Back to School 2016

First day of school or as I like to call it.  The most wonderful time of the year.

The kids won't admit it but they are bored, it's too hot to do anything.  They need to see their friends, they need to have a reason to wake up in the morning besides office/school supplies are on sale (always one of my favorite things to buy)

 The kids all leave for school at very different times so I can no longer get the picture of all three of them together.  Dax had a great attitude, a little weary because he hears Junior year is usually the hardest.  First day went well and he loved his new Seminary teacher Andrew Gordon.

 Trey was happy to go back, and also had a good first day.  Two of his good friends, Trajen and Jeremy moved so he is going to be starting fresh with new friends.

 Derek is still recovering from 6th grade and was not too excited to start school.  He was also not happy that we made him spiff up his wardrobe a bit.  No free t-shirts to school ( t-shirts that were a give away/promotional item) and he needed to wear more than athletic pants every single day.  This was the best picture I could get from him.  He just kept looking more and more miserable (although I belive it is an act).  He had a good first day, he enjoyed riding the bus.  He had some friends of the bus as well.  Derek picked out his clothes for the first day (following our guidelines) he came home saying he looked like Jake from State Farm.  Ha ha he dressed himself in that.

Trey.  Happy to be at his desk in his classroom. His teacher is Mrs. Chiu.

Happy sweet 16.

Our Baby is 16.  WOW.

Once again Dax wanted to do the dive in movie for his birthday.  This year he went with Jurassic World, he thought that would be a good match for a movie watched in water,  since the water dinosaurs are pretty terrifying in the end. This year went much smoother than last year.

We had a great turn out, we invited all the YM and YW this year. We had a good mix of kids.  The weather forecast was 0% chance of rain, pretty perfect movie weather...  much improved over the monsoon that came in last year, just as the party started.

The boys did a great job setting up the party on a HOT July day

Herbivore Spread

 Fun party, everyone seemed to have a great time.  Dax feels loved. Being 16 is great and a perfect wrap up to a fun summer.  We gave Dax money for his birthday, he is going to buy a computer that he has wanted for a long time.  Hopefully he will get a job soon.

Braces on and off

Exciting time in our house.  Derek got braces on.....

Before

During

After-"Merica" red white and blue bands

..And Dax got his off.

Two week overlap when they both had braces

...and they're off!

Derek did great getting his braces on.  They were way more tender and sore than he expected.  Now he understands why Dax complained, he is a great sport about them.  I know how painful and irritating they can be.


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I don't think I have ever heard a kid complain about braces as much as Dax, or been so adamant that he never needed them in the first place. He loved the first two days after they came off.  Then he got the retainers and he wasn't so happy.  Now he has adjusted to the retainers and he's trying not to complain.
I look at Dax and I honestly think, "man that kid has great teeth".  I thought it was perfect timing they came off a week before his 16th Birthday.

Scout Camp 2016- Camp Fiesta

This year our ward decided to go to Camp Fiesta in San Diego for Scout Camp.  They have a fantastic leader, Wes Lueck.  The boys have been knocking out a bunch of merit badges and making a lot of progress.   Wes had to foresight to see that if they went to Camp Raymond where they normally go, most of the merit badges they offer there were ones that they had already completed.  It seemed more productive to go to a totally different camp where they had a new variety to pick from.  This was brilliant, they got to work on a lot of  water type merit badges this year.  They were already driving 3 hrs to go to Camp Raymond, so they drove a bit further to San Diego for a new adventure.  Derek wasn't convinced he wanted to do this whole scout camp thing when we started filling out paperwork back in January.  Dax convinced him that Scout camp was really fun and he needed to go.

We have a great group of kids and leaders, Derek loved it.  Sunburn stayed very minimal, just the tops of his feet.  Great news for a fair skinned red head.  In all Derek completed 9 merit badges, made a tye dye shirt, and made a stool (basket weaving).  He favorite merit badge was Signs, signals and codes.  He loved it.

Ocean Front Property

Catching Crabs-? Hamblin, Noah Hansen, Dallin Blacker, Garret Kubricky (Ben Jones and Derek hiding in back)

"Dabbing"- apparently this is a cool thing

Catching Jelly Fish to make a tide pool.  Derek said their stings were very minor

According to our Bishop- knives at Scout Camp are the "drug of Choice"  They sell them there and they have a nice variety

Kayak Crew

Kayaking

Learning about Ocean Life, Garret Kubricky, Noah Hansen, Derek, Case Lueck, Ben Jones, Weston Thomas, Dallin Blacker

Weston and Derek learning about Oceanography

Scouts

This is Derek's tent that he set up and shared with Ben Jones and Weston Thomas,. Doesn't look quite right

After scout camp was over they headed over to the San Diego temple for Baptisms, then over to the Mormon Battalion.  Derek loved these as well.

River Rafting

Our stake planned a "High Adventure"  super activity with all the Young Men 14+.  They started raising money back in January by selling calendars.  It was done through a rafting tour group.  They drove up to Moab, UT to start down the Colorado River. They drove up Monday, were on the river T,W, and they were home Thursday night.  Dax had a great time.  The tour group advised people not to bring expensive cameras.  It was highly likely that everything would get wet, and possibly thrown into the river.  That was confirmed when two kids lost their GoPro cameras into the rapids.

Here are the few pics that others took  of the MOAB Crew

Dax Johnson, Matt Layden, Dallin Thomas, Liam Archibald, Teddy Scott, Brigham Anderson, Spencer Sillinpaa, Brennan Lines, Jason Sillinpaa

 They ended the actual river part of the trip and day early (just logistics) and decided to go to Arches National Park instead.  Dax loved Arches as well.

Teddy Scott, Brandon Bailey, Matt Layden, Spencer Sillinpaa

They went into Moab and got Frozen Yogurt one night, looks like they are bonding well.

Unfortunately one of my favorite videographers, Dallin Thomas, lost his GoPro with some great shots in the river.  He was still able to produce a small video with the pictures he had left on his Iphone.

Click the link below.



https://www.facebook.com/saved/?cref=53 

I'm Batman- pre camp requirement

Derek is getting ready to go to Scout camp.  One of the merit badges he chose to do at camp is Signs Signals and Codes.  There was a pre requisite that he had to map out a 1 mile trail with at least 6 trail markers then have your troop (or family) go on the trail.

One day a few weeks ago, Derek and I went out to the desert to find an area to do this assignment, then he went home and mapped it out etc for his brothers to go on. We actually ended up on reservation land and we found this weird little area, but there were a few interesting things we found to map out.  When Derek saw this wall he said, that is a cool picture of Batman, this is where I want to trail to end.  So we worked from there.

It was a fun morning, We left early because it was going to be hot.  I dropped Curtis and the boys off for a one mile hike, then I met them at the end with Batman soda's.  They all loved the Batman Graffiti at the end.

Batman soda at the end of the trail

Cool Graffiti- Batman on a Segway

Then we went to breakfast.  Now off to Scout Camp in the next 36 hrs.

Breakfast- Trey made glasses out of these bendable sticks the restaurant gave him with his kids meal

Suits

It was official that Derek was the frumpiest looking Deacon.  Everyone was wearing a suit except for Derek in his white shirt and khaki's.  Curtis said enough we are buying that kid a suit.  Curtis, Trey Derek and I headed out to JC Penny on a Saturday afternoon to get these kids some nice looking clothes.  We got Derek a Suit and new dress shoes, Trey got new Sunday pants, tie and dress shoes.

 I was surprised how much Derek and Trey seemed to enjoy this shopping process.  As they tried the suits on I think they enjoyed seeing how nice they looked dressed up.  I got ZERO complaining (they have never enjoyed shopping before).

The next day in church Derek told me he was getting hot in his suit.  I told him he could take the jacket off if he was too hot.  He said "I want to take it off, but I don't want to take it off"  I took that as "I know I'm hot, but I like wearing this anyway"

Dax has been wearing suits that Curtis had passed onto him.  Trey also had a suit that was a hand me down from the Thomas boys, and he enjoyed wearing it too.  The only problem was he had out grown the pants, so we bought him new pants so he could still use the jacket.

Even though the temps were warming up they still wore them and look great.

Men in Black-they look great