Somebody had a birthday!

That somebody was Joseph, and he's 11 now!

We celebrating by inviting 11 boys to party from 10AM to 5PM with snow play, Frito pie, swimming & diving, pumpkin pie, 4square and Lego's. What a boys' day!

Maybe the highlight of his day was being allowed to light his own birthday candles... or receiving homemade spears (left secretly in his armory)... or having SNOW!!!

Over all, his birthday included many memorable moments with some awesome friends and family. He was able to meet and hold a brand new baby, Hope, on her third day of life!

Many thanks to Grandpa Cliff and Grandma Billie for helping w/ the food and being in the midst of the chaos.

It was also very thoughtful of so many out of town family Grandma Patty, Grandpa Pete, Great Grandma O'Donnell, aunts, uncles and Godparents to send Joseph mail. He was delighted to open the envelopes at our quiet family dinner after such a busy day. He also loved the attention of the special phone calls with birthday wishes. Thank you everyone for loving Joseph! He's a great kid!

Arrow of Light

Joseph (and 9 of his den mates) earned the highest Cub Scout honor, the Arrow of Light.

We celebrated with a family potluck, photo slide show, and a formal ceremony. The boys were all on their best behavior, and radiated with excitement over the accolades and the hand-made arrows. They presented their parents with thank you cards and mothers' pins to commemorate this special event.

As their den chief for all these years, Zachary had a speaking role in the ceremony, and will be the Senior Patrol Leader as his Boy Scout troop welcomes these 10 boys into the troop tonight at Cross-Over.

Peter and the doctor

Our boys haven't been to the doctor for a few years....

In fact, our doctor retired a few years ago, and we never bothered to choose a replacement from his practice. Until yesterday.

Peter took a bad fall mountain biking on Tuesday. Hit a rock, did a wild zig zag and flipped over his handle bars~ skidding for about 10 feet upon landing face first on the trail. YIKES! I got a cell call (the boys take a phone for just such occasions) asking me to drive up to the top of our street to meet Peter at the trail head. This is how I found him: covered in mud and a bit of blood and quite sore.

We brought him home and put him in a bath to soak off the dirt and clean the wounds. No permanent damage evident, and other than a sore neck, he was not showing signs of real injury.

On Wednesday, he opted out of fiddle lessons (unable to hold his head in the right playing position) and so while the brothers went to fiddle (thanks grandma & grandpa!) Peter and I went to visit our neighbors, who were hosting a gathering of moms & toddlers from our church.

In the excitement of toddler time, Peter jumped off a footstool and heard a crack upon landing on a turned ankle.

He limped home, and complained about the pain in his ankle. Next day (Thursday) it was pretty swollen, and he was having difficulty walking, at which point I called to make an appointment with A doctor. We were assigned the doctor with office visit openings, and had to select a primary care provider before we could proceed with the appointment. We chose him. We hadn't met him, but figured we could just change doctors again if need be.

Dr. W. was great with Peter. He came in and introduced himself and asked, "Is this the sore ankle.......... what's all this?" as he waved his hands indicating all the cuts and bruises on Peter's legs. Peter's choice attire for the doctor visit included a pair of shorts and a 3-day t-shirt (at t-shirt he'd been wearing for 3 days). I told him that people who only go to the doctor every 3 years have to wear clean clothes, but I didn't think to have him cover his legs...

Peter explained that he'd taken a big fall the day before on a mountain biking adventure.

Doctor: "Were you wearing a helmet?"

Peter: "Yes."

Doctor continued the exam, with the famous "Does this hurt?" game.

Thankfully he ruled out any broken bones and diagnosed a ligament tear (bad sprain).

Doctor: "Well, you won't need to have an x-ray taken.... unless maybe we should x-ray this, or maybe this or that" indicating the other war wounds visible on Peter's legs.

Doctor said it was nice to meet us, and that he quite expected to be seeing us again in the near future!

We'll see about that...

Party time

Getting all dressed up to celebrate our friend's 50th birthday on Saturday, we were able to see the boys one more time in their white tuxedos. We bought these for a formal wedding last May for our good friends in Seattle. It cost about half of what it would have cost to rent tuxedos!

As you can clearly see, they LOVE getting all dressed up! Actually, they rose to the occasion, and although they were not interested in ballroom dancing, they did take the camera for a spin on the dance floor.

Their cultural education was worth the trouble of walking in my 4" heels. Part of the entertainment was a professional dance routine by a local pair, who placed second at a recent competition. The boys have never seen anything like it, so their eyes were opened wide.

"Where was Zachary?" you ask?

He called a friend at midday and said something like,
"Dude, I'm going to have to put on a tuxedo and go to a party with my family if you don't invite me over to your house tonight." or something along those lines.

We missed having him along, but on the bright side, it reduced the "can we go yet?" by 1/3.

A hike in the woods

We are so fortunate to live just a few blocks from a giant mountain, carved with hiking and biking trails.
We took advantage of a sunny day and some free time this week as we ventured up the mountain with a gang of Scout friends and Charlie the dog.

The view from the top is sweeping, with water and city views to one side, and mountain views to the other. Of course the boys' favorite view was the view straight down the cliff!

Many of these boys are just about to cross from Webelos to Boy Scouts, and they could not be more excited.

As we prepare to award their Arrow of Light ranks, we look back on the wonderful adventures we've had as Cub Scouts together~ and look eagerly toward many more adventures as Boy Scouts...

Life is good.

Movin' on...


The relocation efforts kicked in to high gear this weekend!
We enlisted the help (hired a few) of our Scouting friends and tried to get the old space cleaned out before the beginning of February. Unfortunately, it didn't happen, but the majority of the moving is done.

The new space (see Joseph playing the drum) is starting to take shape and look like a shop. The old place
(behind Joseph on the bike) looks deserted and traumatized!
We used our van to trasport the arsenal of pawned weapons (see Joseph with Tim), which probably put it over the weight bearing limits.

Our new signs are up, and we are hoping to be open for business at the new location tomorrow!