Sweet and Tragic

This is a bittersweet post. We recently enjoyed some family time at this lovely cider mill. The people there were wonderful and friendly. The owner Carolyn is an acquaintance of our family. She rescued me with car parts last year when I broke down on the way to Hannah's soccer tournament.
Harold is one of the truck drivers that has delivered apples that she then makes her absolutely delicious cider with. Today a man killed one of Carolyn's employees. Carolyn a small and older lady tried to wrestle the man back so that her employee could get away. Unfortunately her efforts were in vain and the sweet lady that worked for her was killed. Carolyn your efforts were very brave and we are so sorry this happened. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

I had meant to talk about the beauty and sweetness of this little place. Just a stop on the side of the road and a little piece of heaven. The food fresh made was delicious. The cider too and being located where it is the gardens are lush and were so lovely to walk through as we wandered through and fed the various animals that are a part of the little farms attraction. I don't feel quite as talkative about this now so just a few comments posted along with the pictures...

Food so good we had to lick the last drops off ourselves and the paper they came in. No wasting it on napkins.



Critters abound, all eager for treats (grain).



Well except this guy. They had a special set-up for the buck. I think so people could still enjoy feeding him, but not risk petting him and getting the smell on them. He was suppose to walk up the ramp and eat out of the can which you sent up to him on a rope and pulley system. He either wasn't hungry or just plain didn't feel like it, because all he did was stare at us. Oh well.




I just thought these guys were darling. I love the fluffy little bottom :)

I lied... Check this out

Okay last post said I didn't have many pictures of Kaitlin. That's not unusual. She just doesn't ham out like her siblings. You have to pretty much track her down for a picture. Well miss "no camera" decided to go and be a total ham. This ranks it's own post. Very cute Kaitlin :)







Wait, where are your socks? You didn't go to your first day of school and forget your shoes did you?

Back to School Back to Blog

I've truly been terrible in the blogging department. My fingers have itched to get on here and post before I forget all this stuff, but time has just not been there. Today is the beginning of my getting caught up. The kiddos are back in school and at this point their still excited about it.

It's been kind of nice actually. Wyatt has gotten up every morning and gotten himself ready without me having to say a word. By the time I get downstairs he's well on his way to having accomplished his morning responsibilities and ready to help out. I'm not sure if he's my son, but I think he is??? Either way I'll claim him, even if all this wonderfulness wears off tomorrow:)

Just to note how far behind I am. These are the pictures from the end of last years school year as well as a few from the start of this year. Sad huh?! Oh well, starting with the oldest...

Kaitlin



Kaitlin and her buddies :)



Do you think maybe they were happy about the end of the school year here? Maybe.





Kaitlin and Hannah



Hannah (She's a little more into the camera thing then Kaitlin if you can't tell. )

Hannah and her friends last day of school photos...




Gum?
Well she wanted to remember it so here it is.

GUM!



More buddy shots...




Wyatt

This was his class' last field trip. They went to his teachers house for a BBQ and then to the park next door. It was inventive on the teachers part. She wanted to offer the kids one more field trip, but didn't have a ton of funds and so since her class was near the school the class could walk and not have the expense of a bus. It was a lot of fun.



Wyatt's last day of school. The class, after cleaning and packing got to play board games with their classmates. Harold and I got to come into both boys classes and enjoy a little time with each of them on their last day of school.



A spotlight on art.

I don't really study art and I don't make it a point to go to art museums, but I do enjoy it when I do go and I really liked the art study Wyatt's teacher did this year. They studied various artists, learned about their methods and then made similar artwork to what the artist had done. Wyatt really enjoyed this as well and I wanted to spotlight his artwork here. He brought home his very own "portfolio" of art the last week of school.




I'm going to pause here for a moment as I end with Wyatt's section of this post. He had a great teacher and I was extremely sad to hear that due to all the budget cuts she was one of the teachers cut last year (she was new to the district and seniority won out). I know they can't cover everything that's often listed out for them to cover with the children, but I feel she really tried and gave the kids a very well rounded education and I was so sad they let her go. I ran into her right before school started and she was not able to be one of the ones hired back on, but she's very positive and determined to make use of this time until she can obtain another teaching post. Our family wishes her the best and hopes she'll be back with us when Wade reaches her grade level :)

Last bit of art...

Our PTO held an art event for the kids. We decided to hold it around the time of the talent show so that more children could feel like they participated and were able to show off their talent. It worked out great. We had quite a few who participated.

I was kind of surprised that Wyatt and Wade decided to do this kind of art, but this is what they wanted to do. Wyatt has learned a new fun way to fold paper airplanes so he folded one and decorated it and Wade decided to follow big brother's foot steps and make a paper craft of his own, a rocket. Me, I just made the flowers to go in between the art in the school display case.



Wade
Before I forget Wade was in the talent show this year. Both boys tried out, but had a reversal of results. Wyatt was in it last year and Wade was in it this Year. I'm glad they both got to do it once. They were mighty brave to get up in front of the whole student body like that (Abt .6/700 people, probably the latter after you add in all the parents who attended.)

Wade's Talent Show video (notice his walk back to his chair at the end :)






I have to tell you a quick story about this picture below. One day after school as I was picking up the kids the principle comes up to me and tells me he has something to tell me about Wade. I was concerned at first and laughing in the end. We have such an animated principle! He said that he was walking to some classrooms when he walked past the boys bathroom and peeking in saw Wade. He had left his classroom to go to the restroom. He had also gotten distracted while there. The principle thought it was pretty cute that Wade was in there using water to spike his hair. He'd decided he needed a new look in the middle of the day apparently. I tried really hard to keep a straight face and tell him he needed not to waste his class time like that, but I think I failed miserably. Oh well, if it happens again maybe I'll be able to keep a straight face, until then it was cute.


All the grades have a Young Author's Night and the picture below was from Wade's. Each child is given a water bottle and a pencil for "signing autographs." Then the parents go around and listen to their stories, write comments for them on a piece of paper and get the child's autograph. It's fun. They always have great stories. I'm constantly amazed by their wonderful imaginations!



Wade's class had a field day. I was invited to be one of the parents for his field day. I had started to try and scrapbook all the photos that I was behind on by the way so that later I could just plunk the page into a book. Wade's field day is as far as I got. Not sure if their going to enlarge so you can read the text or not, but hope you enjoy the pictures anyway.



Wade's last day of school photos. Harold got to come help in the classroom :) I don't know if he enjoyed it, but I enjoyed seeing him there. It's not often he gets to do something like that. Beside that picture is Wade making a picture of himself. The pictures were hung up in the hall at the beginning of this (09-10) school year with a big welcome back to school sign. I loved it. I took a picture of Wade on the bulletin board (see below).

Finally Wade too had a special goodbye. He had the same teacher for two years. She moved up with her whole class. They became quite the little family. I loved seeing how bonded they all were, but it's on to a new teacher this year. We'll miss you Jenn!




Music

Being silly at practice (playing with his eyes closed)


Recital





Wyatt practicing this summer.




Finally here they all are on their first day of school 09-10 school year.
Kaitlin 10th, Hannah 8th(last year of jr. high),
Wyatt 5th(last year of elementary), Wade 3rd

Water Works

This picture is from a combined Primary Activity Day and Cub Scout Pack meeting. I had asked our Primary President if we could combine the activity and have the boys teach a game they learned at camp, thus fulfilling their requirements for helping at a Primary Activity Day and a July meeting for their Summer Time Pack Award. I love it when a plan comes together.

At camp I'd taught them all a version of water baseball. Buckets of water are the bases and you have to put your foot in the base. Wet sponges are the ball. Most of the rest of the rules are the same though we did make the rules easier as far as if you even nick the ball you can run and there were no fouls. The get together was already a water fight party so the game was a good addition to the fun.

After playing the game they went back to their water fight. One of the older girls at the party kept squirting me. I couldn't figure it out, why it was so fun to squirt me. I knew which family she belonged too, but I didn't even know her first name. Anyway towards the end she got me real good, right in the ear with a hose. I was rubbing that ear for a good week. Well come to find out she has quite the prankster persona. At a different church activity she got one of the Bishopric and one of the Young Men wet. Well we all made a pack then and there to get her good. So tonight, down to the church the boys and I went. We rounded up the rest of our firing squad and armed with some pretty good squirt guns (okay only one good one the other super soakers has issues and so we had one good one and 3 puny ones plus a pitcher of water) we went in search of our quarry. Her father so kindly captured and held her for us. She had gone into hiding, guessing we were looking for her. We blind folded her and tied her hands behind her back then marched her outside where we proceeded to soak her. She was a very good sport about the whole thing and we did bring her a towel to dry off with, but funnily enough she came prepared with her own, thinking she had a pretty good chance of getting her come upance this night. She did indeed. Something tells me she may not want to do this again any time soon :)

I plan to take her some flowers on Sunday for being such a good sport.

Rotatiller, Yippee!!!

I know I've completely fallen off the blogger wagon here. It's sad really. I have tons to post, but no time to do it. Hopefully I can make some slow progress in the next couple weeks. Summer is flying by and we're spending a great deal of it outdoors. We're either gone doing something somewhere else outside or home working on our own property. We've traveled or been involved in so much in years past that I've really had some catch-up work to do on our property. Oh, plus I have to get last years blogs pulled down. I'm about to run out of photo storage space. Something tells me I take too many pictures, but hey I like my blog with pictures. I'm a pictures sort of person. I need visual reminders of what I was talking about on here. Anyway the reason the take down is taking so long is that I'm putting it all into a book. I've always said this site took the place of scrapbooking and I meant it. I can't wait till it's finished:) Well here's to getting at least one blog posted before the summer is gone...

You might be wondering about the bizarre title???? Well it's taken about a decade to talk my husband into allowing the garden to be rotatilled, but it's finally happened. It's over our drain field so he's always been very cautious about using a rotatiller on it. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! (It was all I asked for for Mother's Day.)

Ah, I normally turn the garden by hand. Slightly back breaking. That nice little machine turned the whole thing in a matter or minutes. (Very happy SIGH:) I then happily planted a variety of plants some warm climate, some cold. I never expect too much out of the warm climate plants since we have such cold nights and frosts just about every month, but I always plant them in hopes I just might get something from them. I might be getting lucky this year. The weather is holding and so are the plants. KEEPING MY FINGER'S CROSSED HERE!!!!!!!!!

It's been a interesting garden too. I've really had to work on identifying some of the things. The kids kept asking "Mom what's this?" Some were easy, other's not so much. Our dear sweet puppy helped me out by pulling all my paper tags before I had a chance to make more permanent ones. Nothing like the guessing game when some of the plants are closely related and right next to each other, hmm???? The question, "Mom what's this?" is often repeated as I've had the kids helping with the weeding. A few times I've even had to say I'm not sure if that's a weed or the plant and we've waited just a bit for it to grow so we could tell. Everything has finally developed to where I can tell what it is and I'm grateful. Well the onions and the leeks still look an awful lot alike, but I'm sure we'll be able to tell eventually and at least I'm certain their not a weed. Meanwhile the true weeding beast is upon us and we must continue to do battle pretty much daily so yes our time is pretty taken up, but I've officially completed one blog now. Yeah, me:) As I said, maybe I'll get caught up on the rest soon?! Hope all your summers are going wonderful!

B...I...G Update

Wow, so much has happened in the past few weeks and I'm keeping up, but just barely. I need a nap and in fact had to take one yesterday. My body said it was tired and that was that. Just to run through some things I meant to blog about, but life has been so eventful I haven't had the time (Pictures may come later or already be posted depending on the activity.) even the Friday's Food posts have hit the back burner.

I guess the kick off for this marathon was Friday the 15th of May. We're always busy, but we stopped and went to a movie with Grandma. I was apparently tired back then too though, because thinking back I fell asleep during the movie. I tried to stay awake, really I did, but I was sitting still and well I don't seem to do that well anymore.

After the movie I went to a fireside. It was called a "Frugal Fireside." The speakers talked about some great ways to save money and some great principals to live by. Well worth going to.
The day after that however feels like the real kick off to our recent life's eventfulness...
We attended the funeral of our dear friends father. He was a very sweet man and he's gone home to be with his wife. That same afternoon I attended a baby shower. That felt slightly ironic, a baby shower and funeral all in the same day.

Pole Pedal Paddle was the next day and it came on the heels of the kids school triathlon. Between all the running Wade did for the school triathlon, that weeks lacrosse and PPP he says he's doing the reading next year instead. I do believe the kid was wore out!

As the days continue other regular daily and weekly activities flowed into any vacant time of course. Never a bored moment! In the term regular I include our weekly sports, music, scouts etc... Around the 21st I got to speak to a group of ladies on food storage. A rather favorite topic of mine. I enjoyed the experience. I had fun with it thanks to some kind donors of props for my talk :)

Wade's class field trip to the caves came on the heals of the speaking engagement and I do not remember what happened that weekend, but it may have been the boys camp out in the back yard. I think that's right. Yep!

Memorial Day was after that. We had breakfast at the church and then followed it with all the fun target practice and a bunch of garden work. I got my late Mother's day gift of a rota tilled garden. Something I've been asking for for quite some time since I usually turn it by hand and I'm just not feeling that spry this year. I guess I missed mother's day in the previous ramblings so I'll back up here a second....

I was pampered with gifts from my mother-in-law and children. Hubby was out of town and I have to say I was pretty bad about celebrating this year other then calling people. My favorite besides the rota tilled garden was the Rosemary bush. I told my mother-in-law she was inspired, since mine had survived all winter only to bite the dust this spring. Weird! Oh, well. I'm enjoying some savory cooking with my new rosemary bush. Wade almost had a major catastrophe in that Jasper got a hold of his presents he made at school. I thought it funny and ironic that one of the items was a poem about all the reasons mother wouldn't want a dog and here the dog had chewed it. We haven't had too many losses in this department and even this was salvageable.

Days continuing with errands and regular life until that Thursday when we had the honor of attending my nephews Eagle Scout Court of Honor. Pretty awesome achievement! He put in over 400 hours on his project. The speaker said that in the last year something like 17 boys had achieved Eagle giving over 3700 hours of service to our community.

The next day seemed to be a very loaded day. Wade had actually tried out for the school talent show earlier in the week and got in. It was now Wyatt's turn. He tried to practice first thing in the morning, but found his violin was completely out of tune. He'd practiced the night before and it was fine, but all the sudden it was out and out bad. He tried putting it back in to no avail so after dropping them off at school I ran the violin over to his instructor. She helped get it back in tune and then I dashed off with it to the school. Wyatt tried out, but didn't make it this year. He's totally fine with that! He was just supporting the school in participating.

After all the above I went home where the rest of my day was consumed with scouting stuff. I'm happy to say though that the time was well spent as two more boys were able to achieve their Webelos rank as well as their Arrow of Light and one younger gentleman was able to achieve his Bear rank. It's just as fun for me as a leader so see them reach these great goals!

On the 30th we woke and dashed off to a church service project set up with United Way Days of Caring. We gardened at one of the local schools. Their garden was having some major work done as well as a pond installed. Some of the plants that had been where the pond was were distributed to anyone who wanted them. I got some lovely mint and some raspberries to take home. That was a neat addition to my day.

We left the service project and after taking our plants home headed off to the park where we met up with the scouts for a big 3 mile hike. I say big because their just little guys. They did pretty good. Some of the littler ones straggled towards the back, but a parent and one other leader helped make sure no one fell too far behind. It took a half an hour longer then I thought it would just because we had to stop a lot, but we made it back! Next time I think I need a pack mule though to haul water. I took 5 water bottles, just in case someone didn't have enough. Turned out I didn't have enough. Wade drank 4 by himself. He's always been a pretty heavy water drinker. He sweats so much I'm pretty sure he has to. Anyway, he can carry his own next time I think. The little guzzler :) It may be time to invest in one of those water back packs for that kid!

We left the hike and dashed to the store. I had not planned ahead and made dinner. I was so tired I didn't feel like looking at my kitchen. I was pretty sure the house looked like a tornado had come through and so I gave in and bought dinner. I came home tidied up and soon we had the missionaries and our neighbors from church over at the house enjoying a simple meal out on the back deck. The weather was nice enough for it. That busy day complete I can't tell you how much I looked forward to the next day where I could SIT in church. Sitting was a very nice thought at this point. I only hoped if I snoozed off from lack of movement someone would elbow me awake.

After church on Sunday we had some sick friends that we went and took some goodies to. One of them has hand line irrigation she needed changed and I had talked to her before about the boys gaining experience with this. This seemed as good a time as any so off we went. I kept telling the kids to watch there step and make sure they missed the cow pies and we did really good up till the very end, when I STEPPED IN THE COW PIE! Really, what kind of example was that :)

The next week looked pretty basic on the calendar only "the usual stuff." Well it has been somethin' else. Somewhere in the writing above I missed posting that another lovely lady from my church had her father pass away. It wasn't unexpected, but still your saddened and I was not able to attend the funeral due to the hike I was in charge of with my scouts. My heart went out to her though. Similarly we also missed a bridal shower for a sweet girl in our ward. Just too much on the schedule, but we wish her the best. We have more celebrations on the horizon and less scheduling problems when it comes to attending them...

2 more baby showers,
another bridal shower and the wedding reception that goes with it,
a graduation,
and a good neighbor's birthday who's always so thoughtful she needs to be remembered too...

All these wonderful events seemed to be shadowed over this last week though as we all got very well acquainted with our knees over other events. A missionary who once served in our area, ate at my table, was killed. We're not sure all the circumstances, but he was a good man and I'm sorry for his family. He was much too young to go. One young gentleman at our church had a bicycle accident that was pretty severe, but could have been worse had he not been wearing a helmet. He'll be fine, but is going to be feelin' the after effects for a while and have to have some work done to fix all that was broken. This news came with others that a few people had various cancers and possible cancers. My head really started to feel like it was spinning about now from all the news. All are getting treatment and expected to be fine.

Then very unexpectedly a special young man at our church had a medical problem come on very fast and after arriving at the hospital went into cardiac arrest. The family, after brain scans that showed no activity, were looking at releasing him from life support when he did the amazing and woke up. It was only briefly, but it was enough. A 24 hour watch period was put in place after which they would check him for brain activity again. It was never needed as he's was awake before the 24 hours were up and doing well. He's himself again, asking questions and understanding all he's told. The doctors are completely baffled, but well pleased that they were wrong. I know his dear sweet parents are too! He's not completely out of the woods so any prayers for a young man named Gabriel would be greatly appreciated. And yes he is an angel like his namesake.

Our church is breathing a sigh of relief as this last major crisis has turned out much better then it seemed it would and were all standing pretty amazed at the moment over this young man's recovery. None of us I think wants to dare say "what next." I think we'll all take a quiet uneventful summer, the good Lord willing.

After checking the Internet a million times for updates on our friends in need I would dash off to something more often then not having to do with scouts or school. As the year winds up we have a lot of extra events. This week included getting Jasper micro chipped. Poor guy! Necessary though and I'm thankful for the technology. I'm thankful to say he's been a pretty easy dog to train. I (knock on wood) think he may be potty trained at this point. I don't think we've had any accidents in quite some time and he's asking to go out. His few minor hitches are easily out weighed by his smartness at catching on.

Both boys had teeth appointments. Wade's prospects for getting his braces off soon are good. He'll have to have them again when he's older, but he needed to have some correction done now. The boys also had two separate Young Author's Nights. This is a special night where the parents go around and listen to as many stories of the kids as we can while signing comments for them to read later and getting their autographs. Their asked to dress up special and they get a little water bottle and such to make it seem like a real author book signing. Pretty fun. I'm always so amazed at the variety that comes out of an assignment the teachers give. For instance directions on "How to Eat an Oreo." The kids come up with some interesting and fun stuff all seemingly different from their classmates. I can't wait to get most of their papers home in that end of the year packet. Both improved in their writing and I'll have to post a few of their pieces online.

We followed these activities with helping with the school art show, also an all school BBQ where the parents were invited (I even got to play "lunch lady" briefly in between Wyatt's and Wade's lunch times), and finally a helmet fitting event. This wonderful business in town "The Center" (Orthopedic care I believe.) Donated bike helmets to the kids at school. Not all of them, just those who needed them. They also had all the kids bring their helmets and checked them for proper fit and condition, making adjustments where necessary. I've seen their name other places as well including my own soccer team's uniforms last fall. They sponsored our team and several others. I'm going to have to go down there one of these days and shake their hands personally for the great work they do in our community.

Speaking of that soccer team I had promised one little boy we'd play a game at the school some time so Wade's teacher and myself teamed up against Wade and Zeak. They beat us spectacularly of course 3-2. We were very happy for them and their victory :) It was a fun way to get my exercise in for the day too.

On the sports front Wyatt finished up fencing. He enjoyed it very much. The last day was a small tournament between him and his classmates. He won 4 of the 6 matches he was in. He's doing flag football in the fall and wants to do volleyball after that. Already looking busy next year. Lacrosse is almost done. We've had to miss some due to my scouting responsibilities, but that's okay. We're just there to have fun and we can only do what we can do. Wade too has signed up for sports in the fall. He's playing soccer. I pretty much said no sports this summer. I'd like some time off. We can go kick the ball around on the days we feel like and leave the rest for other things.

As far as scouting we just had our final big pack meeting before summer. No den meetings till September and only a couple pack meetings to earn the kids summer time pack award one of which will be a rocket derby. Fun times :) My focus has now shifted to day camp. One more week of school and then a week to get ready for day camp. Lots to do between now and then.

Saving the best for last... I realized in all this melee it had been a while since the girls and I talked. I felt bad about that. They'd been on my mind as I thought about how thankful we are that all our children are safe and making good choices and doing well in general. I called them up and had some nice chats with them. Their looking forward to the end of the school year and visiting. Their enjoying time with friends and making all the memories that teenagers make. Their happy and that means a lot. We're all excited to see them and the time is quickly drawing near. I have to say that I didn't ask Hannah about soccer, but she was a bit preoccupied with a spider ;) I'll have to call again :)

I pulled a bunch of weeds tonight and tomorrow is the talent show. Everyone think "happy thoughts" Wade's direction. He's going to be nervous I'm sure getting up in front of the whole school. The weekends looking busy too, but I think I'm going to wheedle out some time for a nap in there. I really am just a bit tired and that's okay.

Jasper Update

Jasper is growing and expected to be a pretty big boy when he's finished (abt 90 lbs.) That's okay though then he and Walla will be more evened out though she's awfully fair about the size difference now. Walla is our music instructors dog, a Newfoundland, and she and Jasper play pretty hard for the entire hour that we're there. It's always funny to watch them and I'll try to get video on my camera next time I go. I got some on my phone, but can't get it off so we'll try again.

I do have video of him fetching the newspaper though. He's a smart little guy :)

Wades Class Museum Trip

I sent a disposable camera along with Wade on a class field trip I wasn't a part of.

I got back a lot of pictures of fish, some interesting ones of him and his classmates and a few of the owl below.

He had fun though :)

Target Practice

The boys got to have some well supervised fun recently(That qualification is for the Grandma's). I bought a couple straw bales and painted a target on it so they could shoot their bows and arrows when time allows.

This was all done Memorial Day weekend by the way.

Next they got to go to the local public shooting range with their father, myself and a couple of guys from church. We all did pretty good hitting our targets. I did the best on my first clip and seemed to go downhill from there, but still did respectable.

We were kindly loaned some extra ear plugs. We only had one set of ear muffs with us, thinking the person shooting would wear them and the rest of us would just plug our ears. The plugs we were loaned were definitely needed. It's been a while and either the guns have gotten louder or I just don't remember how loud they were when I was younger.

Jasper was impressive. He looked a little worried at the very beginning, but I stood by the truck and talked to him telling him it was okay. Withing just a few short minutes he was laying down on the floorboards and slept through the rest of the time there. All that noise and he slept! We weren't the only group there either. There were 2 or 3 others so it really was very noisy. Talk about a good dog!

Camping Out

Still working on those scout badges. These two fine young men had to set up a tent on their own and then camp in it. So they did, in the back yard:) They did pretty good getting the tent set up. They had to improvise a couple missing tent pegs, but we managed with wire cutters and a metal hanger. Other then that the only hindrance they had was Jasper, when he kept jumping in the middle of the tent and knocking down all their work. It was kind of funny, from a spectators point of view, but I'll never admit that. They got all set up finally and camped out that night then in the middle of the night when the dog went out to do his business he pounced the tent once again and had them waking up in terror of what might be attacking their tent. Poor kiddos (throat clearing). Really it just added to the adventure right?! :)

Wade didn't want to be left out, but there really wasn't room in the tent so we made him one of his own in the house. I think he got the best sleep of all. He didn't wake when I took the dog out and I didn't find him moved in the morning because he got too cold outside. I think I mentioned extra blankets because it gets cold at night, but somehow I think they decided to learn that one the hard way. I bet next time they take too many rather then too few, something about "always being prepared" and all that ;)

Lava Cave and Lava Lands

Ah, this would be Wade showing off all his dental work. We went on a field trip with his class. I took a small group of kids down into the cave and at one point we all turned off our flashlights to see just how dark it was. Wade turned his back on and made faces at us all in the dark. Such a goose!

The hike into the cave and out was 2 miles. Some of the kids got a little tired of the hike and wanted to just be done, but since there was no way out but to hike they persevered.

I think it was simply the length because they certainly found plenty of things interesting as we went along. Some of the pictures are posted below of our adventures.

Going down into the mouth of the cave... Ice formations off to the right.

The walls and ceiling constantly changing.

A huge crack we could see into with our flashlights that trailed it's way up the wall and across the ceiling (maybe it's time to leave now?)

The ceiling went really high here after being really low a minute before.

After the cave at Lava Lands. Our field trip group was split in two so this is the half of the group we were with.

Grillin'

Still working on those scouting badges. The boys had to help cook a meal outdoors and clean up afterwards. It was so nice having them all helping with the meal! They've been doing more and more of this as they get older and can handle more. Even in the mornings I have to tell you it was nice to have them make their own lunches a couple of times especially when it was a suprise for me. I love those kinds of suprises :)

Pole Pedal Paddle Triathalon

Wade participated in Pole Pedal Paddle this year. He was part of a team. They did pretty good. They were one of the slower canoes, but 2nd to finish in their big group overall. They had different groups so I don't know if they ever said who overall won or anything, but we weren't too concerned about that. They all finished and they did great.

Garbage Clean-up

I took all my guys out for a quick garbage clean-up by our church, part of earning their Leave No Trace patch. I'm constantly amazed at how much trash gets dumped there year after year, as I've done this before with my scouts.

They were all so great about it. I provided gloves if they didn't have them and they worked together very well gathering stuff. In fact they were so excited everytime they found something you'd think they'd found buried treasure.

When we got to church this night there was a absolutely gorgeous double rainbow. I had to snap a photo of it. :)

Fishing

I took the boys fishing a while back, working on some cub scout stuff. I love telling them that if they caught anything they had to clean it as part of the badge. They didn't sound too thrilled about that. However, and Harold you can get all proud here, they seemed to really remember well how to set up their lines with bait and various forms of tackle which they also had to do for their merit badges. Thank goodness it didn't require them to catch anything because they didn't. Oh well, there's always next time.

I was seriously suprised my camera got that last photo as well as it did. The bird was pretty far away. Nice to know:)