Parker's Eagle Project!

Parker has been working on getting his Eagle Project going since February.  He FINALLY had his Eagle Proposal Board of Review on the 20th.

Here he is in his very expensive new uniform that I spent a fair amount of time sewing his badges on!

They signed off on his proposal, so he got right to work starting on his project.

He is doing a mapping project for Markham Nature Park in Concord.

He is mapping the location and descriptions of about 100 plants in the Australia and New Zealand garden.

Before he got started on Saturday morning, we had to take a picture of a HUGE spider.  It was a beautiful one, as long as it stayed in its web and not on me! 

(You should click on the picture for a bigger view!)

 He started with a safety briefing and then showed everyone around the garden.  He had about 10 people helping on Saturday.

 Here is Conner standing by one of the posts.  He's actually holding down the tape measure with his foot so it doesn't move. 

 Here they are measuring the distance, and radius of the plants so Parker can graph them later.

 Calissa was the photographer for the project.  She took pictures of each plant in order so they can identify them later. (This was a great job for her!) 

 They got quite a bit down that day.  Probably around 2/3rd's of the garden.  He's hoping to finish up the measuring on Friday night and then get to work on the next phase of it.

Way to go Parker!

Soccer has Started!

Calissa is our only child playing soccer this year.  (Hooray!)  Soccer practices started in August, and now we are about half-way through the season.  Calissa's team has won most of their games this season.

 Travis has reffed quite a few of her games.  (Really, it's been most of the ones he's been at).

 Her team name is the Wreckers!

 Calissa running down the field.  For as small as she is (compared to the other girls) she really gets in there and goes after the ball.

 Taking a break during an injury on the field.

 Fun to have her dad out there on the field with her.  

(I just don't like the "arm chair ref's" who think he misses the calls).

A beautiful sunset at the end of the game.

(Only one more month ... and the playoffs, to go!)

A Couple of Invitationals

 The boys are both running cross country this year and their new coach entered them into a couple of invitationals before the start of the regular season.  On the 13th, they both ran a 2 mile Varsity race at the Ed Sais Invitational. 

 It was held at the Hidden Valley Park in Martinez.  It has one large hill at the end. 

Here's Conner headed up the hill at the end. 

 Parker finished 34th.  11:27, 5:44 pace.

 Conner finished 85th. 13:17, 6:39 pace.

 Great job guys!  Not bad for the first race of the season! 

Goofing off!

Ryan, Conner, Nathan, Parker, Saul, Zach, Christian

The following Saturday, September 20th, they had the Nike Invitational at Newhall Park.

We had some beautiful fog as we were arriving that morning.

Zach's skateboard hanging on our pop up!

We are Concord High Cross Country!

The kids had a bit of waiting in between races.  They decided to play a bonding game and see if they could get untangled.

 Parker finished 76th out of 220 runners. 17:22 with a 5:36 pace

 Conner finished his first 3 mile race 201st.  20:32, with a 6:37 pace.

  So proud of these boys!

Birthday Surprise!

I got to sub this year on my birthday in Christopher's 2nd grade class.  This lovely praying mantis greeted me as I was trying to unlock the door.  I managed to move him off and get him into a bush (with the help of another teacher).

The kids were cute and sang to me, and gave me a birthday sticker to wear.  The teacher left me some beautiful flowers, and Christopher brought me a balloon and a caramel apple.

The boys bought me a card and an Amazon gift card (with their own money)!  It was very sweet of them. Calissa made me a card and wrote a nice note.  Travis bought me a new camera and got me a gift card for a manicure and pedicure. 

It was a pretty great birthday!

PS - I also got spoiled by other friends and family.  I love the notes, cards, and time spent with friends and family the best!

Trav's First Wedding

Travis had the opportunity to perform his first wedding last weekend in Loomis.  His 2nd cousin was getting married and they had asked Travis if he could marry them.

We drove up to Roseville on Friday evening for the rehearsal and dinner.  We got there a little early so we stopped at an Office Max for a folder to hold his notes.  In the same shopping center was "Parker's Hot Dogs."  We had to take a picture and send it to Parker.

The rehearsal was at a park by their house since the wedding venue wasn't available on Friday night.  After the rehearsal we went to dinner at Buca di Beppo.  We ate soooooo much food and enjoyed visiting with the parents of the bride, and Travis' cousin and Aunt.

 After a late night on Friday and a busy Saturday morning, we got back in the car and drove up to Loomis for the ceremony.  It was at the Flower Farm Inn.  It was a beautiful venue.

They did all of the decorations, flowers, napkins, cake themselves.  It was really well done and very elegant.

 Outside they had Jenga pieces for people to write notes on.  They also had chapstick in a bag with your table number on them.  They had a lot of cute touches.  Travis said he's worried about what I'll do when Calissa gets married.

Here is Travis filling out the paperwork before the ceremony.  It was a little stressful!  If you make a mistake, or write too dark in pen, or write on the line at all, they will charge you $28 to refile.  As he was filling it out he realized that the person who typed up their marriage license actually marked groom and groom, instead of bride and groom.  (Her name is Codi).  I gave Travis a hard time that he performed a same sex marriage.

The beautiful location of the ceremony.  Travis did a great job.  The chickens next door decided to make a lot of noise at one point, but he made a joke and it was perfect.  He gave some marriage advice (and even threw in some "The Family: A Proclamation to the World."

 Here we are when it was all over!  Hooray!

We stayed for the dinner and the beginning of the dancing and then headed home.  We hadn't been home much that whole week.  The kids did a great job getting things done, but it was a super busy weekend.

 Since we didn't stay for the wedding cake, we decided to stop at Fenton's on the way home for a Black and Tan to share.  It was a nice weekend and a beautiful wedding, but it sure made me grateful for our Temple wedding!

Fishing Trip with Grandpa to Moon Lake

Parker here! So me and Conner got the lucky opportunity to go on a fishing trip with our Grandpa at Moon Lake. Going into this trip, we had no idea what to expect at all since we had  never been there and never caught a fish! So our main fear overall was mainly just whether or not we would catch our first fish finally.

 One of the amazing things we found out about the lake was the beauty of it. Pictured above is just a small part of the scenery that we were lucky enough to see. 

Guess what?! We caught fish! It didn't take long for me and Conner both to catch our first ones and from then on, they just kept on coming and coming. Here is my face of delight after catching a tiny fish! (Conner's was smaller.)

When we caught the fish, we would attach them to a chain and let them swim on the side of the boat. My dad afterwards said that that was cruel, but I found it more appealing than his idea of whacking it with a rock...

 Here is another view of one of the surrounding hills/mountains that we were able to see.

 One of the stories of the trip was the weather. On the first day when our Uncle Kevin and our cousin Sam were with us, we got poured on the whole time we were out there and once lightning started, we decided that it would be a good idea to head back to shore. Later in the trip we had RIDICULOUS thunder and lightning that shook our entire cabin. Definitely the loudest thunder I had ever heard before.

 Here are some of the beauties that we managed to catch. I'd like to say that I caught the massive one on the bottom..., but that belongs to Conner. He was the fish catching machine of the week and caught the biggest one by far.

 Here's our awkward and lovely pose next to the fish, proving we caught them. Afterwards though we had to clean and gut the fish and that was definitely not our favorite part of this trip. We survived though and even ate them for lunch as well. Overall they were better than I expected, but I put way too much lemon on mine.

 Conner catching yet another fish. (Story of the week)

 Here's Sam with me photo bombing in the background, although that might have been my same expression when the fish managed to escape...

Overall on the trip, our group caught 88 fish I think (don't quote me on that) and Conner caught 33 of them and I caught 25. We both managed to somehow beat Grandpa. It was a really fun trip in general and I'm glad that we went and were able to spend time with our Grandpa. We might even decide to go again someday. Who knows? Thanks Grandpa for inviting us on this fun trip!