Bonding with Dad and Mom

For the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet, they had the scouts make cakes with their dads for dessert. Daniel and Richard made an awesome campfire cake. I was proud of how great it turned out. They worked hard on it and it showed! 

Daniel warming up over the flames

I was one of the back stage mom's at Sam, Josh and Tim's amazing Millennial Choir concert, To Be American, narrated by Glenn Beck.  The music was incredible!  The narration was wonderful too and the American historical artifacts that he brought (George Washington's compass, a Civil War drum, etc.) were awesome!

I fell in love with about a hundred boys, high school tenors and basses, all darling and talented.

But I especially loved these three guys!

It was a wonderful year of driving (1 1/2 hours each way) once a week to practices with Sam, Josh, Tim and Victor.  I learned a lot about dub-step, every other genre of music and all sorts of silliness.  Surprisingly my eardrums are still intact, and Sam didn't fall out of any open doors on the freeway.  

Sara is excited to join the choir next year.  I can hardly wait for their recording of To Be American to be available for purchase.  I am dying to hear it!

March Stuff

Josh learned how to sew.  He had an extra credit project for chemistry.  It was to use a pattern to make a stuffed animal mole that showed what a MOLE is in chemistry.  Of course it was late at night when he asked for a sewing lesson, but he learned very quickly and was pretty good at it.

 His little mole friend turned out well.  He event gave him a little character with glasses and a bow tie.

The kids had Wacky Wednesday as part of their Dr Seuss Spirit Week.  They did crazy hair and some did crazy clothes.

Drew was too grown up this year to do it.  Party Pooper!

Pretty Sara

Baby Freddy came to visit us.  He is so precious and has changed a ton since this picture was taken.

Peter is hilarious.  We love having him over to play!

We had the missionaries over for Daniel's birthday dinner, Hawaiian Haystacks.  Tim picked some nasturtium flowers, which are edible and taste like a peppery tomato, with dinner.  It was very pretty!

Elder Fackrell and Elder Parsons, a bit goofy, but great missionaries!

Daniel had the family favorite, mint chocolate chip chocolate ice cream cake.

I can't believe this delightful and snuggley kid is 10 years old!

Tim and Sara BFF

Tim and Sara have been the best of friends since the start.  They are the goofiest pair of teenagers in our house, and maybe anywhere.  I love that they are so close and that they enjoy being together.   Here is a glimpse of their cuteness!

I love these two crazies!

Beach Day!

Our last day on our Cali trip we spent at the beach before heading home.  It was quite foggy, which was new to us desert dwellers who RARELY see fog.

This little island was pretty far away from me so I used my telephoto lens, but you can see the fog really well.  It was kind of scary trying to keep track of all the kids but the did a good job of following the rules and sticking together.

Sam was showing Daniel and Susanna all the hermit crabs.  They caught several to observe, not to keep, and had a lot of fun with them.

 

 Here we all are, oldest to youngest, in all our beach glory!

Richard

Stephanie

Sam

Josh

Tim

Sara

Andrew

Nathan

 Daniel

 

Laney

Susanna

 

 

It was all wonderful until Laney got stung by some creature in a pile of seaweed.  It was pretty painful, but luckily I had Benadryl and Advil on hand and gave it to her right away.  She was feeling much better with in 1/2 hour.

After cleaning up from the beach we piled in the van to go home.  Here are my crazy travelers.  They do a great job on long drives, thank goodness!  It helps when you have music, movies, a Wii U, several DS's and Ipods.