E Baptism

On July 16, 2013 Emma Grace Burnett turned 8 years old and made the decision to be baptized.  What a wonderful decision that she made.  We are all so happy that she made that decision.  I had my cousin take some pictures of her at Hovander Park before her baptism

We had here baptism on July 20th at our church building in Ferndale.  We had many friends and family there that came from out of town to celebrate E and her special day.

C Eagle Scout Project

Back in May 2012 we set out to Blaine, WA to see about an Eagle Scout Project for C.  We met with one of the managers at the City of Blaine, and he told us about a 350' trail up on Lincoln Park that needed to be refurbished.  We thought "350' not a problem".  Well we will be thinking differently when it comes to T doing his project.

Here is the before picture.

There was a lot of measuring/determining what needed to be done before C could begin doing any work.

After he measured everything, then he decided to work on the bench that needed to be installed at the beginning of the trail.

This is what the board looked like when we got it from the City of Blaine

After a lot of work sanding, sanding, and more sanding, then painting...

The installed bench!

Then the hard work began.  C set up work parties and had people from church/friends and family come out and clear the path.

 Then the pit run needed to be put down:

We were really lucky with the nice weather that we had...until it was time to put down the road fabric and the gravel :(.  It was rainy and wet, but we are so thankful for everyone that came out and helped that day.

After all that was said and done and a few more days (ok, more like a couple more weeks) :)  we (really meaning C) finally finished the project.

The before and after pictures!

Trek 2013

Toward the end of July, C headed out with our church on an adventure.  He and (I don't know how many other kids) dressed up as pioneers and drove over to Eastern Washington in school buses to be reminded of what the pioneers went through as they made their journey West.

Here he is the morning they left.

They headed over the mountain in school buses.....

And then they had a few problems with the buses, the buses broke down a couple of times and they ended up at a gas station/mini market until another bus could come and get them..

They finally made it over to Eastern Washington to begin their Trek experience (a little late, but they made it)

They were put into families of people they didn't even know and were told to load of their belongings onto a wooden handcart and were told to head to "Zion"

It was hot and dusty....

They had to travel through rivers and over hills

It was an experience C will never forget!!

He came back from this experience a new person...

He wasn't sure that he even wanted to go..Do you blame him?  But look at that face!!  He loved it!!  He said that he would go again in a heart beat.  

I think that every child should do this.  What an experience to go and act like a pioneer, dress, cook and pull a handcart.  There were no electronics, no cell phones, just a bunch of youth who were taking 4-5 days out of their summer to do something out of the ordinary.  

TO BE PIONEERS!!

:(

I am a horrible blogger!  I don't even know if anyone even reads it.  I have an entire summer worth of activities (and now fall) that I need to blog about.  I hope to get caught up!

Springtime Jam

The summertime fruit was ripe early this year, so before school was even out, strawberries were ready.

We get our strawberries from Boxx Berry Farm and they are delicious!!  I get the processed berries, they are cleaned, stems taken off and then sliced.  It isn't much more than picking and saves my back and me listening to my older kids whine "Are we done yet?"

E and I made the jam this year!

She is quite the helper.  She enjoyed smashing the berries and being in the kitchen with mom.

I think we ended up with 52 jars of homemade strawberry freezer jam this year.  I wish that I could say that would last us for more than a year, but my kids love homemade strawberry freezer jam, so we will be lucky if it lasts us until next strawberry season.  YUM!!