Order of the Arrow

 Jaxton was nominated by his Boy Scout Troop for the Order of the Arrow.  This means he had to attend the "Ordeal" and be initiated into the Order.  This was a unique experience for him.  He had to pack well and sleep under the stars for his initiation.  Then he spent a whole day of manual labor helping beautify the camp.  He was awarded, along with the other nominees, an arrow sash as a new member of the Order of the Arrow.  Congrats Jax!!

Cub Scout Shooting Skills

 We joined some friends for a Cub Scout Day Camp program where all the kids were able to participate in some shooting sports, crafts and activities.  The highlight were the sling shots and BB guns.  Owen's face says it all as he is trying to aim and shoot!  Kaylee loved shooting also.  It was great fun for the whole family!!

Bike Ride

 Kaylee and I took a bike ride on the Pufferbelly Trail.  We both enjoy riding and hope to ride many trails this summer and take advantage of the beauty of our city.  Love you Kay!

Father's Day 2021

Happy Father's Day to our hero!  We celebrated Father's Day this year by heading to the Parkview Park to open up Dad's gifts and play together.  Then we headed to get some ice cream.  We love Dad so much!!  Kaylee worked hard on a project to create Dad out of paper.  She clearly put tons of thought into it.  And we got him a blanket with all the kids names on it.  Fun day!  We love you so much Dad!!

Indianapolis Getaway

 We wanted to see off Austin Gregory, our nephew, for his mission to Chile.  He is doing online MTC for 6 weeks and then heading to Chile after that.  His MTC time begins on Tuesday, so his family had a farewell for him this Saturday.  We took the weekend and decided to stay in downtown Indianapolis with the kids and with Melissa, John & Jace, and Grandma & Grandpa.  It was a super fun overnight trip with great dinner and breakfast and fun with family.  We spent the morning on Sunday exploring the Downtown Circle Center and the Courthouse and down by the canals.  

Austin is excited and ready for this adventure!  We wish him all the best as he enters the next couple years of his life story!

Strawberry Picking Tradition

 The Strawberry Picking Tradition continues on this year.  The Stuckey family and ours filled many buckets full of strawberries.  Many berries were squashed, stepped on, juiced and tasted amongst filling buckets.  Leila, Jude & Lucy came with their mom Emily.  This has become a tradition to go picking with the Stuckey's.  Nathan dislikes gardens; so he became our photographer.  He did a great job!!  

After work today, we got busy making jam.  We used pectin and calcium water to thicken the jam and filled 22 jars of all sizes!!  Each kid helped in one way or another and we knocked it all out in a couple of hours.  We had slicing the green off, mashing & blending, mixing ingredients like lemon juice and sugar.  Boiling pectin water and blending.  Mixing in the calcium water.  Putting jam in jars and placing on lids.  This will all be freezer jam.  Thanks kiddos for keeping up with the tradition!

Order of the Arrow

 Jaxton was nominated by his Boy Scout Troop to become a member of the Order of the Arrow.  He attended an initiation campout and had to sleep under the starts and do a full day of manual labor for a service project.  He is a couple weeks away from earning his Life Badge, which means he likely has less than a year before he has his Eagle.  Way to go, Jax!

Utah with the Littles - Day 7

 A bittersweet time, to leave Utah and head home.  I am ready to get back to routine and to my own house and schedule and bed.  At the same time, there is just not enough time in the day and in this trip to build relationships and connect deeply.  It was a whirlwind of a trip with lots of fun exciting things planned.  I wish the distance was not so far.  I am going to make a better effort to keep in touch with my family and with Summer.  Can't wait for the next trip out here with the Big Kids in August!

Utah With the Littles - Day 6

 We stayed with the Stump family on Thursday evening so we could spend an entire day with our good friends.  Summer threw me for a loop when she told me the plan for Friday morning!  She said that the plan is to get up at 5:15am and run 5 miles, and then go back to bed....!  Ummm, what???  I reluctantly said ok, but was not sure what I was getting myself into.  I have not been running much at all lately. 

We indeed got up and went out to begin our run with Summer's friend Karrie, who runs every single morning between the hours of 3:30am and 6:30am depending on her schedule for the day!!  She is a motivated woman and an inspiration to us who can't usually get up and do exercise like that.  I let them know that I am out of shape but would do my best.  We began a steady job and went 4 miles!!  I was huffing and puffing by the end but they pushed me to finish and we did a total of 4.75 miles in all by the time we were back at Summer's house.  I felt great!  Successful!  Motivated!!  Wow!!  And the kids stayed asleep the entire time, so I indeed went back to bed :-)

Once everyone was up and going, we went to the park with our friends.  They took their sweet dog, Mazy, who is such a friendly, fun companion.  Fun times!  Later in the day we went to the neighborhood water park and pool.  We swam with the kids and spent some quality time together.  An evening BBQ and The Lego Movie finished off our evening.