3-D History

Last week while studying the Byzantine Empire we made our own mosaics. I love how Janey's flower turned out. I know it looks like M&Ms on a cake, but it's really glass pebbles in plaster!

This week while covering the Arabian Dessert we made our own edible oasis. Here's Daniel's before he gobbled it up.

Bionicles, posters, and authers (oh my!). by Steve L.

You can see the movie to the right.

Me and Greg

Friday I went and met Greg Farshtey! For those of you who aren't Bionicle fans, Greg is the author of the entire Bionicle series! We went to Wall-mart, (big surprise) and there next to the Bionicle isle, was a big table covered in Bionicle stuff, and there was Greg! Being one of the first 200 people there I received an autographed poster. I asked a few questions, had him autograph a different poster for me, then I waited over where they were screening the new movie. After that, we had a Q&A session then had a prize drawing. I didn't get any thing though. (Nuts.) After that, the scouts picked me up for a camp. (See Burstons Pond camp.) Meeting Greg was awesome!

Burston's Pond by Steve L.

JB and our tents



me, Jared, and the choc-chip pancakes

dad taking the plunge

Last Friday, after meeting Greg, we went on a fishing camp out to Burstons pond. After arriving near dinner time we set up camp and had a dinner of hot dogs and chili. (yum.) After multiple games of ghost in the graveyard and roasting starbursts around the fire, (double yum.) we went to bed. In the morning after we had a breakfast of our famous chocolate-chip pancakes (triple yum.) JB gutted his first fish! (and if you think I'm going to say "yum" here, you've got another thing coming.) Then we headed down to the rope swing to take the polar bear plunge! A.k.a. you swing of a rope into water that is literally one degree above freezing!!!!! Then we packed up and left. We had a lot of fun!

Star Wars Recycled

Daniel saved up his allowance to by a Star Wars action figure. Once he got home he realized that his commander was going to need a base and a ship. He build a base out of Legos, a hanger out of his Lego boxes and a fleet of ships after raiding our recycling drawer. I love his resourceful and creative spirit. Here a just a couple examples.

Mini cruisers out of muffin boxes.

His destroyer name Goliath.

Issue 71

New Zealand Grandparents

We had a lovely weekend spending time with our adopted New Zealand Grandparents, Hoki and Owen. They were visiting Utah for General Conference, and we were honored to haves them spend time with us. Lots of other fun things happened this week, but they will all have to wait until the next issue since this blogger desperately needs to go to bed!

Issue 70

Lucky 13

Happy 13th Steve! Legos, Legos and more Legos. A family party on the big day and Birthday B-B-Q with his friends on the weekend. What more could a guy ask for?

Issue 69

Star Scout

Steve advanced to the rank of Star Scout this week and was awarded a clutch of merit badges that he earned over the summer. Environmental Science

Soil and Water Conservation


Rifle Shooting

Orienteering

Indian Lore

Basketry

Cycling

Bridging to Brownies

The adorable girls we get to be with at brownie scouts.

Brownie bridging is a ceremony to officially become a brownie scout. I remember my bridging ceremony from 29 years ago vividly and was excited to provide the same experience for Janey. I was so thrilled when I found the same story about what it means to be a brownie (helpful elf) for our ceremony, that they read at my own bridging ceremony.

Since Janey starting asking to become a girl scout she has also been asking for a camp out. After all, Dad and Steve are scouts and constantly camping. It's only fair right? Well we tried for months to arrange a family camp out and bridging ceremony, when everyone could attend. Well, it's a good thing Girl Scouts are flexible and determined, because Plan A and B fell through and as Denise put it, we ended up with Plan F. Our brownie bridging ceremony was moved from a camp ground to a park (couldn't get reservations) to a church (micro burst winds) and our s'mores and camping were moved to Denise's front lawn with an outdoor movie. Dad arrived from his business trip just as the movie ended and it was time to pitch the tent. A pancake breakfast topped it all off, and Janey loved her camp out. Thanks Denise!

Service Project by Steve L.

Eric advising us not to get our heads chopped off by the tiller

me and Daniel in front of on of the boxes

On Saturday, Daniel, Dad and I helped Eric (a scout in our group) with his eagle project. Our job was to fix grow boxes at the senior citizens center. First we weeded the boxes ( you wouldn't believe the weeds) and added fertilizer to the dirt. Then we scraped the dirt off the boxes (all six of them) and wiped them down. we then stained them and, voila`! It took longer than you think! It was a lot of fun!

Issue 68

Shakespeare King

Steve is taking a Shakespeare class this year and having a lot of fun with it. They held a contest to see who could read, listen to or watch 17 Shakespeare plays first. Steve decided to go for it and in 5 days he finished all 17 plays. He said that by the 3rd play he could understand what they were saying with out having to translate it in his head. He really enjoyed to project and it was fun to hear him laughing out loud while listening to or watching a play. He came in second (because he doesn't do homework on Sunday), but they treated all 3 students who finished the first week like royalty. He was crowned and celebrated and named the Shakespeare king!

Cycling Merit Badge

On Saturday, as a scout group we went on a 50 MILE BIKE RIDE!!!!!!!!! We got up in the morning at 6:00 and had a tiny breakfast, then left. We started the ride at the head of the Jordan River parkway, and set out! It was hard, long, and tiring but we got 37 miles in before lunchtime! Back at the head of the trail, the moms had put together a lunch buffet. (Funny, I wonder why it’s spelled like that) It was delicious! We started out again, but the last 10 miles must have been the worst ten miles in the world! In the course of five minutes everyone had a flat tire! Shortly after fixing Eric’s tire (he’s one of the scouts) he completely BLEW his back tire! It was hard but we had a lot of fun! (It still hurts to sit down though.)