Curious??

Many people have been asking me how things are going with our new oldest son, Daniel. I realize that I haven't really posted much about our new adventures of having a high schooler. (Insert excuses of being busy here) So here we go.

This is one of our few pictures of him. It was taken on the Deschutes River in August. We had planned a day trip for some more rafting, just knowing that the weather would be nice and HOT at the end of August. But wouldn't you know it-we had this weird cold front move in and it was windy and 70. That is way too cold to be sitting on a raft in a cold river. But the guys toughed it out and had a good time anyways. The kids and I were happy to drive the shuttle and take pictures from the road. But anyways, I'm getting away from my original subject matter.

Daniel is a very nice boy, and gets along well with the kids. They anxiously await his arrival every evening after cross country practice. His english is very good, and we don't have any problems communicating with him. He is always happy to go along wherever we are going and to do whatever we are doing.

I think he is somewhat of a novelty at school. In a small town like Hermiston, you don't get much exposure to other cultures. When we went to get him registered before school started, I noticed a lot of people looking at him, and he got the royal treatment when scheduling all the classes he needed. He told us last night that when he was walking down the hall yesterday he smiled at some girls and one of them was so busy staring at him that she walked into a garbage can! How embarassing for her, but we got a good laugh out of it.

This picture is from the Hermiston Invite last week.

Carson, Jantzen and I helped out and were able to watch the races from where we were. Daniel did really well, and said that he passed about 12 people. Lots of the kids who run cross country do it all year in preparation for the season. But Daniel doesn't have many opportunities for athletics in Germany so he is at a disadvantage in that respect. But he is doing really well and is improving very quickly. Naturally, I love to hear about his workouts and races because I'm involved in the same thing right now. I could never come close to competing with these kids. I'd probably be the one coming in last that everyone feels sorry for.

All in all, everything is going along quite nicely. It really has been a fun experience for our family. I would definitely recommend hosting an exchange student to anyone who has an extra bedroom and a little extra food in their pantry.