Dear Nevada, Thanks for the Memories

Last week we met up with Paul's Brother and his family and Paul's dad at the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in northern Nevada. We had such a wonderful time, and made so many memories:

- Finding out how much you have in common with your cousins, including a true love for legos, star wars and beef jerky.

- Quality time with Uncle Aaron and Aunt Sandy

- Plenty of "guy time"

- Being together, being unplugged, and feeling connected

- Yummy camp food

- Jack's amazing Star Wars origami

- Hanging out with Ripley- drool and all

- Seeing shooting stars

- Seeing a herd of antelope

- Listening to noisy bullfrogs, howling coyotes and wild burros while trying to sleep

- Feeling "REAL HEAT" for the first time this Summer

- Rowan getting "stuck" in an outhouse (very not funny to him)

- Fishing with Grandpa and Uncle Aaron

- Catching tadpoles and minnows in the pool

- Being brothers

- Visiting an Opal mine and seeing an amazing arrowhead collection

- Learning to appreciate the silence- and being able to hear the bugs, birds and jack rabbits

- Building fires

- Seeing a bull snake and not screaming


- S'mores


- Swimming in the warm springs pool





- Laughing at Grandpa's jokes and stories

- Waking up on flat air mattresses

- Hikes

- Coming home completely exhausted from all the fun you had!

Cub Scout Day Camp

Today Rowan and Grayson finished up a week of Cub Scout day camp. They had a full five days of crafts, games, archery, bb guns and being silly with friends. I got to spend a couple of days at camp with them and even Fuller came one day as a helper. This was Grayson's 3rd and final year, and Rowan's first. Rowan has heard about the wonders of camp for years, so he was super excited to go. Even though it was kind of a cold wet week, and the mosquitoes were out in force, I think it lived up to his expectations. This was my 6th year of attending camp. Only 2 more and I can officially retire!













Grayson also figured out that he could stuff a lot of Tootsie Rolls in his mouth!

Oaks Park

Last weekend we took the boys to Oaks Amusement Park for Paul's union picnic. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had much fun!

The union provided us with a surprisingly delicious BBQ for lunch. Once we had eaten our fill we headed out to enjoy the park.

We decided to try our hand at roller skating first off, while our lunch settled. Fuller is the only one of the kids who has ever skated before, so this was more entertaining than I thought it would be. Paul pretty much looked like "Lurch", and Grayson and Fuller were also pretty stiff.

Rowan initially decided not to skate, because he didn't want to get hurt. But after seeing Grayson fall several times and get back up he decided he could do it. He mainly stuck to the beginner area with hand rails though.

I love this old rink with it's old fashioned pipe organ. In many ways it hasn't changed a bit.

After skating we went out to hit the rides.

My boys have had very little experience with riding rides.

Rowan was afraid of most of the rides, but did give a couple of them a try. He really hated the Ferris Wheel. Heights are just not his thing.

Fuller is also not a big fan of rides, but for him it's more a motion sickness issue than fear.

Grayson is our daredevil ride lover! He wanted to ride everything, even if he had to ride it alone. His motto seems to be "the bigger the better"!

What a great day!