2013 Lindgren Family Christmas Letter
Dear Friends and Family,
Jenny has sent out separate paper
Christmas cards with pictures to those of you who send us Christmas cards
regularly. Jeff figured it was time to also write this letter as an overview of
what we have been up to this past year and send it more broadly by email. We
have been blessed as a family. We hope you are all doing well.
Family
Activities
In February we took at trip to the
beaches near Astoria, OR, and to Ft. Vancouver (in Vancouver, WA). In July we
made a camping trip out of attending a distant family funeral in Florence, OR.
We camped at the Umpqua Lighthouse and also played on the beach at Heceta Head
Lighthouse (our favorite on the west coast).
In August Jeff and the boys attended
the Oregon Steam Up and saw steam engines of all sizes. Later in August we took
a vacation to UT with stops along the way:
- Swimming, kayaking, and river tubing at Wallowa Lake in northeast OR with our friends the Crews.
- Saw a meteor shower while camping near the Idaho border in Snowville, UT.
- Golden Spike National Monument at Promontory, UT and saw rockets at former Morton Thiokol (now ATK).
- Browning gun Museum and Hill Field Air Force Museum (saw a SR-71 Blackbird!) in Ogden, UT.
- Toured the Conference Center with my dad (one of his three part-time church volunteer activities he is doing now that he is newly retired).
- Saw the 100-year of Scouting in the LDS Church anniversary exhibit, including original Norman Rockwell paintings.
- Attended a family reunion at Aspen Grove and saw a moose.
With Jeff out of project work, he
took unpaid time off for a Thanksgiving Trip to see family in UT. We skied as a
family at Brighton Ski Resort. Anja took ski school and Carson was an instant
learner. Caleb and Tucker did well with this only being their second time.
Jenny is still learning (her second time too). On the drive there and back we
listened to the entire unabridged audio version of Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
We looked for a giant Coulter Pine
pinecone (per Anja’s request) at the Portland Arboretum. They have a tall grove
of planted redwoods there that we never knew about. We also went on a tour of
the USS Blueback submarine with our friends the Beans at the Oregon Museum of
Science and Industry (OMSI). Later we saw the Sherlock Holmes traveling
exhibit at OMSI. We also had a visit from our friends the Healeys.
Caleb
(15)
- Received Eagle Scout Award in April.
- His dad was blindsided when Caleb asked about getting his learner’s permit when he turned 15 in June. His dad mistakenly thought he wouldn’t get it until he turned 16. Most of his driving is on family trips and to and from church and hometeaching. He is learning well and dad’s circulation is returning to his white knuckles after Caleb drove 80 mph in northern UT (speed limit changed recently).
- Built a heavy-duty work bench for working with his antique hand plane collection.
- Ran track in spring and jogged in the summer. He says he does not plan on following his dad into cross country due to conflicts with marching band. So far he has agreed, though, to not major in music in college.
- Danced in a multi-stake dance festival in Salem after months practicing. Per Anja “Caleb danced with a girl!”
- High adventure multi-day sailing schooner trip in the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound near Seattle. Here are pictures of the wooden ship: http://www.schoonerzodiac.com/
- Hiked Twin Peaks all the way to top with his dad while watching thunder clouds that almost required us to abort the attempt.
- Early-morning seminary. He has started biking there on his own which makes it much easier for his parents to go running instead of having to drive him. He’s started crazy talk about getting another car so he can drive on his own.
- Regular piano practice – made easier for his dad since there is now a sleeping bag stuffed behind the piano against the wall.
- Marching band (bass drum) – he loves it.
- Pep Band (Sherwood High football games) – loves that too.
- Winter percussion – loves that three. Just played last Saturday at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland.
- Built most of a marimba with his dad out of pine (thank goodness for the Summer’s woodshop with power tools that dad could use to help him) – plans to finish over Christmas break.
Tucker
(13)
- Received metalworking merit badge by tempering steel and made a hand scoop and hasp all at home. He is currently a Life Scout.
- He does lockpicking as a hobby on locks he has purchased. He opened a padlock for his dad after his dad forgot the key on a family trip. May mean a future career with the CIA in clandestine operations or a job as a locksmith.
- Helped dad replace the garage door opener.
- Makes his own movies by editing video footage and he just bought his first camera – waterproof for action footage. He made a video of hiking the Y in Provo, UT, and scale model work of a tank driving in front of our house (using special effects).
- Danced in multi-stake dance festival in Salem after months practicing.
- Attended a week of scout summer camp at Camp Baldwin near a wilderness area in the high Cascades near Bend, OR.
- Built a steam-powered putt-putt boat out of tin cans, an Altoids tin, copper tubing and a candle. It works and he made a video of it running around the bathtub.
- Built a vacuum molder to make molds from plastic milk containers then used molds to make chocolate Lego minifigures.
- Took up knife throwing (using special throwing knives and has adult supervision on a controlled range).
- Hiked to saddle near the top of Twin Peaks with dad and Caleb.
Carson
(9)
- Active in Hopkins Elementary School Choir.
- Active in Cub Scouts.
- Mastered riding the unicycle.
- Illustrated the family paper Christmas card.
Anja
(7)
- Attends ballet classes and performs.
- Attended fathers and daughters ward camp at Champoeg State Park on the Willamette River.
- Played with siblings in dry fall leaves (rare in OR).
- Writes her own illustrated stories.
- Expresses in writing her dissatisfaction with her brothers (as needed).
- Dresses up as Sarah Morton (a 17-th century girl on the Plymouth Plantation) and wrote a book report about it (not a school assignment).
- Likes to spin the Dreidel ( I think she got it at school) and shoot marbles with her brothers.
- Learning German from her dad. She understands what he says in German, but only answers in English.
Jenny
(38 and not grey - yet)
- Bear leader in den with Carson.
- Volunteers at the elementary school and to feed band kids at Caleb’s competitions.
- Teaches two ballet classes for free.
- Takes clogging lessons.
- Running with Jeff in mornings.
- Manages new house bunny – as he eats cords, plastic bags, carpet, school bags, and the veneer on our piano.
- Attended sister Jamie’s wedding in UT with our family.
- Attended 20-year Orem High School reunion in UT on her own.
- Attended Cantico Christmas concert with Jeff in an historic church in Portland. This is a vocal performing group directed by our friend Karen Porter.
Jeff
(41 and already grey, but does have hair - mostly)
- Jeff’s civil engineering work is the slowest he has seen it in his whole career due to a lack of capital investment in public works projects since 2009. He has been blessed that he has had staff management and some project work to do in the years since. This has allowed him to continue to support his family financially (so far). His dad is right – we live by faith.
- 11-year-old scout leader calling for the past five years. Organized spring stake camp for our patrol.
- Chauffeur for Caleb’s band practices and event (tradeoff with Jenny) and unloading equipment for band competitions.
- Running with Jenny in the morning a few days each week.
- Reading non-fiction biographies and history.
- Two work trips to Denver – saw my brother’s family in Colorado Springs.
- Two work trips to Northern CA – took Tucker in the spring (he stayed with our friends the Berrys in Concord on day one and spent the second day at the CA State RR Museum in Sacramento. On the fall trip Jeff found a native Coulter Pine giant pinecone for Anja and had a dinner/visit with Jenny’s Cottam relatives in Concord. Amazingly Jeff was not detained by TSA with such an unusually large pinecone in his carryon on the way home.
- Work trip and water treatment plant expansion design project in Medford, OR.
- Fathers and sons campout at BSA Camp Meriwether on the Oregon coast near Tillamook, then offroading at the Sand Lake State Recreation Area in our 4Runner – even with deflation I need bigger tires.
- Realized while hiking Twin Peaks that the hiking boots I’ve had since 1994 were always too small for mountaineering without damaging my toes.
- Another trip to Kansas City, MO, for Six Sigma training – saw Truman’s home and farmhouse and saw a Royals baseball game (I was invited).
- Summer scout camp with Tucker in the Cascades for part of the week – rowed a mile.
- Cut, hauled, and set up yet another Christmas tree from a local tree farm. Unsuccessfully lobbied for an artificial tree this year.
- Taught hunters education for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as a volunteer.
- Due to lack of elk in Oregon, took up long-range shooting as a more regular hobby at his gun club that is just down the road here in Sherwood. With his physics and math background it is an interesting hobby – yes, ballistics is rocket science. He has shot out to 600 yards so far within the 8 ring. For those with a similar interest, here are the particulars: S&W M&P10 .308 semi-auto (SR-25) with a freefloated barrel, Harris bipod, Leupold Mark 6 3-18 X 44mm mil-mil scope with a 34mm tube and a quick-release LaRue mount for the picatinny rail, Eotech holographic sight for close in, Dueck canted backup iron sights, Chrony chronograph, Kestrel weather meter, Ballistic app on iPod. YouTube recommendations: Tibersaurusrex, Nutnfancy, and Hickock45.
Thanks for reading this far – maybe
I should write less next year. JML
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