court of honor

 Carter finally had his eagle scout court of honor this past summer.  He was waiting so he could have it with six other boys in his troop.  It was a great night and I was a proud mama.  Allen was the conducting the court of honor and also did a great job.  His mom said afterwards, "I am so proud of Carter, but I think I'm more proud of Allen tonight." She loves her boy.

my three scouts; Jared will be working on his eagle project soon

Carter showing Congressman Duncan his project

I was these four boys cub scout leader their first two years in scouts-love them all!

So proud of Carter and this accomplishment!

lake time

We didn't spend as much time on the lake as we usually do due to a cool and rainy spring and summer. Plus Carter had a torn hamstring for the first part of the summer.  We got a paddle board this year to add to our collection.  We can now have the whole family out with 3 in kayaks, one on the paddle board and Claire catching a ride with someone.  We all have really enjoyed the paddle board.

One day we paddled to some 10-12 foot cliffs near our house and talked Claire into jumping off.  After trying to talk her into actually jumping off the cliff she decided she wanted me to hold her hand and jump with her.  Bad idea.  I jumped. She didn't. So she landed on her side.  Lesson learned.

Boat wise, the boys really got good with the surfing this year.  Carter and Jared can stay in the wake/pocket and just get pushed by the wave for as long as they want.  They can ride up and down the wave like you see in the ocean.  Allen still struggles to stay in the pocket for more than a few seconds (he is blaming the board-too small for his height) and I just enjoy holding on to the rope.  Claire tried many times but has yet to really get it.

rv

We finally made up the trip to the Virginia Creeper that we had to cancel when we lost our dog Max last fall.  We tried something new, something our kids have wanted to do for a few years.  We traveled and stayed in a RV (rented an old one).  Our trip was 4 nights/5 days.  We spent a day/night at Warriors State Park and the rest in Damascus, VA. We loved it.  We all loved it.  It was such a fun, different vacation for us.  The traveling was the best.  We played games, I laid on my bed and read, the kids hung out in that cool space above the driver.  The driver, Allen, was the only one who didn't think this was the best way to travel.

Virginia was awesome.  The first day we hiked part of the Appalachian trail.  The next day we did what we have done before; we rode down the 17 miles from Whitetop to Damascus, which is mainly coasting the whole way.  This time we stopped a lot more and enjoyed what the trail has to offer-river with rocks, little caves, beautiful scenery, rocks to climb up.  The last day we did something new and rode the 17 miles from Damascus to Abingdon.  This is all flat and much more of a real bike ride.  We loved it.  Believe it or not I think its scenery is better than the first trip.  We went through beautiful farms, the kind that make you want to live on a farm.  One bridge was gone due to a tornado so we had to ride down and up a steep embankment.  Boys loved it, I thought I was going to die.

At night we would play games in our little RV.  Monopoly was the game of choice for this trip as we had a lot of time at night.  We also played cards and even watched the movie RV one night!  It was so fun.  I laughed so hard every night that I would cry and my cheeks would hurt.  Those times are what I loved about this trip.  Our little family in a small RV laughing until we cried.  It just doesn't get any better than that.  We made such wonderful memories and have some good inside jokes from this trip.

Here are just a few of the pics we took:

driving in style

Monopoly

bed time

skipping rocks

bride to Abingdon

The "Virginia Creeper" engine in Abingdon

nap time

 We've had a lot of good naps around here lately.

claire swims

I realized this year that Claire is a really good swimmer.  Not just in free style, but all of the strokes.  This was her third year on the swim team (her brothers did not swim this year-made me sad-also great swimmers).  This year she really figured out butterfly (I am still trying to figure it out) and does a beautiful and fast stroke.  I enjoyed watching her swim and I also enjoyed how she would meet people from the other team (as they waited to race).  "Jane said she is going to the beach next week," "who?" "oh, this girl I met from the other team."  I love Claire and her swimming and her friendliness. 

climbing kids

The boys have added another new feature to our work-out room.  First Allen, Carter and Jared built the peg board (on right); now they have added a climbing wall.  It's been a fun addition for everyone.  I love that this is something that Allen has been able to do with his boys.  They love to design and build things together.  And then play on them.

Carter's obsessions

Carter and his obsessions.  He has had many.  Now that he is older, he is finally following through with his grand ideas.  His latest:  Uncle Maddio's Pizza.  It just opened across the way from us.  For some unknown reason Carter became obsessed with it while we waited for it to open.  He was on their Facebook page almost daily the last month or so trying to find out when exactly they were opening.  Why, do you ask? Because he he got the idea in his head that he needed to be the first customer.  Then he started talking about it obsessively to his friends and got some takers.  By May they had decided that they were going to camp out the night before to make sure they would be the first in line.  They also agreed that Carter would be the first in line because he was the ring leader.  We tried to explain to Carter that this wasn't something you camped out for.  The week of the grand opening none of the boy's parents were willing to camp out with them somewhere where we were pretty sure they wouldn't actually be allowed.  Allen and I compromised and said they could "camp out" at our place and walk over the next morning.  And so they did.  They headed over at 9am for a 11am opening.  As it turns out the pizza place was giving away free pizza's from 11-2, so there was a line and sure enough the boys were first, with Carter at the front, proud as can be.  The pizza place loved them and their enthusiasm and posted pictures of them on their Facebook page.  Here are some pictures from the fun day:

heading off in the morning

they were there about an hour before the next people showed up

first in line!

enjoying their free pizza

Carter has a knack of getting others caught up in his excitement.  A few years ago he and a friend came up with USPU (United States Parkour University)-because Carter was currently obsessed with Parkour and soon he made a website- uspu.webs.com.  (I'll let you check it out if you care-it hasn't been touched in over a year).  He also designed a t-shirt.  This was a long process because Carter has trouble making decisions and he had lots of input from lots of friends with all different opinions.  Allen and I just sat back and let him figure it all out himself.  He did it all-designed the shirt, took orders from friends, collected money and distributed the shirts (I think he ended up ordering 30 shirts).  Two years later I still see kids wearing that shirt and all 8th graders use the acronym USPU (us poo) in conversation like it's as common as IKEA.

So, my question is...how does Carter translate this talent for obsessing about things (and getting others to get on board with his ideas) into a career later in life?  What job is best fit for this?

Jared even bought one