Scout Camp

Two brothers, one forest, ten merit badge "blue cards", three bags of candy, and night after long night of talking and giggling like little girls...it's got to be Scout Camp week. Alex and Logan headed up to camp Monday morning at around six with all the essentials to last through the week. Like knives, candy and swimsuits. Logan had to be reminded to bring socks and underwear, but, hey, it's Scout Camp...why worry about the little things? Actually, why worry about the little things when your big brother packs everything from his room that isn't tied down. It's probably because he's participating in a two night campout where he can only take what he has on his body at the time. Alex is really looking forward to the adventure.

It's been busy travel time for Logan as he just returned last Thursday from a school trip to Florida visiting interesting sites such as the Kennedy Space Center, Sea World, Epcot Center and few other places. He had a great time and we would show you some photos of Logan and his friends having the time of their lives, but he decided to take photos of dark night skies and alligators because he didn't think that we would want to see pictures of him and his friends. Oh, well. Logan said he learned a lot from this trip, but Erik and I think he mostly learned not to call his parents at 3:30 AM (6:30 EST) to say "hi". We all lost sleep that week.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! We know how important you are and how hard you work for your families. I still miss my dad and wish he was still around to watch the boys grow up and teach them all the things he knew. The boys are very blessed to have a great dad in their home. Erik works hard and spoils all of us, so we thought this year we would spoil him on Father's Day. We got him a new grill and he is so excited about it. In fact, I thought for a while he was going to bring it into the house for protection. The previous grill served us well for 7 years (God bless Sears Kenmore products!), but lately it had only been burning on one side and heat up time was lengthy. Naturally, we tried the new grill this weekend and the steaks were perfect. Of course, part of that has to do with the cook, too! Erik is a great cook and really enjoys grilling, which is fine with me. However, I'm afraid we'll be carnivores for the next little while so Erik can get the "grilling" out of his system.

On another note, we also celebrated Reid's 10th birthday...well, sort of. You see, Erik had to run to Denver for a work crisis, so we said Happy Birthday to Reid on Thursday (his actual birthday), then had some neighbor friends over on Friday for cake and ice cream and then this Friday we'll do the actual party at the Las Vegas Mini Grand Prix. If you know Reid, you know he is a huge speed and racing junkie. This is ironic because the boy is scared to death of rollercoasters. His birthday resolution was printed on a piece of lined paper and handed to me the night before his birthday. It read, " Please put wrapping paper over my door so I can run through it in the morning when I wake up. Love, your new 10 year-old, different-acting son." What a great gift to Mom on his birthday! Anyway, Happy Birthday Reid!!

Countdown

Six days for Logan. A month and a half for Reid. Alex is working through his. Erik and I will get ours in August. Countdown to summer vacation has begun. Logan is past ready for this to happen since he has a trip to Florida with his aviation class in a couple of weeks. Not only that, but he's reveling in the fact that he has absolutely no plans for the summer. To Reid, summer means birthday time and many days of swimming. For Alex it's work, work, work and appreciating the weekends. Summer for Erik and I means hosting teenage swim parties, re-stocking the refrigerator on a regular basis (wait, that happens now!) and helping the boys fill their days with at least some productive events (work?!). We will get to leave town for a while in July and then in August with reunions and a family vacation to some water parks. As for now, we pay homage to our air conditioning units (and pray for their good health) and watch the outside temperature continually raise.