Eagle Project Done--CHECK!!!!!

Last Saturday was Mitchell's Eagle Scout Project.  He wanted to do something close to home so he chose the Old Boyd School Community Center.  His project involved ripping out some bushes (in preparation for Stockton's Eagle Project that will be coming up later), painting some playground equipment, and installing two sets of horseshoe pits in back of the school.  He had help from friends, family and church members.  Here is a shot of him pounding in the stakes for one of the four horseshoe pits. 

Stockton and Parker are starting to dig one of the four pits.   The ground was "hard as" and contained many rocks!!  Luckily on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th pits we soaked the ground first!

Even Briggs helped with the project by painting the playground equipment.Here is Mitch with a church member prying the stump of the bushes out of the ground.  Stockton will be painting the building behind them for his project.

One end of the two sets of horseshoe pits.  They turned out very nice!!!!

Here you can see the newly painted playground equipment and the spot where the bushes used to be in the background.  Mitch did a great job leading the project.  It is sometimes hard to lead your younger brothers and people who are older than you.  Congrats, Mitch!!!!  Now we just have to do all of the paperwork and submit it to the Eagle Board. 

Our Family Hike to Mystic Lake

We went up to Mystic Lake last weekend on a family hike, which is about 1 1/2 hours from our front door.  Unfortunately, Mitchell got sick the night before, so he did not come with us.  Here are some great shots of our fun day.  There is still lots of snow to be found in the Beartooth mountains this time of year.  You can see just how high it is by looking at Parker (second from the left).  He is standing on the ground, everyone else is standing on the snow drift.We took Harley with us and she had a great time.  Every chance she got she would lay on her belly in the cold water.  Here you can see her with her legs spread out like a frog.  What a funny dog!!!

This is a great little waterfall that actually goes under the road on the way up to the trailhead.

Here is a picture of everyone about to drop down to Mystic Lake.  This is not the end of the trail, this is only three miles in.  We gained about 3,000 feet in elevation just to get to this point.  There is much more trail to explore once you go to the top of the lake you see here.

Here is a shot looking back down the valley as we headed home.  Harley pulled whoever was unfortunate enough to be holding her leash going down the mountain trail.  She would be just fine without her leash, but they require all dogs to be on leashes.  She acutally did very well considering she is never on a leash.    We had a great time and can't wait to go on more hikes as a family.  We truly appreciate the beautiful place where we live!!

Day Camp--Year #8

Day Camp is here again!!!!!  This was Brigham's last year of Day Camp, a little sad.  He and I went on a three mile hike and camped overnight in our little two man tent.

When the local newspaper came out, they actually took a photo of him doing the games program area which was bowling and ultimate frisbee this year.  It was awesome to see him in the paper. 

I will be all alone at Day Camp next year, that is, unless I can convince the older boys to come help as camp guides. . .we shall see.  What a blast we had this year though, our theme was Scouting for a Superhero.  FUN!!!

Boy of Summer

Here is our only "boy of summer" this year.  Briggs played baseball again this year and really enjoyed it.  He had some great hits and pretty good catches.

This year he even got to pitch.  He loved it and had several strike outs.  Way to go Briggs!!!

Define. . .stick

Here is our darling Harley.  This is her idea of a "stick".  She is constantly going to the wood pile and dragging out cut up logs, usually they are bigger than this one.  This just happened to be one that she could get through the front door.  As you can tell from the end of the "stick" she also likes to chew on them. . .she is a very goofy dog, but we love her!

March Madness

Yea, I know it has been forever since I updated the blog, so be prepared for some posts coming your way as I try to catch up. . .

Here is Parker playing in some basketball tournaments in March.  He actually had a great time, and most of his friends were on the team, so that made it even better.  He can't wait to play football and basketball for the middle school this year.

The Awesome Cast

Here are shots of the amazing cast.  These kids did a great job!!! They had three showings of the play and each one was fantastic.  Mitchell almost broke a table in the first show by bursting out of the closet a little to robustly, but it all turned out great.  Congrats boys, you did a phenominal job!!! ;)

 The full cast!

 Mitchell and some of his best friends.

Stockton and his girlfriend (who was also in the play).