But What Do I Do...

For the past year everyone has been asking me what I do, and after a year, I really don't know what to tell these individuals. Instead of telling you what I do though, I will just show some pictures of where I have been "living" for the past year.

This is my hotel where I have spent over 200 nights in the last year. I was on a first name basis with the whole staff by the time I was done.

This is my favorite breakfast location, Main Street Cafe. I would come here every Tuesday morning and eat quiche lorrain. After the first couple months of this routine (and 15 pounds later), I decided that it would be better that I only frequent this location after having worked out the night before.

This is Carnegie Lake which fronts the Princeton campus. Walking along this area was one of my favorite things to do if I ever got out of work before it was dark.



I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on my next project and try to get some photos up earlier than later. Thanks for everyone's love and support.

Does She Bark With An Accent?

This is a new addition to the Crump family, our dog Dorie. She is a rescue dog from Baja California. She is busy playing with her chew toys and learning English from the neighborhood dogs. Dorie is a year and a half old and is a mutt but she seems to have pointer and dalmatian in her.

Dorie will be starting Cat Appreciation lessons as she adjusts to her new home in Roseville. She seems to have a lot of energy and is very playful!

The Last Frontier State

Jeannie's summer assignment was on the Coast Guard Cutter, Mellon. She spent her summer cruising between the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea. They boarded fishing vessels and checked for marine law compliance. Some of the ports they visited were Dutch Harbor, Nome, Adak, Kodiak and Juneau.

Part of their cruise took them above the Arctic Circle. Those on the ship who had not already been above the Arctic Circle had to participate in a ceremony so they could become a "Blue Nose Polar Bear". This involved, among other things, swimming in the Bering Sea with a dry suit on. The water temperature was a brisk 38 degrees!

Jeannie was able to practice shooting an M16 rifle during her summer cruise. She thought it was interesting to be that far north and never see the sun set during the day or night. While Jeannie indicated the weather was pretty gray during much of her northern cruise, she said it was a great experience overall.

Trip to Rexburg

Here are Susan and Evan at the Firehole River in Yellowstone. It was a comfortably warm river, made so by water coming from the Lower Geyser Basin. It was fun to jump in and ride the rapids through.

We spent a little time in the park but see more bears in our backyard than we saw in Yellowstone.


We hiked to one of the "ghost cabins" along Quake Lake. There were a few cabins that were lifted off of their foundations when the lake was formed during the earthquake in 1959.

Alana, Ian and Evan are pictured in front of the temple in Rexburg, where a session was done one evening.

HGTV a la Susan

Something fabulous happened this last weekend - Susan came for a visit! And my room will never be the same! A couple of posts ago my mentioned that Susan, Evan, and Katinka drove up to Rexburg with my mom for a conference. They stopped in Provo for a couple of days and Susan went to work.

Susan, my fabulous neighbor at home, looked at what she had to work with in the downstairs of the Townhouse and then started to bring the vision to life. I came home from campus and we all got to work, Susan instructing us. These first two pictures are of the living space downstairs. One of my favorite additions is the awesome clock that Susan found - and she even continued the theme. The rug is super fun and I love all of the details that Susan added to the room. We rearranged the room and it flows so nicely now. I love being in this room.

Susan also spruced up the bathroom. It is so cheery and bright now. Susan has an amazing eye and picked up subtle colors and used them in other areas. And it has such a nice vanilla-y smell.

Look at the flowers - only Susan would have come up with the great idea. I also like how she saw what I already had and brought it back to life. Susan, thank you so much for all that you did. The downstairs looks AMAZING! You completely outdid yourself. It is so nice to come home to such a nice place. I love it. THANK YOU!

Soaring Over California. . . Once Again!

Yes. . . that's right! The California Condor has made a comeback from near extinction and is once again soaring proudly in the air. Last weekend at the California Museum of History, Women and the Arts, a special exhibit highlighted the remarkable efforts of many groups to save this bird from extinction. This is one of the many unique exhibits that can be seen at the museum, which is where Erin is currently the Education and Programs Associate. She is trying on a pair of condor "wings" which are about 10 feet wide, making these birds the largest in North America. Helen and Jeannie were there for the program, helping children make paper condors. If you are in the downtown Sacramento area, it is a wonderful museum. Check it out (californiamuseum.org)!

Trip up North

Susan and Katinka rode up the ski lift at Sundance and then hiked around at the top with everyone.

It was a long hike to the top of the mile and a half trail but we all enjoyed our tour through Timpanogos Cave when we got there. Susan and Evan are shown here by one of the formations in the cave.

We continued the trip up through Logan and stopped for a brief, but enjoyable, meeting with Roxanne's family (Roxanne is Alana's close friend from her internship in Belgium).

One of our favorite towns on the way to Rexburg was Afton, Wyoming in Star Valley. What a great place to live! Check out the elk antler arch made from 3000 elk antlers in 1958.

On the way up we stopped in Yellowstone and visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The falls were pretty spectacular.

Oklahoma Continued

We were able to capture film and pictures of Evan on the dress rehearsal night. There were a few glitches with the sound, but by the end of the evening everything was working great. Evan did a fabulous job!

Oklahoma, Act Two

Last night was the final performance of Oklahoma for Evan (Curly) and the cast. It was a great 3-day run, and adults and kids alike enjoyed the camaraderie of being in the musical. In the first picture is Evan with his leading lady, Kim (Laurey). She has a beautiful voice and Evan enjoyed playing opposite her.

The above picture is of some of the cast members (Stogners, Adlings) with friends and family. Many thanks to Jim and Sue, Ken and Mardene and family and my brother, Ed, for making the long trip out here to see the performance. We appreciate the support.

Evan is shown here with the director, Emily, and two cast members, Adam Adling (Will Parker) and Randy (Ali Hakim). It was a great experience for Evan and he developed many strong friendships.
The final picture is a video of the title song. Evan really enjoyed singing this one!

OOOOOOklahoma

Much of Evan's summer has been taken up with his playing the part of Curly in the stake musical Oklahoma. He has really enjoyed interacting with the cast and taking the voice lessons. Last night was the final dress rehearsal. He is pictured in the first shot with Gavin, who initially was afraid of Evan with his cowboy gear on.

Evan's good friends, Allyson and Valerie Reeves, came out to watch the dress rehearsal. He was so glad to have them visit with him. Thanks to them and Julie for making the trip out to see him perform.

Pictured here is the wedding of Laurey and Curly. . .can't believe Evan is ready to get married at 17.

Summer Happenings

In the first picture, we are all celebrating Mom's 80th birthday at one of our favorite restaurants on the Central Coast, F. McKlintock's. It is a western steakhouse where the food is very good. One of their signature "services" is when the servers pour water into the clients' water glasses, blind folded, from many different positions. In one picture Evan is lying on the floor and they are pouring it into his glass (and as it turned out, on him also). Marjolein and Katinka got a little bit wet also when the servers poured the water into their glasses.



The teenager bear was hot one afternoon and decided to take a dip in the spa. We all were in the family room when he decided to take a cool swim and then crawled under the house in the crawl space. He came out after a couple of hours and we immediately boarded up the entrance so he couldn't get back into his "cave".

Last Saturday, Susan, Brad, Katinka, Marjolein and I took the boat tour on the 80-foot Ocean Sentinal with the Sanitation Districts. As is usual, the marine biologists on board brought up a variety of sea life in a net and we looked and touched the different kinds of animals. It is always very interesting to be out in the bay learning about the sealife.

Roots goes to Washington

Ian and James drove down to Washington DC together a few weeks ago for James to start his 6 weeks at NIH. Along the way they stopped at Fallingwater. The location was stunning and the house unique. We enjoyed driving in the Pennsylvania back country.



Megan and Brielle flew in to Baltimore this week to come and visit. James as really been missing them. Everyone traveled down to Charlottesville over the 4th of July weekend. We went and toured UVA which was designed and founded by Thomas Jefferson. It was a really neat campus. The "Lawn" where this picture is taken was surrounded by 1 room dorms that the 4th year honor students are invited to stay in. They have their own fireplace, but everyone shares a bathroom!



Here is Roots and Megan at Michie's Tavern by Monticello. Bea and Ben (more about them later) took us there for a yummy lunch. Roots in traditional Captain Morgan pose.



Here we are at the plantation home of Jefferson. It was fun to get a tour of the home, but Roots cut it a little short.



We took a Sunday drive along Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. It was a little foggy, but the views were excellent. Thanks to Ian for doing all the driving.



Here are Bea and Ben with the girls in front of their beautiful home. We were lucky enough to get to stay with them for the long weekend. We had tons of fun cooking, talking and playing pool with them and their adorable dogs.



Megan and Brielle visited Great Falls National Park (Potomac River). Brielle was signing water the whole time and was trying to crawl in to take a dip. There was no swimming allowed for obvious reasons.



Here are Megan and Brielle at the Natural History museum. They have an exhibit on the co-evolution of butterflies and flowers, very interesting. We got free tickets to the butterfly house and took a peek. Look at the huge Atlas moth over Megan's right shoulder.

Morro Bay and San Francisco

Our two Dutch daughters, Katinka and Marjolein, arrived this past Weds. and we all immediately went up to Morro Bay for the 4th of July. Shown here is Gavin in his new sweater that Ankie, the girls' mother, knit for him. He is clearly delighted with the new sweater.

We watched the fireworks over the bay from the park right by the house. It was a great show.

We've had many great meals together at the Morro Bay House.

Shown here are Marjolein, Katinka, Erin, Evan and Margaret just before we walked down Hyde Street (after having ridden the cable car from Market Street) and headed for a hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli Square. Then we had to trudge back up the hill to wear off the calories from the sundae.

We took a brief trip to the Marin Headlands park to get a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was shrouded in fog all day and then it cleared just as we got to the park. We saw a lot in the City by the Bay for just one day.

Italy, Fathers and Bears

My Mac has been in the shop for a week so I haven't been able to post. "Frost it and Toss it" was getting a little bit old. The first pictures are of the Sanitation District Boat Tour that we take at least one a year. This time Alana and Tommaso (our friend from Italy) went up on the bridge with the captain to "help" navigate. This is a research vessel owned by the Sanitation Districts, where the councilmembers, mayors and their guests of cities can go out into Santa Monica Bay and test the water quality with the marine biologists on board to determine whether marine life is being harmed. They bring up a lot of marine life to inspect and we learn a lot every time we go.

Here are Tommaso and Alana with the boat after the tour. Tommaso stayed with us for a month, during which time he worked on improving his English, and we worked on improving our Italian (he did better than we did.) He also drove up to Provo with Alana and went to Park City and a rodeo.

We all got together for the Father's Day weekend. Pictured here in the spa are cousins John, Nicholas, Stephanie with Gavin and Uncle Evan. It was great to be altogether.

Our five children are pretty blessed because they have two grandfathers to celebrate Father's Day with. Georgine and Bob were out visiting for Evan's graduation so we all got together with some other fathers in the family. Pictured here celebrating Father's Day are Gavin on Evan's shoulders, Brad, Dan, Ed, and Danny. In the front are family patriarchs, Bob and Ed. Happy Father's Day to them.

The weather had been record-hot and even the bears needed to cool down so they went swimming in my parent's pool.