DisneyWorld 2025

Nate and I got invited to Disney World with Travis and Beth Rood. We had talked about going together for the food and wine festival at Epcot and we actually made that conversation come to reality. The four of us flew down to Orlando and we spent three full days at the Disney World parks and one whole evening at Magic Kingdom for the Halloween event. Of course we had so much fun and got to spend a lot of time together to foster relationships and friendships. We designed our costumes for the Halloween event to be Alice in Wonderland characters. Travis and Nate were Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Beth was the queen of hearts, and I was Alice. We had a blast! The food and wine festival also was amazing. We went all around the world at Epcot and tried Snacks and drinks from each country.  Lots of fun!

Dawson's Birthday Party

 Dawson had his birthday party at our house, a super fun pond party.  He is lucky to have good weather near his birthday to do a water theme!  We picked up a ton of boys in the big van after school on a Friday and we had all his friends over to play, eat pizza and popcicles, swim & celebrate Dawson turning 13!

Happy Birthday Dawson!

Dawson has turned 13! He is a teenager! Here are some fun things about Dawson these days:

1. Dawson is really enjoying Boy Scouts at Troop2. He has immerse himself in the troop and is so engaged. He will spend hours researching merit badge questions, and passing off requirements.  He wants to be a part of all of the activities and has made some really high-quality friends there including Gabe. Tony has been a great mentor for Dawson. It is a great environment for him and I’m glad that he loves it so much.

2. Dawson‘s closest friends these days include Sid, Liam, Bentley, Parker and Joaquin. I think he is branching out a little bit in the middle school and working on meeting  friends. 

3. Dawson is still a fantastic cook. He loves to cook and follow recipes and find new recipes to cook. Recently at our Cub Scout camp out he decided to try cooking cobbler the way they do at Troop2 summer camp. So we got the ingredients and he cooked cobbler in a Dutch oven outside over the fire with coals. He finds a lot of joy and satisfaction in a completed meal that he created. I can count on him to cook at home for dinner if needed because he’s reliable and has the skills!

4. Dawson’s favorite sport these days is tennis of course and Pickleball. Pickleball has become more popular, but he still seems to really like tennis the most. Coach Doug has been a great mentor for Dawson and has given him a passion for the sport. I’m excited to see where he takes his tennis skills in the future!

5. Dawson has been learning to play the trumpet. He’s been taking some private lessons with Jeff Amstutz at Sweetwater. This has jumpstarted his music career. Recently, he has joined the Oak Farm pep band and helps create some music for the basketball games with his trumpet. He has some skills and understands the music and the instrument and he seems to enjoy it a lot.

Cub Scout Backyard Campout

The fifth grade Cub Scouts needed to pass off some camping adventures for their belt loop awards. So we hosted a backyard camp out at our house. The kids enjoyed fishing a ton!! They caught a lot of fish. Everybody brought food to cook over the fire or to cook over a grill outside And that was an experience! We made s’mores and looked at the stars through the telescope and they played soccer in the dark! We set up our tents and slept well through the night and made breakfast again over the fire. So much fun!