Outdoor School 2012c

The Brenchley family joined the Academy Northwest/Family Academy Outdoor School's trip to Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens on May 17th - 19th. Here is what the kids want to say about the trip:

"Hi, this is Rilla (8). This is me next to Mt. Saint Helens. This is what it looks like after the big boom. The stuff in the middle, that's the lava dome rising. When it is too huge it boom's out black mud & ash."

At the tree mold tunnel at the Trail of Two Forests on the South side of Mt. St. Helens..."It was fun except it was dark...but we did it." Cian (7)

New Boys Join the Family

Our other first for the day was that we had two handsome steers delivered to the Wards' property, which will be mowing for them and making future beef for us. Here they are, numbers 51 and 75:

Tap Dancing Lessons

Hi, this is Cian(7). Me and my brother, Colin went to a private for tap today. We have never tapped before. It was a little bit hard – but I did it. Jovon was my teacher and I got new tap shoes!

Grandma's House

While Mom, Rilla and Cian flew to Colorado to stay with some friends and Dad, Caleb and Colin went to a hunter safety class, I got to stay with my Grandma Bev for the weekend. After my art class on Friday, Grandma picked me up to go to her house, eat lunch at Wendys and then go on a walk. When we arrived back at her house, we played some heated games of 20,000, which I won both of, and had super potatoes for dinner. We watched movies until midnight and slept in till around 9:00 on Saturday morning. We had toast and cereal the next morning and then went on a walk with my cousin Luca at around 10:00. We had lunch at Red Robin and got candy in Bulk Foods at Top Foods. At around 2:30 we went to the theater and saw "The Lorax" while we ate our candy. After we got home, Grandma and I played a few more games of 20,000 that Grandma won. We stayed up until midnight again watching movies, and got up Sunday morning at around 8:00 to get ready to go to Grandma's church. I went to her church up untill the third grade so I recognized the place. Luca came along with us and she and I went to the youth service there. We had lunch with Grandma's sister, my great-aunt Carol, and, after dropping Carol back at her house, headed home. All three of us went to the mall to shop for the day, and left at around 7:00. My weekend ended with Grandma dropping me off back at my house with the boys. It was really fun to get to hang out with Grandma for the weekend, and I am excited to get to see Mom, Rilla and Cian when they arrive home on Monday. -Emma

Twenty-fifth Wedding Anniversary!

Yup, Gail & Jack are celebrating 25 years today! It was great! The kids made us breakfast in bed and we even got to go out to dinner by ourselves - just like it was in 1986...way before kids!

Jack & Gail, 1986

Colin's Eleventh Birthday

Today was Colin's eleventh birthday, and Mom and Dad had taken the liberty to plan out a day of fun to celebrate the occasion .

First, about just after noon, Colin was to embark on a ride to the mall, to do some shopping and to visit the main attraction or " Pièce de résistance" which was, (as some of you probably could have guessed,) The LEGO Store.

After which, was when Colin would come back home, triumphantly displaying his newest editions to his vast collection of toys, games, and gadgets for all to see.

Then, After taking a reinvigorating break from all that tiring playtime and shopping, the family decided that now was the time to present him with the our gifts. All ether hand picked or hand-made, new eye-catching mini-puzzles, yellow cardboard-paper cards colored in crayon, exciting novels, the works.

Afterwards when the excitement had died down, we sat down to a delicious meal of Teriyaki from a favorite take-out restaurant, with beef, sweet and sour chicken, rice with little dips of soy sauce, and a well sized salad. When we went to bed that night we all had high expectations of tomorrow, and could hardly wait for the big family party happening just this week.

But wait! that's not the whole story! There a very small problem that came to surface when I first woke up that morning... "I forgot to get Colin a present!" the realization hit me, "Aah! what do I do!?" ( I suddenly noticed a repeat of what happened on Mom's last birthday. But luckily, this time I didn't have to desperately hope that Papa Ray had sent something in the mail.)

Fortunately this time I came prepared, because this time, after taking some tutorials, I had the Adobe Flash software at my disposal, ready to use.

Quickly, for my time was short, I began to improvise. Thinking fast I hurriedly took an image of a star-field, that I had made in Photoshop from scratch by following a Scott Kelby lesson, and opened it in Flash.

Pausing a moment to reflect on what I should do with this image, an clever idea struck me. Yes! I could use the 3D text feature on top! Hmm... outer space and 3D text... now all it needed was some dramatic music.

After scrambling to finish the work on time, and finally turning to the help section as a last resort, I completed the work, synchronized the music, and set the animation in motion all just moments before Colin had to leave for the mall. I was then able to, after much hard work, present to him a gift which was truly unique.

-Caleb

An Afternoon Affair with Art

I was asked to take part in painting a picture of a horse at my art class at Northwest Art Center, an art studio in Duvall, for an silent auction to raise money for the art center. I painted a close -up of a green/blue horse's face with an orange/red backround. At the auction I watched as Mom was outbid by two ladies battling for my horse. One of them finally won by just paying the guaranteed buying price of $150.00.