Brent on the obsidian flow trail

This was the obsidian flow near Newberry Crater in Eastern Oregon. Brent, Bryce and mom walked up the trail till we could see the lake. Pretty impressive view, but I think the obsidian was the most amazing. Huge boulders of black glass tumbled across the trail. Wow.

Brent at Chucky Cheese

Brent saw this shirt and HAD to have it. It is a Sonic shirt...I thought that was our recently departed basketball team, but I am informed that he is a hedgehog with super powers. He can travel the speed of sound.

Ok...

Brent Running Lucy at the Park

Ok, Brent REALLY WAS walking Lucy...but she saw the water and wanted to check it out.

Later, Brent RAN her around the park and she enjoyed the exerecise. Brent looked ready to collapse, but Lucy looked at him like, "What? Are we done already???"

Brent and his Dad, at swim meet

Alan is holding the heat sheet...at the swim meet, parents are strongly encouraged to keep their kids focused and ready for their next race. Making sure they know when they need to get up to the block, which lane, which stroke to swim.

Hangin' out in a tee-pee

At the High Desert Museum outside of Bend, Brent and I found a tee-pee and we rested.
We would have built a fire, but it was already around 90 degrees (record highs for that day).

It must be a guy thing

It must be a guy thing. I just don't get boys sometime. Patti took this photo on the walk up the Obsidian flow near the Newberry Crater. I'm certain my sister did NOT ask the boys to pose this way. But if you lift the camera to your eye, you will almost always get some variation of a pose like this.

Go figure!

Brent and Miranda......brother and sister

Giving his sister a piggy-back ride down the trail to the head of the Metolius.

Brent in Boat at Moran State Park, Orcas Is.

Every day the kids were in the water....I didn't think it was warm enough, but Brent had his swimming trunks and swim shirt and he was a happy clam. Two families brought two men rubber rafts and the kids had fun rowing around the lake. Here Brent is just goofing around close to shore and using a super soaker to try to soak someone dumb enough to get close to him! Sometimes, the girls would abandon ship and just swim to shore to avoid the water attacks from the boys!

What do boys think?

Patti tells me that one of the things Brent loves to do as soon as recess is called during home schooling is to run outside and start walking round and round this tree at the beginning of their driveway. There used to be rocks there and Brent would walk around the rocks, but it made them move out into the driveway and make it hard to drive.

So most of the rocks are moved now to the side yard. But Brent still walks round and round this tree. Usually counter clockwise but sometimes clockwise. When I ask him what he's thinking he says "Nothin." But Patti says he's inventing stories in his head. And each day if you ask him, he'll give you the next chapter in his story.

4th of July

Brent in yard on 4th of July wearing his swim team t-shirt. I think he's a piranah. Whatever he is, he's sure cute.

Brent on Astoria waterfront

Brent and Alan

Brent and Alan by some weird green thingey at the Maritime Museum.

Brent and Aunt Bev in May

I always protect them.

Protection is a big thing with Brent.

Remember how he lines up his plastic dinosaurs in a row across the top of the landing so that when Alan gets up at 4am and starts down the stairs he almost trips on them. But Brent puts them there after everyone is upstairs and in bed. He is protecting his family.

And when he bought this plastic shot gun (I am opposed to guns) he really wanted me to take a photo of him and his parents while he was holding the gun. He told Patti "You can do a scrapbook page and say "I always protect them."

Protection is a big thing with Brent.

Brent on his field trip

It was fun, even though I didn't get to go into the creek. Here I am looking at a stick bug that lives in the water. He crawls into a mini-log.

I learned that you can use pills for pH testing. The pH of our creek was 8 and 7-8 are good.

The currents there are 20 seconds...we threw a plastic bug in the stream and timed how long to go a certain distance.

Oh, Miranda wanted to know yesterday why I didn't want to go to the 3-6th grade girls class on "Beauty." I told her adamantly, "I'm not into beauty. I'm into gansters!!!"

Bye,
Brent

My brain

July 2003.....Watching Brent hula hoop....and he can actually do it in almost slow motion and keep the hoop up. I tried and the hoop drops immediately to the ground. Brent looked at me considering the problem. "Anna, the reason you can't hula hoop is that your BRAIN is too big." Hmmmm.....I don't know what to make of that.

Brent.....the thinker

One of Brent's favorite things to do is to walk round and round on the rocks around a tree in the driveway. Patti has a photo of it, but unfortunately, her camera is dead in the water because batteries need to be charged up.

While waiting for that photo to appear on the blog, here is a photo of Brent from November 2004, sitting on the rocks he loves to walk around on now adays. (And that's why his parents are often driving over these rocks which get moved out of the flower bed around the tree into the driveway.)

Love this photo of Brent. A handsome boy.

Stealer of Hearts

Photo taken at Trout Lake August 2005

Brent making a dam

At the beach I was making a dam, as you can see behind me. And guess what? My mom was so mad at me that I got so messy! I was extremely cold, because this was in February!I REALLY wanted to make a lake.

P.S. I love going to the beach and building sand castles!

Sincerely,

Brent

I was made for DANGER!

I forgot to tell the best part of the biking story at Buck Lake. I was off with Sarah in one part of the park when Miranda came running up. She was yelling, "Mom! Mom! Brent is going to ride his bike down the big hill! I told him it was TOO dangerous and you know what he said??? He said, "I was MADE for danger!!"

Hugs....

Brent Biking at Buck Lake

We went up to Buck Lake for a science project (assessing water quality) and Brent brought his bike. The kids thought it was fun to ride the bike down this grassy hill with several descending hills and then walk the bike back up the hill for another ride. Miranda says I am using too many "hills."

Unique Homeschooling Techniques

Brent sometimes needs help to concentrate on his schoolwork. I think it's paying off, because Alan spoke with Brent's Kumon teacher. She says that Brent is now working in grade level material.

Brent is anticipating the acquisition of a gaming unit when he is working above grade level. I think it is possible that this could happen before this school year ends, because he is nearly done with this level.

Oh, dear....better sign up for some extra shifts!!

Patti

Brent's card for his Dad

This is a card that Brent made himself a couple years ago when the family was visiting me in Hammond. Apparently the order of the animals is critical. He told his mother it's something about carnivore, omnivore, etc.

Brent's sunset

One day at the beach, Brent and I went for a drive to photograph the sunset. It was a nice hour to ourselves...to talk and laugh.

Here is his photo of the sunset....very nice, hum?

Brent, the photographer....

I love nativites

Brent, the Romantic

Patti called me today from near Oswald West State Park. She and Brent were off by themselves and pulled over on the side of the road to get a photo of the sunset. I could hear Brent in the background saying "Getting a picture of the sunset is boring."

I told Patti: Tell him that he needs to learn to enjoy it because it's romantic and when he starts dating he'll go to watch sunsets.

Brent: We'll go to McDonalds.

(Photo from fall 2005 on airplane from Las Vegas. Poor Brent had such a time. Nerves and flying made him nauseated the entire way.)

Brent and Bryce in 2004, 2006 and 2007

2004, 2006 and 2007

Brothers can be "anoxious"

Photo of the brothers in the backseat of my car waiting for the ferry. We were parked just waiting in Edmonds. I like this because the boys really like each other. I remember Bryce asking one time about when he came. Patti told him "Brent was so happy to have a little brother." And Brent said "I was NOT." And Bryce said "Yes you were, I saw you smiling." Brent said without a pause "That was before I knew how anoxious you are. You can be very anoxious."

Photo taken March 2005

Egyptian Walk

This swim team was fun because it was the first time An-na came to our pool. This was the first picture she took of me at the pool. I am doing some Egyptian walking when I was in bronze.

I am in silver, now. I could do the Egyptian walk in silver (even though it is a tougher level), but only after I'm done and waiting for everyone else to finish.

I love swim team because I can play with my friends and spend time with them.

Dissecting a salmon

I dissected a full grown salmon today in school. I was about going to throw up in the middle because it was so gross. The teacher cut the eye out. And they took out the kidney...oh man, it was gross. Eewwww..... It was like a red gloppy heart. It was a really weird type of jello. They also took out the bladder. The heart..eeewww...was absolutely disgusting because it was a goopy thing. She fried the fish and let everyone have a taste. I didn't have any because I don't like salmon. It stinks. Thank goodness I didn't have to do any of it!

Brent

First photo of Brent

This is, I think, the first photo ever taken of Brent. I'm not sure why Patti was having an ultrasound on Christmas Eve, but there you go.

Isn't he a handsome fellow even in silhouette?

brent

it was fun to take care of Hestia. She had five kittens but only two lived, Cheddar and Mr. Cuddles.

brent in a raft

This was the Forestry Center. This was so much fun that I rocked the boat. One time, the boat almost tipped over on me!

This was really fun and I wish we could go back there.

Me and Thumper

This was my first foster cat. He was called "Thumper" because he had very white feet. I like to hold him in my lap when I was doing "criss-cross applesauce." I put him in my lap and use my finger between his eyes to make him go to sleep.

Sincerely, Brent

Brent telling us which way to go

Photo taken August 2003

Brent showing us which way to go on the path to get to the beach.

Is it a guy thing with directions? I just don't get it.

The Boys at the Beach

December 13, 2006

Exploring the seashore

Just a neat photo of Brent exploring the seashore from our trip to Rockaway a few years ago to share today.
love,
aunt Bev

Brent's Dinosaurs

I used to play war with my dinosaurs and the dinosaurs were my men. Sometimes there would be riders for my dinosaurs and sometimes there wouldn't be.

They are lined up here ready to fight the droids and in my imagination, they are protecting the house.

love, Brent

Brent March 14, 2004

March 14, 2004

Brent is a handsome fellow, but more importantly he has a kind heart.

Brent and Colin Friends

This picture was taken at my last swim meet. I didn't do very good at this swim meet but I still had lots of friends there and lots of entertainment. My friend, Colin, is one of my best friends in swim team. I sometimes play Kingdom Hearts on his nintendo.

Bev and Brent

Brent often asks if I will play with him or read with him....or especially watch a movie with him.

Shared experiences are so important to him...me, too.

Here he is with Bev at Christmas, playing video games.

Brent with various people

Beach photo near Seaside.

Reading photo was taken August 2003. If I remember correctly, I think this was a train book.


Alan and Brent.

Photo of Brent holding his Great-grandfather Isaak Erkinpoika Hirvaskari's journal written in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Taken September 2005.

Photo of Brent on Aunt Bev's computer....he looks very perky and happy. Must be playing a video game. And Uncle Don working away on his crossword puzzles.

Well, Aunt Bev posted a photo of her with Brent and so here is one of me with Brent. (Of course, Brent looked a little smaller in this photo than he did in the photo with Aunt Bev! :)