The Eagle has landed!

I don't really know if I could ever express the amount that I love my children.  I love watching them grow and I love seeing them accomplish things.  On December 8th, we got to participate in the celebration of Donald achieving Eagle Scout.  Apparently, that is something that only about 5% of Boy Scouts accomplish.  It takes several years, a big project and a lot of hard work.  I am so proud of him.  All that hard work was worth it for this one night. 

We had a wonderful program, which our friends the Kaisers and the Fergusons helped us arrange and decorate for.  Then came the fun part...the awards.

 First I got my mother's pin

 Then Don got his father's pin

 Then I got to put Donald's Eagle award on his uniform

 After that Don presented Donald with his certificate

 Next, was my favorite part.  Donald had the opportunity to give out his own awards.

 He gave a mentor pin to Colby Packer, who was his first Boy Scout leader and has been there with him through it all.  Without this man I really don't think Donald would have finished it all.

 He gave his second mentor pin to Jason Kaiser, who has been such a great friend and example of a great scout.  He loves the scouting program and does everything he can for just about every scout he meets.

 The last award was the best...He gave a promise award to Eli.  I have to tell you, there was not a dry eye in the house.  My kids fight on a daily basis, but this one moment let us see that under it all, they really are there for each other.  They love each other and support each other.  Donald gave him a picture of them walking when Donald had been in cub scouts and we were on a family hike.  He promised he would help him get all the way to Eagle too.  My boys are awesome!

 I had to throw this one in.....At the beginning of the program the Master of Ceremonies asks all the Eagle Scouts to join in the Eagle's Nest, then once Donald received his award he was invited to sit with them.  My friend Jaime's dad is an Eagle, but he was visiting from Texas and didn't have his uniform.  There he is in the back row. (He He He).... He looks like Einstein photo bombing the Eagle's Nest.  Love him, but I rolled in laughter when I saw this picture.

So proud of you bud, can't wait to see what you will accomplish next!
Thanks to everyone who shared this wonderful night with us and who helped Donald along the way!

Thanksgiving in Utah

This year for Thanksgiving we went up to Utah to spend time with my family.  Since we haven't done family pictures since we went to Hawaii we decided to snap a few.  These are the best ones.....

 My adorable niece Molly...I could spend hours with this kid, she makes my heart laugh!

 My nephew Nathan

My niece Emily

 My nephew Ryan

All the cousins.  This picture shows their personalities so well.

 Donald (so handsome:)

 The grand kids with my mom.

 The kids in order from oldest to youngest...except Molly, she was done with pictures at that point.

 The whole clan!

 My crazy boys

 My sister Jana and her family

My sister Tina and her husband Dirk

 Our little Young family

 Donald is only 15, but looks so grown up to me in this picture.

 After big family pictures, our little family went to the Mt. Timpanogos temple, which is the one that Don and I were sealed in.  So appropriate for our anniversary, don't you think?

 I am sure everyone else at the temple thought I was crazy.  It was just us four with a tripod so there was a lot of running back and forth on my part.

 Such a beautiful building!

My sister and her kids.  It was fun to hang out with them.  Thanks for being a part of our Thanksgiving/anniversary/birthday craziness this weekend.

The next day was Donald's 15th birthday so we took him paintballing.  It was fun, but then a bunch of competitive guys showed up and it turned into chaos.  Oh well, at least Donald got to spend some time with his cousins and his uncle Brian.  Don and I got some serious bruises from it, we are getting too old for this stuff. :)

Lake Mead 2013

Every year for probably my entire life, our family has gone to the lake in September.  Luckily when Don and I got married he was very happy to continue that tradition.  Now my kids can say the same thing....every year for their entire lives we have gone to Lake Mead in September.  This year the tradition continued and as usual, we had a great time.

I hope this tradition never ends. :)

Our Crazy Summer

I know it has been quite awhile since I have put anything in here.  We have just been really busy and any free time I have is used for breathing.  Summer is almost over which makes me very sad :(
Here is what we have been up to the last couple months.....
                In June we took a trip to Texas to visit the Boring Bunch....

  .......Donald finished his Eagle Project (so glad that is all over)....

 And Kati and I did our first Mud Run!

                                                                               Love that gal!
 We also said "see you soon" to Whitney (our oldest niece) who is now in the Navy.

 In July we hung out in San Diego a little (I think this picture is hilarious.  Donald was so proud of the stink he made and everyone was hiding from it.)......

                                                              .........And then spent a week at Junior Olympics

 Here is our JO team......

                                                                              ........Warm ups

 Getting ready for the 200 Breast.........

 ............Donald and Cisco (very cool kid)

                                                                                 ......And with Coach Jeff

 (I think this is the coolest picture I have ever taken.  I love my new lens)............

                                           ............13-14 Relay Team.........

Donald was maxed out on his individual events.  They only allow you to swim 6 individuals, but he qualified in 11.  He even made it to finals in his 100 Breast and 200 Breast.  His relay team (see just above) swam 5 relays and got new team records in four of them.  The fifth one they missed by 0.2 seconds.  They took 4th, 5th, 6th and two 7th places home, and that is out of over 40 teams.

We have had a great summer, it is sad to see it come to an end.

Since I haven't posted for so long I should include a little update.  After my last post we went to Winter Age Group Invitations in Las Vegas.  Donald had tried out for the high school swim team a couple days before that.  His school has a very good aquatics program so it is really competitive and hard to make the varsity team.  They posted the teams when we were in Las Vegas and one of Donald's friends emailed him a picture of the list.  He made Varsity as a Freshman..so exciting!  The season was great, he dropped lots of time and got his letter.  Now we just need to get him his jacket.  He made it to league finals individually and their team (which was undefeated all year, including invitational tournaments) won the whole thing.  That was so much fun! That was pretty much our lives from December to May.  High school consumes your life as a parent.

This upcoming school year I will be teaching Biology, Chemistry, Earth science and Physics (yes, all 4 at the same time) at River Springs High School in Hemet as well as my online teaching.  I am also the apparel manager for Donald's high school team and the score board operator.  Also Donald is continuing on with his honors and AP classes plus Choir so I am not really sure that I will be alive by next May.  Hopefully I can find a few stray minutes to post updates, it really is fun to look back at how things change.