The Eagle Has Landed....

Bill and Mike coordinated their Eagle Projects with the Bainbridge Island Parks and Recreation Department. First they worked to earn the money to purchase the materials for their projects, along with some donated funds from several island businesses (you know one of them well--ha!). With the help of Brad, and some of their fellow scouts and Young Men's leaders, Bill and Mike each built two information kiosks made of rough cut tight knot red cedar, to be installed at different parks (mostly at trail heads) here on Bainbridge island. Shown here are the roofs, which won't be put on the kiosks until they are ready to be installed this Wednesday, and three out of the four kiosks ;-)

The guys dug the large holes at each of their sites on Friday, in preparation to install the steel brackets on Saturday. The kiosks are pretty beasty, so Brad and the guys devised a "jig" for each kiosk, so they could install and level the brackets in concrete in the exact positions they need to be in and let them set, prior to bringing in the kiosks. Final installation will be this Wednesday! HOORAH!

.....(then comes the rest of the application paperwork....UUGGHH!)

The best part of all of this, according to Bill, is not getting his Eagle project done, but being able to get his driver's license now. ROCK ON! He had to get his project done first.

Mike, who has at least a year before he can even get a permit, is taking this all in stride :-) No urgency. It will just be nice for him to have this out of the way before he enters high school in the fall.

Skiing at Snoqualmie

We rented a cabin for 5 days up at Snoqualmie, where there are 4 different ski resorts within a few miles of each other. The snow isn't exactly "Utah fresh powder," it's a bit more slushy-- more like California skiing, but it was great fun. We went tubing on Friday night, skiied Saturday, hung out in the cabin and played games on Sunday and then skiied Monday and Tuesday. Brit and I skiied mostly at Central, while the boys spent most of their time at Alpenthal. Brad went with us at Central a few times, and Dan spent two days at ski school, after which I took him up the bunny hill :-) If we can just get Dan up to ski speed, we'll all be able to ski together! Brit is getting to be a good little skiier and was willing to even go down a few black diamonds with me. The boys like to ski black diamonds and find gnarly jumps to try and break their legs. No broken bones yet! Mike has more ski time logged in than any of the kids, so he has the edge at this point, but Bill is a close second. Bill's three friends drove up late Sunday night to join us at our cabin so they could ski with Bill on Monday and Tuesday. Mike's friend Noah also showed up at Central ski resort and decided to stay the night on Monday night and ski again with Mike on Tuesday. After Bill's friend's car broke down, we took everyone home in our cars and stopped at Triple X Rootbeer drive-in in Issaquah, home of the one pound burger! Of course Bill and Mike and all their friends ordered the one pounder! Mike, who was already 3 pounds over his weight class had to make weight the next day, so after stuffing his face, he fasted from 7pm until the 5pm weigh-in the next day. He was EXACTLy 164.0 pounds for the 164 weight class. Big relief. We should do this every weekend! It was a lot of fun!

Brit at the Fourth Grade Music Show

A Snippet From Brit's Fourth Grade Music Show...

I remember this song well, and it should sound familiar to Dave and John, as well as mom and dad :-) Brit's class also sang Route 66, and several other oldies (ha!) Brit is fourth from the right in a black skirt. Next year she is on to Sakai Intermediate School (which is 5th and 6th grade here). Dan doesn't start kindergarten until Fall 2011, at the same time that Bill starts college. I remember mom telling me that when we lived next door to the Hansens (we lived there until I was about 12 years old), Dave (who was about 6 at the time), mom and I (about 3) were over at the Hansens and Karen (who was only about 2&1/2) was so excited because her big brother Craig was coming home and he had been away at college for a long time. Dave looked at mom and wishfully asked, "Do I have a big brother who is away at college?" (ha!)We are hopeful that Dan will have some memories of Bill while he was still at home. Aim, do you have any memories of me while I was still living at home? Probably not!

This Post Needs No Introduction...

.... We bought this baby, born in 1967, in Auburn just this morning and have been cruising around ever since. Needless to say, there's a very giddy 51 year old at our house today. He has wanted one of these since he was 9 years old!

The Latest Fav.....

The Heps..... at least Dan, Brit, Mike, Bill and Mom (indeed, everyone but Brad) have discovered the joys of munching on roasted and seasoned seaweed. Mike brought some home from church a couple of weeks ago. His Sunday School teacher, who served a mission in Korea, shared some with Mike and it spiralled from there. It comes in a package of big paper-thin sheets which are easily torn apart for little snackers. Brad tasted a tiny bit and was mortified. He's happy to stick with meat and potatoes. I went to Central Market last night at about 10pm for the usual Saturday night grocery run and we loaded up on about 10 packs of the stuff. Needless to say, our supply is already way down. We don't use it to cook with or make sushi, we just eat it right out of the pack. Yum!

Elder HALO

We have had the missionaries living in the apartment above our garage for over a year now. We have met some pretty cool elders in that time, and we've been sad to see many of them go. Elder Orton was transferred on Monday and he was one that we will really miss! A quiet, easy going, very 'real' and down to earth kind of guy. We discovered after he had been here for awhile, that he is/was actually 'ranked' in the top 10 in the state of Utah for Halo before his mission! Well, we all know what Elder Orton did for mission prep (ha!) Needless to say, Bill was impressed :-) Elder Orton is pictured here in the middle, between Brad and Elder Nuttall, wearing th "Halo helmet' that I (mom) created out of cardstock and a gluestick. We thought it was perfect for his send-off. My plan is to eventually fiberglass it and paint it and then make the rest of the costume....just for fun--ha! Goodbye Elder Orton.... We will miss you!