QR Code Treasure Hunt

Sun, 7 Apr 2013 09:39:24 -0500

Yesterday was my nephew’s 12th birthday party and, naturally, I had waited until the very last minute to pull together a gift of some sort.

I decided that at his age cash was the best option so that made it nice and easy. Then I decided that instead of just giving the money in a card, I wanted to make him follow a treasure hunt to find it. Problem was that the party was starting in just a couple of hours and was being held in a town a couple of hours away from me. So making a treasure hunt was going to be difficult.

I thought back to when I did the Mall Scavenger Hunt and Non-Traditional Easter Egg Hunt and figured out a way to make the hunt work using QR codes and texting without having to have a pre planned hunt set up far in advance. I could figure it out as we found the places to hide the clues.

I generated the QR Codes using Kawya . Since I didn’t know where each clue should lead to yet, I chose to make the qr codes be riddles, instead of directions like a normal hunt. I printed them out and headed out of town with them.

When we got to the town where I needed to plant the clues, the kids and I drove around my nephew’s neighborhood looking for good hiding places. As we found one, we’d take a picture of the site and then hide one of codes there. We cut the code away from the riddle and hide only the code. In the end, we hid the four clues and the gift.

hiding the clues

Here’s how the hunt played out for anyone interested in trying one of these out someday.

First we texted them picture clues to where they could find the first code.

Once they found the location and the qr code which we had taped to the back of the guard rail, they scanned the code using a QR Code Reader app on their phone. Here is what they found.

They were told to solve the riddle, then text me with the answer and, if correct, I’d text them with the next picture clue to where to find the next code.

They texted Jimmy and so I texted them these pictures to find the next code.

There they found this code

Took them awhile, but they figured it out and texted back S,O,N

So I texted them the next picture clue.

there they found this code taped to the bottom of a rock beneath the sign

they texted back Mt Everest after lots of discussion :)

so I texted them the next picture clue

where they found this code

they figured this one out pretty quickly :)

they texted back baseball game

So, I texted their last picture clue which was where the gift was hidden back at their house

Happy Birthday!!

F-15 Jets Up Close and Personal

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:16:35 -0600

I got the opportunity to experience the F-15 jets up close and personal. The kids were invited, too, but, sadly, Ethan was at school and Emily was feeling sick so I went alone and LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!

My friend is the commander of the base and is being deployed and so is leaving his position. It’s tradition for there to be a big fanfare for the commander’s last flight and so he invited out to experience it all. It was so, so cool!!! I was with his wife and we got special treatment. We got to go out on the runway during take off. It’s AMAZING to feel all that jet power when they take off. AMAZING!!!!

about to take off

and away they go

it all happened so fast - they sped by me and I just snapped and snapped and snapped pictures as fast as I could

love seeing the fire out the back - the feel while standing there was so awesome. It was so, so loud and so, so powerful. Every cell in your body feels it. What a rush!

he took off and went straight up - it was so cool!

then rolled at the top to turn - man, I want to fly in one so badly!!!!

The jets flew off to dog fight and when they returned he did lots of flyovers and fancy turns right above us. It was so COOL!!! Pictures don’t do it any justice.

It’s tradition that the outgoing commander drives his jet under a firetruck’s water arch but it was like 9 degrees out and so the water just froze :)

woo-hoo!!!!

What an awesome last flight!! I was so pumped!! Nice to feel alive again. Loved every minute of it!

Beautiful Ice Crystals

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 12:35:30 -0600

The other day, we noticed that the snow had a funny texture. Instead of flat, it looked like sugar.

Upon closer inspection, it looked feathery.

When we looked even closer, we could see that the snow was covered with tall, beautiful ice crystals. The crystals were all in the shapes on little trees or fern leaves or something like that. Aren’t they so, so pretty???

AMAZING, isn’t it???

Painting with Light...Just Like Picasso

Thu, 3 Jan 2013 11:21:51 -0600

Over the years I’ve been seeing pictures of people creating cool art photography using a slow shutter speed and a flashlight. They call it Light Painting Photography. Picasso even did some light painting. Here are a couple of his works of art.

We tried our hand at it and here are our extremely cool pictures.

It’s like magic. All you do is set your camera to a slow shutter speed, like leaving the shutter open for 10 - 20 seconds. Set your camera on a tripod. Have someone stand in front of the camera with a flashlight and once you hit the button to take the picture, the person starts drawing in the air with the flashlight. When the picture is done, just turn the flashlight off and walk away. Once the shutter closes, you have a magical picture!!

It All Came Crashing Down

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:36:12 -0600

November 9 our world came crashing down.
My husband was out of town on a business trip to attend a stressful financial meeting. After his meeting, he called me and said that he was having some chest pain. He thought it was probably an anxiety attack and so went back to his hotel room to take a hot bath and try to relax. A while later he called me and said that he felt emotionally ok now but that he was still having intense pain and was thinking about going to the hospital but was embarrassed to go because he figured it would just end up being nothing. I told him to go and that I’d be heading his way once I got Ethan from school. The town he was in was 3.5 hours away and so I knew it’d be quite a while before I could get there. He texted me not to come yet and just wait until he gets to the hospital and then he’d let me know what the doctors thought. I texted back that I wasn’t going to wait and would be there as soon as I could get there. I never heard from him again.
A short time later, the hospital chaplain called his work looking to see how to get in touch with me. The hotel got ahold of me and gave me the chaplain’s number to call. That was the scariest call ever. I was shaking so badly.
The chaplain told me that my husband had driven himself into the ER and was in the process of registering when he collapsed and that they were working on him now but needed information on allergies to medicine, etc. It was such a shock to hear that he really was having heart problems and a relief at the same time that they weren’t calling me to that he had died. I had hope.
The chaplain called me back in a while and told me he was in surgery and to take my time getting there because it would be a long surgery and didn’t want me to get in a crash trying to get there fast. The chaplain never really let me in on how serious the problem was. I thought that maybe he was starting to have a heart attack but that they stopped it and perhaps were putting in stints. I called his co-workers at their meeting to tell them that David had driven himself to the ER and was now in surgery and they headed right over.
Once I got to the hospital, I discovered that he had had an aortic dissection aneurysm. The doctors hadn’t suspected that at first because of his age, weight and healthy lifestyle, but that’s what it turned out to be. The surgery lasted 5 hours and all the surgeon would say to me afterwards was that he had repaired the aneurysm and that David was in very, very serious condition. They said they needed to wait until all the swelling went down from the surgery to see how things would turn out. It would all be very touch and go.
The next day, the doctors tested for brain function and there wasn’t any. They began to prepare me for the fact that even though he survived the surgery, which they were amazed that he had, he may have severe brain damage or be brain dead. I couldn’t accept that. He had to recover.
I sat there all day and night and held his hand, whispered in his ear, scratched his arms, shook him, and anything else I could think of to get him to snap back to his old self. Nothing worked.
The next day, they ran the brain function test again and still got no readings. Then they ran another test that tested more of his brain but still got no response. They tried all the battery of physical tests but got no response.
That evening, all the doctors got together to present to me their evaluations. They told me that they had determined he was brain dead and that we would have to make the decision on what to do about life support. They were very patient and spent a lot of time detailing the whole event out for me from how it began to where it was at that time.
By this time, all of David’s family and my family had flown out to be at the hospital with us. David’s co-workers/friends were also there with me. I’m so thankful for all their support. I couldn’t have done this without all of them. His family was so supportive of me and said that they were back me on any decision I made. That was the greatest thing they could have said to me. It freed me of guilt in having to turn the life support machine off of their son.
David was a registered organ donor and so the process began that night to test all his organs to see if any part could be used to help another. After hours of testing, it was determined sadly that the extent of the dissection damage was too severe to be able to donate any organ. I was so hoping that some sort of good could come out of this, but it wasn’t to be.
The next morning, the decision was made to turn the life support machine off. With all of our family gathered around, we let him go. It was so painful. I hate that the kids have lost their fabulous dad and had to go through all this. This should not happen to kids, especially kids who are so, so close to their dad. We’ve prided ourselves in being a very tight knit family in the past and so it was all that much harder.
Everything has been a blur since that fateful Wednesday afternoon. The kids are bouncing back, but I know it won’t last for long and reality will set in. All I want to do is stay in bed and cry. I’m not ready to talk to people yet. I am connecting with people online though. Facebook has been a life saver for me. I was able to receive all sorts of support from people all over the world while sitting there in the ICU pleading for him to wake up so we could forget this whole ordeal and go back to our prefect life.
Thanks to everyone who reached out to me during that time. I meant a lot to me to see how many people cared. I appreciate each and every one of you.
I’m walking around in a fog and can’t imagine any type of life without him. He was my best friend, my soul mate, the gentlest man I’ve ever known and the best hands-on dad ever. Family was his main focus in life and it was evident to everyone.
I will have to figure out how we can cope and go on. The kids need me to, but I don’t want to. I can’t imagine ever being happy again, but I know that some how that will happen. I just can’t see any way yet.

This is a song that means a lot to me. It plays over and over in my head day and night. It’s all I hear. It’s the words I need to hear from him.

David’s wonderful company has set up an education fund for the kids so I won’t have to worry about that so much. They have been so supportive and have helped me each step along the way. I can’t thank them enough for doing this for me.

Running Y Resort Manager, David Ellis, 44, passed away suddenly on November 9, 2012. The Klamath Falls resident was in Bend, Oregon, on business when struck with an aortic aneurysm.

David was born July 24, 1968 in Falls Church, Virginia, to David and Kathleen Ellis. At age eight David and his family moved from Warrenton, Virginia, to Monrovia, Liberia, where his father had been assigned to the U.S. Embassy. Following four years in Liberia, the family was transferred to Cairo, Egypt, for two years and later to Wiesbaden, Germany, where David ran cross-country and played tennis for General Arnold High School. In his Junior year, the family was reassigned to Kuwait City, Kuwait, where David became proficient in Arabic, played varsity volleyball and represented the American School of Kuwait at the model United Nations in New York. Following his high school graduation in 1986, David joined the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University. Later he studied Computer Science at Texas State University, while riding bulls in rodeos and enjoying country and western dancing.

David married Jennifer Pettus March 12, 1994 in Graham, Texas. They welcomed their first child, Ethan, in March 1997 and their daughter, Emily, in May 1999. David was a dedicated family man; the well being of his family was taken into consideration with every personal or career decision he made. As everyone who knew him realized, David balanced his business and family interests in a remarkable way. David was truly an amazing husband and father.

In 1991, he began his career in the Hospitality Industry at the Sheraton Hotel in Austin, Texas. Subsequently, he managed the Executive Inn in San Marcos, Texas. In 1998, David began a lengthy career with Starwood Corporation when he and his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and he assumed a position in management at the Sheraton Suites Galleria. Three years later, David became a manager of the Sheraton Crescent in Phoenix, Arizona. A 2004 reassignment sent the Ellis family to Manassas, Virginia, where David was a manager of the Tyson's Corner Sheraton Premiere. David gained commuter train experience in 2009 when he commuted from his home in Metuchen, New Jersey, into Manhattan and his new position at the Westin Times Square. In 2010, David joined the North View Hotel Group and its management team at the Embassy Suites La Quinta Hotel and Spa in Southern California. The following year NVHG provided David the opportunity he had always sought: management of a resort property. That year the Ellis family moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon, where David became General Manager of the Running Y Resort. Active in the Klamath Falls community, the family fell in love with Oregon and had hoped to retire in the Klamath Basin.

David is survived by his wife Jennifer and his children, Ethan and Emily; his parents David and Kathleen Ellis of Louise, Texas; his sister Andrea Rogers and her children Brandon, Alek, and Kate of The Woodlands, Texas; his brother, John and wife Alissa and their children Alina and John Riley of Spring Hill, Tennessee; his sister, Elizabeth and husband Jason Williams and their children Isabella and Jared of Evans, Georgia; his grandmother Marcyle Ellis of New Braunfels, Texas; his parents-in-law Kent and Nancy Pettus of Graham, Texas; his brother-in-law Jeremy Pettus of Klamath Falls, Oregon; and his brother-in-law Jordan and wife Angela and their children Kyler, Blake, and Mason of Fort Worth, Texas. He was preceded in death by his grandparents David C. Ellis of Austin, Texas, Kathleen and Claude Appling of Louise, Texas, and his mother-in-law Carolyn Pettus of Graham, Texas.

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Curling Lesson - So FUN!!

Sat, 3 Nov 2012 14:26:30 -0500

This morning we had a BLAST at our “Learn to Curl” class!!!! We had fun watching it at the Olympics and wanted to give it a try. It looks so, so, so easy but that stance is actually pretty hard to do. Here are pictures of our attempts :)
first we tried it using two stones

woo-hoo pretty good for the first time

attempt #1

Oops! That’s not what was supposed to happen :)

attempt #2

oops again - funny :)

not so good, but fun :)

my husband

my brother

next we tried it using only one stone - she got it this time :)

oops - didn’t work out first attempt

eventually, we all sort of picked it up and could make the stone go so we started working on sweeping

then we began real games
SO MUCH FUN!!!!!
Both kids ended up being really good at it by the time the class was over and were the ones making all the points. We all want to keep playing. SO FUN!!!!

Halloween, Foggy Mornings, Skating and Eating Worms

Fri, 2 Nov 2012 09:57:21 -0500

Lately, we’ve been experiencing a lot of fog and a couple of snow flurries. Perfect for Halloween!
This was the fog in town the other morning.

Here are the eagles hanging out in the snow flurry. They haven’t done anything to rebuild the nest yet. I did see one of the eagles bring in a talonful of mossy fluffy the other day but there are no sticks there yet so no place to put it. Silly eagles :) I sure hope they rebuild the nest there.

The county museum held a great fundraiser in the local old cemetery. They had actors portray the ghosts of 8 of the people buried in the cemetery and as our tour passed each person’s headstone, the actor told parts of their life story and how they played a part in the town’s history. It was really interesting!

The guinea pigs have been doing a lot of learning with Emily lately :)

We’ve been learning a lot about Ancient Japan and Ancient China recently. We’re still working our way through Shogun....lots of discs. In a book Emily is reading, it was mentioned that the chewing sounds of the silkworms before they make their cocoons was so loud due to the huge number of worms farmed and kept in buildings and so I googled it to see if I could find any sounds of silkworms chewing but couldn’t but I did find a really good webpage that shows all the steps in raising silkworms and harvesting the cocoons. Interesting. I didn’t realize that they boil the worm and eat them. Click to see pictures of all the steps.

For Halloween, Emily was a raccoon and her friend was a matching fox.

Ethan wore his squid hat as his costume. Somehow, I never ended up with a picture of him from the front.

We thought it was funny how this house used their Christmas reindeer decorations to make reindeer ghosts to haunt their yard :)

Last night was opening night for the ice skating rink and they were offering free trial lessons so we checked it out. Tomorrow we’re going to go try our hand at curling and maybe broomball.

The eagles were being all sweet and cozy this morning.

Blue Hair, Petroglyphs, X-Rays, Fall Leaves and a Bobcat

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:52:25 -0500

My brother just moved here to Oregon and we’ve been enjoying showing him around. Our first outing was to the Lava Beds to explore the tubes and caves. Afterwards, we headed over to Petroglyph Point to see the ancient petroglyphs. Ethan’s hair was blue that day because it was crazy hair day at school and blue hair was the choice :)

lava tube

Petroglyph Point

My favorite petroglyphs were these arrow shaped men. Wonder what they mean?

The petroglyphs are protected by a chain link fence but many modern humans have added their own touches to the cliff outside the fence line.

lots of swallow nests up the cliff wall

The cliff serve as home for many raptors and so there are many leftover animal parts from meals dropped down along the edge of the cliff. I thought these Northern Flicker feather leftovers were BEAUTIFUL.

poor unlucky rabbit foot

We’ve been enjoying the changing leaves lately - so, so pretty!

my favorite local tree

My friend broke her ankle bones off of her leg bones....not good...OUCH!!! See the breaks on both bones at the bottom?

Hundred and hundred and hundreds of Canadian Geese are migrating through right now. I love watching them and hearing them.

Many of them like to hang out on the golf course. I’m sure the golfers aren’t as excited to see them as I am.

I hadn’t seen the eagles for about a month or two but now the pair that lives at my house are making themselves seen again. I just love when they sit on this tree outside my kitchen window. It appears that the eaglet is gone now. That is the way it is supposed to work. They raise him for nearly a year and then he goes off into the world to find a spot of his own :) I miss seeing him but am glad the parents are still here and hope they build a nest here again. Hopefully, a sturdier nest this time.

I caught one of them in the flooded field across the road the other day. I like how the reflection shows up in this photo.

We’ve been doing more nature walking :) The weather is so nice right now.

This morning there was a low fog in the valley. We thought it looked cool.

We saw a bobcat in our yard the other day but my good camera was in the car and all I had was my cellphone camera which didn’t take a good picture of it :( Can you see it to the right of the wind chime? I’m determined to get a good picture of him if he’ll come back again.

Emily and I have been watching Shogun. She wanted to learn about ancient Japan but this is the closest I could find movie-wise so far. It’s funny how bad the special effects are on this movie. They were great back in the day but are silly looking these days :) Still an interesting movie, just kind of silly in all the boat scenes.

We also ran across this picture lately when talking about x-rays and think it is cool :)

High School, Ancient Egypt, Dangos, and Abby & Brittany

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 10:18:42 -0500

I’m glad to report to all those out there who are concerned that homeschoolers, especially unschoolers like ourselves, won’t be able to easily transition into public school if they ever desire to....they can, in fact, with no problems. Naturally, it all depends on the school and the kid individually, just like in all things, but, at least in our case, it was no problem. The school we chose is awesome so that definitely played into his success. :)

He is LOVING high school!! I’m so glad we homeschooled all the way up until he was wanting to attend some form of schooling. He also says he’s glad that he homeschooled all the way up until now. He’s glad he had the freedom to learn what he wanted and explore options he was interested in in the depth he wanted and all the free time we had to go places and all the free time he had to just be with friends.
He’s definitely noticing all the ridiculous things that are required in public schools but since he hasn’t had to do years and years of them, he’s ok with doing just a couple of years of them to play the game :)
He’s also noticed how so many of the other kids are just worn out with learning. They’ve done too much rote learning year after year. Luckily, this school is an innovative school and why most of the kids have switched to this charter school from their regular school. The teachers are pretty cool and are really trying to do things in a new way and the kids appreciate that. The small classroom sizes also enable the teachers to really do some cool things. Yay!
So all is going well so far. He’s made lots and lots of new friends, enjoys all the group projects they are working on in school and all the fun clubs the school has. He and some of his new friends have also just started a new club, a Brony Club :)
I’ve really enjoyed getting to spend a lot more one on one time with Emily and focusing on her learning style. She’s more like me in that sense and so it’s been fun.

We’ve been watching a lot of Netflix documentaries lately exploring how the Earth was formed and how all the volcanoes played a vital role in the atmosphere, oceans and life. Cool stuff!
We’ve also been watching documentaries about Ancient Egypt and having fun looking through old pictures of when my husband was a child and his family lived in Egypt. It’s fun being able to tie history in with family history. Makes it all so much more real and more relevant. :) We’ve also been playing around with Horrible Histories. Funny stuff :)

Here’s what we’ve been using.
Earth: The Biography
National Geographic Secret of the Afterlife
Horrible Histories: Terrible Treasures
Horrible Histories: Ancient Egypt Jokes
IMAX Mystery of the Nile
IMAX The Mysteries of Egypt
Ralph Masiello’s Ancient Egypt Drawing Book
The Royal Diaries: Cleopatra VII
Horrible Histories: The Awesome Egyptians
There are lots of Ancient Egypt Horrible History videos on YouTube - love them! I have them all gathered together here along with other ideas

We’ve also been thoroughly enjoying watching Abby & Brittany, the conjoined twins. They are fascinating! It’s amazing how they’ve learned how to work their separate sides together, even though they can’t feel each other’s side, to make their body work like a regular body. Amazing!!!!

Here are some pictures of the other things we’ve been up to lately.
attempting to make Japanese dangos - ours didn’t taste all that great

fun with the guinea pigs

learning to play chess

looking for signs of Fall - not much has happened here yet

visiting the wonderful animal shelter here

attempting to make those fabulous looking layered Cookie Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups Brownies - ours didn’t turn out as tasty as we thought they’d be

trying out the new off dog lease park

spying on the bird taking baths :)

discovering that male stellar jays have beautiful blue streaks on their heads

photographing more birds - cormorants, pelicans, egrets and herons

enjoying the awesome sunset displays due to all the forest fire smoke in the area

hiding clues for a birthday treasure hunt

codes to solve for treasure hunt

marveling at the full moon during both the day and night

and watching a helicopter take off this morning that showed up unannounced last night at the resort hotel looking to spend the night :)

airsoft wars

airsoft field

Writing Thank You Notes For Fun Gag Gifts - Writing Idea

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:41:45 -0500

Today we worked on learning how to write proper thank you notes. I showed Emily the proper form and we read through sample letters online.
Then I presented her with a couple of wrapped presents to open. I told to pretend that these were gifts from two of my friends and since they were from adults she’d need to write a nice and proper thank you note. She eagerly opened them and was surprised at the “wonderful” gifts that were inside, which were really just print outs of weird gag type gifts from the Perpetual Kid website :) She thought the gifts were funny and so it made it fun to think of how you could possibly write a nice thank you note for it :)

Today she received an inflatable unicorn horn from Annie and an ice cream cone shaped lamp from Christy.

She then picked out printable thank you cards from this site and then wrote thank you notes to my two friends for the “wonderful” gifts. It was much more fun to come up with the just-right-words when dealing with funny gifts like these :)

Some of the other fun/odd gifts they have on their site that would be fun to try to come up with proper thank you notes for :)
bacon lollipops

pickle toothpaste

giant gummy bear

happy birthday tongue scrapper

tv dinner flavored gumballs

ice cream cone shower cap