Angel Lake

About two weeks ago we were invited to head to Angel Lake with some friends of ours.  We have been meaning to go there for quite some time but our plans always fallen through for some reason in the past.  This time we took Brian and Roseanne up on the offer for a dutch oven picnic and fishing so we drove for about an hour west on I-80, got off in Wells, Nevada, and headed up the road to Angel Lake.

view from the parking lot

We found a marvelous picnic spot about 20 feet from the lake.  The lake is not very large and it is a very picturesque spot.  The water is runoff from a glacier and thus the water was very cold.  That did not stop our children from swimming in it occasionally when the heat caught up with them.

notice the snow on the edge of the water?

Our boys have been begging us to take them fishing for well over a year now and this was the first time we got around to it.  Matthew helped Brian reel in several trout but Joseph and Austin were less successful.  The boys got very good at casting and Matthew (our engineer) had dismantled Brian's fishing pole several times by the end of the day.  Luckily we easily recovered all the parts in the shallows and were able to put it back together each time.

Matthew's fishing experience: 

(can you spot the fish flopping around on 

the line in the second two pictures? 

you have to look pretty closely.  

they are right in front of him.)

Joseph helped Austin get things started:

Then Austin did pretty well on his own:

pretty decent view, huh?

Mostly Girlie just followed the boys around and played in the sand and water.

I reclined on our new lounge chairs and chatted with Roseanne most of the time we were there.  It was perfectly relaxing!

Missing the Point

After a long time-out this morning, Austin cheerfully resumed his seat at the breakfast table and condescendingly informed Matthew and Elizabeth - "while I was in my timeout I was praying for you guys - that you would be forgiven of your sins."

So thoughtful, and yet . . .

Thesis Woes

Austin: "Daddy, can we play a game?"

Me: "I'm sorry buddy, I have to work on my thesis."

Austin: "Mommy was fast at her thesis. Why aren't you fast at your thesis like Mommy?"

Me: "Well, Mommy's smarter than I am"

Austin: "Why?"

Me: "I don't know, buddy. That's just how it is."

Austin: "But she's not smart about animals like you are. You're super smart about animals. You know where they live . . . what they eat . . . you know everything about animals"

Me: "Thanks buddy. Unfortunately, being smart about animals doesn't help much with a thesis."

Austin: (Sighhhhhh) "I just wish you were smart about your thesis like Mommy"



(Sighhhhhh) Me too, buddy . . .  Me too . . .

Consternation

More Consternation

Non Sequiturs

My newest favorite thing about having literate (and imaginative) children is the random things that come out of their mouths (this, of course, began long before they began reading; its just a lot more informed now). I often wonder if I am being given a peek at a small portion of a much larger internal conversation, or if these utterances are really as random as they appear in adult-land. Perhaps you can shed some light . . .

*Take, for instance, this random sample of a few recent ones:

“Righteous people weren’t made when pirates were made”

“I think those people are following us. That’s bad news.”

“Do you know how many days it rains in October? Four. Is that right? Let me go check my calendar. I have two of them, you know.”

“Yep, that’s what Hercules rode – a flying donkey . . . with wings."

“I even know how to make clouds – vapor, water, and poofy stuff.”

“There’s no air in space. Why is that? Is it because Earth is hogging it all?"

I don't know what it all means, but I love it.



*If you pay close attention, you might get a close approximation of a cross-section of what we happen to have in the Childrens' Books section of our library (apparently everything from Adventure to Stranger-Danger to Mythology to Meteorology and Earth/Space Science, with a bit of Theology sprinkled throughout).

Recent Mathematical Acquisitions

I love math.  And I really love teaching math.  If you didn't know that, you are now learning some very fundamental information about me.

Recently I have gained some lovely additions to my collection of math books and other math paraphernalia.

The first object is nostalgic in nature.  It is a DVD version of Donald in Mathmagic Land.  I already own the VHS version, but let us face the fact that VHSs are becoming archaic.

the VHS cover

In fact, when I hunted down a copy of this treasure only a few years ago, it was just available in VHS so I bought it anyway.  I happened upon it a couple of weeks ago online and was delighted to find that it has now made its way to DVD.  Whew!

the new DVD cover

I am happily instilling a love for this movie early in my own children as we gained a love for it early in our childhood.  The package arrived from Amazon around noon today and Matthew has already viewed it four times.  

Now for the second acquisition, and the story of how I obtained it.  It is a never-before-used Calculus (sixth edition) by Larson, Hostetler, and Edwards.  Beautiful.

This is the same edition of the calculus book that I used in high school.  And the same one that my siblings all used in high school.  I happen to prefer it to all other calculus books that I have encountered - and I have encountered many in my day!  Memories of Mr. Haldane's calculus class come flooding back.

And now for how I got ahold of one.  Last weekend I helped one of the math teachers at Wendover High clean out her classroom.  There were relics in there from over 15 years ago.  It was amazing.  (As a side note, sometime I will blog about what we found in Joseph's new classroom when we cleaned it out last August.  You'll like it.)  I was digging in the back of a cupboard and, buried beneath much garbage, was this jewel.  Three circumstances surrounding this book allowed this beauty to make its way home with me that day.  The first is that there are three more editions of this book that have been published since this edition so it is not particularly "current" in terms of high school textbooks.  Second, Wendover High does not even offer any math class above Algebra 2.  No Pre-Calc and definitely no Calculus.  Third of all, the teacher I was helping was going to throw it away.  Thus, it is now in my possession.  I am not sure that I can express my joy at owning the beloved tome.  Ahhh!

This post is largely to incite jealousy among my siblings.  But don't worry, I'll let them borrow them if they need to.