Trek

 So the reason for Amanda not being among the sleeping children is this.....she is on her trek. The left Thursday morning (too early if you ask me) and won't be home until later Friday evening. So, thanks to a great friend who went with them to drop them off at the starting point I do have some pictures to share. I took one of her before she left the house and the rest are thanks to my friend.

Amanda before she left the house:

My friend posted this one and I said that I didn't like it because I couldn't see her face:

So she posted this one waving for me!

This is the group she went with as they were headed out from the starting point. Really sort of impressive if you think about it.

Here she is with her handcart group.

We will know more about the how the rest of the trip went when she gets back.

SHHH.......they are sleeping!

 Last night I went to check on the kids before I went to bed. I was mainly checking on James as he is having a hard time staying in his bed. It was so precious that I had to snap pictures of all the kids. I think that sometimes as a mom, this is my favorite time of day (depending on the type of day we had).
This is Bethany:

This is my favorite and the one that sparked the whole spree of pictures (Wyatt and James):

Jacob:

Mariah:

Katherine...notice the shoes on her pillow. Aunt Heather was having a garage sale and she found these. Didn't want to let them out of her sight long enough for bed.

Now for those of you who are counting, yes there is one missing. I will post next on why she is missing in action.

No longer a Cub Scout

Just this last month Wyatt had a birthday. Big deal, so what? He is a year older some would say. To us this marks a milestone. He has moved from being a cub scout to being a big Boy Scout. It also marks a transition for me. I had been the assisstant Bear scout leader for about a year, and now I am not any more. So this last pack meeting they had a bridging over ceremony. Entirely symbolic of moving from the cubs to the older scouts. Unique this time was that there were three boys that moved with Wyatt. One had his birthday about 2 weeks before Wyatt's and the other about 2 weeks after. On top of this, they gave Wyatt a plaque that had all his cub scout badges and awards on it. Then he also earned his arrow of light. Wow! What a night for him.

This is the three boys just before their bridging process.

Since we were doing a water themed pack meeting, it was only fitting that they spray the boys with a water gun to complete the process.

Here is Wyatt getting his Arrow of light and his plaque.

Way to go Wyatt! We are proud of you and know you will continue to do great things in Boy Scouts!

I am in LOVE!

So this title could refer to a lot of things. One person that I love, among all the many, is my husband. He is the best ever! He told me the other day that he wanted to get me something for my birthday but he didn't want me to know what it was. Keep in mind that this was like the 7th and my birthday isn't until the 24th. Being the hormonal person that I am right now, I started crying because it was (to me at least) a sweet thing to say. I started thinking about all the things that he could have gotten me and then I started to panic. Not that he wouldn't have come up with something great and wonderful, but because I was thinking of a few things that were/would be higher up on the priority list than what I started to fear that he would ge me (a new rifle/pistol). So 2 days ago, I asked him if I could suggest something that I wanted for my birthday. He agreed and I told him what I thought would be enjoyed by the whole family (but would be for my benefit more). About 6 yrs ago, we had purchased a digital camera for the first time and I loved that....but sadly over the 4th that said camera died. So I suggested for my birthday we upgrade our camera experience and I am in love again. We decided to get a Nikon CoolPix P150. This was something that we had been looking at since Amanda had brought one home on loan from the school and we marveled at the differences in the pictures vs our other camera. He bought it as an early birthday present and I had been itching to use it. Then he gave me a perfect opportunity. He is working pretty close to our house and there are large fields around that are prone to have deer bedding down during the noon time. He called me and said there are 4 does and a buck still in velvet by this building we are working on. I didn't waste any time. I walked over there (it is less than 3 blocks) and sure enough there they were. I was thrilled. This is what I saw when I first walked up:

I was standing probably in the middle of the road at this point. They knew I was there and started to get up. But I took my time and they weren't in any hurry either. I am loving the zoom on this camera. I was only able to get maybe three or four more steps closer, but with the zoom you would have thought I was standing right next to them! Now Gabe had said that there were 4 does and a buck but with the zoom, I discovered something interesting:

This one is actually a buck---he is still trying to grow the big rack, but there is obvious growth there! This is my favorite of all the ones that I took:

I think we determined by the other pictures that this little guy is actually a 5 by 5 buck! He isn't too big, but if he survives through the hunting season, he has the potential to be a monster. I took this last one without the zoom, just so I could see what it would have looked like. I can't take pictures with my other camera and I am not knocking it either, but this is what I would have gotten with the other one even zoomed in as far as I could (or something similar):

So I guess that I am now in love with this camera! I don't profess to be a photographer by any means, but this camera is a huge step above what we had. I am still trying to get used to it and learn the various settings and tricks that it has, but I LOVE IT! I guess this means that there might be a lot more pictures to blog about as I get the hang of my new toy.