Snakes

Here is an e-mail I sent to McKay's Scout Master a few weeks ago:

Brother Vest,

For McKay to complete his Reptile and Amphibian merit badge that he started at scout camp, he needed to keep one as a pet for 60 days. You know that McKay loves snakes, so this merit badge was a clever plan for him to get one to keep as a pet.

So he bought a cage at a yard sale and on Monday he caught a garter snake up at his Grandma’s house for a pet. He probably told you about it at scouts last night. Well, it’s Wednesday and McKay’s snake just had babies and he now has a total of eight snakes as far as we can tell because they move around a lot and it’s hard to count. So my question is, does he have to keep the snake(s) for the entire 60 days even though he has proven that he can breed them in captivity? He should definitely get extra-credit for that. Or can he keep them for 60 snake-days? With eight snakes, that should be about eight days. What do you think?

---Chris Gibson



So yes, we have snakes and rats for pets. Somehow this is not how I pictured pets for my kids. Since the e-mail we were able to count and there were 9 baby snakes along with the mother. Apparently giving birth makes you really hungry because the mom started eating the babies and had killed 3 of them before we decided she had to go. So we are down to 6 baby snakes that are doing well. McKay feeds them chopped up earthworms and keeps them warm and keeps the cage clean. I used to think that all baby animals were cute. Not so much with snakes. They're just little versions of a snake and still a snake.

In this picture you can see 4 baby snakes and the mom. There is also a green rubber snake Bryson threw in, in case they got lonely. With 10 snakes in the cage I don't think there was much chance of that.

Goooooal!

Bryson is playing soccer again for the first time in 2 years. Bryson is shaping up to be quite a player. Very few can penetrate his defense. He LOVES playing goalie and is great at defense and mid-field, too. His coach usually has him in as goalie for the last half of the last quarter and makes Bryson play goalie at the half field line! Bryson won't let anything past, so it forces the last 8 minutes of play to be limited to the opponents half of the field. This gives us a much better chance of scoring. His coach says it's an old hockey trick and they'll use it as long as it works. The first time they did it, we were really baffled when Bryson, our goalie, started running up the field with the other players and sometimes got as far as 3/4 of the field away from his goal. If anyone can pull it off he can. They haven't scored on him, yet, when he's been away from the goal. It helps that he can outrun almost any other player if they do get by him at all. It's really funny to watch, though.

Goalie

Goalie in action

Bryson's been perfecting his goalie drop-kick. That's the back of Bryson's school, Voorheesville Elementary, in the picture.

He's an aggressive soccer player.

As I'm watching this tall blonde soccer player, I remember watching my nephew, Daniel, playing soccer when he was young. Bryson looks a lot like him out on the field.

Happy Birthday, Parker!

Actually his birthday was yesterday. Another year has come and gone and Parker is now 17. I have included pictures of his cake. I was thinking about it and Parker doesn't often get a cake of his own. He doesn't usually invite friends over for a party, so I don't do a special cake for that and we usually still have cake left over from McKay's birthday 5 days earlier so I don't want to add another 5 days of left over birthday cake to our diet. So I was happy McKay's birthday party isn't until next weekend when he'll get his cake, so I could focus on a cake for Parker.

Yes, it's a hamburger. Parker is a hamburger connoisseur. Parker's holding up some lead-free solder he got for his birthday for an electronics course he is taking. He insists that his school is using leaded solder he wanted something safer. It may have something to do with Da'd (Parker's abbreviation for David) always coming home with stories of saving humanity with analyzers from XOS, starting with lead in toys.

For the first piece of cake, Parker insisted on cutting is out like a bite was taken out of it. Yum!

Today is Friday night and Parker, McKay, and McKay's friend Adam are out with Parker's scout troup on a campout/paintball activity. It'll be interesting to hear the stories.

Canning

So it's midnight and I'm finishing up canning tomatoes. I have to ask myself...why? My grandmothers did it, my mother did it, it's what you do in the fall. That can be the only explanation. Tradition. It's definitely cheaper to buy canned goods at the store (unless I work for a penny an hour and grow all the food from seed, then it might be break even), but the quality just isn't the same. So I guess it's not only tradition, but quality. I would much rather eat my home grown, home canned tomatoes, salsa, green beans, jams, etc. Plus, there is some pride in participating in a dieing art - Canning. Let's hope they all seal!

Happy Birthday, McKay!

Can you believe he's 15! That's 365 days until he's dragging us down to the DMV to get his driving permit. Yikes! He's such a great kid...I mean young man. These are a few words I would use to describe McKay:

1. Unique. He is not afraid to be himself in any situation. He comes up with some of the weirdest and funniest ideas. You can never predict what he'll come up with next because he is so...him.

2. Friend. McKay has always placed a high value on being a good friend and, in turn, he has had great friends. He still keeps in touch with his best friend forever, Nik, from Herriman, Utah. McKay met Nik in 2nd grade when Nik moved to Herriman and McKay's teacher assigned McKay to be Nik's friend. From that moment on they were inseparable. It was hard for McKay to leave Nik when we moved to New York, but Nik has been out to visit and we visit him when we visit Utah. McKay has a new posse in New York, but no one can take the place of Nik. Below you'll see some pictures of McKay and Nik from Feb 2007 when we visited Utah.

3. Thoughtful. McKay is always eager to please. I remember times when he was younger that he would send me to bed early so that he could set the table special for breakfast in the morning. You know, cloth napkins, nice dishes, candles, and custom made menus to pick out your breakfast (limited to what he could make by himself). One time he and Parker stayed up way past their bedtime to set up the dining room like the Wacky Wednesday Dr. Suess book. There were shoes and bread hanging from the chandelier and on the cabinets, tongs for forks, everything was wrong. They had so much fun putting it together. I could hear them giggling in the dining room until almost 10pm on a school night, but I just couldn't ruin their fun by sending them to bed.

4. Tycoon. He has always been very good with money. He is an earner and a saver. Not only did he save up and buy his own i-pod (his tight-wad parents wouldn't buy him one unless it counted for Birthday and Christmas), but he is constantly saving for large ticket items and is an expert at finding deals on e-bay. Next step...real estate!

In case anyone is wondering, McKay only wanted one thing for his Birthday this year, so we had to get it for him. A paint-ball gun. With all the proper safety gear, of course. He got to fire off a couple of shots tonight, but can't wait to get hit with a paintball. Luckily, Mom and Dad both have guns, so we can oblige. It's every parent-of-a-teenager's dream!

Annual Gibson Cook-Out 2008

David's parents, Walt and Alice, held their annual cook-out yesterday. Not only did it rain, but it rained during the entire party. Alice says that Walt was in charge of arranging the weather. Despite the rain the turn out was good. By far, the talk of the party was the "small" stone walkway that was just installed at their house. The picture isn't great because it was raining all day!

The monolith on the right is the lamppost for the parking area below, and, yes, it's big. You can get some idea of size in the picture below.

The picture above is a view of the walkway from the top including signs David made for them last Christmas. In case it's too dark to read, the top sign says Cedar City, Ut 2080 miles, and the middle and bottom sign read Fredericia, DK 5890 km (3660 miles). So they can find their way back to their roots if they need.

The stairs ascend to the front porch which ties together the deck and back patio. Only a few more stones are needed for completion.

More signs David made.

She's off!

Today David and Ben dropped Hannah off for her first year at College. What a big day!

She just needed a few things...
Northeastern provided carts for helping students move in.
Hannah claims she needed to save space in the elevator by riding in the carts, I think she just has a little too much of her dad in her.
Dad's are good for something!
Unpacked and at home in her dorm.

We're bloggin' now!

So maybe it's taken us a while to see the value of the blog. Since I'm not a great phone person, this is probably the best way to keep everyone informed as to what we're up to and where we are. So stay tuned to try to keep up with our busy family. You won't want to miss a single post!