Summer is for Strawberries

And strawberries are very messy

I made yeasted strawberry pancakes, we ate a bunch of strawberries and then Susanna and I made the rest into jam.  She was pretty excited to have made jam.

That outfit of Andrew’s will never be the same.

A Visit to Salt Lake

The past couple of months have been extraordinarily busy, and among all the appointments and trips, we’ve been filling our sparse downtime with discussion about our future and specifically where we will live: from the months after graduation, the next several years, and, of course, the rest of our lives.  It always looked like we’d shift from super-busy to normal-busy when we got back from Salt Lake City, but now that we’re back I still don’t see any calm water on the horizon.  Gratefully, the ride is fun.  Yesterday and as I drove over Lake Washington and through the rural areas East of the lake, I started to realize how much I am going to miss Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.  But since we haven’t made any decisions yet, I can focus on enjoying where we are now.

Here are a few photographs from our trip in Utah.  We had a great time.

My mom and Susanna looking at the clouds at a park near her home:

Susanna and her cousin playing in their Brazilian hammock:

Andrew crawling across a bridge in a Kayesville wetland:

Susanna and Andrew playing with bowls and a hose in my parents’ backyard:

Susanna and Scott’s dad:

Purple Robes

I love graduation ceremonies.  Especially when someone so dear to me is graduating.  Seriously, I started crying when he tried on his regalia, I am so proud of this guy!  Susanna and I went to commencement.  I love graduation ceremonies (did I say that already?), it is incredible to be a part of the moment when people have accomplished something, and to see all the supporters cheering them on (who no doubt have been cheering them on for a while yet).  Susanna, I think, enjoyed being a part of the celebration, and I know she enjoyed watching me spell her name spelled in Wikki Stix (we stuck the letters on the seat back to our bench and woops! left them there).  All in all, it was a great (if very hot) event, and could only have been made better by actually seeing Scott.  Congratulations honey!  Thanks for all the hard work.

Cake, Paint, and Box

This week Susanna and her little best friend had an Un-Birthday party.  Which, when I host it, is basically a play-date with a birthday cake.  The girls had a great time decorating the cake and blowing bubbles (that was their birthday gift) and, as always, simply playing together.

The next day, we went to a Student Housing finger-painting activity.  Susanna and the same best friend were above crawling around in paint, but Andrew did a little painting.  His toenails are still purple.

We also got a new tent this week. We’ve outgrown our little three-man backpacking tent so we spent our REI dividend on a much bigger one.  And the lucky kids got to color on the box and crawl through it over and over again.

Next up: graduation.

Dr. Scott

Scott handed in his dissertation a few weeks ago, and last Thursday he defended it.  he did a fantastic job.  This picture of us was taken after the talk in front of the Health Sciences building.

The title of his talk was, “Tolerance induction in peripheral CD4+ T cells through RAG-dependent TCR revision” and I didn’t understand a word of it.  Well, I understood Pam’s introduction.  She said that Scott is a happy hard working guy with an extremely messy work area.  She also called attention to a cheap hostess-style chocolate cream pie he brought for provisions on a hike; “bad Scott” she labeled picture of Scott tucking into the pie.  “But, that’s about as bad as Scott gets,” she concluded.  Great introduction.

I am so proud of Scott for this tremendous accomplishment.  Way to go, hon!  I am excited to go with you wherever the road next takes us.

My parents, Scott’s parents, and three of Scott’s siblings came for Scott’s big day, and we had a great time celebrating with them.  Thank you everyone for your support on this special day and throughout our lives.

While my parents were in town we hopped up to Vancouver.  My mom lived there when she was a little girl, while her father presided over the Alaska Canada Mission (for more about LDS missions, click here).  We went to the new temple, saw the amazing aquarium, and visited the beautiful home in which my mother and her family lived way back when.

Above: the beautiful new Vancouver, BC temple; below Andrew at the aquarium (followed by two more of Andrew also at the aquarium)

This last one is the old mission home; the historical plaque on the right traces the history of this home starting with Milt Weilenmann’s purchase in the sixties (Milt is my grandpa).