scout camp

Scout camp this year was a unique and awesome experience! I say so because first of all Jared, Ryan & Mark got to go together. This camp was set up to include teachers and deacons, in all about 14 boys and 6 leaders. Second, our ward did its "own thing", rather than attend the usual authorized BSA scout camp. They loved it! All the pictures were taken by Jared, Ryan, or Mark and I'm just narrating what they told me. "Camp" was in the mountains above Fairview, Utah for a week. First off, a picture of some of the vehicles used to get them there.
Next, the necessities: port-a-potties and water barrels. With stuff like this being hauled to camp, you know its going to be a great week!
A flat tire on the scout trailer as they arrived at camp.
Fire -- need I say more?
A weeks worth of cold food.
Gorgeous view. The camp was pretty high, somewhere around 9000 ft.
This is my favorite photo. Absolutely beautiful up there.
It wouldn't be scout camp, if you didn't get some merit badge classes going. I think this might be environmental science. Hooray for getting that out of the way -- its a booger.

The first day/night of camp it rained -- hard. This picture is to show the lovely mud.
This camp included hiking and biking. This is a huge rock cairn at the top of one of the trails.

One of the trails they biked.
Another nature shot. Beautiful.
Fishing! Ryan showing off one of his catches.
We are really blessed to have such awesome scout leaders in this ward. There was a lot of time, effort, planning, and organizing put into this camp. The boys will have good memories of this camp forever!

ghost falls

To "celebrate" Pioneer Day, we decided to take a little hike up to Ghost Falls, which is up in the canyon behind the Draper temple. Heidi and her kids did this hike recently, but it has such a great end (the falls) that they were willing to go again and show us around. The hike is pretty short and easy going and the falls -- perfect for playing!
I don't think Matthew can go anywhere outside without a stick!
Ha -- even got a picture of Grandpa -- taking a rest at the falls.
Grandma and her sidekick, Katie.
Brrr, cold water! Not cold enough to stop Matthew from getting wetter, however.

Rachel & Jacob

Ethan & Ryan

Jared climbing up the little falls in the creek.
Jacob following along behind.
A nice way to spend a couple hours on a summer holiday!

brady reunion

The cousins -- tallest to shortest (or so they think): Chris, Jack, Mike, Mark, Randy, Robert, Spencer, Brady, Kitt, Kara, Michelle, Jared, Klaire, Katey, Ryan, Jacob, & Matthew.
Our Brady family reunion this year was up at Heber Valley camp. This reunion is for my parents, siblings & spouses, and all our kids. We had a great time and there were only a few that couldn't make it this year -- we definitely missed having them with us. The camp was beautiful and there is always a good feeling there. There seemed to be an abundance of deer this year and it was amazing how close we could get to them before they bounced off in the opposite direction. One of the activities we enjoyed this year was a chocolate pie eating contest. No hands allowed. Karen makes some wonderful chocolate pie, so its kind of a shame we stick our faces in it and gobble as fast as we can -- oh well, when you get a face as cute as this when you're finished, its worth it!

We had a lot of fun paddling around the lake in canoes and peddle boats, playing "Minute to Win It" and other games, and going through the challenge course with the high adventure being the same swing that we did with the Vawdrey family last year -- FUN TIMES! We also enjoyed a fabulous dutch oven dinner Friday night. Mark cooked up some yummy BBQ chicken, John made some wonderful potatoes, and a few of the other big guys whipped up some peach and cherry cobbler. Delicious! In fact, we were all so full from dinner that we never got around to making smores that night! During our campfire program that evening, Kathleen told us about her recent trip to Scotland. We have ancestors from Scotland, and she told us a bit about them, how they joined the church and immigrated to America, and about our Anderson family plaid and crest. The Anderson plaid has blue in it, while most others have green. And the crest motto is "Stand Sure". I like that. A wonderful reminder to stand sure in our values and testimonies. One of the "traditions" of this reunion is taking a cousin picture, with everyone lining up from tallest to shortest (as seen at the beginning of the post). Guess who's kids are always the shortest? Yep, something about being the youngest as well as the gene pool. BUT, when you start putting in the cousin spouses, my kids move up a notch!
Now the order is: Chris, Jack, Mike, Mark, Randy, Robert, Spencer, Brady, Andy, Kitt, Kara, Jason, Michelle, Jared, Klaire, Lindsey, Katey, Mandy, Alisa, Hayley, Ryan, Erika, Jacob, & Matthew.
This is the "2nd generation" picture with Jacob & Matthew included for fun because they have lots of fun hanging out with these smaller cousins. From left to right (and they are somewhat in order of height as well): Colton, Kaymi with Emma, Jacob, Stephen, Trevor, Matthew, Alexa, Matthew S., Tucker.
Thanks to Jack & Lindsay for the pictures -- I mistakenly took my camera with the dead battery to the reunion.

cub scout day camp

Jacob went to Camp Tracy for cub scout day camp and had a fabulous time! His den went for two days and I joined them on the second day. The first activity of the day was the obstacle course. Climbing and...
doing a few pull-ups...
and running through the tires!
You can't tell at this point, but archery was definitely a favorite of the day. Jacob is just waiting for his turn at the bows...
load 'em up and...
let 'em fly!
Jacob loved all the activities and thought the skits were hilarious! He can remember and repeat them verbatim if you've got an hour or so to listen!

random photos involving cousins

Baby Berlin

My nephew, Will, turned 1 year old. He hasn't realized yet that good things come all wrapped up in cool looking paper, so Matthew and Katie decided to give him a hand with opening the birthday presents.

Will and Rachel

That blur is my boy Jared taking a softball size nerf ball to the hoop!

Matthew

Matthew, Ryan, Spencer, Jared, Jacob & Klaire doing some cousin bonding over a game of badminton.

eagle update

Jared's eagle project, the actual work part, is done!!! Hooray!! Now, its just filling out some paperwork and going through a board of review. I guess after that it has to be submitted to the Boy Scouts before it is "official". I don't know, we're new to this :)

Anyway, he had lots of boys from his troop help him observe and survey park users and his leaders (Dad is one of the leaders) helped him survey homeowners in the area. It will be interesting now to see what the city will do with the information and what changes they will make. I'm sure the changes will provide other scouts lots of opportunities for eagle projects. These are just a few pictures of some of the people who helped him.



He did a good job organizing things, was diligent in completing the project, and got LOTS of service hours and people to help. Good job, Jared! We'll see you in court -- Eagle Court of Honor, that is!!

jacob's baptism

Jacob got baptized today! He was sooooooo very excited! He was the only one from our ward getting baptized that day, so we had the whole service to ourselves. Jacob asked Jared and Brother Wunderlich (his primary teacher) to give the talks. Bro. Wunderlich had a great object lesson to go with his talk on the Holy Ghost -- he poured milk over a bowl of rice krispies and asked Jacob to listen for the snap, crackle, pop. It was easy to hear, but he had to be quiet and listen closely. Then he told Jacob to go stand at the back of the room and listen again. This time he couldn't hear the snap, crackle, pop. We learned that listening to the Holy Ghost, a still small voice, requires us to listen closely. We can best hear the Holy Ghost when we are living our lives according to God's commandments, kind of like being close to the bowl. When we aren't keeping the commandments, we have a hard time hearing the Holy Ghost, kind of like being at the back of the room.
Ryan played "Army of Helaman" on the piano for the musical number and Mark, of course, did the baptism and confirmation. Aunts, uncles and grandparents filled the other parts of the program. Jacob was very spiritually prepared for his baptism and excited to make new covenants with Heavenly Father. It was a really nice service.
Afterwards, we had everyone over for lunch. We are so glad that so many cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents could join us -- what a wonderful day!!

even an old barn looks better painted

or, how to spend the most wickedly awesome 4th of July ever, complete without purchasing one little iota of fireworks. I love the possible titles for this post. Yep, we know how to have a good time! Seriously though...our house has been in bad need of a paint job, so we finally got with it over the weekend. And much to our boys disappointment, I totally forgot to invest in any fireworks. (We did however, head over to the neighbors house to enjoy some very good ones and went to the community fireworks display, so I'm not feeling that bad!)
Love the frog tape. Love the high ceilings, but hate trying to get up there!

Gotta love the dissheveled mess that a paint project makes.
We love the new color and it turned out well. We still have half the trim to paint and the doors, but getting all the walls AND ceiling done was a huge improvement!