Pirate days

Calvin has been on a pirate kick for a while. But it seemed to jump into overdrive of late. Last night we watched The Princess Bride. As we watched I asked Calvin questions about what was about to happen, and he nailed everything! This morning for his Lego noodling time, the focus was on Princess Bride scenes and characters. I voluntarily took the first few photos, but as morning wore on, Calvin was asking me to shoot each new thing he created. He was desirous of watching the movie again this evening using our VHS. Sadly it has deteriorated, ("glitchy" according to Calvin) and we weren't able to watch. Herewith, a photo essay of the story using his Lego creations, in no particular order.

Count Rugen and Westley in the Pit of Despair

The Albino and Westley in the Pit

Prince Humperdinck

Pit of Despair again

Westley

Humperdinck

Westley in the Fire Swamp

Inigo Montoya

Dread Pirate Roberts

Inigo Montoya and Roberts on the Cliffs of Insanity

Westley bests Humperdinck, "to the pain"

Roberts in a small boat

Inigo gets his revenge on Rugen

Rugen and Humperdinck at the site of the sword battle

Sword fight at the cliffs

Battle of wits with Vizzini

FEMA Corps

Libby wrote this today to update her co-workers at Manna. I haven't bothered to change anything...

He left home for California in mid-February and had four weeks of orientation and training at the AmeriCorps campus in Sacramento. He is a member of FEMA Corps Team Opal 1, along with four others (2 women from Florida, one from eastern NC, and one guy from upstate NY). He’s the baby of the team.

 

Following that were 2 weeks of FEMA-specific training at the FEMA Region 9 headquarters in San Luis Obisbo, CA. At the conclusion, they made a grand three-day road trip from Southern California to Denver, passing through Las Vegas, northern Arizona (Petrified Forest and Painted Desert), NW New Mexico, and Colorado (thru the Rockies, with snow!).

 

They arrived in Denver last Sunday and began their actual work last week; they’re staying at an extended-stay hotel for 2 or 3 weeks while the brand-new AmeriCorps housing facility is being completed. Their current project is working with FEMA Region 8 to help with planning for a potential major earthquake in Utah. The FEMA offices are housed in a Cold-War era underground bunker, which is very exciting! You can get an idea of the many projects that AmeriCorps NCCC and FEMA Corps teams are working on here: https://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps/americorps-programs/americorps-nccc/nccc-and-fema-corps-deployment-reports#Pacific%20Region%20FEMA

 

Each team member works with a FEMA staff member on a specific area of preparedness (transportation, ecological impact, etc.). Eli’s assignment is reviewing and verifying logistical information regarding staging areas, supplies, etc. His staff contact, Maria, is a 20-year Air Force vet and has worked for FEMA for three years. He’s enjoyed discussing aircraft with her, and they’re hoping that their team can tour the Air Force Academy and NORAD (which is not really open to the public—but they apparently have connections).

 

They’ve all had fun exploring the Denver area (e.g., going to the immense REI store, going to the modern art museum and being thoroughly confused by the works on display, having lunch at a diner and striking up a random conversation with two stagehands from the “Sesame Street Live” tour, etc.) and are looking forward to some hiking and rock-climbing expeditions. This week they’re attending an emergency responder conference in Denver. Pending any disasters that will require their deployment elsewhere, they’ll be in Denver until May 24.

Middle school chorus

Briggs was able to take chorus this year. It sort of went along with him singing with the band at church at our early service. The holiday concert took place at our church, but there was a fall concert before that at the school. The picture above, I think, is some of the boys (Luke, Zack, Jason, Neehar and Ayden) that night. That one may be from 2015-2016. After the start of the new semester the director (Katie Stephens) asked Briggs to participate in all-county chorus, which he did. He took ill the first of the two day-long practice sessions (First Baptist, Asheville), but was able to attend the second, and be part of the closing concert. Definitely 2017. The picture below is from that event. Pretty cool.

Christmas outside 2016

Some years it gets done; sometimes not. This year we had outdoor decorations for Christmas. Libby did the old basketball post as a giant tree. Pretty stunning actually. The boys got in on the act with an abstract creation that required the ladder and numerous tools to install. Somewhere I have a picture of the product at night, but I can't find it at the moment.

Sous chefs

Eli has done plenty of cooking away from home, especially at Rockmont. But he has never done much here. I can't remember exactly what led to this shot, but here he is in the kitchen. I seem to recall that he was being very precise with everything as a beginner would be.

This is Briggs a few nights ago. Out of the blue he wanted to bake a cake. We had a box of cake flour around with three possible recipes on the back. He chose one and charged in. The result was dandy.

It will be interesting to see if and when the cooking bug bites Calvin. Funny how both boys wanted to bake something (sweet). The first thing I recall trying was ratatouille!

Changing basketball

Briggs has evolved into a year-round sportist: basketball in winter; baseball in spring/summer and football in fall. That last one was the last to be added. Above is a shot of him in his last year of rec league basketball a year ago. The school won't let 6-th graders play, so he did one more year in rec. The picture below is this year playing school ball. The school team has had a rough patch of several years with a really poor showing in our county. We were hopeful with new talent they might fare better this season, but it was not to be. The only question was "how bad" was it? Briggs enjoyed the glamour of it all though as much as anything.

The day I fell in

This was December 2015. I took Briggs and Calvin to Cawtawba Falls, which is near us in Old Fort. I seem to recall it was a fairly warm day. We were all wearing shorts. We had a great time and made it all the way to the top of the falls. We had exercised caution on the way up when we had to cross the creek: uneventful. Not the case coming down. I slipped on a rock and the left side of my whole body landed in the creek. I happened to be holding my new phone/camera in my right hand. Luckily we really were on our way out and I didn't suffer very long with the cold water on me. Still a fun day and lessons learned.