Surfing Lake Powell Style

Clint got to try his hand at surfing today.  He didn't want to stand up so he enjoyed the ride on his belly-- "It was AWESOME!"

Lake Powell Retreat or Bust!

Cool cousins.  We're on the road heading to Lake Powell!!!  Austin and Kade get to go help as staff at Lake Powell and so they rode down with me.  Jenny also hopped in with us.  It was such a great trip.  I love discovering people.  Everyone is just so fascinating to me.  It's true what they say that everyone has a story-- it doesn't have to be a big event or even one event.  Everyone's lives are just different and so it is interesting to learn about each other.  

Austin and Kade didn't find us all that exciting so they just hung out in the back seat listening to music and taking selfies.  There were a couple times that they fell asleep.  Kade insisted on setting right next to Austin and so he fell asleep on him.  Austin was so good about it and just slept himself.  It's going to be a fun few days with these cool kids!

That's the way to travel

Clint was given the opportunity to go to Lake Powell and help as staff.  Luck would have it for Kade that they couldn't find enough kids to go help so he was also given the opportunity.  Since Kade had a turn flying home from Lake Powell last year Clint was the lucky one that got to fly down this year.  Both Kade and Clint couldn't get over how much better it is to fly than drive.  Six hours in a car for a kid is just torture, especially if you have made the same trip in less than 45 minutes.  Such a fun experience for him-- but the flight was only the tip of the iceberg.  Working as staff at the Lake Powell retreats is such a great life experience.  I'm so thankful my boys have the chance to meet, interact, and learn from so many amazing people.

Cuties!

Cole's primary teacher sent this to me today.  She said she was teaching her lesson and then she looked up and these boys were all sitting like little sweet angels and so she had to take a picture of them.  What cuties!  Beckham Anderson, Woods Woolwine, Andre Franco, and Cole Bosshardt.

Redmond Bowling Activity

So many of the posts are about the kids so I had to include these pictures.  Redmond Trading had a team activity tonight where they went bowling.  Apparently everyone didn't get the dress up memo. ;)  Darryl looked like he was straight out of Saturday Night Fever.  He was sporting his blue suit with his collar turned up.  Move over 2014, Darryl is bringing back the 70's! :)  He said he didn't do good bowling but he had fun anyway.
Also pictured: Carol, Tifany, and Jose'.

School here we come!

The boys were so cute about their first day of school today.  In years past it has been just like any other day with some excitement.  This year they stressed about what they were going to wear and if it looked nice and they wanted their hair done.  :)  I guess this is just a sign that they're growing up.  This year Kade is in Ms. Vandenbos's class and Clint is in Mr. Johansen and Ms. Rose's class.  Clint has two teachers because they are testing a new program where two teachers team teach so they can focus on two main subjects instead of all four.  I was a little nervous that because of all the switching the teachers wouldn't really be able to get a good understanding of each child and how they are learning.  (I'm writing this post after we've been in school for a while so I can report that team teaching is awesome with these teachers!  They really know the students and look to challenge each student on their own level.)  Cole had to get in the picture because  he knows he's starting school this year but couldn't understand why he wasn't starting today.  When I tried to just take the picture of Kade and Clint he said, "But I'm going to school too!"  Cutie.  Good luck on your first day boys!  You're might smart boys and very friendly so I know you'll do wonderful things!

Everyday Moments

We were listening to the radio and Clint says, "Ooo, turn it up!  This song is groovy!"  Only funny because it was a very 70's song and we had no idea he even knew the word groovy.  He's a 70's child that never lived in the 70's. 

Bathing Cole and while I'm washing him he asked me if I wanted to hear a story.  I said yes and he proceeded.
 "Once upon a time there was a boy named Cole.  He would go around looking for eggs.  He found lots of eggs in trees and by rocks and in nests.  There were lots of wars and one day he got stuck in a war and then he was ok.  But one day he fought in the war and then he got shot."  {big "I'm so proud of myself for making up a story" grin}.  Such a smarty pants.

Lake Powell! Hiking

If you ever find yourself at Lake Powell Labyrinth canyon is a must hike.  It never disappoints.  This time through the slot was filled with sediment due to the many floods and so we were hiking at a higher level on the wall.  It's so remarkable to think how it can change so quickly.  I love going with people who have never been through it and just experience their amazement.  The kids all did pretty good.  Grandma and Cole stopped and played on a sand bar while the rest of us swam through the really thick gunk.  We had to swim in quite a ways to even get to that point and so more swimming and stinky gunk were not on Grandma's fun list.  Such an awesome experience to do that with Kade and Clint though.

Lake Powell!

Tanner, Ron, Austin, and Darryl

We're here again!  I'm so excited to be where my heart lies.  You may wonder why this strange picture is linked to this post but it is significant-- I'll explain.  When we arrived at the houseboat, Freebird, the boys needed to explore.  They wanted to see and know what every button does, where every door went too, what was behind every hole cover.  In their tour of the boat they found the water manifold.  What boy wouldn't love this sight!  It looks so fun!  They asked many questions about it and then eventually continued exploring.  Throughout this week though Cole could be found standing in front of it just staring at it.  I was so nervous he would mess something up so I would watch him intently.  He never even tried to touch it though.  He just stood there in awe.  One night we were getting all the kids tucked into bed and Cole had gone in to use the restroom.  It was taking him a while so I went to find him.  I didn't find him in the bathroom; he had used the restroom but didn't stay there.  Instead I found him standing with the cupboard doors open in front of the manifold.  I walked over and asked him what he was doing.  He didn't look away and said, "It's just so beautiful."  I convinced him to go to bed only by telling him he could use the iPod to take pictures of it in the morning. He didn't forget about that and spent a lot of time taking pictures.  He would max out the photo capacity so we would have to delete them every once in a while but we would just tell him we were fixing the iPod so it would take pictures again.  So funny what fascinates them. 

This year we went with the Brown family.  Buzz and Wayne's families couldn't make the trip but we did snag Payton to join the fun.  We even got Grandma on the tub; what a riot.  We kept worrying about hurting her back but we couldn't get her off.  She was laughing so hard.  We also did a little cliff jumping but Grandma didn't participate in that activity. Ha Ha.

LAGOON!!!

It was Redmond day at Lagoon.  Our friends the Goodes took advantage of the discounted tickets and came with us.  It was so fun to have all the kids together so they could go on rides with each other and the adults didn't have to make ourselves sick. :)  The other perk was the person stuck watching Cole on the kiddie rides and someone to talk to because Cam and Lexi were on the rides with Cole.  We were having such a great time that I forgot to take pictures.  This is my one and only from the trip. :)  It's a cute on though!

Clint's Baptism

Clint's baptism was today.  He and Zach Carl got to share their special day which was fun because they're good friends.  Aunt Wendy gave the talk on baptism and Zach's grandma gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.  Wendy brought her usual impressiveness with her talk that involved Kit Kats and a mouse trap.  Grandma and Grandpa Bosshardt, Grandma Brown, and the Nance boys all came to share the special day with Clint.  He asked Darryl to confirm him and Neal to baptize him.  He said he wanted to have his grandpa do it because, "We don't know how long he'll be alive."  Neal isn't sick.  I think it was just a result of my dad's passing that has made him realize that everyone will go sometime.  Unfortunately something happened to all the pictures from that day.  I couldn't be sadder. :-(  After the baptism we went back to the house and had lunch and the '8' cake that the boys made.

Learning a new trade: Cake Decorating

One of the Brag Tag activities was decorate a cake.  Clint thought it would be a great idea for them to decorate his birthday cake.  He wanted a number 8 cake for his baptism so that is what we had for dessert.  It turned out to be pretty perfect-- except he wanted red icing.  He wasn't okay with pink icing and in order to use my cake decorating tools we'd have to make the icing and I can't get it to go red so he settled for blue. We made two round swirl cakes and placed them together to make the number 8.  The boys spent  a lot of time covering the cake with stars.  It turned out great and they thought it was tons of fun.  I was surprised how well they all did.  I didn't get a photo of the finished product but they filled in all the gaps and it really looked nice.  I would dare say that most people would have thought an adult did it.  Fun new experience!