When you move do the bees go too?

Well, if they manage to get on the bus they do.  We bought a house here in Grants Pass and moved a mile down the road from our rental.  It is great to be home owners again.  Our last place was the first Jonathan and I have rented since we have been married.  We have owned 4 homes but never rented.  I can see how it can have it's perks if they let you put holes in the walls.

Anyway, at 11:00 pm we decided it was cool enough to move the bees.  The boys were all asleep so we locked them in the house and went to the rental to move the bees.  When it is cold they return to the hive to stay warm.  We covered the hives in screening material and then VERY SLOWLY moved all four hives.  The cop that drove by at midnight slowed as he saw two crazy people illuminated by a porch light sneaking through a gate with beekeeping veils on hauling around stacks of white boxes.  Probably not typical.  Anyway.  We managed to get them loaded, moved and unloaded with only one sting.  Whew!  The little dears pictured below are the gals that didn't make the departure time.  Jonathan went back to check for strays the next night and found those that were not in the hive all clustered together trying to figure out what in the world happened to home.  I am sure they all were wishing they had a pair of ruby red slippers by this point.  Jonathan did his best to get as many as he could, but we always lose a few.  

So the moral of the story is, be home by curfew.  

Dad's Got It

Sure mom, you go take a Sunday nap.  Dad's got it covered.

If you look close you can even see black nursery socks someone kicked off under the table.  Jonathan was putting black socks one morning years ago and Matthew asked why Dad was putting his nursery socks on?  Since then we don't wear black socks at our house, only nursery ones.

2012 Solar Eclipse

Did you see the eclipse?  It is the first one that we have been able to see in 18 years.  And amidst my reservations as to how well we would be able to see it, I was remarkably surprised that we could!  Thanks to Dr. Getty's help we were able to get some really remarkable views of the sun.  It was beautiful.  We went to church this afternoon and then came home and had spaghetti and meatballs.  Michael and I took a quick nap and we loaded up in the van to go watch the solar eclipse.  Grants Pass has an astronomy club that provides quite a few telescopes for people to look through.  Dr. Getty had purchased the glass that is used in welding helmets for a whopping $3 and brought that to look through.  We all took turns looking through his glass at the sun.  Awesomeness.... if that could be a real word

 Jonathan took this picture of the sun with the welding glass held over the lens of the camera.  It cast a green hue but provided a really clear look at the sun.

Art, one of the Grants Pass astronomers brought a telescope that he had made and cast a picture of the eclipse from the lens on his telescope on a reflection screen.  We were able to watch the progression of the eclipse as we were gathered around the telescope.

 The complete eclipse.

 Adam and the boys found several friends from our ward and stake to enjoy playing with.  It was a fun Sabbath afternoon.

 Jonathan and Dr. Getty kept swapping the looking glass.  He was very gracious to allow us to mooch off from him.  We decided we are going to go and get our own family set.  In 5 years there is another eclipse that is visible from Idaho Falls.  Watch out Grandma and Grandpa Jenson, we'll be in your backyard on August 21, 2017 with our looking glasses in tow.  Get ready!

 Art's telescope.

 We poked a hole in a shoe box and tried to cast an image of the sun on a white piece of paper.  We could see the shape of the eclipse on the white paper.  The paper was loved nearly to death by a small little boy, but we still got to see the shape.  If you look closely in the center of the picture is a very small white dot that is the shape of the eclipsed sun.  

 Once the excitement subsided the boys played in the dirt.  What else do little boys do when bored?

Ta-da!  Super coolness.  In this picture you can see the sun spots.