Scout Camp

Cameron spent a week at scout camp this summer on some property owned by our Bishop in Wenatchee.  This year it was just our ward and Cameron was heavily involved in the planning of the camp being the Patrol leader and also the Deacon's President.  He did an excellent job.  I am totally bias about what an amazing boy he is but after camp I had so many of his leaders come up to Mitch and I and tell us what an outstanding guy he is.

While at camp he earned three merit badges:  Wilderness Survival, Cooking, and Pioneering

Yesterday we went to his Court of Honor where Cameron advanced to the rank of Star.  He is doing so well.  He earned 6 merit badges (Wilderness Survival, Cooking, Pioneering, Family Life,  Physical Fitness, and Aviation).  He has worked so hard on some of these badges and only has one more requirement left in Citizenship in the Community before he has completed that.  That merit badge is tough! What a handsome scout.

Crafts and Summer reading

The girls have been busy making fun crafts the last few days.  These turned out so cute.  The cactus garden is Julia's and the ladybugs are Natalie and Lucy's.

The kids finished their summer reading program at the library.  The prizes this Summer were pretty lame.  It was a gold medal for finishing and the half way prize was a really lame..water bottle pouch.  They still enjoyed taking their picture when finished though.

Lucky

Julia found a four leaf clover this summer and was so excited!

But more lucky than that..... she found another one two weeks later!

Who is ever that lucky?

Sick

I *think* we can official say that we are over the flu.  That was something else.  In the end, we all got it.  It took us out and rocked our world.  It sort of sucked the fun out of our last week of Summer but are glad we are over it and ready for school now.

This summer has also been filled with miscellaneous injuries.  The night before our camping trip I tried to cut the tip of my finger off with a knife.  That was not cool.

I also had my big toe nail cut out because of a chronic in grown toe nail.  This is something I never want to do again!  Yikes! Cameron has had nagging knee pain from running track this Spring and spent the Summer trying to rest it, as much as a 13 year old boy can. He thinks it is finally better and looking forward to testing it out.  Our biggest scare was about a month ago.  This Summer Mitch has ridden his bike to work a few times.  One morning I got a call from him that he was in an accident and he needed me to come pick him up.  He was in Seattle riding in a bike lane when a women who was parked on the street and wasn't paying attention and opened her door right right as Mitch was riding by.  The door took him out and he fell into the street making a big scene.  He was scratched, bleeding and banged up pretty good.  He got a big gash on his leg that still is healing.   His bike was not broken mainly because it fell on top of him.  This shook him and me up a bit.  We were so thankful that nothing worse happened!

40

Mitch turned 40!  

Even though he didn't want a party or anybody to make a big deal of that fact, we still did. 

We had a favorite things party where people gave him something that they knew he loved.  Cameron gave him a map, Julia gave him his favorite candies, Natalie gave him bungee cords and Lucy gave him a tarp.   Later that night Julia and Natalie gave him a timeline of him (From birth to the present) that they made---it is darling. Cameron wrote him a letter that made his Dad cry.  It was fun celebrating Mitch!  We love him.

Tree Trimming

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words.  Well my thousand words are just me laughing!!

This is Mitch and my Dad trimming a tree at my parent's house.  The safety precautions that were taken were my Dad holding on to Mitch's pants so he wouldn't fall off the roof!

School Orientation

I have spent the last two days at the kid's orientations.  We have 4 kids all in four different schools!  Cameron will be in 8th grade at the Junior High, Julia will be in 6th at the Middle School, Natalie in 3rd at the Elementary, and Lucy will make her debut in Preschool.

Not sure about the kids but I am a little overwhelmed after going to the schools!

The Plague

The plague has hit our house or otherwise known as the mid-August flu.  It literally has taken the kids out.  It started with Lucy and few days ago.  She got over it  and then got it again and then one by one the others have got it --Cameron and then Natalie.  Julia is our only hold out so far.  She said "Don't worry, I only get the flu on holidays!"  Poor girl. I have not seen so much throw up in a long time and if you know the Stuard family you know that we know throw up! Mitch and I are just hoping that we can escape this.

Hopefully we can rid ourselves of this and be ready to head back to school in a week!  For now, we are going to stay in quarantine!!

This is Lucy with her sick bowl

Gliders

We signed all of our kids up for Gliders this summer and were excited to have all of them running.  Lucy was especially excited because it was her first time!  Cameron had an awesome track season at school and towards the end of it his knee started hurting him.  A week into Gliders his knee was getting worse so we decided that it would be best for Cameron to stop and let his knee heal. Julia was in the older group this year and had a good time running the sprints.  As the kids are getting older we are starting to see a drop off in older kids participation in the city league.  There just isn't that many that do it.  That leaves us to decided in the next year or two if it is worth signing the older two up.  That makes us sad.

Natalie was about as cute as it gets running.  I love watching her.  Almost all of my pictures are of her and Lucy. I apparently need to do a better job of taking more equal pictures!

A few of the practices were HOT but luckily the beginning of the summer was actually quite cool and wet.

Dad and his girls

Mitch spent some time with his beautiful girls at the Daddy Daughter Dance

This sign is just too classic...

Who gives their dad a pelican for Father's Day?  Me.  It just went perfect with the piling he made!  

Lucy drew these pictures for Mitch for Father's Day.  The first one is of a turkey.  As a family we like to go on walks in the golf course by our house and there is a place were people are raising turkeys.  We like to get the turkeys all riled up and gobbling. So she decided that he would like a picture of a turkey for Father's Day.  I love little kids and their drawings! The next picture is of a Zebra and her baby. :)

Piano Recital

Another year of piano done!  They are getting good.

This was Natalie's 1st year of piano and she was so excited!  She was amazing and loved playing the piano.  She picked some hard pieces for her recital and worked hard all year!  She was a bit nervous for the recital so as she said,"I messed up some," but had her last piece memorized!

This was Julia and Cameron's 4th year of piano.  Julia loves playing the piano but at times does not like to practice, but does it anyway because Mom makes her. (Sounds about right for a 5th grader.) She found one piece that she loved and played it over and over and over this year.  She not surprising had this song memorized for the recital.

Cameron was a busy man this year with sports and homework.  He did a good job practicing even when at times he didn't have a lot of time.  The kid has good rhythm!

Mariners LDS Night

Now that summer is drawing to a close and I have a few minutes to breathe I hope to catch up on a few things.  Mainly from JUNE!!

We went with Mitch's parents to the Mariner's LDS night. We got really good seats, had a great time and no one threw up!

The girls were excited to see the Moose.  Lucy was not.

Not only was in LDS night but it was sing along firework night.  It was actually very cool. Lucy was having a blast!  She was pretending it was her own Taylor Swift concert since she wasn't in attendance last summer.  She had us laughing and laughing.