The Beauty of Math

My friend forwarded this to me and instead of sifting through my address book to forward it on, I thought I would post it here.

The Beauty of Mathematics

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

*Brilliant, isn't it?*

And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1 234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

Mind Boggling...

The Twilight Tour

As I mentioned in my last post, times have been a bit on the crazy side these days. Since that leaves me clueless as to the best place to start catchup, I'll just start right in the middle with Aaron's family's visit. We of course had a great time with them and hope they did too...despite being tossed around to three different places to rest their head on their six night stay. It was all for the sake of adventure though, so no one can complain!

Our big adventure this time was the Olympic Peninsula, inspiration for the recent cult phenomenon, "Twilight." This is a craze that personally I don't understand...I read the first two books, pulling out my own hair every step of the way. No offense to those who like it, but I guess I was just never that kind of girl. It does make for a good adventure though, so off we went.

Our first stop en route to the famed Forks was Ocean Shores, which is the nearest beach to where we live. I figure it's always good to give those land locked Idahoans a chance to stare off into the never-ending waves.



We turned our trek northward for the Quinault Rain Forest. This is supposedly the world's largest Blue Spruce. Looks pretty big to me!



The Quinault Rain Forest surrounds Lake Quinault, which is really beautiful...



...and a great place to skip rocks...or try to throw them really far and hit the random poles sticking up out of the water.

We stayed the night out at Kalaloch in a very small cabin overlooking the ocean. The smaller the cabin, the better the chance for family bonding, right guys? Just off the beach are the "Kalaloch Rocks" that provided great opportunity for "daring the ocean" as Aaron's dad put it. We would run out to the rocks as the tide went out, then have to wait while it came back in and went back out again to return safely to shore.

Don't be jealous, but it was awesome. (This is the beach just south of La Push, for all you Twilighters out there...you CAN be jealous).

The weather had been on our side on the first day of travels, but the second day we weren't quite so lucky. We had the Hoh Rainforest and the booming metropolis of Forks on the agenda for the morning and didn't let the weather stop us. Considering the rain forest gets about 150 inches a year of rain (compared to Seattle's 40 and Idaho's 7), we knew we had a pretty good chance of getting soaked.

Somehow I didn't get any pictures of Forks itself, but since most of the movies are filmed down in St. Helens Oregon and up in Vancouver Canada, I think the actual town may have been a bit of a letdown for Aaron's sisters. Maybe we'll just have to save those for next trip!

Anyone interested in booking their own Olympia Peninsula tour, call me anytime, I seriously love playing Tour Guide.

Maybe I'll even take a picture of your backside to share with posterity.

Lost

So it has been exactly a MONTH now since I posted anything. So much for that two posts a month plan. Just thought I would post a quick note so my long distance fans, I mean readers, would know that we are still indeed alive up here, just a little distracted by life to post about it.

We have been in and out of town and are about to head out of town again to go visit the family in Texas!!!!! Aaron's family came into town for Makaiah's baby dedication and we had such a good visit.

In less exciting news of our busy-ness, my sister Jenn was in the hospital, then had to have surgery. My dad was in the hospital, then had to have surgery. Please pray for their "miraculous recovery" as my dad put it. I know the Lord loves us and has a plan for each of us.

Now, can we all promise to take care of ourselves and each other?!?! See you guys in a couple weeks (maybe:).

A New Baby Cousin!

Hillary & Dan's baby is finally here! Mikaiah Grace Donohoue was born Feb 14th and weighed 8 lbs 9 oz. That is almost as much as Adelyn did, if you can believe that. Poor Hillary--who I am pretty sure is about half my size! She was definitely a trooper and somehow was still smiling when she told us about her trauma...must certainly be all those new mommy endorphins!

Here is Aaron, the proud "blood uncle" as he called it. We have one niece on my side, but as he pointed out, it is definitely different when it is your own little sister having the baby.



We were sad to be down in Sunriver during the birth (those pics to come soon), but glad that we live so close that we could easily go up for a visit. Adelyn wasn't quite sure what to make of such a tiny little baby, but she warmed up to her fast enough. While we were there she tried to pet her a couple of times, kiss her, poke her in the mouth, slap her head, and use her face as support when trying not to trip....so hopefully that's not any indication of future relations between them!

Congratulations though Dan & Hillary! She is certainly a special baby to be born to you...and to be born on Valentine's Day AND the Chinese New Year. We are two for two for Holiday grandbabies, which gives Aaron and I something to shoot for for baby number two.

In closing, I just had to share the most awesome recent picture of baby number one. One night I was picking out the inside of some french-type crusty bread for Adelyn to eat with her noodles, but she kept reaching for the crust instead. So I decided to just give it to her to see what she would do with it.

When I turned back around, this is what I saw. And she sat there just like that gumming that crust until it dissolved in her mouth. Oh she is precious.

I wonder if she got the idea flipping through photo albums....

Made for Walking

Jay & Susan and clan, this is for you! I know I promised it weeks ago and I dropped the ball. She started taking a few steps here and there around her birthday, but now she is doing the real deal!! This video is from a couple of weeks ago and it is crazy to see how much better she already is at getting around. The last couple of days I haven't seen her crawl at all, which just means I have to be that much faster myself!!!

I know, I know she is getting so big and we can't believe it!!!

ONE!

December 31, 2008, Adelyn Mei Anderson was born. 8 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches. Here is what she looked like when we brought her home from the hospital:

December 31, 2009 she turned one...not quite sure her current stats since she was too sick for her one-year well visit, but we know she's a cutie! Here she is in her $5 ride at the mall...loving every minute of it.

It's been a busy year for us, but a good year and we are so happy to have her in our family. Those of you who are around here know she has quite a little personality. She is very expressive and lets you know loud and clear what she wants, often times just with her face (I'm sure you can guess what happened to this crown right after the picture was taken).

She has been busy adding vocab (and nodding) to her expressions and can say: dada, momma, bye-bye, hi, water, cracker, banana, cheese, hot, dog, go, outside, up, down, sock, and book (my personal favorite). Reading is by far her favorite pasttime, but I think dancing to the ringtones on my phone is a close second. She loves music so much that she even dances to the songs that we sing for her and has recently added headbanging to her repetoire of moves!

She is still working on the walking thing, but is getting braver and braver and now takes up to five or so steps at a time. Here she is blowing out her candles, well, Jadyn blowing out her candles is more like it!

I made carrot cake cupcakes for Adelyn since that is the Baria family favorite and I figured I should indoctrinate her early on. Sadly, I think she would have been a lot happier with the traditional chocolate, as she didn't even finish one little cupcake!!

She is indeed a big fan of chocolate, but her favorite food is definitely bananas. She isn't digging cow's milk so far and last night we discovered she has a love of tofu, so maybe she IS half Chinese after all! Pretty much she just loves whatever we are eating, and wants to be just like us--she even cried and cried to have her own chopsticks to eat. She is also still working on the teeth though and finally almost has four.

Thanks to all those who helped us celebrate...including those who helped us celebrate from a distance. And thanks to all who have helped us out along the adventures...with advice, babysitting, friendship, support, praising her genius and cuteness...it all contributes to our happy standard of living. :)

It [was] the Holiday Season

In case anyone is still interested in Christmas news, since I've yet to blog ours, here you go. Obviously we were pretty excited because this was Adelyn's first Christmas and she was actually old enough to enjoy it, unlike what her first Christmas would have been if she had come on her due date last year.

It wasn't the most relaxing Christmas...Aaron's brother flew into town from Utah on Christmas Eve so we came up with a bit of a crazy schedule between families that involved a lot of driving and a lot of fun.

Christmas Eve we had an early dinner with my parents (who were nice enough to accomdate our crazy plan), during which Jenn showcased her yet again triumphant wrapping. This year instead of tags she used our pictures to identify what was for who, and instead of traditional ribbon, red feather boas...what will she come up with next!



Then we headed straight to the airport to get Seth and then headed to spend the night at Aaron's sister Hillary and her husband Dan's new house. We had too many munchies and too many laughs and stayed up too late to even remember it all. With no little kids around, we slept in and opened gifts at our leisure. Here is Adelyn Christmas morning getting ready for the excitement.



Then we had a yummy yummy brunch, more good times, and headed back down to my parents to open gifts and have Christmas dinner and play more games with them. Every year I am always touched by everyone's generosity and kindness. I love my family and I love my in-laws. And in a random side note, I love our church ward too...I coordinated our Adopt-A-Family this year and was seriously amazed...our living room and dining room were filled with gifts that people had gotten for those in need this year.

I love the Christmas season...and know that the "Spirt of Christmas" that people attribute to the immense love and giving that always happens this time of year is because of Christ and the love that He has for each of us (whether others around attribute that to Him or not). I hope as Christians we can work hard for our nation to hold on to that.

When you see a little face like that how can you not feel the love God has for all of us?!?! Love you!