Boating with the Westerns

We were able to go boating again this weekend, this time with Deb & Jerry. Hailey and Kaitlyn are "bestest" cousins.

Hailey swore never to go boating again after everyone but her got sunburned last weekend. She enjoyed today, but we had a hard time getting her in the water.

Kyra is fearless. We had a hard time keeping her out of the water. Each time we put her in the boat, she kept trying to go back in and "have fun."

Julie, Alisa and Megan

Cub Scouts

Cub Scouts continues to be a new adventure for us! Tom only has limited experience with scouting (as a kid he thought it was stupid) and I never really paid attention to what my brother was doing. Josh loves it and is having a lot of fun. Here's some of the pack along with our neighbor, Derek Rowe, who recently returned from Iraq.

Josh, after receiving his Bobcat.

Locks of Love

My girls have been growing their hair out to donate for Locks of Love for the last year. Today, Megan's hair was finally long enough to donate and still have shoulder length hair. Hailey and Julie still have another month or two before their hair will be long enough to donate.

A minimum of 10 inches of healthy hair can be donated. Hair must be bundled in braided ponytails. Since Meg's hair is so thick, they take the time to make 4 bundles.

The first cut.

Four bundles of hair. One wig takes 6-10 braids of donated hair.

Meg, looking cute with her new cut.

Boating

We spent the day boating with Steve, Christy and their kids at Utah Lake. It's been a few years since we've been out with them. We had a blast!

Tom, Julie, Josh and Hailey

Hailey was a little concerned about the possibility of sharks in Utah Lake.


Julie was really annoyed when people swam by her. The kids had almost as much fun swimming as riding on the tube.

Tom, his first time on the wake board.

Seth is awesome on the wake board! I wish I had my better camera to catch pictures of him and the air he was getting.

All of the kids, but Hailey, crammed into the tube to head back to the dock. Seth kept shoving them out!

This Is The Place Heritage Park

To celebrate Pioneer Day, we made a trip to This Is The Place Heritage Park.

The park had special events planned for the day, like the handcart parade and the "Candy Cannon." Hailey did really well collecting the salt water taffy shot from the cannon, but she wasn't too sure about the gunpowder residue.

Enjoying a candy stick from the original ZCMI store.

Panning for gold. It took Hailey and Josh a while to find any gold.

Trading their gold in for candy at the bank.

School was in session. Here we're having a natural science lesson.

Hailey really loved making a button toy.

Camp Kiesel

Josh got his first Cub Scout camp experience at Camp Kiesel. All summer long he had been looking forward to canoeing, shooting BB guns, and maybe, if Mom gave in, buying a pocket knife. Since Tom had the week off, he got to go along and help. Josh loved the rope bridge and surprised Tom at how quickly he could cross.

Here's Josh wearing the "Bear Claw" necklace he made.

Canoeing was everything Josh thought it would be. (He's the kid with the green and yellow hat.)

Tom said the boy sitting next to him didn't get the whole concept of rowing, so Tom took over so they could actually get somewhere. Of course, the camera battery died just as Josh was getting ready to shoot the targets with the BB gun. While Mom never gave in to the idea of a knife, Dad did.

Bowling and Laser Tag

Since Tom's off for the week we decided to spend the morning bowling and playing laser tag. Tom bowled really well (five strikes and two spares). Josh came in second, bowling left-handed and with bumper pads. Mom and Julie decided we would like bumper pads too!

You can't help but smile as you watch Hailey bowl. She "throws" the ball at a whopping 2 miles per hour, then stands with her hand on her hip waiting to see how many pins she's knocked down. The rest of us are waiting to see if the ball stops completely before hitting any pins.

Laser tag was fun, but next time we need more people! We ended up playing teams (boys against girls) and the boys got slaughtered!