What boredom creates

What is this? Bobbing for bananas?! Who ever heard of that? Well I guess that's what summer days brings out...creativity!

But hold your horses they also went traditional and mostly ended up bobbing for apples...in a cooler no less! Maybe the bananas weren't as challenging. Easier to sink your teeth into!

Go get 'em Caleb!

Josh's 1st attempt...

2nd attempt success!...with a goofy face, or maybe he's trying to wink at me... :)

Wood Badge - What an experience!

About 2 years ago I attended Wood Badge for the first time...it was an amazing learning experience! This time around I was asked to be on staff. There was a lot of preparation involved...I started meetings for it 6 months before the event. I had to prepare to give 5 presentations to a small group of people that I would be a leader over called a Troop Guide. So Wood Badge came and I left home for 8 days! I enjoyed the other "staffers" so much and became really close with my patrol (a group of 6 people). It was hard to separate from them when I had to leave them at different times as the week went on and let them learn on their own. I look forward to the next time I get to be on staff at Wood Badge...but I'm sure a couple years off wouldn't be a bad thing. It definitely is a big commitment!

This number you see here is the course number. The W2 is our area the 107 is the council the 11 is the year and the 2 means the second course of the year.

At the same time I was at Wood Badge, Caleb had the opportunity to go to Cedar Badge at the same time and place. He loved it! (Except for waking up at 6am every morning!) Cedar Badge is a leadership training for the boys. It correlates with Wood Badge which is the leadership training for the adults. I think that is so awesome!

I had the great opportunity to take all the portraits of the different groups at Wood Badge. It was fun, but tricky when I had to be in it!

This is my patrol...the Beavers! Every patrol has a critter they are associated with and will be for life. I am a Fox!

This is the staff...amazing people! I feel so lucky to have gotten to know them and learn so much from them! (I'm on the top row far right.)

And this is the whole Troop. All the participants and staff. It was quite a group with lots of fun people I was able to get to know. I am on the first row on the bench, 4th from the left in the yellow shirt.

I could never express through words well enough what a wonderful experience Wood Badge is. It's not just a scouting thing it's also a personal thing too. You grow so much and make many wonderful associations with people. I am so grateful for such an inspired program!

Boys love rockets!

In Caleb's 6th grade class (last May) his teacher, Mrs. Anderson made arrangements for the kids to make rockets and shoot them off at the school. It is not a cheap project and I commend his teacher for making the effort and coming up with the funding for it through donations. Caleb was definitely excited about this and really talked it up. I came to watch the event and he made sure to be first in line! It was pretty exciting. Each rocket did something a little different. Some went straight up, some swirled around, some went up then nose divided, etc.. It was fun to see what the next rocket up would do!

The big walk to the launch pad. (With his teacher's husband the engineer guru.)

Off it goes!......and then running to go collect the rocket.

Jon's birthday

My handsome man had a birthday at the beginning of the summer! (No beard back then!) The summer started off crazy busy so we did things simple this year. Hope he knows he's still special to us and we love him immensely!

Instead of doing a traditional cake (which isn't his favorite thing to eat anyway...but cookies are one of this favorite things so the boys and I made him a giant cookie!)

Funny how all the boys wanted to help light 3 candles.

We love you so much Jon!

Andrew happenings

Well the time has come that all my kids are going to be in school full time. My youngest Andrew has graduated kindergarten! I'm so proud of him and how much he is learning and excelling in!

Above, Andrew had to have a costume that was something to do with a tomato to represent the color red. Each child either had a number or a color and they sang the cutest songs for each. I got those on video because they are too cute to not see again!

Below, we had a nice surprise when Andrew was called up with 4 other kids and was recognized for succeeding so well in his learning. And of course because our name starts with "T" Andrew brought up the rear of the line of graduates (in the red plaid shirt). The kids came up one side of the stage and got their diploma from Mrs. McKee and headed to the other side to shake hands with the principal Mr. Hunsaker.

We love Mrs. McKee and thank her for all her time and dedication to my Andrew!

Andrew's first loose tooth was kind of a funny situation...Jon and I had to encourage Andrew to wiggle it all he could to get it out because......

......there was another tooth already growing behind it! One tooth came out and ta da...another tooth was already there to take its place!

Spring Baseball

Baseball was...interesting this year...the boys loved it and hated it at the same time. When they were playing their games they loved it! But getting them there was another story. It got better as the season went along. Andrew was in the McCammon league and Joshua and Caleb were in the Chubbuck league so it made for interesting conflicts when one game was in Lava while another game was in Chubbuck.

Andrew played 2 years ago and wouldn't step foot on the field without mommy, but this year he did great and got in the game and played on his own. Does that mean my little boy is growing up?!

Joshua actually didn't want to play baseball this year but I thought for sure he would want to when game time came. The desire didn't come right away like I thought so definitely I learned a lesson. Next year I will not push the issue! I think all in all though he had a good time.

Caleb by far had the biggest learning experience with baseball this year. As the boys get older the game gets more competitive. The game was not always fun and games but Caleb learned a lot! And I think he's grateful in the end for that.

Caleb played 3rd base quite a bit this year and had some amazing plays. One team they played against had a girl that was probably the best player in the league. When she was up to bat she hit the ball pretty well. But one of Caleb's team mates scooped the ball up and rocketed it to Caleb and Caleb caught it, swung around and tagged the girl out. It was awesome!

Our unexpeted addition

I never expected to get another kitten but the opportunity came and here we are! A friend of Jon and I called and said he knew someone giving away Siamese kittens. I first told him I would love to have one but that we already got a kitten so we wouldn't be able to get another one. A couple days later the subject came up again and Jon said he wouldn't mind getting another kitty so I jumped on the opportunity and called our friend back. He had a female brought to him and was glad to still give her to us. So we drove over there and picked her up that night! She is so sweet and calm. We named her Lily. Our other kitty Socks is like a big brother to her. They wrestle, they snuggle, they eat together and sleep together. We sure love our new kitties!

We definitely miss our sweet kitty Gatsby and tears still come now and then, but what a joy these kitties have been to us.