School's in Session

Lander and Jake

a day of firsts: first day of middle school and first day of junior high 

No matter how hard we fight it, summer always ends. So in an attempt to avoid the inevitable, I thought we could relive some of our best summer memories.

1. That time the boys turned rap stars. Made chores a lot more fun

 even if the financial rewards weren't Hollywood-sized.  

 2. That time that Lander turned ninja/knight. 

 Unfortanately, his battles didn't end well. 

 3. That lesson on buyers remorse. Those bare bottoms seemed so funny at the store, 

but the longer they sat on the counter, the more and more 

(and more if your name is Lander) uncomfortable they made us feel. 

 4. That time we learned we are part Italian. At least Dad's pizza-making and 

Mom's mozarella-making skills make us think we might be. 

Now if we can just get that olive colored skin...

 5. The death of a few beloved toys. May their plastic hearts rest in peace...

 6. That time we had to fight off the entire town to hang out with our friends. 

Apparently we are popular like that. 

Kaitlyn W., Chase W., Jake, Lander

7. That time we came to terms with living in the Arctic Tundra and 

learned that it really can snow 12 months out of the year.

Meadow Lake, Idaho

For two years we had tried to go on a camping trip with Rachel and Luke Erickson. Our schedules finally collided in August so off we went to Meadow Lake. In our shorts. And flip flops.  It was HOT (!) until we started to make the steep climb to the top of the mountain. We watched, fascinated, as the temperature dropped from the high 80's all the way down to 33 degrees and snow pelted our car. No Gore Tex in sight (The weather man swore that there would be no rain.)

Rather than get upset, we turned it into adventure.


















Josh, Jake, Lander, Lincoln and Luke rafting on Meadow Lake. Lander is getting ready to take a plunge after the dads goaded him into doing it. Gullible kid! :)

Lander had so much fun swimming in the nearly frozen lake that Jake had to give it a try. They tried to convince the adults too, but we we politely declined.

just a "little" yard work

Josh bought a new toy, a vintage Silver Streak Clipper.

But then we had a problem, 

where would we put it?

What about that parking pad that we meant to put in, oh, about 7 years ago?

Great idea. "Why don't you get on it, Dix?"

It started out looking like this. 

Correction: this was after Dixie had already spent 40 hours cutting sod. 

Well, give or take a bit.

 The boys helped some too.

 eventually the ground looked like this: 

 And then Josh got to work!

confessions of a 10 year old

"Mom, just ground me for a month, and then I will tell you what I did."

-Lander

I got a phone call from Lander saying that he was in trouble and to "just ground me for a year so I don't have to tell you what I did." He finally confessed (because he knew that his older brother would rat him out if he didn't) that he notched a bow at his brother while playing.

Yikes...

As a self-imposed punishment, he had placed everything that he dearly loves on my bed and commenced with a mental flogging worthy of any drill sergeant. He had punished himself so ruthlessly that we did not even have to do our own punishment. Instead, we had a lesson on choices and consequences.

And then we took the bow away

Wilderness Survival

Jake and his friends construct a shelter beneath a downed pine tree to sleep in so that they can earn their Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. They all slept in it, despite stinging nettle and an over-curious moose.

Jake, Colter A, Ty S, Thomas R, Matt K

No, Colter isn't flipping off the camera. He's showing off his new stitches. The boys learned that karate chopping a swarm of wasps with a kitchen knife isn't an effective bug deterrent, but is an effective Boy Scout deterrent.

living the dream

Josh lives it up at Teton Springs.

Ahh, life is good, reahh-lly good (use your best Nacho Libre voice please).

Lander tries soccer

And actually did really good,

except for that one time,

the time that he tripped on the ball

just as mom started snapping pictures.