After leaving PA we headed up to Rochester. We arrived a day earlier than expected because our PA visit was cut short. Please pray for Nancy as she continues to deal with health issue. The "T's" as we call them have been an intricate piece of our life story and we love them dearly.
We arrived in Rochester and were greeted by Brad's whole family. Riley has just finished his first year at Houghton College where he is studying computer science as well as many other interests. He is enrolled in the Honors Program and after a brief visit home, will head out west for some speciality studies. Since we are having lunch with him and his girlfriend, I will let him explain:
Next week, my honors class and I are heading to Montana to conduct research in the Rocky Mountains. After nearly thirty hours of driving we're planning on stopping in Great Falls where we're camping out at a KOA while we conduct research for four days in the nearby Lewis and Clarke National Forest. My research group and I are planning to use a specialized MAPIR Survey 3W camera attached to a SwellPro SplashDrone 4 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to capture normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) images of a variety of testing locations at different elevations. Additionally we will be collecting ground data on the population densities and diameters at breast height (DBH) of trees within subplots at each location. After completing the data collection in the Great Falls area, we plan on spending a day in Glacier National Park before camping out in Missoula where we will conduct four more days of research. We will finish the trip by visiting Yellowstone National Park and then driving home. With the data we collect, we plan on conducting an analysis of the changes in the health of conifer forests as a function of the elevations at each site. As you go down an elevation gradient, temperature and humidity increase which is similar to the way that climate change is impacting many ecosystems around the world. By investigating the changes in conifer forest health across such an elevation gradient, we may be able to use to the results as a proxy to better understand how these environments may change as climate change continues to progress.
We had lunch at Stromboli Express with Riley and Alyssa. David started Stromboli Express when we were in Rochester. All our kids worked there and it was fun to get re-acquinted.
Then we will be off to ball games. Elijah plays baseball and Naomi is on the flag football team. What a busy schedule they have. Elijah has two interest: Baseball and Music. You can see the latest video on my youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY1pGb_qBDzwEnUR-PaxkVg
Naomi, follows in her mom's footsteps with the violin. Now she has ventured into the realm of Flag Football.
Brad continues with his Family Medical Practice and both him and Melissa are involved in the HIS Medical Clinic. Brad of course works in the Medical aspect while Melissa works with publicity: All
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