We want to invite everyone who can come to join us in celebrating our son, Conner's, 19 years of life this Saturday at St Sharbel's at 1804 SE 16th Avenue in Portland, OR.

St Sharbel is close to our home and Conner has been there to celebrate with cousins Mano and Anthony at their first communion. We so appreciate brother Joseph working with his church for us.

We are meeting from 11:00 to 3:00, but it is an open house so just drop in or stay awhile to share in memories, prayers, togetherness, love, and sorrow.

Eric and I, Caity, Topher, Cece, Caroline, Chani, and Channin have felt the love surrounding us from family, wonderful neighbors, and friends from all our communities. Thank you!

We've especially appreciated Conner's cousins and classmates and fellow Scouts sharing memories as you give us back pieces of Conner to hold on to.

Conner died from suicide and his notes have shared a little of his hidden pain and a lot of his love for us.

We want his legacy to be an encouragement for everyone to share their lives with others and if you have pain to find some one to talk with. Hugs to each of you from Barbara and Eric and the seven Cees.

We are grateful for each precious moment we had of Conner. We are grateful for each of you who have been part of Conner's life. We are grateful for each of you far away that share in our sorrow.

Tomorrow is first day of school for three more of our offspring, but Conner has to get back to campus first. So today is Back to School for him!

In the middle of duck faces, double chins, and other photo goofiness, there was this one "almost" normal picture Eric snapped of them together! — 

I got to hang out with these guys for the second week of my summer vacation at the beach. The cool temps were much nicer than the 100 degree temps in Portland. #summervacation #familytime#beach --Eric

It's more fun at the beach.

We enjoyed visiting Barbara, Eric and their 4 teenage daughters.  Son Conner was home for the weekend from College, too. --Grandma Rose Stickle

Looking back at 2014:
End of  May, our trusty Dodge van carried us down to Monterary Bay Academy, California, to help granddaughter, Kari Stickle, celebrate her high-school graduation.  Then it mosied back up to Portland to help grandson Conner Hall celebrate his high-school graduation with a grade eight graduation of granddaughter Caroline Hall tucked in between.

The graduation of Conner in Portland was a lovely family event.  All his syblings were present to make the day very special.  Niece, Flora Flint,  joined us in these celebrations.  In the afternoon, Kari donned her blue graduation gown besides Conner’s maroon one for a photo.  They both looked quite distinguished.   
--Grandma Rose Stickle

Conner and Cece just passed their learner's permit test 

Conner is busy annoying the girls to the best of his ability.  

Conner is now munching on a serving bowl sized bowl of cereal...

We had all the excitement of trick-or-treating this week.  Conner wore dog ears headband and a box filled with stuffed puppies and a sign “Free pet, Only to good home, Housebroken”, 

Conner just had his first ‘lunch bunch’ book club meeting.  There is one other boy and lots of girls and he doesn’t really worry about that.  

School is back in session! Conner has the longest hair of boys in his classroom – even with my “rice bowl” haircut I gave him.  He’ll be visiting a real barber sooner rather than later!  Fifth grade moves upstairs in the school.  There are no new kids in his classroom. 

Mom had all the grandkids pick out their Christmas gifts from the ADRA gift catalog.  They really enjoyed doing that.  Conner says his class in school bought a goat for an African family last year – I think that was the gift he chose again.

Yesterday, Eric, Caitlyn, Chris and Conner took the Red Cross First Aid and CPR class – all day.  

Conner is still a tiny guy, but he was a great trooper at Scout camp, Eric says.  Keeps up with all the big fellows – even when he was sick to his stomach.  He is ready to get back to school to hang out with his buddies. 

Little girls, Beth and Conner are all sleeping in a tent in the back yard. 

Conner is busy writing up facts for his Oregon state report and studying for a test on fractions.  

We got in trouble because we were asked to clean the yard, but we didn't and then we had to do it now.  Love Conner

Conner's class were responsible for the music, Bible readings and prayer in the school church service.  Conner carried one of the banners.  

Conner is traveling the world in his "Global Reading" program.  

Conner is really enjoying a unit on whales and we learn new facts about whales every day from him! 

He has also finished a safety unit and we got to check our smoke alarm batteries and practice our home firedrill!

Conner is doing a safety unit now and busy memorizing phone numbers.  

Conner is six and a half.  His strengths in first grade are creating stories and telling jokes.  He's looking forward to his first Cub Scout camping trip with Dad and brother this weekend.

Eric, Christopher and Conner are packing to go on a Cub Scout camping trip tomorrow.  They'll have fun as long as they keep warm and dry!  

Another fun project Eric is working on is making a video for Conner's class.  His teacher has videotaped all the kids doing four different speeches (dinosaurs, presidents, I Have a Dream, and All About Myself).  She has also given us a huge stack of their artwork to go with this.  I get to scan those in.  Eric has digitized all the video and then has been learning a lot more about the video editing programs he has to put it all back together.  The end result is going to be impressive.

I've volunteered for something similar, but on a much smaller scale for a year end meeting of Boy Scouts.  Being a Tiger Den Leader has gotten me out of the back row at meetings and into the thick of things.  However, I'm leaving the car construction for the Pinewood Derby squarely in Eric's lap!  Christopher's car was a prize winner last year.

Caitlyn, Christopher and Caroline collected flower petals today and then left them in a trail all around the block.  Conner went behind them picking them back up, but gave up after about 25 feet.

Don't ask me the why of this.  I don't know!

On December 23 the kids have a morning run through for the Christmas Eve mass nativity scene.  On either Monday or Tuesday Eric will take the older kids to the church to help do the Christmas decorating.  (We haven't found out when it will be yet.  They've done this for the past 4 or 5 Christmas's.)  There aren't many people that do it, but they get to put of the beautiful chreche and usually get a tour of the bell tower - which I haven't gotten yet!  Christmas Eve Mary, Joseph and Manuel will be over in the afternoon for an early cookies and fruit supper.  The chuch service is at 7:30.  They plan on going to that too.  Flora was going to try to get out of her obligations and come too...  Caitlyn will be one of the 'petitioners' (part of the prayer), Chris and Conner will be shepherds, Cecelia and Caroline will be angels for the nativity scene.

Conner is enjoying first grade.  His teacher uses a motivational system with name sticks moving forwards and backwards on the chart to earn rewards or the opposite.  This weekend we had a phone call home from her - this was the "GOOD" phone call home!  Conner sat down with the home school girls yesterday since school had a day off and showed them how to do our worksheets on the letter D.

We thank God for each of you  - as the kids say at bedtime prayers:  "for Grandmas and Grandpas, Uncles and Auntys, cousins, relatives, neighbors, friends, classmates and everyone else who touches our lives".  

We are all looking forward to summer.  I think Conner will appreciate it the most.  He has done well in Kindergarten and even been very well behaved but the long days take a lot out of him.

Here's a remembrance of our trip - haiku by Eric after our days at Crater Lake:

           Go to Crater Lake
   Watch it rain and rain and rain
          What a vacation!

Our trip did start out like that!  Driving through rain to Crater Lake, encountering fog at the rim on the way to the campsite, setting up a nice cozy camp.  We had a lovely hike down Annie Creek Canyon amid the drizzle - even Chandra riding in the backpack enjoyed that.  We moved at Caroline's speed with stops thrown in for her to sample all the soil while climbing down and clambering up the canyon sides.  We also stopped often for rock splashing in the creek.  No critter sightings, but lots of wild flowers.  The most common (and the most identifiable by us) was the wild lupine.

We did not have any human-bear encounters but saw lots of golden-mantled ground squirrels, stellar jays, Clark's Nutcrackers, and some large biting beetles.

Tuesday we encountered fog blowing out of the lake and snow flurries while we drove the rim.  Rain torrents were coming down.  Our tent floors were leaking and all available towels were soaked trying to keep the sleeping bags from sopping up the wet.  We enjoyed a visit to one of the very nice Visitor Centers and got a current weather report - rains continuing through Friday!

Back to our campsite to pack everything up.  Walking around in the tents was like walking on a waterbed.  There were inches of water underneath, and some of it seeping in all the time!  We were very happy to get back to the beach house and be welcomed by Ann.  We kept the washer and dryer running straight through and Eric rigged lines in the garage to dry off the tents!

We did get in more camping though!  After cleaning and drying everything we packed back up and headed south down the coast to Cape Perpetua.  It was a lovely spot and the weather could not have been more enjoyable.  We hiked in the forest and on the beach.  We investigated tide pools and the kids found shells and crab pieces in the river where they played near the Heceta Head Lighthouse beach.  The mud puddles around camp were full of tadpoles (and mosquito larvae).  A musical creek running past our tents lulled us to sleep.

It also was heavily explored by the kids!  Eric did an afternoon hike up to the top of the Cape which is the highest point on the Oregon Coast.  He had a beautiful view for miles.  As we were leaving the campground we drove up to the top of the cape again but fog blowing in had shut down the view.

Besides the tadpoles there were tiny fish in the creek for Chris to catch; starfish, anemone, hermit crabs and more in the tide pools; dogs and cats at the park hosts campsites; stellar jays and crows - one of which ate our leftover pancakes right through a heavy freezer ziplock bag; more squirrels and chipmunks; garter snakes Caitlyn and Cecelia spotted on the hiking trails and roads; and one ancient Sitka spruce tree that had originally grown on a log so its roots were up off the ground and we could walk under it.

More of our vacation was spent at the beach house.  We enjoyed the July 4th holiday with Mary, Joseph and Manuel going to the local parade where every float or other entry threw out candy for the kids, and lighting our own sparklers.  We visited a local nursery and filled up all the pots we have out there as well as putting some straight into the ground.  Eric started clearing out some of the woods and that turned into a HUGE job which we are going to try to finish this coming weekend.  

We celebrated Conner's 5th birthday at the pool and he got some pool toy gifts to make it more fun. He is ready for school now!

I think that Caitlyn, Christopher, Conner, Cecelia and Caroline are all ready to head out camping again - anytime!  And after all that is why we do it, right?!

What's coming up for us in the rest of the summer?  Next week is Oregon campmeeting, The week after starts two and a half weeks with a Japanese exchange student.

There are possibilities of a Boy Scout campout and a trip to Aunt Mary's annual party during that time.  I'm not working starting in August.  We have a second Japanese exchange student coming for two weeks in August.  Eric's folks will be visiting in August and my folks in September...   and then school starts again!

Conner the five year old - he's tackling a new math workbook he got for his birthday...

Conner has learned to tie his shoes.  Judy made him a cardboard shoe with a shoe lace to practice on and he's got it!  He tried to show Daddy last night, but didn't succeed and told me, "Sometimes when people sit beside me I can't do it!"

...This morning she had Conner's picture of Jesus as a shepherd on her desk. I asked her about that and she said, "But I want a picture too."

Conner is proud of his own lunch box.   

Conner has learned to play computer games and so now is in the competition to do that at home.

He no longer needs speech therapy, but misses having his very own teacher.