Good Times From Palermo

These are the most recent pictures of Lake Oroville. This was taken from Highway 62 that heads towards Berry Creek. You can see the backside of the dam from this viewpoint. After our rain last weekend the lake level rose 20 ft. We are hoping for more rain this week.
This is a fork of the lake where Ben and Dad did their best bass fishing. It's a pretty little stream right now. At the top of the picture you can see how the lake is slowly creeping into the fork.
I like this picture because of the earthy colors. All this is usually underwater and looks like an island with little trees on it.
Another picture of an inlet below the North Fork of the lake.
Here we are happy and safe after our bike ride. I had left the house clean and a weeks worth of groceries for Harrison and Mikey just in case we didn't make it home in one piece!

What's Up?

Peggy has started her student teaching at Oroville Highschool. She is currently working with Juniors and Seniors in Anatomy (the dream class!), Freshmen in Earth Science (very challenging), and Sophomores in General Biology (spunky and smart). The character with the blonde wig is the master teacher, Rich Hogan. He's really tall, about 6'5'', less than 300 lbs, and he reminds everyone of Shrek. Even the kids give him a bad time. The blurry fellow rocking out is Brent McGie, he's retiring at the end of this year. He has all the Honors Biology classes and has been teaching for years and years. Friday was Spirit week at school and at the rally the teachers did a spoof of "The Wall" by Pink Floyd. We thought it was really funny, but I don't think the kids got it...
Last weekend, Jan. 23-25, Peggy, Samantha, Tracy, Chad and Dr. Fischer went to Ontario, CA and participated in the Western Robert Noyce Scholar Symposium. We are the chosen scholars from CSUChico for the year 2008-09. Each of us earned $10,000 and some other perks to help us become the best teachers in CA....For three days the five of us were taken really good care of in a smancy, dancy hotel, good food and lots and lots of speakers from all over. The majority of scholars were from CA, but we got to meet and talk to students from Arizona and Colorado as well. It was fun finding out that in other states they are suffering from the same problems CA has with a diverse population of students and their needs. Some key speakers that were impressive were a scientist from NASA that helped to create and design the robots that are on Mars right now, and a professor from CSUSantaBarbara that specializes in Anatomy and Invertebrate Physiology. In his spare time he works with artists and computer guys to make movies like Night at the Museum, Ratatouii (however you spell it) and he helped design the new 300 foot Yeti at Disneyland. I'm not sure why they invited this guy to talk to us because we want to become teachers and his job looked pretty fun!! Using his knowledge of anatomy, he feeds data into a computer about bone length, hip and joint measurements of all kinds of animals and the computer compiles all the data to create an exact skeleton replica of rats, dogs, people and from there the artists fill in the rest and the characters will move and walk with fluid movements exactly how the real animal would walk. Being a biologist can be cool!!

Gorgeous Day in California

What do you do on a Saturday in California when the temperature is near 80 degrees, the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky? Go for a walk of course! Mike and I got an early start and drove to the lake to get pictures of lake levels that are at a historical low. The lake has dropped below levels recorded in California's worst drought in 1977. Even tho levels are low people are still trying to take advantage of what water is there.

Mike standing in the danger zone after the perfect picture!

Later on, Joey, Danielle and I went searching for water on Table Mountain. There is still some water bubbling up and over the sides of the mountain. We walked, turned over rocks in the creek and found abundant stone fly, mayfly and caddis fly larva. We even watched a Megaloptera larva hunting among the rocks!

Joey took us rock climbing practically to get below this waterfall! I had some vertigo issues but it was worth it! Joey found a California newt in the pool below! We remembered another hike we had taken with Grandpa Rycraft near Grass Valley where Joey, Kim, Ben and Elissa had swam in a pool of bright red newts!

My hiking partners! It's sad that California isn't getting the rain that we need, but this was a wonderful day to be out and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine!!

The Sights in Nashville, Tennessee

We visited Nashville, Tennessee and saw many great things. We got lost but found our way to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. What a huge place this is! I've heard they do things big in Nashville and this proves it!

Inside Opryland, an atrium that was decorated for the holidays. We saw this pointsetta tree and were impressed by sparkly hanging lights, huge topiaries, tropical trees, waterfalls and a boat that slowly winds through the atriums.

A beautiful waterfall with fish swimming in the water captivates Kaylee and Heidi.

Ben and Heidi are trying to push the world. This is a huge monument to all war veterans, especially those who came from Tennessee. It was very touching and pays tribute to the great history that lies within our great nation.

Heidi learning to blow bubbles! She's pretty good at it. Mike and I are so blessed to have such wonderful children and it is really fun being able to see how their lives are progressing beyond what we ever dreamed and imagined.

Celebrating the New Year in Tennessee

In Arlington, Tennessee they have a super park to play in. The girls and everyone had fun sliding, swinging and playing hide and seek.

Heidi is a great tight rope walker.

Kaylee, pretty princess, eating a bowl of ice cream before bed.

I love it in Tennessee, there is so much to do and learn. This is Heidi's front door...

This is what it looks like when the Taylor's look outside their front door and see their neighbors.

It's going to be a good new year for Ben, Shauna and the girls. Ben starts his fourth semester in Optometry School, he is looking forward to practicing what he has learned on school age children as he travels to schools in the area to do eye exams.

A Visit To Tennessee

Heidi at the Memphis Zoo, we were looking at Polar Bears, Black Bears and Bald Eagles when we found this canoe...
Ben standing by the Mississippi River.  Big barges were running the river while we were there, Heidi was rolling down the grassy levi and I was looking for bugs under rocks.  Very fun!
Our schedule has been jam packed and the girls have been super stars!!  There is alot of energy in the house at all times!!
Ben and Shauna are the best, patient, loving and able to keep up with everyone and everything.  Gramma is struggling a little bit, she's pooped by bedtime...(which is about 6pm!)

What's Up This Week

We had a pretty busy week last week. Harrison and Mikey had their first crosscountry meet against Paradise and Oroville Highschools. Harrison was smoked by some girl athlete from Oroville...she pretty much smoked everyone, but he came in fourth place overall in his age group. Mikey...well he was very happy to get over the mountain twice, he had to run 3.1 miles and came in all sweaty filled with memories about why he hasn't run crosscountry in two years...because it's tough!

I've been raising two very fun turkeys and Gordon is doing the turkey thing now...isn't he pretty. I love when his face turns all colors. Well, this weekend Gordon and Earlene decided to go traveling I guess. We haven't seen or heard from them in a couple of days. Hopefully they are happy, but I have a hunch they may have be in our neighbor's dog's stomach!!

I went to Mono Lake Basin this weekend with my CSUChico Plant Geography class. The sights were beautiful and I really had fun identifying Conifers, Grasses, and Flowers. The highlight of the trip was seeing salt grass in the morning. It grows in the salt flats right next to Mono Lake, it can't tolerate the salt so when the plant sucks up the moisture it pushes the salt out of its' stomatas making the plant glisten and sparkle in the sunlight. That was amazing to me! We found a Mormon Tea plant too, and that is the oddest looking plant I've ever seen...why the pioneers decided to make tea with it is a mystery to me...so I'm going to do a little research about that.

Well..that's it for one week!

Hot, Windy Labor Day Activity

In honor of Labor Day, we kayaked. We figured that would be a good way to work our muscles, work our arms and work up an appetite! It was pretty fun, but the wind was blowing so hard sometimes that the kayaks wouldn't even move in the water and we would be pushed backwards. There were little white caps about 18 inches high that would break over the front of the boat and kept us pleasantly cool. The only people that really got soaked were Harrison and Danielle, they decided to tempt the king of water fights (your father) and lost. Of course their little raft was blowing all over the place as well, they were doomed from the very first challenging sentence..."Bring it!"

Shauna Tagged Me!

I'm ready to play blogger tag:

My 3 joys
1. My huge, wonderful family; all 13 of them!
2. Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with all the bells and whistles that come along with that.
3. Having good health and being free to do so many things.

My 3 fears:
1. Getting old, having a stroke and needing someone to take care of me.
2. Speaking to strange people in large groups and trying to look like I like it.
3. Getting food stuck in my teeth and not knowing it.

My 3 current goals:
1. Get my bachler's degree in Biology from CSUChico.
2. Becoming a good teacher.
3. Getting to see Daisy in Tennessee.

My current obsessions:
1. Getting straight A's.
2. Learning plant species in CA, and invertebrates in CA rivers, lakes and streams.
3. Finding an affordable plane ticket to see Daisy in Tennessee.

And 3 Random facts:
1. I floss my teeth once a day because I hate plaque between my teeth.
2. Some of my best friends are only 20 years old. ( They attend CSUChico with me)
3. I'm so bored by housework that sometimes I sweep dirt under rugs, stuff clothes in drawers without folding them, I wait until gross black and red fungus is growing in the shower and I never mop until my shoes stick to the kitchen floor.

No one really reads our blog, but if they do I tag: BEN and JEREMY

Your comments: