ryans roller coaster

This is Ryan's paper roller coaster that he built for his physics assignment.  It was really fun.  Drop a marble in the top and watch it go through tunnels, drops, loops, curves, and spins.  Awesome! We all had fun testing and/or playing with it! 

legos

Matthew loves playing legos.  He built this awesome command center!

bathroom remodel

We decided it was time to remodel the downstairs bathroom.  We had lots of fun (sarcastic) tearing out the old, especially the vinyl flooring.  That was a killer and we never want to do that again -- scraping the floor with a razor blade.

 Mark cut out the old fiberglass shower enclosure -- a look at the studs and pipes in the shower.

 We got rid of the old vanity and lighting.

 We hired Tom Rosemann to do all the tile.  Here's the beginning of building the new shower.

 Prepping the shower walls and floor for the tile.

 Tile set in the shower.

 Shower complete!

 Shower & floor completed with the toilet and new vanity back in place.

Since this picture we have put a new white top on the vanity, put the towel racks, mirror and new light fixture back on the walls as well.  LOVE the new bathroom!

sister selfie

Kathleen was in Utah visiting, so me, GayLynn, and Kathleen got together for a few hours and went to the Brigham City temple and had lunch at Maddox.  I am blessed to have wonderful sisters. A selfie to remind us of the occasion!

it works! it works!

Ryan got this robotic lego monster truck almost a year and a half ago for Christmas.  He had it all built, but something had gone wrong and he couldn't get it to work -- it's a remote control truck.  He was frustrated with it and just ignored it for a good long time (a year and a half almost).  Well, he started playing around with it on Sunday and made a couple adjustments and corrections and wah-la!  It works!  It is pretty cool!  It's a remote control truck for real now!

jared's chemistry update

Jared sent in his application for the U's summer chemistry course.  They already had offered $900 tuition discount and they increased their offer by $550.  Thus bringing the $2200 course cost to $750.  We were relatively pleased with that, but we had some follow-up questions regarding missing some class time during our stake's pioneer trek.  After a few emails, we found out that they only allow 2 missed class days and no-make up exams.  We figured we could probably work something out with someone, either trek or the U, if Jared really wanted to take the class, but he doesn't.  So, its out. It's final.  And Jared's happy.

jacob earns his arrow of light

We had pack meeting tonight.  It was all about the Arrow of Light Award - the highest award in cub scouting.  This is Jacob and his friend Stanton sitting in the seats of honor.  They both received this award tonight.  Wahoo!  They each received a special patch for their uniform that they can wear on all their scout shirts forever.

Jacob was presented with an arrow from his Cubmaster, Arthur Healey.  The arrow had several colored stripes on it each representing a cub scout rank/award.  It is pretty darn awesome!  He also received a framed certificate. 

 After he received his award, he was "bridged".  That means he got to walk across this official scout bridge, representing leaving cub scouts and becoming a boy scout.  And then he got to write his name on the bridge -- forever in permanent marker.

 It is amazing to look at that bridge and read all the names there.  It is so cool!  I'm not sure how long its been around, but lets just say its been awhile!  Of course we found Ryan and Jared's names on there too!  Congratulations, Jacob!

suess fest 2014

I decided we needed a reason to get the family together for Sunday dinner, so I decided to throw my annual Dr. Suess dinner and invite everyone.  All of Mark's family joined us for Sunday dinner consisting of Who Hash (cheesy potatoes), Roast Beast, Green Eggs & Ham, Lorax trees (Asparagus), fruit, rolls, pink ink (pink lemonade) and this Lorax cake.  The cake tasted great -- just white cake, colored.  The lorax trees I tried to create were rather weird -- I won't try that again.  The trunks are rolled up cardstock, and the leaves are cotton candy.  Lesson learned -- cotton candy dries and shrivels up, as seen here.  Oh well, it was fun to have everyone together anyway!