Here's our breakfast nook, inhabited above by some of my family, then here by several of the Harvey cousins.
As our family gets older, getting everyone together gets harder and harder. But family is important to all of us so we each put forth the effort as often as we can. This Thanksgiving, we were all able to make it to Nana's & Daddy Jack's house in Houston.
Tonight was Physics Project night. Em. had her partner over and we commenced to making a catapult that would propel a ping pong ball some ridiculous distance. Why would someone want to send a ping pong ball any farther than the length of a ping pong table? I don't know. Possibly that's the engineer in me always asking why.
Duke showed up to entertain... How come my guitar sounds better when he plays it? 
Last Monday was a bit of a milestone for sports in our family. Both Em and Sav. have enjoyed playing volleyball but it appears that after 8th grade, neither wishes to continue. Em has gone the Stuco / Spirit Team route and Sav seems to want to pursue soccer.
Sav had lots of support from church friends. I got pictures of the folks that sat around Lisa but missed pics of the Bryants who had to sit in the other bleachers.
Well, we finally made it to an Aggie game during Cam's freshman year. Since we had worked it out for Em' to sit with her brother, we let Sav. bring a friend. J.J., I'll call her, had never been to an Aggie game even though her sister is a student and her mother, a former student. Come to think of it, Sav. & Em. had never been to an Aggie game at Kyle field.
We could actually see Cam & Em over in the student section on the third deck. Cam was sitting with some friends from Fish Aides, a freshman student government group he was accepted into. Before the game, they were all serving lunch at a pre-game reception where President Bush (41) was supposed to attend. Cam said he didn't show.
After the game, we picked up J.J.'s sister and we all went to dinner at Fuddruckers.
It was good to see Cam. Not long until Thanksgiving, so I think his Mama will survive.
I had to travel for work this week so before I left, I decorated the plate to remind the girls what a great mom they have...
It's that time of year. From the title, you probably think I'm talking about the Olympics. That, after tonight, is now over for a few years. Actually, I've got fall football on my mind. And not just NFL or NCAA but good ol' high school football under the Friday night lights. This year is a whole new ball game. For the last two years, we've had a first string player to cheer on but they do grow up don't they. So this year, our middle child is there to keep our interest. This will be her first year on the school spirit team.
Over the last week she finished decorating her overalls. These will be worn at all of the games and several events throughout the year. She really did a great job and I'm proud of her willingness to show her school spirit in such a public way. Here's a close up of some buttons that are sown along the front pockets. These came from her great-grandmother, Elizabeth Thompson or Mullie as we call her.
Trek Update: It's always nice to know you were missed back home. Cameron decorated 'the plate' for us. Here's a pic of his art work...
The drive home went very smooth. No flat tires was good. Randall and I had arranged for a new tire to be ready by the day we got back down the mountain. We put the spare back in the trailer and felt much better on the way back. I drove the mountain roads and I think I was able to keep just about all of the adults awake with all of the turns. Randall took the second shift from Raton to Amarillo where we stopped at the famous Big Tex Steakhouse.
On the way down I snapped a picture of the back of Shelley's shoes. The image doesn't do justice to how extremely muddy she had gotten but that wasn't the purpose of the photo. On Trek, you spend a great deal of time slightly bent over in deep study of the steps that the hiker in front of you is taking. Not particularly exciting but a fact of the matter none the less. Shelley was a great pacesetter and one of the reasons I liked to study her shoes.
Jessy did the honors of driving us back down the dirt road and the almost two hour drive back to Salida. After everyone had showered and changed, we took one final group picture. Actually, we took about 13 final pictures. I think everyone present had their own camera to get a picture.
I also found that 
Andrew liked to explore while most of us were taking a rest. Come on already, Andrew. At least act tired!
At one point, these mule deer paused perfectly atop this ridge and watched as we made our way their direction. Once they tired of witnessing our sluggish accent, they turned and descended the mountain face as though it were flat ground.
On the way down we had a bit of fun with a group that was about to summit the same peak we had just come down from. We got to see their ridge dance and then did the wave from our ridge.
I spent most of my solo time sitting on a bed of pine cones that had built up next to the stream over years and years. It appeared to be at least a couple of feet deep and was very comfortable to sit on. I sat here for over an hour reading the story of David and Goliath and contemplating David's quest for 5 stones in a brook by thier camp.
Very quickly after waking up, eating a bit of food and packing everything away it was back on the trail with everything on your back. 
This day is all about reaching high camp. There is very little time for rest until then. The problem is you really don't know how much farther you have left to go. The most difficult part of the journey are the low water crossings on logs that have been placed over the streams.
The hike up is where Ian got his nickname 'The Mountain Goat'. It's also where the implications of being assinged to carry the condiments bag become all too clear. One of the jobs of the crew leader is to assign each team member something to carry that will benefit the whole crew. I was assigned to carry two different meals as well as the condiments bag which includes povisions for cleaning up after meals and some additional items that don't go with any particular meal. Our crew had two large containers to add flavor to drinks. Neither of these got any lighter during the whole week. Unfortunately, I was also assigned the 'Hike Lunch'. 
The bad thing about this meal is that not very many hikers are a fan of the main course, vienna sausages. At the end of the meal, uneaten portions go back in the bag they came from. Unoppened portions then get added to the condiments bag. Here's where I realize that the condiment's bag gets heavier and heavier as the week progresses and that I will have to carry uneaten vienna sausages until we reach base camp four days from now. Ewww. (What happend to kids who ate everything on their plates?)
It's Monday and that means two things: first you repel and then you get a crash course introduction over several miles to the equivalent of having a small person on your back. It's also your first day after sleeping on the ground all night. Luckily, I had invested in a Therm-a-rest pad and not just the thin one but the 1-1/2" thick old man version. Here's a pic of Randall, my tent mate for the week, and his wife Rachael who bunked with the three girls. I took this picture as we climbed up the back side of the rock we were about to repel down.
We waited quite a while for our turn and all the kids were very patient. James here works on the Bible lesson for the day. Just as Emily was getting ready to repel I rushed back to my pack to get my camera. When I got back to take the picture, she was gone.
Oh well. I was ready though to document the beginning of Shelley's decent. She had gotten on Hope's line and a portion of the wall where you back over a precarious edge. Once you repel half way on this line, you free fall without touching the wall. All of our crew went down without a hitch.
Our crew leaders were Becca and Andrew and they did a great job at the bottom of the ropes not only communicating with the top of the rock but encouraging the repellers as they made their way down the rock face. This is Becca getting psyched up for her enormous responsibilities. Little did she know that she would soon be at the end of her rope.
Just after this came the rains. It probably rained for two hours. We had already set up our tents as well as the tarps over the crew areas where you cook. By the time is we were ready to 'hit the sack', the rain had stopped and we didn't have to deal with water seeping in the tent during the night.
The second day of Trek we arrive in Salida, Colorado. I had never seen Salida's historic downtown even though we'd visited this town several times. We circled downtown avoiding the areas roped off for a bicycle race while a heated discussion coursed through the van: "It's an 'S'!".... "It's a '5'!"... I sided with the letter group while the number group proceeded to sulk till they got food. We spent a bit more time at the pizza place than necessary but everyone left full and ready to eat like squirrels for five days.
First, we got assigned Daniel Anderson. He was a 2008 graduate the same high school as a couple of the teens in our youth group. This was his first summer as a guide and really seemed to enjoy the work. His dad John came as well and spiced up the trip with countless humorous moments.
This was the year I finally signed up to join the teens in their annual quest to summit a mountain in Colorado. I knew this would be difficult on an old guy like me and I had every intention of working out and showing Cameron that his dad is still pretty tough guy. But a couple of things got in the way. The first being either my schedule at work or my uncontrollable laziness. There's something about getting home late in the evening from 12 hours at the office and looking at that treadmill that causes all gladness to leave me. The other thing that got in the way was a small child's foot. Let me explain... Cameron's summer job requires him to supervise children and lead them in various activities. Two days before we left for Colorado, this entailed a game of soccer. To avoid stepping on small feet with his shoes, Cameron decided to play soccer barefoot. Fourteen years of rec., competitive and High School soccer were no preparation to avoid rolling his ankle and causing him to miss out on this years trip. The ER doctor said it was broken but two weeks later, we still wouldn't know the actual damage due to the fast paced world of Workman's Comp. The good thing out of all this was that I could spend more quality time with Emily and she could easily show me how it's done.
Unfortunately, I took everything down before taking a picture. I did however snap this photo of several happy Trekkers. Note the enthusiasm. We'll see how they look after a week of no showers or toilets and having to carry the equivalent of a small person on their backs for several miles and up and down several hundred feet of altitude.
Once we arrived in Raton, NM, we made our way to the KOA campground where we'd rest for the night. The sponsors and girls got the cabins while the boys were relegated to Marcus' 8 man tent. The rain during the night would prepare them slightly for parts of the hike up the mountain. A little football before bed for those with the energy
Well, all good things must come to an end as did this wonderful experience in the Spanish Virgin Islands. The first ferry off the island was at 6:30am. We wanted to have as much time as possible to visit Old San Juan and we wanted a good parking place to leave the Suzuki so we were there just before 6 o'clock. The ride back to the big island was much smoother and thankfully, nobody got sick.
looking into the layout of the town so I was able to drive straight to parking which I had heard was a problem.
San Juan. We wanted to explore it but time didn't permit. We caught a quick lunch at Cafe Mallorca, a restaurant famous for sprinkling powdered sugar on just about everything, including the burgers we had.
