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.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day.



Sing along...

Ruby is ONE!

My smiler

"Is it worth getting all sticky?"

"Yep."

Congratulations Rubenstein. We love you.

the happenings

note the mirror close at hand. she had to see how she looked after every sip of her tripple berry shake. fabulous! sip, look, wipe. sip, look, wipe...

I think I should start documenting some of the outfits that Anne comes up with more regularly. As my mom and older sister have told me, I used to be just like Anne about changing my clothes a bajillion times a day. Man, I guess I deserve it, but in my old age I really hate having clothes all over the place. We have been working on confining the clothes to her room.
P. S. It was about 80 degrees outside the day we took this one.

she had a gallon of drool all down her front by the time we got it away from her.

This is Ruby having a turn on the coveted rocking chair. Isn't she cute?









































Anne and Dad try to climb trees every night after dinner. They have a regular tree climbing route before bedtime.

Happy Birthday Anne!!!

Anny guesses what she got?

She was so excited!

Not the greatest presentation, but it still turned out looking like a butterfly

Anne chose the colors herself. Green and purple, some of her very favorites.

She was so excited about her new bike until it got going down the (slight) hill without her pedaling it. We worked hard to help her figure out the breaks, but she still has a little anxiety over hills.

Happy Birthday Anne!!!

Feelin' it

Rock on!

...she's soooo into the primary songs.

Ruby wanted to push for a change.

The following are some pics from a picnic we had on campus with dad during finals week. Incidentally, Anne refers to ISU as "my school" and whenever she practices writing or drawlering (her own word that perfectly describes what she does on paper. She uses the word all the time too.) she claims she is doing her "homework". (I hope the good habits stick)