Lota Stuffus

Here are a bunch of photos of things we've been doing lately. Too much has happened since our last post...

These are from the Iowa State Fair. It was huge and a lot of fun. I think almost any food you get there comes on a STICK!

We took this while waiting in line to see the mama pigs with all the little baby piggies. Can you read Anne's hat?

Probably the thing Randy and I enjoyed the most was this one man band. He was seriously good! It was fascinating to watch him play.

Here is clifford. We asked Anne if she wanted to have her picture taken with him and to our surprise she did. So we waited in line and got this picture! Needless to say, Anne was a bit nervous to be too close to him. She had given him a hug and was out of there faster than the time between me pushing the button and the camera actually clicking.

So... after much pep-talking and preparation, she stood there long enough for this. We were very proud of her.

FORTS! (Need I say more??)

The Last Swim of the Summer

Funny girls at snack time.

Anne and I were bored one afternoon during Ruby's nap, so we did a photo shoot. I'm no photographer, but we had fun.

Then Anne got a turn with the camera.

Ada Hayden Park. We love it here. It is great for finding frogs (but not touching them) and throwing rocks and getting muddy. We love it here.

Life has picked up again with school in full sway. Randy is busy, busy, busy, so that means I am too. It is good to get a good schedule going again. Randy is teaching Statistics 101 this semester and to help him prepare, he lectures to me the night before. I think if I were to be enrolled in the class I could totally get an A this time through ;)

For Paige: Swimmin' Soups and Sun Scream

I (Randy) took a week off and we all had a great week together. We did some 'camping' (Iowa style) at a camp owned by a couple of stakes out here. It has a lovely river that Anne was enjoying swimming in and looking at all the little fish. Ruby and Anne also had fun riding in the mini handcarts they have to help you load your gear from the parking areas to your site. When we got to the camp we were the only ones there, but I had noticed when we registered that there was one other family. But since there are a ton of camp sites, I figured it would feel like we had the place to ourselves. After unloading the car and setting up camp, we put on our 'swimmin soups' (as Anne calls them) and went down to the river to play. Upon our return a few hours later, we noticed the other family had arrived and was unloading their minivan and setting up camp right next to ours! Imagine, the whole place (large enough to hold stake camps) and this family sets up RIGHT next to us. So we laughed it off, took down our camp and moved to an even better sight on the other side of the property.

The second site.

This is me admiring my smoke. It took me a long time to get to this point. It's just amazing how, even though we had not had rain for several weeks, all the wood was still damp. It was never this hard in Utah! I did finally succeed in getting a nice fire before dark though.

We had been hearing about Reiman Gardens, a mini version of Thanksgiving Point that ISU owns. Only Reiman Gardens has a magnificent butterfly enclosure. The USDA imports a bunch of butterflies from around the globe and they show them off and breed them here. The butterflies are available to see in this large glass room filled with tropical plants. I thought Anne would really enjoy seeing the butterflies, and she did. Only not the live ones. She enjoyed looking at the dead ones posted up on the wall. When we got into the room and the butterflies were flying all around her, she got very scared and started screaming bloody murder (sorry for the choice of expression Paige, but I'm serious). You'd have thought they were eating her. Seeing as how the room is a glass enclosure, her screaming got her outta there p.d.q. Were successful in getting her to go back in a few hours later to giving it another try before we left . She was pretty nervous at first, but by the time we had made the loop around the room, she didn't want to leave. Success!

Since it's free for students and Anne gets in free still, Anne and I went back the next day and enjoyed it all again. We had forgotten the camera the first time, so I took these pictures of Anne on day two.

Do you see all the butterflies...? No? I swear there were 10 or so when I took this picture.

They showcase the cocoons of the moths and butterflies. This was a giant moth that had just come out. It's wing span was about as wide as Anne's head.

Here's Anne digging fossils.

We also got a pool pass for the month. Anne just loves going to the "deep pool" with her water wings. She does pretty good with them, but still has a hard time going under the water. I also get a kick out of how aware she is of the need for sunscreen (or sunscream as she calls it). She does not like being in the sun without protection. And it's a good thing too, since her pale skin still glows in the sun. Though I did notice this morning that she has the faintest swimming suit lines on her skin: white and slightly pink.

Sorry, no pictures from the pool. (As if I haven't already posted a plethora of pictures already. Yes, we watched 'The Three Amigos' a few days ago.)

Tomorrow we're off to the state fair. Which as I understand is the largest state fair in the nation, depending on who you ask. Some argue that Minnesota's might be bigger. But that argument usually gets quickly swatted away by any others present.

Cheers Paige, we miss you.

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.