Art and Science

Spencer appears to be a bit frustrated with his art project. The kids designed monuments--like the monument Michaelangelo created for the Medici family. Rebecca designed a monument for Nephi, Spencer for President Uchtdorf, and Eva for Taylor Swift.

On Saturday, Ben's lego robotics team (with Eva as assistant coach) attended a workshop at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. While the team went to classes, Grandma, Rebecca, and I took in the new Amazon exhibit and then got to look at the sun through these cool telescopes outside. We saw black sunspots on the sun that are bigger than the entire Earth.

This is my very favorite view of Denver--outside the atrium of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The zoo is over there on the other side of the lake.

Lake Pontchartrain Floods Again

This is what happened in our backyard this afternoon.

Ben taught science today. He told the kids all about hurricanes and levees and then showed them the city of New Orleans in the backyard. Their job was to build a levee to keep Lake Pontchartrain from flooding New Orleans.

The engineers didn't always agree on building methods, but that's life when your co-workers are your siblings.

Here comes the water! It's too bad New Orleans didn't have a giant dog around to lap up the water as the hurricane moved in. Rocco tried hard to do his part to protect our fair city.

In the end, the levee held up pretty well. Still, some members of the team actually wanted to destroy the city, so giant fingers poked holes in the carefully constructed levee.

Like it's going out of style

It's so exciting to have slightly cooler weather, but I fear that our wood supply is going to be all burned up before the first snow. Sigh.

You Know It's Fall When...

you have to bring your Monopoly game in the house because it's too cold to keep playing.

And when Nanee's scarf outfits take on a decidedly Fall-ish feel.

General Conference

We left Broomfield at about 4:00 Friday afternoon and arrived at the Motel 6 in Evanston, Wyoming, around 11:00. After a good night's sleep (a little too good), we hit the road and got to Temple Square around 9:30. As we were walking toward our meeting spot with Aaron, Steven, Lauren, and Jon, a stranger handed us 5 tickets. The rest of the kind family encouraged us to use them, so we ran up to the Conference Center and got to our seats 5 minutes before the start of the morning session. I hadn't attended a live session of Conference since 1995, so it was a real treat. The kids loved seeing President Monson (even though he looked like a tiny ant from our seats in the nosebleeds). It was definitely worth the drive. The Spirit sure fills that huge place up.

Can't you just see this picture showing up in the Conference issue of the Ensign? Rebecca took it.

Grandma Ashe just had back surgery the day before we took this picture. But there she was, walking around as if nothing had happened. There is no way to keep this woman down.

And here are the kids with Grandma Ashe and Aunt Anna. It was so fun to visit with these great women while the men were all at Priesthood meeting.

And then we went to Luke's house in Provo. Ben made doughnuts while the rest of the family formed a band. I expect to see them on tour by next summer (including little Lily if she inherits her mother's guitar skills). You can't see Eva, but she's underneath the drum set playing the bass line with the pedal.

Then Rebecca, Eva, and I went to have a slumber party at Emily's place. We watched Ella Enchanted. In the morning, I woke up to the sound of sizzling sausage and the smell of pancakes. Emily's the best! The girl can host slumber parties like no other.

Visit to BYU

Look at this great gang! Come on, which building is it? We all watched the Sunday session of Conference together on campus. It was fun to be with the newly returned missionary and also the soon-to leave missionary and also the soon-to-be parents. The soon-to-be MBA didn't join us for this session, but it was great to see him, too. And it's always great to hear the soon-to-be MBA sing a round or two of guitar hero (see previous post).

On display in the HFAC is a series of art pieces based on the Proclamation on the Family. This piece has a real title, but I affectionately call it, "Homeschool."

Emily is serving as Vanna White to the piece that I affectionately call, "Homeschool with a Calling in the Relief Society Presidency."

Rebecca was blown away by all that she saw at the RB.

So was Eva.