Thanksgiving Talent

 This year while hosting the Neal side of the family for Thanksgiving the weather was temperate enough for the kids to have a great time 4 wheeling in the backyard.  And we had an unforgettable display of talent at our family talent show including music, singing, dancing and some wrestling.

 Big Josh vs Little Josh..... A Big Upset!

Becca Senior Pics

I remember when Rebecca started crawling we set in front of her a lineup of objects to choose from... a book, a football

And in what feels like a blink, she's grown up and almost ready to venture off on her own.

She had her Senior Pictures taken and I snapped a few shots of my own behind our house before she rushed off for the professionals.  It was a weird feeling to accompany her to a college bound event and realize that she will be starting that new adventure in less than a year.

Road Trip

Emily went on her first "away from home" trip to go visit her cousin Dessie, but halfway through her scheduled stay she was feeling super homesick.  We met her halfway to bring her home early and had fun hanging out at the park and visiting Artic Circle since they closed the one in our town.  It was a fun afternoon hanging out with "The Littles" who are not so little anymore.

Football Dilemma

This summer Jacob seriously contemplated going to Sugar City High School because of their amazing wrestling program and coaches and its closer proximity to our house.  He attended several of their practices while trying to catch the Madison one's too because he hadn't decided.  After hanging out with his friend's at Madison Football practice, he finally made the choice to stay at Madison.  I was super relieved because somehow splitting our family between 5 schools, one without bus service, seemed a little too daunting. He has shot up in height this year and surpassed me and his hoping to pass up Jared soon.

Celebrate Youth

At the end of the summer, our community hosts a "Celebrate Youth" activity with tons of booths, games, facepainting, ads and inflatable's.  The first year I think my kids may have had even more fun riding on the shuttle bus for the first time than they did wandering around from booth to booth in the sweltering heat, but this year the weather was perfect so it was much more enjoyable.

A cello named Watson

Emily decided to switch from violin to cello over the summer, but the local music store didn't have a cello her size to rent for several months.  Finally we just decided to get a size larger and she was so excited to start lessons.  She gave up "Makayla" her violin so she could get "Watson", the name affectionate name she chose for her cello.  I love playing duets with her and watching her progress at lessons each week.  Sometimes it makes me start choking up... especially when we play songs that I played in Orchestra as a child.  When I found an old violin arrangement of The Royal Fireworks Music and improvised a duet on the piano while she played her cello part I started to choke up as I had memories of playing in orchestra and saw the fulfillment of one of my dreams playing a duet with my child.

Scout Camp 2017