Cloak Nerf Master

Is he dangerous? Yes! He is!

Is he the enemy? No!!! He is the protector!!

Who is he protecting? He is protecting the earth!

Do you know who this is?

Snow, sister, little sister...

Recess takes a long time when you have to add extra socks, boots, parka, hat, gloves, and where is that dog leash????

Swimming in the Snow

Ok, we were smart enough to head to the pool to do our swimming...

Just seems odd to be packing a swim bag when the weather is below freezing!

Bryce with his Dad and brother

Bryce: I love my dad and I love my brother. They make good partners. I picked this picture because I like how we spend time together and there's no arguing. When I'm a dad, I might be an ENGINEER!!!! Well, that's my life!

Soldiers at the Nativity

I found this on my coffee table. Apparently, ground troops had infiltrated the nativity scene and were engaged in heavy combat. I was amazingly unaware of the crisis in my own living room!!

Bryce working on Awana with Sarah

I heard the quiet talking from a strange location. Found Bryce and Sarah on the stairs. Sarah was knitting and Bryce was practicing his Awana verses and Sarah (who memorized them last year) was correcting him. It was a sweet moment.

Bryce at Buck Lake

A boy....

A tree...

need we say more??????

Bryce with Coach Tom, at swim meet

Bryce is wearing his suit from Kenya. It used to be green! Now everyone thinks he forgot to put ON a suit, because it is nearly his flesh tone. We REALLY need to get him a new suit. In fact, we DID for this meet, don't remember why he's not wearing it.

Giving your big sister a ride

He is strong! And for some reason this is fun giving your older sister a ride on your back.

Card Shark

Ran into this Australian card shark while on vacation in Central Oregon. He's very competitive.

Shopping at Old Navy

Bryce got two gift cards for Old Navy and after serious browsing, he found several outfits. But he was most satisfied with a black sweatshirt (I guess it looked "cool".) He tells us he does not want to be called "cute" because "everyone is always saying I"m cute. Cute Cute Cute."

The picture at the end tells it all. A great look and he looks "Cool" (and I think he looks "awfully CUTE!!")

Bryce with Sarah and Brent on the lake

Bryce loved being in the water and rowing the boat. Pretty fun time was had by all! There were two other boys there...Ben (11 years old) and Drew (9 years old). The boys had a great time fishing, boating, swimming, and playing in the dirt. Yuck!!!

Reunion with Yu Hong Ying

On August 2nd Patti found out that Hong Ying was in the United States for the Yangchun Reunion. She had not known that the reunion was going to happen (hadn't heard anything via email etc). So it was wonderful that she found out because Hong Ying was scheduled to fly back to China on the 4th. Apparently Hong Ying had been asking for "Dong Dong" (Bryce's Chinese nickname) frequently. It must have been a puzzlement to Hong Ying why the Hoffers weren't there. They dashed down to Longview on Sunday after Sunday School (they were substituting and couldn't get out of it). It was funny later because when I mentioned we might go to China in 4 years for the next reunion, he said "Then I'll be too old for her to puff up my cheeks. I don't like it when she puffs my cheeks." He did well. Hugged her, let her "puff " his cheeks, and sit on her lap. And next time we need to learn more Chinese.

Bryce with mouth open

I remember when Bryce was really little....about 3 years old, he would often open his mouth wide whenever I tried to take his picture. He seems to be reverting to past practices! Black and white photo taken Summer 2003.

Bryce sewing

Aunt Bev sent out this photo today with the following words:


I was looking for some photos and ran across this one---Bryce was fascinated with the MACHINE and Unca Don showed him how to operate some of it.... Too cute!

Never listen to your sister....

Never listen to your sister (Sarah) when the advice seems a little "off". Like telling her little brother to put the catepillars in his shirt pocket. And then a few minuets later, he starts itching. And then when they looked at his chest, he had hives around his nipple. He called me and said "Anna, I'm allergic to catepitters."

I'd say so!

Photo from October 2007

October 6, 2005

A Blast from the Past.....

Here's what a small boy looks like after coming home from a trip to Las Vegas

May 18, 2008

This is a kid who is engrossed in the TV.

Bryce on Field Trip

I went to Dogfish creek and I did some new discoveries. Here I am looking at a bug...it was a may fly. It has three tails (or two sometimes). It is good to find a mayfly in the stream because it tells you that the creek is good and it doesn't have any bad stuff and it's clean.

And also, did you know that the water in the creek is very fast. It when a short distance in 20 seconds (we measured it with a toy bug!)

Maybe I'll be a bug scientist. No Way!!

Love, Bryce

P.S. Bugs are gross.

How to enter a playground

Here's a photo from September 2003 and it cracks me up everytime I see it. Bryce is wearing my whistle that Brent gave me for my birthday (Brent had told his mother "Anna needs a whistle.") And as Bryce enters the playground, even though there is an opening in the fence about 1 foot away, he decides to climb OVER the chain link fence instead. Must be a boy thing!

Magic and a boy

It's great getting a hug!

Patti and Bryce on train June 2003.

There is something so nice about being held by someone who loves you. Nothing feels as good in the whole world.

Oh, when is summer (or even SPRING) coming?

It is so cold here on the Oregon coast. And I just looked at my computer to see that in Kingston it's 34 degrees at 7am but it feels like 26. Oh, to remember this beautiful day at Silver Falls State Park when the kids could go around in swim suits and paddle in the warm water.

MIT has NO SWIM TEAM???

Bryce and I were talking about going to college and maybe he would go to MIT. He asked me, "But, mom, how will I pay for it?" So, I told him, "That's why swimming is a good sport to continue...maybe you can get a swimming scholarship!" Alan looked at me like I was nuts and said gently, "Um, Patti, I don't think MIT HAS a swim team!!"

Ok, forget MIT. Let's check out U of Penn!! What do you think, Unka Don????

Eyes

I think it is very handy if one can actually see the end of their nose---who knows---maybe a spider or a butterfly might land there----and one would need to see which it was?!

love,
Aunt Bev

Studious Bryce

Actually my nephew can be very studious as evidenced in these two photos 3 years apart--the first in 2003 and the second photo in 2006. He is only SOMETIMES silly in front of the camera! :)

love,
Aunt Bev

Family Traditions

Well, it is possible that it is just falling out of his mouth.....OR .....MAYBE.....he is just continuing on a family tradition!!! (see Grandma huckleberrying with her picnic basket and her tongue out!)
:)
Aunt Bev

Bryce and his "silly face"

I am realizing looking back through my photos that Bryce likes to play his silly face to the camera---but then I realize that Jan always says---there is a reason we take two photos!
:)

XXX OOO
Aunt Bev

Bryce going down the hill on a bike

Bryce was an eager adventurer on this project! Here he is at the top of the hill.

Here he is coming back up the hill. Just didn't seem worth the effort to me, but they did it over and over.

He was a little tired afterwards and pretended to sleep like a lion!

I told you, Aunt Bev!! Uh, oops. I don't mean An-na and Grandma....you know what I mean. Sarah took this picture when An-na was here. And I took a picture of Sarah.

Yesterday in school, I went to swimming. I hit the goal thru the goalie's (Chris) legs and then he said, "that did not count," and then I hit the goal again!!!

I was in book club and we do this manuscript and we are supposed to do a story about it and tell it to Barb and the other class students. My story was about having fun at PAL, like at the soccer game and swimming and book club. Those are all fun stuff to do. That's my story.

See you later,

from Bryce

Bryce eating a worm

Maybe he just likes the green and yellow ones?!

What to do when you're sick

I've had a bad cold these past few days and when I was talking to Bryce on the phone he said:

Bryce: Are you feeling better?

Me: Well, a little bit.

Bryce: Are you taking your medicine?

Me: Yes, but I'm still all clogged up and can't breathe thru my nose.

Bryce: You know what you should do? You should stay in bed and eat an omelet.

Me: How can I lay in bed and fix an omelet?

Bryce: No, you go crack an egg.....or maybe two....and put them in the pan. Add some milk...ummmm.....I think milk. And some tomatoes and some green pepper. And cook it. Then flip it.

Me: Does your Mom make omelets for you very often?

Bryce: No, but at your house she did. Except she burned something on the stove so the omelet tasted a little bit terrible.

Me: Yeah, sometimes when you burn something in the pan you have to be sure you clean out the pan really well before you cook in it again.

Bryce: Yeah, or the omelet will taste a little bit terrible!

(Photo from last year when Bryce fixed his Dad a snack.)

Bryce at the beach

Thanks to boots and coats, we had a great time at the beach. Bryce and Brent were in the water immediately...at least the stream water. They stayed out of the ocean. I've done too much reading on rip tides lately!!

Recent Bryce comment: "Mom, when can I date a woman?"

"Mom, can a bullet go thru titanium?"

I asked Dr. Yakovlevitch this question and he gave the same reply as me..."depends on how thick the titanium!"

Bryce the climber

Bryce at local bird sanctuary in Dallas, Oregon about 2003 or 2004.....always ready to pose for his aunties cameras!

Bryce helping Anna play a game with Miranda

How to Bird Watch

It's essential when bird watching that you have two things:

a good pair of binoculars
a delicious cookie for sustenance


And having an experienced bird-watching aunt doesn't hurt either!

Bryce, the chess player

Bryce and his father, 2005 photo

This is my dad's dad. My grandpa.

He died last summer and he was a mechanic.

I wonder if his job was difficult. I don't know.

I liked my grandpa because we would always stop by sometimes to see him at the nursing home. I wish my grandpa could stay longer.

Well, see you later,

Bryce

Practice, Practice, Practice to get that perfect photo!

He may have opened his mouth for photos in the past, but with years of practice, he is now a pro at posing for photos! Here is Bryce at Buck Lake, October 2007.! :)
from Aunt Bev