A glimpse of our 2018 summer

Packing,
moving,
testing for black belt in taekwondo (!),
sharing/giving away our dogs,
leaving the Army,
scout camps and high adventure camps,
starting a medical practice/business,
swimming,
hiking,
Lagoon,
family time,
meeting Ainsley Rae,
healing a broken arm,
yard work
packing and moving around the corner...
its a little bit exhausting to think of everything we did!

Here's a bajillion pictures.
I have about a thousand more that capture the
ups and
downs and
sideways
emotions from this summer.

  

 

Reuben's First Pinewood Derby

Order of the Arrow for the Twins

High Adventure Scout Camp

Bob, Jonas, Owen, and Troy were gone for a week to high adventure.  They went to Roswell, NM and had a blast at Carslbad Caverns and Bottomless Lake State Park.  They went on the highest zip-line in the world and it is also the third longest in the world.  Lots of fun!

The group

Caverns

Bob at the lake

Owen doing a cannonball off the rock structure 

(don't worry, they totally checked the depth...)

Owen working on his swimming merit badge.  

He and Troy swam the width AND the length of the lake AND back.

Troy resting after getting his merit badge!

Another highlight was apparently tracking, killing, skinning, cooking, 

and eating the thieving raccoon.  

(Gross.) The boys said it tasted like chicken.  

I asked them, 

why would you eat something that eats your garbage!?!?!?!?

They had an awesome time, made lots of memories, 

and I know they are going to keep on adventuring!

Pinewood Derby

The Cheese Stands Alone!

Micah loved putting his pinewood derby car together, complete with Swiss cheese holes, yellow wheels, little squinky mice, and a license plate that was from Wisconsin: Big Cheese….
His first race he totally lost… and then after the first round was over, he won all the others.  The last race was the same as the first, and no wonder, he was racing the #1 fastest car.   A bit of deflated feelings at the beginning and a whole bunch of celebrating at the end…. no pinewood derby is complete without the drama and excitement.  Congratulations Micah!

Picture coming soon:::

Jonas' Eagle Court of Honor

We were blessed to have all our sets of grandparents in town for the weekend.  We arranged Jonas' court of honor and Evelyn's baptism for that Friday/Saturday.  We enjoyed our time with everyone. We are so proud of our Eagle Scout!

We had a lot of other good times this weekend too with trips to a couple of parks, 

visiting in our home, 

and even sneaking in an awesome conversation with Leslie in fulfilling a Personal Progress requirement about faith.  (Yes, she's doing it again...!)

Thank you, dear grandparents, for coming to visit!

Jonas' Eagle Scout Project

Pictures say more than words...

We are proud of all his planning, hard work, and leadership!  YAY Jonas!

Order of the Arrow

This past weekend, Jonas had the opportunity to go through the Boy Scout Order of the Arrow ordeal. Summarizing, the scouts have to camp in solitude, take a vow of silence for 24 hours, and fast (meaning very, very little food and water), and complete a lot of hard manual labor/service.  He did it!  We are so proud of him.  They arrived to sacrament meeting a bit late and all the scouts and their leader bore their testimonies of how this experience taught and reinforced principles of the gospel.  Jonas testified of cheerful service being the one thing we can give back to our Heavenly Father.  He has always been an example of this, and performs countless services each day.  We are blessed to have this excellent scout in our midst.  Thanks Jonas, for being so awesome!

Pinewood Derby 2014

0 for 2...
Poor Micah.  He has lost every single race both years!  To "celebrate/consol-ate" Bob is taking him out to dinner.  He has cool design ideas, though!