The Einstein Award…

Goes to Faythe Harwood. This past week was the Fifth Grade Science Fair at Vineyard Elementary. Faythe did his project on the effects of aerodynamics and drag on rocket fins. It was a great project and we had a ton of fun shooting off the rockets. He got 3 identical rocket kits and designed custom fins for two of them. Then we launched each rocket and observed the flight path and calculated the maximum altitude for each flight. The altitudes were then averaged and compared between each rocket along with the flight path data to determine the most successful flight. We had a great afternoon launching rockets. I have been waiting for what seems like forever for Faythe to get old enough to fire rockets with me. It is so much fun. The day following the Science Fair Faythe brought home the Einstein Award, he had won first place in his school science fair and is now invited to participate in the district science fair. Hooray for Faythe, we are so proud of his accomplishment!!!

Happy Holidays and our Year in a Nut-Shell

Happy Holidays to you all and Merry Christmas.  This has been quite an eventful year for us.  Faythe has turned 10, Inez and the kids celebrated with a trip to Lagoon.  He got to take a trip to California with his Grandpa this past Summer and enjoyed his time there.  Faythe started the 5th grade this past Fall and is doing good in school.  Esperanza turned 8 and was baptized.  She is in the 2nd grade and also is doing good.  She makes it a goal to be in the homework club each month.  Jerel graduated with his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Utah Valley University this past Summer.  His last class was spent in Italy doing an Art History study abroad.  It was an amazing trip, 2 weeks in Rome, 2 weeks in Florence, and 1 week in Venice.  He made many good friends while there and was able to see many great works of art.  Pictures from the trip can be seen at Jerel and Inez’s Art BLOG Grey Forest Studio.  On the way home Jerel was able to stop in London and visit with his longtime friend Clara Wessinger, her Husband Eric and their 2 children.  They graciously opened their home to him for a week while they showed him the sights and helped him to navigate the metro system in London.  It was great to see them and spend time with their wonderful family.  Jerel came back excited to see the family and to get working on his art.  This past Fall he began attending classes at BYU and is completing his application for their Masters of Fine Arts in Studio Arts program, to start Fall 2011.  Inez is working very hard in school and is doing great.  She applied and was accepted for the Art and Visual Communications department trip to New York in the Spring.  They will be there for a week attending Museums and visiting Artist’s Studios.  It is a wonderful opportunity for her.  She was awarded a work study grant this past semester and has been working in the Financial Aid call center.  It has been wonderful to see the growth in our Family throughout this past year.  We have been to amazing places and seen wonderful things.  It has been a great blessing to be in school.  We would like to say thank you to all of our family and friends who have been such a great support to us in our endeavors over this past year.  We could not make it without your loving support!  We hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

We love you all,

— Jerel, Inez and the Kids

High Altitude Camping

A couple of weekends ago we took the kids up to one of our favorite places to camp in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. Just off of Cleveland Reservoir is a small section of primitive camp sites that we like to stay in. We spent two nights there. Saturday we took a walk around the lake. It was beautiful around the back side of the lake, we explored the tail water and I wished I had brought my Fly Rod to do a little fishing. as we were walking around the lake the clouds started rolling in. We attempted to hurry ourselves but had to walk carefully through some extremely muddy areas where the inlets to the lake are. At one point I had to stop and pry Esperanza’s shoe out of the mud where it had gotten stuck after she jumped a small creek. As we turned to go around the north point of the reservoir the clouds opened up and the rain came showering down on us, the lightning strikes moved closer and closer to us. Inez and I found a grove of aspen trees where we hid from the lightning dancing off the surrounding peaks and huddled together to stay warm as we tried to wait out the storm. The weather in this area changes frequently, only for us it went from wet to worse as the hail started coming down. At that point we decided to make a break for it and hurried as fast as we could back to camp. Gratefully the tent was dry and our sleeping bags were warm as we spent the rest of the afternoon napping and enjoying the sounds of the storm going on outside.
Continue reading “High Altitude Camping”