We've discovered that everything grows here. (You can literally stick a twig in the ground and a tree will grow. Well....almost!) The spring and fall are really long seasons, and the flowers bloomed for months. These were outside our front door.
Ethan is quite the little rockhound. This was a block of something we bought at the store. It was supposed to have rocks and gems in it. It came with the goggles and excavating tools. He came right home and wasted no time getting to work looking for the treasures!
And he found some! He's collected a literal ton of rocks over the years. So many that he has to keep a lot of them in the garage. I think we might have a future geologist in our family!

A New Year's Resolution

So, it's been a while since we've posted to our blog. Okay, a long while. YES, it's been a whole year! In this day and age of technology, that's pretty pitiful. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading other friends' blogs throughout the year, and decided it's time to give and not just receive. (Yes, Cathy, I've really posted something! I'll try to be better this year. That's my one and only resolution!)


Ethan had a great time trying to catch snowflakes earlier this week. It was the first snow we'd seen in the valley this year and quite unexpected!

Look at the size of those falling flakes! We ended up with about two inches. Enough to build a small snowman and have a snowball fight with the neighborhood kids.

Snowstorm of the Century

Starting on Sunday, December 14, a series of winter storms began coming ashore into Oregon. We live on the floor of the Willamette River valley at about 150 ft above sea level, and often snow and ice are limited to elevations of 700-1,000 and above. This time snow storms and intermittent bands of ice and/or freezing rain came all the way to the valley floor (as the weathercasters say).
















In fact it came in numerous times - sometimes in the same day. We had snow/ice/sleet or some combination with freezing rain 6 out of 7 days during the week of the 14th. Then, another round started up on Saturday, December 20 and continued through the following Monday evening. Conservatively, our house in Keizer probably received about 18-20 inches of snow in total and innumerable amounts of freezing rain on top of that. Portland Airport (PDX) was closed for several days, stranding holiday travelers at the worst time. At the end, forecasters began comparing it to the worst storm in recent history - in 1937!


















Pictures of our backyard as well as the field and grove store behind our house.




Every day of Ethan's last week of school before the Christmas break was cancelled due to weather. Corban College closed office all but one day the first week and one day the second week. So, it turned out to be a good chance to shovel snow and play in the record-setting winter weather. Here is a "snow mountain" that Ethan created in our backyard.





They don't get enough snow here to warrant the kind of snowplows and sand trucks to keep up with this kind of storm. So, except for the interstate highways, all other roads were basically left up to cars to beat off the snow/ice. That turned out to be a really bad deal as snow pack turned to ice covered to rutted ice pack to slushy mess in a matter of days at the end of the storm. In the Midwest, the roads would have been cleared by about the third day and would continue to be cleared every time a new storm would roll through. Without proper equipment, it has just become a mess!