Hi, I've been slow updating the blog.... It was sure fun seeing the family from Tucson a couple weeks ago! Thanks for making the trip. Here's Evelyn with Streeter grandparents, aunt, and uncles.

Well, all of that is kind of old news by now.... I'll just tell you about our recent visit to a "sculpture garden" called Gilgal.

It used to be the back yard of an artistic fellow, and now it is a public garden. The sculptures are all scriptural and have a sort of cryptic symbolism. The body parts strewn about in the picture below are a representation of the statue from Nebuchadnezzar's dream after the stone rolled over it.

This guy with a rock for a head is supposed to be the "captain of the Lord's hosts" who came to Joshua before he marched against Jericho. In front of the statue is a circle of 12 stones representing the 12 stones that the Israelites took from the bed of the Jordan river after it parted to let them pass through. The Israelites called their pile of stones Gilgal, and that is where the garden gets its name. The man who designed it was drawing a parallel between the Israelites' entrance into the promised land and the pioneers' entrance into the Salt Lake Valley.

The most famous statue is of a sphinx with the face of Joseph Smith. It seems like a weird combination.... We read that the sphinx represents "riddles and mystery" and that the statue is meant to suggest that the only way to find answers to life's questions is through revelation.

This piece here is inscribed with Ecclesiastes 12:7. The cryptic images that surround it make more sense if you read verses 6 and 7 of the same chapter. If you're bored, you might see if you can connect the objects with these verses.

And here are some pictures of spring flowers from the surrounding garden. Perhaps not very interesting, but I've been on a picture taking kick since getting this camera....

It's been a rainy week, but it cleared up enough on Friday for us to have a picnic dinner at the park. This wasn't just any park though; this was the hippie peace park (formally known as the international peace gardens). The park is divided into plots to represent different countries.

Needless to say, some countries were represented better than others. I think Switzerland was the winner. Constructing a huge concrete mountain peak takes the cake.

The Jordan river runs along the side of the park. There were no ducks to be seen, but Evelyn liked watching the water flow by.This is a little mermaid that Evelyn had fun socializing with. She kept touching the face, and I hope she wasn't expecting a response! I thought she might also like to look at a bust of an English queen, but when I held her up to see it, she completely freaked out! It took a while to calm her down. I guess she isn't fond of disembodied heads.

The funnest part of the park was seeing Evelyn's reaction to the grass. We had never set her in the grass before, and she was enthralled with it. Trying to pull it up kept her entertained for a long while.

Spring has finally arrived in Salt Lake. I think the high was in the 80's yesterday, and it felt like summer. There are flowers blooming everywhere, and people are out mowing their lawns.

We take Evelyn out for a stroll more often now, and she seems to get really absorbed in the sights. It really mellows her out, any way.

Here she is in her stroller looking ponderous....

We went to "The Gateway" with her on Friday evening, and she loved seeing all of the people. The Gateway is a big, fancy outdoor mall in Salt Lake. It's a neat idea, but I wouldn't want to shop there in winter! It was fun looking at all of the artsy decor in Z Gallerie, and the store owner was quite charmed by Evelyn. Evelyn ended their conversation by spitting up on the floor, but the owner was sweet about it. We thought it was fun that the main patio at the Gateway was a sort of fountain that shot up jets of water periodically. There were tons of happy kids running around in the water, but I am not sure that their parents were thrilled.

We would like to wish our moms a happy Mother's Day! Thanks for all you do for us Leslie and Robyn! Where would we be without you?

Hi everyone! Just a quick update.... Evelyn is much better at sitting up now, and she is much more playful too. Recently I was holding her on my lap facing away from me, and she kept arching her back and leaning her head back in order to look at me upside down. She would crack up every time she did it. I've never seen her so wound up before!

Now that she can sit up on her own, we have started using her highchair. She seems to enjoy being able to look at us while she eats. She also seems to like how the trey holds things where she can reach them. Sometimes we will put some balls on the trey, and she will roll them around with her hands until she has rolled them all off.

As for other things going on in our lives, I have a final on Wednesday, and then I will be done with classes. From that point on, it will be just research. Clarisse was able to see her parents on Friday, and they had lunch together. They were on their way back home from the resort in Idaho and had some thoughtful gifts from Allen and Giovanna.

We are looking forward to seeing the Streeters LATER THIS MONTH!!! Love you all!

This has been an eventful week! First, we had Dennis and Robyn come through on their way to Idaho. It was fun spending time with them on Wednesday and Thursday. We also made a visit to This is the Place Heritage Park and managed to avoid the rain. The monument above will probably look familiar to you. Brigham Young is one of the three men at the top, and that's all I really know....

We had a good time looking around the pioneer village. Here is a man shearing a sheep. We were surprised the sheep was so mellow. We didn't dare ask if it was sedated.

This is one of the old houses that has been relocated to the pioneer village. It used to house a family with 9 kids! Some of the houses were re-creations, but most of them were actually historic.

This is the interior of a fancier home. I don't remember the name of the family that lived in it, but it was moved all of the way from Payson. Brigham Young used to lodge in it when traveling through Payson.

It was "baby animal day" at the park, and this is a not-so-baby goat checking out the stroller.Evelyn liked the animals as long as they didn't get too invasive. She did not appreciate this goaty kiss!
This little black and white lamb was particularly endearing. Too bad that we have already reached the pet limit at our apartment....

I didn't know what to think of the hairy cow. I assume it has eyes under there, but I couldn't find any.

Here we are enjoying a fuzzy bunny. Mom, I am expecting a disparaging comment about the moustache. I like the way the stroller reflectors are "glowing" in this shot.

Even though Evelyn was pretty tired by this point, she worked up a smile for our fluffy friend.

This slide depicts my new career plan. Forget chemistry--I'm going to strike it rich panning for gold!

Hi everyone! Just some Evelyn updates.... She likes to sit up now but needs a pillow for support in order to stay up very long. Sitting makes it easier for her to play with her toys.

Here she is helping to fold the laundry (or trying to).She has learned to suck her thumb too, and she has a cute way of looping her index finger over her nose!

Oh, and we got an expansion to one of our favorite games, Carcassone. The game is a little more intense now that there is a ferocious dragon roaming the board (the red thing). We had a fun time playing with Grandma Marie last week. Thanks for being a good sport, Grandma!

Hi everyone! As you can see, Evelyn is doing well. She likes being read to as long as the words have a fun rhythm. It seems like she is more entertained by the words than the pictures.

She has added some new foods to her diet recently. After cereal, we tried sweet potatoes which she liked very much. She also likes squash and carrots and is getting use to bananas (all of these are mashed up baby foods passed on from Allen and Giovanna).

As you can see, she's getting chubbier! She's about 14 and a half pounds now. She can't sit up or scoot around yet, but she shows signs of being close to both of those milestones.

I an just taking one class right now in school, but I can't say that I'm devoting much attention to it. I've been more involved in research lately. I'm working on a few different projects, and it will be a while before I develop a more focused area of research for my PhD. Here's a fun picture of my research group that was put together in photoshop. The guy at the bottom is my boss, Dr. Ilya Zharov.Speaking of research, my mom picked up a shirt for me at Daniel's science fair that has a vary accurate quote from Albert Einstein....

("If we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be called research" --A. Einstein)