The willows and tom yum!

Above is just a taste of what is to come--and that is a lot of pictures of our new favorite place to visit and play: The willows at Ada Hayden park.

But to keep you in suspense, here is a pic of me and Randy,

and here is one of Tom Yum Kai that I made myself. Yummy! It's the first time I've ever made this Thai soup. I know it looks gross but if you ever get the chance, order tom yum at your local Thai restaurant and you will be oh, so glad you did!

Raspberries growing outside this window.

Almost got back with Ruby in ten seconds for this timer pic. Not too bad... (She was half way through the maze)

So, to explain a little, Ada Hayden is an old mine that was filled with water and is now a small lake located just north a few blocks from where we live. There is a bike path around it and a bridge over it. On the north end of the lake I understand that an artist is responsible for doing this with the willows. I wish I could take better pictures so you could see how cool it really is. I think it was done in the fall/winter last year, but now as you can see, the willows are starting to grow again. I love it.

Just try to imagine the never-ending hide-and-seekabilities in this place.
Now you know why this is our new favorite place!

And what would our blog be like without a movie of Anne? Can you smile all the wild?

Summer

Megan is out of the house with Anne while Ruby naps so I thought I'd take advantage of some free time and update you. I finished my summer class yesterday so I can finally begin my summer 'break'. I thought things were going to slow down this summer, but it seemed to me that I was busier than I was during the school year. My review of analysis (advanced calculus) turned out not to be so much of a review. But the teacher was good and I learned a lot. I just hope I passed. Coming home last night I felt a bit strange. I think this is the first weekend since Christmas break that I don't have anything that I need to be doing for school.

My job for the summer is working on material for the blog of a book that a new professor here wrote called Bayesian Reliability. The authors wanted to hire someone to help them get a website up for the book. I am interested in both Bayesian methods and Reliability, but I haven't actually studied either of them before. I was talking to Alyson Wilson (co-author and new professor at ISU) and she told me if I wanted to find out what Reliability problems are like and learn some Bayesian methods as well, they would hire me. So this summer I have been adding the data sets from the book onto the website and creating a solutions manual that is also posted on the website. I just finished the chapter on Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations. It has been a challenge writing solutions for a book that combines two areas I have never studied before, but I am enjoying it. An added bonus is that I am learning a bit of HTML (another subject I've never gone into before).

You can check out what we've done for the book at www.bayesianreliability.com. The site is not much to look at right now, but it's organized and has a lot of useful material :)

It was great to have mom and dad here with us this last week. We were all sad to see them go.

This is on campus in front of the student union with the famous clock tower in the background.

Anne was enjoying helping mom with her math homework (as if there is any other kind).

This park has great wading pool that Anne and Ruby (and not-so-secretly Megan) are enjoying.

Thanks for the bike trailer Shamae. We use it all the time. As you can see, they just love it.

We are so proud of Anne's resourcefulness.



And what would the Griffiths' house be like without dancing.