If you have some time...
Well, it's been a while since our last post, so settle in for a long one...
Shortly after our last update, we headed out of town to meet up with Sumaya's family in Barbados to celebrate her mom Susan's 70th birthday. The Abu-Haidars bid on and won a wonderful vacation home at a school auction, and of course we think supporting school auctions is a great thing to do, so we had no choice but to luxuriate while spending some very enjoyable time with Susan, Munir, brother Ramzi and sister-in-law Nancie.
We quickly got the hang of driving on the left side of the road, although we didn't understand why other drivers couldn't figure out that whenever our wipers went on, we were about to make a turn. We braved the roads several times for some fascinating outings. We went on a hike at Welchman Hall Gully (http://www.welchmanhallgullybarbados.com/), which offered a self-guided tour of dozens of plants, flowers, and trees. We followed this up with a trip to the Barbados Wildife Reserve, which allowed us to walk among the animals along serpentine trails that led in and out of patches of forest. We also went to the Flower Forest, where we were reminded that the divine can be found in the amazingly intricate designs of nature. One of the highlights of the week was sailing on a catamaran, with stops to snorkel with sea turtles, who were irresistably drawn to us, despite one of the crew putting lots of food in the water for them. Owen, Ramzi, Nancie and Jason tried their hand at deep sea fishing. The brook trout from Colorado had sent word to their southern sea-going cousins that they had nothing to fear from us Bervs, and so we went 6 hours without a single opportunity to reel in a big fish that would inevitably be reported as much bigger in this blog.
Upon returning from Barbados, we spent a few days in Hurricania, also known as Nederland. It was great to connect with friends and play some hockey. We also got to watch through the window as the snow blew sideways for a few days. This pesky wind has also recently been responsible for blowing off half the roof and a couple of skylights at the former Watershed School building. Geez.
Jason had a quick stop in Denver for a doctor's appointment, and then we hit the road. For those of you not familiar with Jason's health saga, here it is in a nutshell: after two years of crazy weird symptoms including a total loss of sense of smell and taste, asthma that came on like a tidal wave, and a total allergy to ibuprofen, aspirin, and alcohol (grape juice, anyone?), he got a diagnosis last fall that finally made sense. Something called Triad Asthma, which only befalls short, swarthy men who start schools and marry their soulmates (karma's a bitch). After lots of testing and scanning, Jason is due to return to Denver at the end of April for sinus surgery to roto-rooter out his sinuses, which are completely occluded, and then begin aspirin desensitization (flood the system with aspirin, and then take a maintenance dose everyday for the rest of my life). Although the mechanism is unclear, this procedure has proven successful for approximately 80% of Triad Asthma sufferers, and holds the hope that Jason may be able to smell and taste again, while also experiencing significant improvement in asthma symptoms. The only side effect is that from time to time Jason may spontaneously yell "what the f*#k is that smell?"
Upon returning to Crested Butte, we were treated to lots of great snow to play in (family powder day!), as well as the beginning of the Town League hockey playoffs (4 games in 1 week). We are amply exercised, and not currently suffering from a vitamin D deficiency. The sledding hill might soon be renamed in Spencer's honor.
Here's the latest in our homeschool adventures:
Exploring the Solar System and the Universe!!Sumaya and the boys spent a week exploring the mysteries of our universe and solar system. They started with a mobile of the solar system that Owen has had for years and asked the basic question: is is to scale and if it were to scale, could you fit it an a building (even a BIG building)? They found a helpful online calculator that helps you figure out the correct size for all the planets and their distance from the sun when you punch in the size of the sun you wish to use. They punched in many options, but eventually settled on a 5 inch star. They then cut out and colored planets with the correct size (learned a lot about each planet as they did this! Check out kidsastronomy.com). With a 5 inch start, the earth is a mere 0.04 inches! They then wrote down the distance each planet would be from the sun according to the chosen scale. They bought 12 rolls of adding machine paper (130 ft each roll) and went to a nearby road that has little traffic on it. After gluing the sun to the beginning of the first roll, they continued to roll out roll after roll (10 in all!) pasting the planets at the right distances from the sun. Their whole solar system model ended up being about 1/3 of a mile long! Conclusion: it would be impossible even for a museum to make an accurate model of the solar system using the same scale for both the planets and their distance from the sun. Even if a museum used a building 7 city blocks long, it would be hard to make it interesting considering that many of the planets would be barely visible at this scale. It would be even more unrealistic for a toy manufacturer to make a model that would fit into a child's room! Next, the cosmic exploration trio turned to a documentary series written and narrated by Stephen Hawking called "Into the universe". They learned about the origins of the universe, the likelihood of life existing somewhere other than on our planet, how stars are formed, how galaxies work. We highly recommend these videos! (they're on netflix). Stephen Hawking is our hero. On the construction front, the boys have recently built bird houses and wooden boats, further honing their skills with drills, saws, and palm sanders. The welding supplies just arrived in the mail, and we are hoping to begin construction soon on a trailer that can be pulled behind the boys' bikes.
Here are some photos of the boys' boats and their inaugural sail on "Lake Managua":
Spanish lessons for the boys continue, and family ceramics class began on Friday, where we got to start throwing pots on a wheel. So much fun to play with clay, and lots of lessons to be learned along the way. Sumaya, to no one's surprise, turns out to be a natural potter. Jason, on the other hand, is re-evaluating his relationship to "modern art."
We are excited that this month will be chock full of visitors. Bridget and Colin Fearing from Nederland arrive later today for a few days of fun. Paul Dreyer is scheduled to come out in a few weeks, and has offered to teach a snow science course for the boys. Then the Brewers and Lynches from Nederland join us over Spring Break for a hut trip in Gothic, not far from the ski area. And we'll get to see the Starek family at the end of the month. Yay! We love seeing friends.
We'll be traveling for much of April. We just booked our tickets to Nicaragua, for some Spanish language learning, some volunteering, and some surfing lessons. Please let us know if you have any tips or suggestions for travel in Nicaragua.
Muchos abrazos from Crested Butte.


