I have awesome news to share with everyone. Saty and Sarah were baptized in the Boise River on Sunday, January 6, 2008! It was unbelievably cold, but a very joyful day!
We made plans on Saturday when it was only sprinkling outside and relatively warm for a January day (in the forties)—but woke up to a beautiful snow-covered landscape on Sunday morning!
As cold as it was, it was beautiful, and so cool to have my niece Robyn and little Diego here to share it with us!
We used the take-out ramp at Ann Morrison Park where rafters can pull out in the summer. It's located just west of the foot bridge.
Over Labor Day, we camped at Black Rock Campground, which is about 45 minutes off-road from Idaho City. It's a pretty area, tucked in next to the North Fork of the Boise River. The fishing didn't look that great, since it's only about 18 inches deep this time of year, but the kids had a blast wading in the river. Good thing...I forgot to bring the fishing poles. But we did catch a little gopher snake!
Going on Labor Day weekend was a bit of a gamble, since we didn't plan the trip in time to make reservations. So we just went hoping to find an empty spot, and we lucked out. There were two spaces with reservation tags on them, but one of them had expired. I think other last-minute campers probably saw the tag and left thinking it was full.
With everything going on with Dad's health problems, I've neglected to let everyone know how well Grammie (a.k.a. Great Grammie, Great Great Grammie, or Virchie Alice Gipson to some of you!) is doing these days. After taking some time to adjust to her new surroundings in Idaho, she has really improved dramatically from when she was in California.
We try to get her out for church as often as we can, and she really enjoys that. She can get into Mom's car easier than our Excursion or Dad's Toyota, so we need to swap cars to do it, but it's worth it. She enjoys coming over to the house for family dinners, especially when there's homemade ice cream afterward.
We haven't been very good about sharing our photos online with everyone. I shouldn't say "we." Diane's been pretty good about doing the e-mail blast when new photos are uploaded to Shutterfly, but I haven't been good about sharing them so they show up on the website.
Michelle's really cool scrapbook of Katelyn's visit to Idaho inspired me to get going on this. You can find all shared photo albums, including the latest of some of our Summer visitors, by going to the "Family" tab at the top of this site and clicking on "Photos." Alternately, you can go to theharpers.shutterfly.com.
I guess I can remove the VA directions and phone number, since Dad is at home now! He continues to do well. He's being kept busy with visiting physical therapists and nurses, but we're going to try to fit in an outing to go to lunch in between his visitors today (Wed, Oct 3).
The proper title of this post should have been "A visit to Shoshone Falls with my niece Robyn" but witnessing some BASE jumpers at Perrine Bridge on the way stole the excitement from the famed falls. It turns out that Perrine Bridge is the only man-made structure in the U.S. where it's legal to BASE jump year-round without a permit.
What is BASE jumping, you ask? It is an acronym for the following:
B - Buildings A - Antennas S - Spans E - Earth
It seems to me that B, A, and S are a bit redundant and could have been consolidated into simply S for "Structures." That idea was probably nixed because "SE jumping" just doesn't roll of the tongue.
Basically, the sport consists of jumping off of any fixed object with a parachute, and is distinguished from skydiving, which is always from an aircraft. It's one of those "extreme sports" I had only seen on obscure cable shows like "Stunt Junkies" - until this trip, that is.
The kids are dying to share the news of Diane's new dog. He's her birthday present, but I'm guessing the kids will get the most fun out of him. After all, there are six of them, and (sadly for me) only one Diane.
His name is Rembrandt (Remi for short), but he hasn't arrived yet. He should be with us sometime this week. He is a West Highland White Terrier and Maltese mix.
Diane had initially settled on the Westie breed, but we were increasingly concerned after reading up on its traits that it might be a little snippy with babies and toddlers who inadvertantly poke and prod animals. (Now don't go spreading rumors--we aren't expecting any babies or toddlers in our household. We just want to make sure we get a dog that is safe around our friends' kids!)
By popular demand, here is some video of Jaden's David Blaine-esque levitation illusion. There are no fancy film editing tricks on this. What you see is what you get.
This year's Thanksgiving trip turned into quite the object lesson in giving thanks.
Have you ever seen cars involved in rollover crashes and wondered what it was like to be in the car at the time? I know, it sounds a little morbid at first, but my mind sometimes wanders like this when I see skid marks off the side of the freeway. I momentarily find myself picturing what it must have been like to be in the car that was making them.
Well, I may not be able to capture every detail of the experience perfectly, but I can at least relay to you something about what our Car Crash 2006 experience was like.
As the events played out, I think you'll see clearly that God was guiding us through every step of the way. What if we had experienced major injuries out in the middle of nowhere in those icy conditions? What if we hadn't been able to get out of the car? What if the Rocky Mountain Ambulence company hadn't sold a unit for delivery that day to Burley? A million what-ifs go through my mind, and in each one, I see that there was Someone watching over us.
Our family outing to Warm Springs (near Ketchum, which is near Sun Valley, Idaho) was a very enjoyable one. It's actually not over yet, as I'm writing this from our room on our last night while the kids watch an old Shirley Temple movie.
Bike riding along the Wood River Trail
Fall turned out to be a great time to visit this part of the state. Rain was forecast for both days, but it didn't show up except overnight. There was even a bit of snow overnight at the top of Bald Mountain (only a few hundred yards up the out-of-season ski slope from where we stayed).
The best part of our two day trip was by far the scenic bike riding we did along Wood River Trail. It's a twenty-mile-plus trail that zigs and zags along the river and through the downtown areas, passing through beautiful fall colored trees the entire way.
We had a great trip to California for my niece Robyn's wedding. We look forward to spending more time with her, Marcos, and his sweet daughter Andrea. Maybe soon! We enjoyed visiting with family at the wedding and seeing everyone at Anaheim and La Verne. We miss everyone! Don't forget, we have a spare room, and we're not afraid to let you use it. :-) We're undecided right now about coming down for Thanksgiving so far. I think it's a little too soon after 15 hours of driving to commit to it. But time and new music on the iPod have a way of making the drive less intimidating.
I was dying to find Kuna Cave once I heard about it. We passed Kuna Cave Road a few times without seeing any signs telling us where the cave is.
We found out the official stance at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is that the public should be discouraged from visiting the site. However, it's public land, and I found some official documents online showing the location. Since I believe public land should be for the benefit of the public, not just a select few who happen to be "in the know" I've posted the relevant pages here. If you visit the caves, be sure to take care of it--don't litter or deface anything. In fact, clean it up if you find it littered. And of course, be careful and bring a flashlight!
Pardon my absence from blogging while we finish settling into our new house in Idaho! After arriving at the new house, we promptly packed up the kids again to visit some Christian friends in Oregon over the July 4th weekend. We really are beginning to love the freedom of road trips and seeing God's beautiful country. The kids travel remarkably well and are loving it as well. We are also very encouraged by the fellowship and conversations with the people we meet.
I do have some hot topics that have been on my mind lately and will fire up the keyboard soon.
I have to offer my apologies for being offline for several weeks. I've had a lot of thoughts incubating in the back of my mind while trying to manage the relocation of my family from Orange County, California to South Idaho. (Shhhh, don't tell my neighbors there are more Californians moving in.)
Now that both escrows seem to be lined up properly, I should be able to get more writing time in. Thanks for your patience, and thanks for all the prayers and encouragement from friends and family!
My wife and I have had Kaiser insurance for our entire marriage of fifteen years and have been extremely impressed with the quality of care through four pregnancies (one critical), a bizarre but urgent bacterial infection in the neck of our youngest, and now with Chiari treatment of our son Jaden. We hear a lot of people bad-mouth HMOs and even Kaiser specifically, but we hear horrible stories about long waits for other HMOs and private plans. My wife’s an R.N. and has a high opinion of Kaiser as well. I could go on, but I’d sound like an infomercial; so suffice to say that you can find great doctors and neurosurgeons in the Kaiser system. (Did I mention that God, through fast-thinking Kaiser doctors and nurses, saved my wife’s life during her first pregnancy?)
Homeschooling is one of those topics that can bring passionate opinions because it's so deeply personal. I'm guessing it's probably because any question related to how each of us raises our children is going to carry with it a highly charged emotional attachment. If it's true for me, it's probably true for others.
So first off, let me just give a quick caveat that we can disagree on policies, techniques, philosophies, and politics, and still have a great deal of love and respect for each other. These are merely opinions I've formed from my experiences (and probably built-in prejudices). There are numerous awesome, dedicated people working in the public schools (including some great teachers in my own family!) who are doing a wonderful job of making life and learning better for a lot of kids. The fact that I prefer to teach my kids at home doesn't take away from that at all!
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Over Labor Day, we camped at 
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We haven't been very good about sharing our photos online with everyone. I shouldn't say "we." Diane's been pretty good about doing the e-mail blast when new photos are uploaded to Shutterfly, but I haven't been good about sharing them so they show up on the website.
The kids are dying to share the news of Diane's new dog. He's her birthday present, but I'm guessing the kids will get the most fun out of him. After all, there are six of them, and (sadly for me) only one Diane. 