* This year the little boys and I decided that we would make Fourth of July shirts. Sully created this design (which of course Abner wanted to duplicate once he saw Sully doing it). I thought they turned out nicely.
* Stay-cationing ... Seven Peaks, long-boarding Provo Canyon, Mountain West Burrito
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| Noble snuggling up to his giant burrito. |
* Jess had an impromptu photo-shoot with Dolli. Here's one of the pics. Pretty girls.
* Girls camp 2016 - JR Property.
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| The A-Team. Backpacking with the 4th years. |
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| The Bishop captured this sweet moment with Grace and her posse on their sunrise hike. |
*While the girls were away at girls camp Sully was introduced to the dusty world of Cub Scout Camp. In the days leading up to it he could hardly contain his excitement. He was in heaven with all the Cub Scout pomp and circumstance, the silly skits, the adventure...This picture says it all.
* Mike and I celebrated 19 years of marriage. Dinner at Log Haven and a quiet walk in the woods...
*Jess and her homie, Cassie took their first solo-road trip (also Cassie's Senior trip) to St. George last week. They weren't entirely on their own since they stayed with Mike's parents. They had a packed itinerary: swimming, a show at Tuacahn, shopping, hiking in Zion and a visit to the temple.
* Meanwhile... Noble spent an eventful week in Lake Powell with the varsity scouts. Lots of sun, water, food, fishing, a trip to the emergency room in Price (not Noble), tire damage, and food poisoning (also not Noble, thankfully). Noble came home with a torqued left knee (excusing him from two weeks of XC workouts - in lieu of real running, he was prescribed "aqua-jogging" at the rec center pool) but with plenty of great memories. He'd go back in a heart beat.
* Reno-with-Roy has picked back up again after a brief hiatus (i.e., all our camps and Roy's camps).
They poured the concrete foundation for the spiral staircase which was installed earlier this week...without a handrail on the top landing - (what the??!). Apparently they have to do it that way so they can measure after the staircase is installed. Then they manufacture the railing. In the meantime I have to keep an army of neighborhood children off this shiny new death trap. It should be completed Monday. Wish us luck for a safe weekend.
* We finally made it official - Noble's Eagle Scout Court of Honor was held this past Sunday.
I wish I had taken the time to get some better pictures of Noble with family members and his leaders. Thanks to Mike's dad for getting some and sharing them with us.
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| Grandma came sporting her own boys' Eagle Scout pins. |
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| One of the best parts of the Court of Honor was the color guard - all brothers of the Eagle candidates. There were two older, already Eagle Scout brothers who directed, two scout age brothers (including Tillman), and two Cub Scout age brothers, which including a very earnest and excited Sully, who prayed the night before that he would do well helping with the color guard especially because he was just 8 years old. He took his duty seriously. I wish that we had taken a good picture of the group of brothers together. By the way, Sully only bumped into the wall and ceiling a few times, and nearly missed dragging the flag of Utah through the food on the table on his way out. But as people moved to help him, he refused, determined to do it on his own. It was awesome! |
* For a few years I have felt drawn to do something to help with refugees, but I didn't know what to do. When I watched the Women's Session of LDS General Conference this past April, I felt that my prompting was validated and now I had a direction in which to go. We signed up a few months ago through Catholic Community Services to volunteer with newly arrived refugee families. We attended the meetings, went through the background checks and recently we were assigned, with other members of our group. to an Afghani family with a mom, grandma and 5 kids. They arrived last week. Already this has been an awesome experience, especially for the kids. When it was time to meet them at the airport I wasn't sure if I should bring all of our kids, but decided to bring them (all but Abner). I was so glad that I did. When the family, speaking no English, stood there shaking our hands a little nervously, it was the sight of our children that put them at ease. They smiled, walked up to each of them and kissed their cheeks. Grace said it was the coolest experience ever. We are assigned to help out for up to two years with this family. I'll keep you updated on the process.
Life is good.
