Christmas 2009

Mary, Cary and Izzy the dog are spending a few days with us over the holidays. We hosted a group of friends at the house Christmas eve afternoon, gorged out selves on crab Christmas eve night and spent a fun, relaxing morning opening presents and enjoying each other's company. But of course I had to make a panorama of the scene after the presents were open.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family.

Love the Pietsch and Brubaker family

Super Artist

Delaney with her artwork. (Tiernan Pietsch photo)

NewArt Northwest Kids: Heroes and Heroines

Delaney Pietsch learned last week that her art piece named "Eco Woman" was selected for inclusion in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art's third annual k-12 student art show. NewArt Northwest Kids: Heroes and Heroines will be on view from December 1- March 28, 2010 in the north and south hallways of the JSMA on the University of Oregon campus.

Area students were asked to submit pieces in keeping with the theme of the museum's fall exhibition Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: The Art of the Superhero on exhibit at the museum now.

A jury selected 60 pieces for display from the over 400 works of art that were submitted according to Lisa Abia-Smith Director of Education for JSMA. Submissions came from as far away as Portland and included the communities of Beaverton, Corvallis, Sisters as well as children from Eugene and Springfield.

Delaney's piece featured a heroine name Eco Woman who makes "our world stay clean!"

"The superhero has the power to keep the world from being polluted. With the snap of her fingers she can turn plastic bottles into reusable items and toys! She also has a magical green thumb and can talk to plants and encourage them to thrive and grow!" according to Pietsch.

Year in Pictures 2009

A fun application I found on the web. Images of the family from the year.

The Great Egg Drop

The Great Egg Drop from Chris Pietsch on Vimeo.

Tiernan and Delaney joined in a science camp at the University of Oregon this month. The challenge of the day was to design a contraption that would protect an egg from a 4 story fall. Both girls' designs survived the ordeal with flying colors. But best of all, everyone had a blast.

Chris

Young Eagles spread their wings

Young Eagle Flights from Chris Pietsch on Vimeo.

The girls had the opportunity to take a 20 minute airplane flight out of the Creswell Airport recently. The flight was courtesy of a local flying club through a program called Young Eagles Flights. They got to fly in a four seat Piper Cherokee 180 flown by Mike Grant. The certificate they received was signed my none other than Harrison Ford although he was not in attendance that day.

Chris

Birthday Girl!

Tiernan is officially a teenager! She celebrated her 13th birthday Monday with family and a group of girl friends. We just got back from a whirlwind tour of Southern Idaho, visiting family, with me shooting the Oregon BSU football game. School starts this week. Crazy schedule, but we are pulling it all off.

Happy Birthday Tiernan!

Oregon Coast trip

One last summer fling on the Oregon Coast with the YaYa's, aka, the Champion, Yamamoto and Pietsch families. Here the girls build a dam along a small stream flowing into the Pacific Ocean at a beach near Pacific City. Click on the picture or here to see the full interactive panorama.

Chris

Coast Fork Cowboy Festival 2009

We had a blast this last weekend. Creswell put on the 5th Annual Coast Fork Cowboy Festival July 31st thru Aug. 2nd. In addition to taking in the entertainment, we hosted one of the bands, the Reddington family from Cove, Oregon who go by the stage name, The High Strung Band. They stayed with us for three days and we hit it right off.

They are, from left, father Shawn, mom Jennifer, Hunter, 14, Morgan, 12, and Landen, 15. They play a fun mix of folk music featuring the kids on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar.

We had such a good time we've already committed to hosting next year, although we told the Reddington's if they can find a host with more than one shower, we would understand. ;-)

Chris

Class Reunion!

Therese is attending her 30 year class reunion next week and coincidentally I stumbled on this www.yearbookyourself.com. We uploaded some photos and had some fun. It also gave me some ideas for my next makeover.

Chris

July 4th Photo Gallery

Hey everybody, the long awaited photo gallery of the trip to North Idaho is finally here! It was a great trip, bitter sweet, but it was wonderful getting to see everyone.

For those of you who might want to get prints, just click on the "Flicker" link in the slideshow. It will take you to a gallery on Flicker.com from which you can upload the photos OR buy prints. Let me know if you have any problems.

I may add some more photos later, so check back in. Oh, and please pass along a link to anybody you think would be interested.

Chris

Hope swim

The family enjoys a visit to Wendlemere on the Hope Peninsula where David and Jaye live. To see a panorama of the scene click here.

Fireworks at Sunnyside

The family spent a wonderful 4th of July at my Aunt Patsy and Uncle Jim's place on Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho. Cousins Danny and Kathy treated us to a spectacular fireworks display. Click here to see a full panorama of the show.

Chris

Family panorama

The family gathered July 3rd for Mom's memorial service in Sandpoint, Idaho. After the service I shot a panorama of a good portion of the family during a get together at Wesley and Jim's place. Click here to see!

Chris

Slight Detour tribute

My 4-H leader and high school yearbook adviser Marianne Love, who worked with Carol for many years, posted a very nice essay in Mom's memory on her blog today. View by clicking here.

Thanks Marianne.

Chris

Carol Ann Rojan Pietsch

Oct. 14, 1934 to June 17, 2009

Mom passed away early this morning at the age of 74. I thought that I would post a few pictures here in her honor today.

Chris

Spider Girls Produce

Entrepreneurs Delaney and Tiernan (with a little help from Mom and Dad) set up a produce stand in front of the house this week. They are selling flower, vegetable plants and strawberries to start. The pair managed to make $19 the first day!

Chris

Scholarship Winner!

Delaney learned this week that she is the recipient of a $1000 savings bond from her orthodontist Dr. Brad Chvatal. She received the award for her grades, community service and an essay on how she would help make the world smile. Right on Delaney!

Her essay read:

"I plan to make the world smile by . . . .

I think before I make the world smile, I'll start with my neighborhood. A path to the school is next to my house. A lot of families walk through there morning, afternoon and evening. I planted a perennials garden on the side of the path. When the flowers bloom, they will make people smile. Their smiles will make my smile even bigger!"

Delaney Pietsch

Orthodontist Dr. Brad Chvatal gives Delaney a scholarship at his office. (Chris Pietsch photo)

Speaking of records . . .

Delaney had a birthday party to attend, but the rest of us went to the Oregon Twilight Track Meet at Hayward Field in Eugene Saturday night.

The highlight of the evening was the running of a rare 4x1 Mile Relay staged by some Duck distance running stars. The scene became festive when officials invited spectators to line the track to cheer on the attempt. If you look carefully you will find Therese, Tiernan and myself in the crowd. (Thanks to colleague Kevin Clark at the Register-Guard for passing on the photo.) The relay team missed their goal of clocking the distance in under 16 minutes, but they did manage to break the old meet record by by a few hundredths of a second running the 4 miles in 16 minutes, 3.24 seconds.

Tiernan also managed to get autographs from 5 recent and former Olympians who still live or workout in Eugene. Pretty neat night.

Chris

Tiernan breaks 100M record

Record Falls from Chris Pietsch on Vimeo.

Exciting news out of Creswell, Oregon this week. Tiernan ran 14:33 seconds in the 100 meter dash at a track meet two weeks ago. Her time broke the previous 6th grade girl's Creswell Middles School record by 17/100s of a second. Meet officials didn't pass along the time to her coach until this week. She will get her name on a plaque in the new school gym later this spring.

Blogging for dollars

I read an article the other day that announced that 2 million bloggers are getting paid to blog. Well, stop the presses . . . er, hit the refresh button, because today it is 2 million and one! I am officially a "multimedia" blogger at the Register-Guard. Follow the link and come back often, I need the page view numbers to keep my job ;-)

http://tinyurl.com/pietsch

Chris

Zags point guard injuried during practice

Delaney broke her little finger at the knuckle during basketball practice this week. We went to the orthopedic doctor today and they suggested having it cast. Delaney was bummed out, but rallied a little after she got to pick a blue wrapper color. She will have to have the cast on for at least two weeks, but she went to basketball practice this afternoon anyway. What a trooper!

I shot a picture of her and her new cast with my cell phone camera.

Chris

Cool Shoes

Cool Shoes from Chris Pietsch on Vimeo.

Tiernan won a pair of wild shoes in the Coraline Nike Dunk giveaway. How cool is that?

Chris

On the Wild Side

Trip to Wildlife Safari from Chris Pietsch on Vimeo.

Found some time to edit video from our family visit to Wildlife Safari last month. We drove down to the park south of Roseburg, Oregon during Grandpa Gary's visit. Scroll down the list of older blog entries to see a panorama from inside of the van during that same visit.

Chris

Tiernan helps move into new school

I updated the photo gallery with a few images from the last day in the old Creswell Middle School, so I decided to move the entry up to the top. Tiernan and her fellow Middle School classmates got to see the inside of their new school building for the first time just before spring break. The teachers recruited several classes to help move books and other stuff over. On the last day teachers and students held a dance and other fun activities. Classes will begin in the new school after spring break.
Chris

X-ray vision

Delaney had an appointment with the orthodontist today. Contributions toward her treatment will be readily accepted. ;-)

While she was there they did a panorama X-ray of her teeth and jaw. The clinic was happy to let us have a copy and, of course, I just HAD to run it through my panorama software. Click on the image above or this link to take a 360 degree tour of the inside of Delaney's head!

Chris

Theater Camp

Theater Camp from Chris Pietsch on Vimeo.

Delaney and a few of her classmates participated in a theater camp at school this past week. On Friday they performed their version of the classic "Little Red Riding Hood" for parents and teachers.

Chris

Tiernan performs in school concert

Spring Concert from Chris Pietsch on Vimeo.

Tiernan's Middle School Band performs at Delaney's school on the first full day of Grandpa Pietsch's visit to Creswell.

Trip to Wildlife Safari

Grandpa Pietsch came to Creswell from Idaho this past weekend. One of the fun things we did during the visit was drive down south to Wildlife Safari in Winston. I photographed various scenes out the window during the hours long tour and put together this composite panorama from the pieces to create a hyper-tour! The audio is from video footage that I shot along the way as well. I'll try to get a video clip up in the next week or so.

Chris

Gadget Fun!

Project: Thingy Ma Jig from Chris Pietsch on Vimeo.

Here is a demonstration of the girls' "Rube Goldberg" device made out of toys, household items and duct tape.
Chris

Honor Students

Tiernan and Delaney received school honors this past week. Tiernan was the only 6th grader to receive the Superintendent's Award after earning a 4 point grade average and Delaney was named "Citizen of the Month" at the Elementary School.

Chris

Delaney basketball

Bulldogs '09 from Chris Pietsch on Vimeo.

Delaney and her YMCA basketball team, the Creswell Bulldogs, over come a sluggish first half to win a hard fought game in Springfield.

Chris

Family panoramas

Here are a few of the panoramas we created this past year. Click on the individual image to view. The panorama should popup in another window.

The first is of the girls and their friends in the camas field behind our house, the second is along the street in front of the house, and the last is from Halloween. And no, that is not my costume, that is a real horse. Buster is a Halloween regular in Creswell, this year as a pumpkin.

Chris

Family business

Tiernan continues a four generation tradition of journalism this past week as a photo she made was published in the Creswell (Oregon) Chronicle. She took photos of the school chess club and submitted them to the paper along with a short story.

Chris

Christmas Card

We had every intention of sending out a Christmas Card this year, but it just didn't happen. Coincidentally I have been meaning to upgrade the family web site to a new look. So we are killing two birds with one stone by posting our first ever blog!

So, Merry Christmas!, Happy New Year! . . . and Happy Valentines Day too, as long as we are at it.

Chris, Theresé, Tiernan & Delaney