Happy Thoughts from the Past Week

• father's day cake complete with egg shells -- mmmm, crunchy!
• 3 little swimmers (I ended up signing Cameron & Micah up also, for the hour before Rebecca)
• one little Red Sox player
• two tennis champs
• one track star
• 3 volleyball fanatics
• an Olive Garden in Cheyenne!!! We've come a long way, Baby!
• pushing the baby jogger down the hill
• determined and HONEST bikers (see my closing note)
• scouts, scouts, and more scouts
• lots of fun at the park
• driving around Lander & seeing everybody's gardens filled with pails, sheets, towels, and whatever else they could find to protect their garden vegetables from the freezing nights
• all of our garden vegetables surviving -- so far -- I think...
  
• invading the 2nd Ward's fun Family Home Evening Group (we're the only regular 1st ward attendees, but they haven't kicked us out... yet...)
  
• dedicated fathers to think about and honor
• a van that hasn't run out of gas yet, despite Mom's nonstop Taxi service
• legs that can still run
• Baby's first word
• friends who are willing to carpool to some of the summer sports
  
• Cavity-free dentist appointments!
• making it through the day despite only having 3 1/2 hours of sleep last night, and James being out of town
• James' safe arrival in Cheyenne
  

Classic Quotes from the Past Week:

• I told Rebecca to wash the chocolate off her face & hands. She refused and said, "Well, you have chocolate stripes all over your shirt!" (I was wearing a brown & white striped shirt)
• "Some bugs don't taste bad. I ate a scorpion once and it was delicious." -- Teancum
• "Did you know that all babies know how to pick their nose when they're born? Some of them even know how to pick their nose BEFORE they're born!" -- Teancum
• "If you die when you're not on the Earth then Jesus won't be able to find you to resurrect you so then you'll be dead forever." -- Teancum
• One of the kids asked how we grow bigger. I was explaining how cells multiply when Teancum decided to offer his explanation instead. "Every year the night before your birthday while you're asleep Jesus stretches you." I guess his explanation is better anyway.
  

On Saturday James, Cameron, and Micah made their second attempt at the 25 mile bike ride for the Cycling Merit Badge. As you'll remember, they made their first attempt on Memorial Day but were frozen from the rain (numb hands) so came home and only made 12 miles. Well, this time they thought they'd made 25 miles, but when we drove it in the van (and again in the mazda, just to be sure), it was only 24.4 miles!!! They were so bummed, but immediately all 3 of them said, "well, I guess that was just a practice run. We'll have to try again." I'm so proud of them for thinking that way! I think the scouting program is such a great thing and have been trying to help the boys realize that there's so much more to it than just collecting as many badges as you can (Jamey's goal is to have more arrow points than Cameron or Micah have. I don't have the heart to tell him that I think they both earned as many Wolf arrow points as it's possible to get). Scouting is about learning valuable skills along the way to earning the badges to put on their shirts. The badges only symbolize what they have learned and how they have grown. So instead of just getting the cycling merit badge to sew on their sash, they are going to actually earn the cycling merit badge and learn all there is to learn about biking along the way. What great guys! What a fantastic dad who's willing to spend so much time with his boys, including walking Micah's broken bike part-way down Sinks Canyon so that Micah could ride James' bike (since he had to ride the whole thing) since they forgot the wrench to repair Micah's broken tire. My boys don't realize how lucky they are to have such an involved dad. He would do absolutely anything for them!