Scout-O-Rama

Lee camped at the Scout-O-Rama with his Boy Scouts. Lee has stories about the camp out (that include scouts calling home at 11pm to get picked up).  But, this post is about the next day when the rest of the family came over to explore. We started at our Troop's area, but I didn't even take any pictures of their Blacksmithing and Firestarting booths.

Tyler and Andrew stood in line for an hour and a half to do the zip line. Andrew said when he got to the top it was a little bit scary, but he wasn't going to go down the ladder because then the wait would have been for nothing!

Andrew and Tyler with the safety harnesses on.

Climbing up!

Tyler on the zip line.

Andrew on the zip line.

Emma, Lee, and Laura waiting for the boys.

After the long wait, we quickly saw a few of the other stations. The first one we headed to was Archery.

Tyler

Andrew

Emma

Then we went to the BB Guns.

Ready, aim, fire.

Cocking the guns.

The last area I took pictures at was the Wrist Rockets.

Sling shots vs. pop cans.

We saw lots of other booths too. It was a lot of fun.

Spare Me

Last week we went bowling.
I will spare you the details of how bad of a game I had. (Being 38 weeks pregnant throws off ones balance and does not make one graceful by any means.)
I think it might have been Tyler's first time without using the bumpers. He had big improvements to his game as the frames progressed.
Lee broke his ribs a few weeks ago playing Dodge Ball with the Elders Quorum, so he had an interesting game too.
We all had fun!

Hot Enough for Snow!

We had a Saturday a few weeks ago that got pretty hot. Lots of kids were playing outside and Lee decided it was hot enough to make snow cones! Yummy!! I can tell this will happen a lot this summer.

Snow on the Ground

Tyler and Andrew just getting started.

 This winter hasn't been good sledding weather! We took advantage of the Saturday that actually had snow on the ground and went sledding with some neighbor friends. (Lee came too, but he had the camera, so he isn't in any of the pictures.)

Andrew coming up for more.

Emma, Becca, Tyler, Laura, and Andrew

Ready to go!

Laura and Emma on their way down.

Tyler spinning down the hill.

All the kids were old enough to go down and come back up by themselves.

Laura had so much fun, and then she slept really good that night.

Happy Birthday Theodor Geisel!

We celebrated with Cat in the Hat Parfaits. It was easy to make, just layers of white whipped cream and red jello.

Extra Generous

The background: Our life insurance company, Modern Woodmen of America, is a not for profit company. They do lots of community donations and service and give away the funds that would normally be counted as profit. (For instance, I arranged for them to donate 750 jump ropes to Woodruff Elementary.) They have Youth Service Clubs that have monthly activities for the children members in the area. I am a volunteer leader for one of the youth clubs. (Modern Woodmen is still fairly new in Utah. They are growing in Davis and Weber counties, but my group here in Logan is still just my own kids.) We hope to add to our group soon...since Lee is officially signed on as a Financial Representative!

The story: I contacted CAPSA (Community Abuse Prevention Services Agency) to see if a donation of children's book would be something they could use. They were excited about that and I told them I would bring them in the next day. We went to Jenson Books and picked out 50 books. (When I told Jenson Books we were donating them to CAPSA they were impressed and told us to find 20 more!) We brought the books home and added a bookmark to each book. The next day we delivered the books. They were really grateful for the books. They had me fill out some paperwork. The last question kind of threw me off, it asked how I found out about CFSC. That made me notice the wall, that in very large letters said Child and Family Support Center. After we walked out, I turned to Lee and said, "That's not CAPSA." I had that building in mind the whole time, but apparently I had called a different place and I told someone they would have books coming. The Child and Family Support Center was, of course, very happy with the donation. We got back in the van, and went to Jenson Books again. (And I had to admit to Jenson Books that the donation they thought was going to CAPSA didn't.) We picked 50 more books, added bookmarks, found out the location of CAPSA, and made a second delivery. My mistake benefited both organizations. Our plan to donate 50 books ended up being 120 books!

Placing bookmarks in each book.

Kindness Begins With Me

Lee taught a lesson for Family Home Evening about communication. Well, it was more about communicating without getting upset or angry, stating clearly what you want to have happen, and doing so nicely. He split us into teams. Only the person with the blindfold on could touch the game board. The other team member had to kindly talk their teammate through the moves. Halfway into the game, we had the boys switch roles. (The girls both ended up falling asleep early that night.) It was an interesting game. It might be a good technique for newlyweds.

December 2011: Christmas

We had a couple different family parties. I have pictures of none of them. We played Minute to Win it games, we did a steal the gift exchange, we tied some quilts, and of course we ate yummy food.

For Christmas Eve the kids got to open their one present of new pajamas. I had my ultrasound earlier that week and Lee and I knew the gender of our baby, but we told the kids we would tell them on Christmas. (Tyler was more excited to find out than he was for the actual Christmas.) Anyway, on Christmas Eve, we had five presents pulled out and we had them open the baby pajamas. They were pink. Baby girl is due May 14th.

Christmas morning we saw that Santa came, ate breakfast, and went to church. After church, we came home and opened presents before heading down to see both sets of grandparents.

Andrew and Tyler with their new Lego sets.

Laura opening a present.

Emma opening a present.

Emma, Tyler, and Lee

Becca, Emma, and Laura

November 2011: Acorns

We had a fun time making "acorns". They are doughnut holes half dipped in chocolate and then dipped in sprinkles with a pretzel stick stem.

The dipping process.

Smile.

The cooling rack.

Yummy acorns!

October 2011: Halloween

We made it through the Fall Festival (that the Primary was in charge of running), class parties, the school parade, and trick-or-treating at the mall without any pictures. We did take some pictures before we headed out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

Becca, Tyler, Andrew, Emma, and Laura.

Lee, Tyler, Andrew, Emma, and Laura

Cowgirl Laura. She said "Yee-Ha" more than she wore her hat.

Mario Andrew.

Emma the witch.

General in the Navy Tyler.

And here are the close ups of the pumpkins.

Tyler's cat.

Top: Andrew's (he had it wearing a jet pack most of the time, but it's not in the picture.) Bottom: Emma's has blue hair and teeth. Laura's is the red one.

Lee's princess.

Becca's carriage.