The Houghtons in the Mountains: We're Not So Good At Pictures, BUT. . .

This morning as I thought about what to include on our blog update, it occurred to me that I went to a water polo tournament this weekend (that's two days, four games, and much much warm sunshine. . .okay, hot sunshine) with a camera in my purse, and didn't remove it once. Mark bemoans my tendency to forget photos.

HOWEVER, thanks to the internet and other people who do remember to take pictures, we can capture (and share) a bit of our lives over the past few weeks!

So here are our updates, in no particular order:

Marta says she is in the best shape and the most tan she has ever been.

This can be attributed to the 8 sessions of water polo practice scheduled each week.

She does look buff, doesn't she?

Tess has become a leader on her Frosh/Soph polo team.

Not only is she a defensive force to be reckoned with,

but she has learned to shoot. Woohoo!

When not playing polo she is doing homework for her AP European History class.

As you may remember from our last post, we just replaced the kitchen floor.

(And it does look fine. Very fine.)

In fact, just before I left for one of the three water polo tournaments

I've driven teams to this month, I finished up the trim on the project.

(And my major house project in August was installing a new dishwasher).

So when I received a call at the tournament from. . .a-child-who-will-not-be-named

. . .that he had accidentally filled the dishwaSHER with dishwaSHING soap,

and that the rubbermaid bin of rag towels was not sufficient to wipe up the suds,

I was somewhat concerned.

Fortunately, the mess was cleaned up and no permanent damage evident

when I returned!

This is Luke and his roommate Tyler,

demonstrating their away-at-college domesticity in the kitchen.

Photo: apparently i set the camera down on the table like this, and megan just wanted to take a photo

This may be more representative of the real cooking that goes on there.

But Luke's texts, calls, and occasional video chats are evidence

that he is managing to survive on his cooking.

And he's become the dishwashing instructor in his apartment.

"Yes, you need to start with HOT water. Oh, and put some soap in it.

And then you rub the dish with the cloth til all the food is off.

And when you put the clean dish down, it can't be on a dirty counter.

So this is how you wipe down the counter."

Don't we all appreciate that we don't live with five guys in a college apartment?

And speaking of kitchens. . .

Eliza will be wrapping up her job as school lunch lady in the next week or so.

We will miss the leftovers we have learned to use in creative ways.

She won't miss the sore feet and crazy schedule

of juggling full-time work with two additional (part-time) jobs.

But she may just miss the adoring middle-school boys and cute kindergarteners!

She has started teaching music at a tiny local school--just a few hours a week.

Thank goodness for years of singing Primary songs!

Eliza continues to prepare for her

December 19 departure to the

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission.

We're excited about company
coming to join her as she goes
here next week-->

Mark and Levi have been learning more about fly fishing in scouting.
Last night they took advantage of a full moon to go on
their second fishing outing of the day.
Levi caught a fish and learned to remove the hook and release it.
Good thing since he doesn't really like eating fish!
Levi has also been enjoying a two week break from swimming,
riding his bike to school, and his friend Jake,
who moved into the neighborhood last week!
They're quickly becoming inseparable.