Did you know -

Did you know that -
Eratosthenes one of the was one of the greatest scientists and scholars of the Hellenistic Age,
and of all antiquity.
Because of him they knew the earth was a sphere;
regardless of the idiotic myth that's told-
about the middle ages believing in
a flat earth.
Phooey.
Did I really just use that word?
Anyway,
because of him and the fall equinox, they also knew
exactly how large that sphere was.
We wanted to try his experiment ourselves.

But before we could attempt that same confusing math problem, involving:
observing a well (on the day of an equinox), two cities 480 miles apart,
the sun's rays that travel in a straight line, and that there are 360 degrees in a circle,
we had to know what the heck an autumnal equinox was.

Which led us to an old legend we didn't even know existed;
That you can only balance an egg on it's end, on the day of an equinox.

And that was a much easier place to start...

It's not true by the way.
Because we were two days early.

Did you know that -
Maddie will do anything rather
than study stars, the universe, or space?
She'd rather do a lengthy project on the Iliad,

http://comewhatmayjr.blogspot.com/2010/10/school.html

listen to the Odyssey,

And make a game for a long dead philosopher named Demosthenes,
than study about one single star.
So while you may ask her any question ranging from
Demosthenes contemporaries, to Odysseus' long journey home,
she will not be able to correctly place the earth
in it's numerical position.
But that's o.k.
She's learning that freedom
(Greece - The birthplace of Democracy)
is made for just such decisions as hers.

Did you know that -
Pal is on the whole other end of the spectrum.
He thought the stars and our projects were the coolest things ever.
And so he decided to 'cool-ly' pose-
with his 'cool' project of Orion,
(and Scorpio, Leo, and Gemini)

But he couldn't hold that unnaturalness for long.

Go ahead-
Ask away.

Did you know that -
given the choice, Calder will always go for the biggest,
the most outdoor-ish, the least writing-est option available?
Thanks to his perseverance, we are well on our way to mapping
most of the constellations with our very own eyes.

Thanks to him
we now also 'get' how a labyrinth,
vs. a maze,
can be so difficult.

It was quite the mow job.

And,
He's taking a class offered by the college on photography.
This is our favorite so far...

Did you know that -
That only leaves us with Jesse?
And that while she was able to do the bare minimum here and there-
sometimes you learn more from having a best friend visit,
and share secrets with, and do silly poses with, than from anything else!

Seriously?!?! Seriously.

Oh my goodness.
Where, oh where did we land in that last move?
Somebody asked Justin at the bank today about the ghosts in our yard.
The ones pictured in the prior post.
They thought maybe we were clan members....

Seven Smiles that Made My Weekend-

I saw this sign and it made me smile.
Because we saw it when we dropped everything Friday and
drove deep into the heart of Oklahoma's back country to attend
an event I've looked forward to all year.
The Bigfoot Convention.

Were you also unaware of the hotbed of Sasquatch activity here?
Some of the presentations were:

Ichnotaxonomy of Giant Hominoid Tracks in North America
-Dr. Jeffry Meldrum Department of Biological
Sciences, Idaho State University

Sasquatch Communications and Habitation Locations
-Troy Hudson

Big Brother
-Pete Buffalohead

I admit that the number one reason I wanted to attend was to people watch.
Once I got there I realized
how rude and inconsiderate that was.
How frustrating and lonely it would be to believe in something so whole heartedly,
only to have people mock you.
It hit a little too close to home actually.
And what do I know?
I suppose if the mountain gorilla was only discovered in 1902 it's possible.
Right?
These people have spent their entire lives in the back country;
who am I to tell them they don't know their own backyard?
Nobody.
So, I'll reserve my judgment for later.
In the meantime, I learned some amazing info on tracking,
the bone structure of various homonoid feet, and how to make the absolute
best plaster cast ever;
should the situation ever present itself...
We really did hear some pretty awesome dueling banjos...

Second Smile-
Fall decorations/weather
Third smile-
Watching the boys put their black pants on, their white collars up, and compete to
see who had the best moon walk across the tile floor.
-That was probably more guffaw than smile.
More likely the smile came when I watched them
help each other tie their ties before heading out to
Priesthood Session.

Smiles Four and Five-
Getting two letters in the mail for Justin.
One from Gail and Chris.
It was written completely in Italian.
It told him that they loved him and were proud of him.
They also sent money.
Enough for him to purchase a bike when he gets there.
They don't even belong to our church.
It made my smile kind of watery.

The other letter was signed
"Love your foster grandmother, Sister Cain"
She truly is.
She sent money he'll use for scriptures in the Italian language.
He'll always be able to remember her when he pulls them out.

Sixth Smile-
Kids who make cookies just because..

And finally, Seventh Smile-
These two playing trucks for over an hour together this morning.
Round and round they went.

It was a great weekend.
And one for good measure?
Conference talks were really, really excellent today.

Calder's B-Day

We went camping to celebrate.And we had a fantastic time.

But there's a kind of hot where you don't mind mosquitoes sucking your blood, as much as you mind the fact that they are generating extra body heat with their skin to skin contact.
It was that kind of hot.

My Cabela's, 40 below mummy bag was thoroughly disgusted when it was tossed aside the entire night through for a single towel underneath. A towel that was otherwise unused-

Because the first thing we asked when we drove into the campsite was "Where's the swim beach?"
They replied, "There is no swim beach."

A stunned moment later, I spluttered, "Uh... What do you mean there's no swim beach??"

Did they realize we drove three hours to this lake? Could they not see we were all in swim wear? Did they not realize Hydn had been saying, "deep water" for the past 24, long hours? Had they not looked at the temperature gauge lately?

"It doesn't necessarily have to be at this campsite, but there's got to be a swim beach along this lake somewhere!"

I'd never heard of such ridiculousness!

"No, we don't recommend swimming."
"What? Alright, never mind." Then laying the map on the desk somewhat testily, "There are three other lakes on this map within driving distance. Do you know which of them has a swim beach?"
"None of 'em."
"Are you kidding me?!"
"Nope"
"But why?"
"Gators..."

OH.
Well then!

With no swimming, we had to find other means of entertainment.
Hydn pretended to be Justin-

When that got dull, he pretended to be Dad.

We had oodles of bad mitten tourneys,

And we finally got a trip to the long awaited Diamond mines.
The kids made fun of me the whole way.
It was all my old archeological dreams come true.

Despite their ridicule, I found them searching pretty diligently themselves.

Except for maybe Justin and Hy.

Calder made up for the both of them.

It was a dirt throwing, dirt rolling, little boys paradise.


We were happy to find water where we could dip a hand in without loosing it.

Maddie took her 'finds' to be examined and was told they were awfully pretty, but that they were just quartz. She was disgusted they didn't even do a 'scratch' test and took them to a new tester. Who again told her they were quartz. If any of us deserved to find one, it would have been her.

And that's not water that's accidentally dripped on Hy's head. That's sweat.

There really wasn't a snowball's chance...

But we stayed the whole seven hours to make sure.


Only then did we call it.

By the third day, our fear of the water had pretty much sweated right on out of us.
We decided to rent canoes.

Maddie had nightmares for weeks...

Good thing she was in the canoe ahead and couldn't hear the park ranger as we rounded the last bend from her sight,
"Now you all be careful!"

"Alright, and thanks! Hey, by the way, exactly how many 'gators' are we talking?"

"Roundabout 3 thousand in this here lake."

I think that was the scariest canoe ride of my life.
And the kids.
And Berts.
Especially when a monstro fish tried to jump in our boat after Bert hit it with a paddle.
Or when the wind picked up, and the suddenly choppy water threatened immediate capsize.
Or when we had to park and go to the bathroom...


But it wasn't near as scary as the hike Bert, Justin, Maddie and I stupidly went on at dusk. That snaked it's way around the river at feeding time. With no way back, but forward.
And speaking of snakes,
One dripped right out of a tree and onto the ground in front of us.
Nasty, nasty, nasty place to be at night.
Especially with no flashlights...
We won't be doing it again any time soon.
These daytime pictures just don't do it justice.
But if you look real close you'll see a couple of eyes peeping up in the distant water.
(And you'll find that that's exactly the same background where I took a picture of the kids in the canoe.)
Or maybe the head in this one.
It's making me jumpy just typing this.
It was certainly a memorable birthday.
Happy 14 Calder!