scuba scouts

Yesterday our scouts met at the indoor poor at Sports Chalet to complete their scuba training for the Boy Scout Scuba patch. Owen had been scuba certified back when he was a Boy Scout, so he was anxious to get a refresher course in. They had a blast!! [Bailey is towards the back, to the right of my hang-tenning husband. Click on the picture to see it larger!] Next stop: open sea dive!

We are so lucky to have such a great scoutmaster-he really keeps the fun stuff coming for these boys and does a great job motivating them to learn as much as they possibly can in the scouting program. Just in the last month or so, Bailey has done his swimming merit badge, his snorkeling patch, Boy Scout camp with its attendant merit badges, and some other camp-outs and service projects. During camp he passed his Board of Review for his Life Scout rank, so now it's onward to Eagle! I was glad that he had his last Board of Review with someone other than his dad and mom [assistant scoutmaster and troop committee chair, respectively] so that he could have some experience interviewing with different members of scouting staff. I guess they're pretty tough on those Eagle Boards of Review. He's pondering possibilities for his Eagle project now. So exciting!

the big "1-3"

As of yesterday, June 19th, two things have become official around our place.

What is the first, you query? Well, we now have a bona fide teenager in the house. Although he is not literally in the house at this moment, as the aforementioned teenager has been away at scout camp with his dad for the week.

And the second? I am now officially old. Huh. I had a feeling it would happen.

We celebrated Bailey's birthday before the guys left for scout camp last Saturday, and I think Bailey was pretty surprised. He had been asking for a particular Nintendo DS game, which he has been wanting for awhile.

Here's the birthday boy with his much-coveted Legend of Zelda game. He's all about the Zelda.

But wait, is there something else in the bag?

Seriously, people? Are you kidding me?

I don't have to borrow my sister's or my mom's DS anymore! Suh-weet!
And the birthday boy en route to give his camera-holding mom a heartfelt thank-you hug.

I so love surprising them! He's been wanting one forever, but I'd been reluctant to drop well over a C note for a handheld gaming system [Libby actually bought a used one with her own money several months ago, and mine was a gift]. I figured you only become a teenager once. And thank goodness for that.

what would you do for a klondike?

This weekend Owen and Bailey participated in the annual Klondike Derby with the Boy Scouts. It's all about the snow! They built a sled to mush their gear into camp [since it's all snowed in] and they spend all weekend in the snow. Brrrrrr. They had lots of fun, though, participating in all the activities and finishing up the day with a massive snowball fight. Even Owen, who never gets cold, said that sleeping in the snow was "a little cold." Almost makes me feel a wee bit guilty for having that nice, warm bed all to myself Friday night. Almost.

proud mama alert

Here's an update on some of the fun things the kids have been up to lately!

Last week, all of the 4th graders took a huge spelling test to find out who the best spellers are. The top two spellers win a trip to the spelling bee held at the end of this month to prepare them for entering the bee next year [they have to be in 5th grade to enter]. Libby was one of the top two and is going on the trip! They also go out to lunch afterwards, so she is thrilled at missing basically the whole day to have fun outside of school. The other top speller is also in Libby's class and is a friend of hers, as well as being LDS [although we're in different wards]. It will be a fun day for both of them!

In other news, this past Sunday was Bailey's first time playing the piano in Priesthood. He has been working on several hymns during the last few weeks and is really sounding good. He has played for opening exercises in Mutual a few times, but yesterday was his first time in Priesthood. He played [very fittingly, I thought] "We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet." We're already putting those piano lessons to work! A special thanks to Grammie, who is Bailey's piano teacher [and the girls' as well]!

And here is an amusing incident from today involving Collin. This morning I was watching BYU-TV to hear the announcement of the new First Presidency. Collin was playing nearby. The name "Thomas" was being mentioned repeatedly as Thomas S. Monson had been called as the new president of the church. Everytime he heard the name, Collin would perk up, because for him the name Thomas is all about Thomas the Tank Engine. He kept asking me if Thomas was on TV. I told him that Thomas S. Monson the prophet was on TV and showed him the picture from our conference Ensign. He looked at it and repeated the name "Thomas S. Monson" with me several times, then seemed content with this particular Thomas. Funny little guy.

Julia has a performance tomorrow night at the school for Founder's Day. This being our first ever Founder's Day, I'm still not sure what it's all about, but as she has been learning a patriotic song, it's sure to be patriotic! Will have to let you know how it goes!

star scout

Here's a picture of Bailey receiving his advancement to Star Scout from his Scoutmaster during last week's Court of Honor. Next goal-Life Scout! Congratulations, Bailey! He also earned about 5 merit badges that night, so I was busy sewing on merit badges and new scout patches to Bailey's uniform over the weekend. Our ward is hosting a Merit Badge Fair at the end of the month and I wanted to make sure I got these sewn on before he earned a whole bunch of new ones!

I'm just hoping to get through the Merit Badge Fair. I'm still the BSA Troop Committee Chair for our ward, so there's a lot to do to get everything ready. Fortunately our Scoutmaster and his wife are really organized!

marching band

looking good in uniform!

Earlier this month the marching band at Bailey's school had their final band review and I was able to get some good shots of him in uniform and of the school band in action. They had a pretty good marching season and placed at nearly every competition. Most of the schools they compete against only have 7th and 8th graders marching, but at Bailey's school, being K-8, they have students as young as 5th grade marching in the band. It's quite a learning experience!

I couldn't help remembering my own marching band days in the 7th and 8th grade. I hated marching. I just thought it was so lame. And my super-ugly uniform was always way too huge on me, so that certainly didn't help my attitude towards the entire experience! Of course I haven't relayed these sentiments to Bailey so as not to taint his own experiences. He seems to enjoy it OK. And his band uniform is a lot sharper looking than the one I had to endure!

The morning of this particular band review was so foggy and cold; so foggy, in fact, that there was a major accident on the freeway that morning. There was a 100 car pile-up in the fog just north of our exit at the same time we were traveling that morning. I didn't even hear about it until that evening. We felt so blessed that we weren't involved in any accidents.

A short video clip of the band in action. You can't see Bailey because I ended up on the wrong side of the street and didn't realize it until it was too late to go back across! But you can at least see them all marching and playing.

bailey's video

Click here to view the video that Bailey made and posted on YouTube!

techie kids

Friday night Bailey and his friend Matthew worked on making a movie. He was so proud of it that I told him I'd post it on the Internet so everyone could see. They worked pretty hard on it. He recorded some footage from one of his video games (Fire Emblem) and burned it to a CD so he could work with it on the computer. Add some background music ["All Alone" by Kutless] and he had a finished product. I'm glad that Bailey is enjoying his Advanced Computers class enough to work on it during the weekend. Once it's uploaded to YouTube I'll post a link.

Also, click here to visit the blog of the guy who was able to unlock the iPhone. He's 17. And he's just starting college. **Sigh** And here I was feeling good about the fact that I even know my way around my little uncomplicated cellphone. He's already sold it [traded it, rather], so you can put your wallet away now. But, he gives step-by-step instructions on his blog for you to unlock one yourself, in case you're so inclined.