A little bit of Jon

Jon is always up to interesting things. Thought I'd share some...

Jon has been working hard to erect a hay shelter these last few months. He finished the roof a few days ago which was a big accomplishment. (Scares me when he's up there though.) This structure is the basic frame for our future barn. It's gonna be great!

One day when we had some family over we discovered that Andrew and his cousin McKay were playing in Gunner's kennel in the back of the truck. Jon thought it would be funny to give them a little scare. So he snuck up to the truck and you can see little Andrew poking his head out in the second picture. Next thing you know "Roarrrrrrr!" Andrew flew back into the kennel it was hilarious!

When hunting season starts to roll around so does the mountain man beard. Look at that sweet smile!

It needs a little grooming now and then...

....not that kind of grooming! Yikes!

Jon's Wood Badge Course

Jon was able to be on staff for a different Wood Badge course than me. His was in November at the Hoback. It was so beautiful right there by the river. I was able to do the portraits for his course which was great.

Here is the whole clan! Jon is on the bottom right and Caleb is on the front row by the log.

Jon made some good friends with other people on staff. This is Matt Holtman whom Jon admires a lot.

Every Wood Badge course does a service project at the place they have it. Their project was to replace some of the seating at the fire bowl. It was an enormous project and left Jon wiped out but proud of the accomplishment.

Caleb had the special experience to be a Youth Rep. There is a scout that is assigned to each of the 8 patrols. Caleb was assigned to the Antelope patrol. Caleb loved being a Youth Rep!

Receiving the green neckerchief with the Wood Badge council patch is an honor in the scout world.

There are a couple activities where the Youth Reps are in charge. Here Caleb was in charge of teaching a game. The patrol had to use sections of PVC pipe to carry a marble from one place to another without seeing it.

Jon receives his beads

Wood Badge has become a pretty major event in our family's life. I went a couple years ago and then Jon was able to go last year. Both of us this year had the amazing opportunity to be on staff. The only hitch is you have to have earned your beads to be a staffer. Good thing Jon earned them the night before Wood Badge started! So this was his beading ceremony.

This is Matt Holtman who was Jon's troop guide and who Jon asked to bead him. Matt is a great guy and Jon really admires him. Here Matt was reciting an amazing poem. I couldn't believe he had it all memorized, it was long and wonderful!

Matt prepared the neckerchief before hand for the ceremony.

Then Matt put the new neckerchief and leather slide on.

Jon was beaming and was so proud of the accomplishment! And so was I!

What a great opportunity to mingle with great people!!

Heidi turned 30!

What a great idea to throw a fancy party for your 30th birthday! Everything was great! Beautiful decorations, great food, wonderful company, amazing dress and handsome tux! Great job Heidi on planning a really great party!

I love her dress! It looked so good on her!

My fabulous sister-in-law Katie made this stunning cake. It was very delicious!!

Here are the ladies! From left to right: Me, Katie, Janette, Heidi, and Jen. We have way too much fun together!

Did some pictures of couples for fun. Left is Josh's parents Dayle and Gary, on the right good friends Katie and Cary.

More good friends. Left is Jen and Lance McMaster and on the right are the Smiths.

Halloween in little ole Inkom, Idaho

It was so great to have Grandpa Rolf and Grandma Helen there too!

We had a little someone watching us (our kitty Socks) outside when we were doing the pumpkins.

Andrew-the Mad Scientist

Joshua- the Grim Reaper

The school parade

Joshua's 10th birthday! (Upto 2 digits now!!)

Wow Joshua is 10! (For 2 months already...yikes!) I just love the excitement that comes out in Joshua when he has something fun happening. Joshua kind of lucked out and got to celebrate his birthday 2 times. Once with family on Sunday. That's when we had this scrumptious cheesecake!

Then on another day we had a party. From left to right we have Caleb, Sam Burton,Joshua, Jason, (ooh can't remember this boy's name he's new), Paden, and Sam Bake.

The party was everything in the air. The boys made paper airplanes, and played with a big bouncy ball, and this rocket was the gift from us. Boy was it awesome!!! It flew so high!

Still can't believe he's 10! But it's great and I enjoy Joshua so much!!

Not for the faint hearted

So the typical person when opening a door and seeing a huge spider would go and knock it down and get rid of it. Me on the other hand I ran and grabbed my camera. This is a Cat Face spider because of the 2 bumps on its back end that look like cat ears. The sun was just coming up and made all those hairs just glow. The spider web it made was big. It covered the top third of my doorway.

Oops...forgot one!

I shouldn't have forgotten this one! It's one of my favorites. We went to a pond down the road from us and the boys can't resist throwing rocks in water.

All in the same picture?!!

Out of who knows how many pictures I took of the boys together I was lucky to get one decent shot! Boys will definitely be boys in front of a camera, and even more so if their mom is using it to take the pictures! I could look at their beautiful smiles all day!

My sweet Joshua

Joshua usually is a happy go with the flow kind of kid, but when it comes to taking pictures all the brakes come out. I love to take his picture....but he does not like me taking his picture. Somehow I managed to get a couple smiles out of him playing in the grass and talking about star wars video games. I'm so lucky to have this sweet boy!