I Can't Believe It!!

Jacob Chad Dana is an Eagle Scout!!! He was honored last night at his Eagle Court of Honor. It was a great program and it was neat to see how much hard work everyone put in to helping Jacob receive this award. He has had amazing scout leaders and friends that have helped him in so many ways. Here he is with Mom and Dad He is an amazing Uncle to this bunch (except for Jace, he is the lucky little brother). Clancy, Holt, Jacob, Jace, Tallon, Orrin, and Vivin.
Tallon is so excited to start scouting. He has a new hero in his Uncle Jacob, a scouting hero!

Here is part of the group that came out to support Jacob on his big night. Brian, Camilla, Jullie, Jackie, Jacob, Dad, Aunt Kaylene, Jerrie, Uncle Ross, Mom, Orrin, Jaymie, Vivin, Tallon, Jace, and Grandma Thelma.

It is such a huge accomplishment to be an Eagle Scout! The hours and years that go into it are amazing! Congrats Jacob!

Catching Grasshoppers 101

It is a very specific science, grasshopper catching. You need a beautiful setting...

an excited 7 year old...

and a place for the 2 two year olds to be.

Sometimes you scare them from above...

or you can try the "follow the leader" effect...

but being sneaky is a must!

When that fails, try sending screaming 2 year olds down the road to scare them to death...

and a bossy little brother always helps.

Try camouflage, it might work.

Three helpers is a definite must.

At the end of the night, compare your battle wounds.

Orrin's.

Orrin helping Vivin find his.

Vivin's

Put them together, and wow that is a lot of scrapes and bruises!

Make sure at least one of you is dedicated...

and you come home with this!

Now you can go out and try it yourself. A word of caution: it is not as easy as it looks!

Hobble Creek

Our family has a favorite little spot up Hobble Creek that we try to visit as many times a year as we can. This year has been busy so this is our first trip of the year. The boys fish, hike, soak their feet and eat all day. Tyler and I just sit back and watch our little ones play, what a perfect Saturday! Here is a good view from our little spot.

Orrin, Vivin, and Tallon enjoying their lunch.

Tallon and RBK taking advantage of the fishing, using the grasshoppers of course.

Vivin

Orrin watching and learning, he is such a watcher.

Orrin

Twins enjoying some down time
Tyler trying his hand at fishing. It is never a surprise that we don't catch anything, with 3 excited little boys and a dog!

The boys examining the "dinosaur" bone they found on the hike.

What a wonderful way to spend the weekend. Time seems to be flying so fast lately, so it was really nice to spend a quiet day with just us!

Daddy Day

We haven't had many of these since Tyler started a different job 14 months ago. It was something that started when Ty was working shift work and had a lot of days off during the week (when I had to work) and took Tallon with him. With Tyler's new shift this last week he and Tallon haven't seen each other. Today they made up for lost time and went fishing. He was very content to listen to his MP3 player and fish.


What a great way to get some Daddy Time in. Tyler and Tallon had a great time. They fished, hiked, laughed, and came home full of stories. What a blessed relationship these two have.

Sweet Sucess

Man oh man, I have been working with the twins to "roll the ball", not "throw the ball", forever! This morning I found them in the kitchen doing this! I was sooo excited...

or maybe not?! I hate it when they get me so excited and then go back to their old ways.

First day of 1st grade

I just can't believe how fast the summer went! It has been so wonderful having Tallon home and being the big brother. He took care of RBK, watched the twins, helped run errands, and was just the best helper! What am I going to do without him!??!?!
He has been so excited for school to start. He was up bright and early this morning with a big smile. Here he is ready for the first day of school

He wanted to ride his bike with a bunch of his friends...

so off he went.

He is going to have so much fun this year. He went to back to school night and met his teacher, saw where his desk was, saw where to hang his backpack and hat, and came home so excited. He gets a real "school desk" this year complete with a pencil holder and everything. It is just cRaZy how big he is getting!

Relaxing Sunday Afternoon

Tallon came home this afternoon!! We missed him so much, but he had soooo much fun in Logan with Whit and Kaleb. I think he was a little sad to leave, so to cheer him up we went for a ranger ride up Swift Creek. It has rained all day and everything looks so pretty! Of course the favorite thing to do is to stop and throw rocks in the creek, so that's what we did.

Tyler has been teaching Tallon all summer to skip rocks and tonight Tal got one to skip!!

The boys love any time they get outside and after a day of rain they were all smiles.

Tallon found the best rocks to throw! All 3 boys were so wet by the end of the night.

This is to cute to see all their excitement over a big splash.

Simple entertainment, yet so effective!

We are blessed to live is such a beautiful place. If we looked one way we saw this...

and the other way, this.

It has been so nice to have a relaxing Sunday. Tyler had one meeting and that was it for our family this week. Next week we won't be so lucky, so we enjoyed every minute we had.

Wow! What a week!

We have not done a thing but run, run, run. This has been quite a week for the Afton 4th ward! 3 surgeries, 1 commodities order, enrichment at the Care Center and birthday visits. I left every night at 6:30 and have been lucky to return home by 10:00. Poor Tyler would come home (sometimes to dinner), keep the house going, and put the boys to bed. What a deal. I am so thankful that he is so supportive!
Today I had my first funeral. It went really well. I learned tons and hope the next one isn't for a while.
Tallon has been gone for the past 3 days and I miss him terribly. He went down to Logan on Thursday and will be home in the morning. His Uncle Kaleb and Aunt Whit invited him down for a long stay and from his nightly report it sounds like he is having a ball!! The first night Kaleb took him and Carter catfish fishing! He loved every minute of it. He has been swimming, went to the zoo, and is in no hurry to come home. How lucky we are to have such wonderful family that lives close enough to have fun weekends like this. Hopefully Whit got some pics. I will post some when I get them.

A day up the river...priceless!

Better late than never, right. It is hard to believe that it is August and we have only been up the river a handful of times. Today we were lucky enough to get a few hours in up Murphy. We say a cow moose and her calf on the way up and the rest of the ride was spent like this, looking for moose.

Notice anything a bit strange?

Tallon and Jace had a ball running through the woods and pulling on this branch...

until it broke and sent them flying! It was way to funny.

Of course no day would be complete with out bringing out the old .22.




They were pretty proud of all the holes, and it was FULL of holes!!

It was a perfect day! The kids ran and played, shot their guns, saw some wildlife, and fell sound asleep on the way home. Priceless!!