Devon's High Adventure

Day 1:  Mountain Bike riding 52 miles
Brother Brovont, Devon Lowe, Brother White, Ethan Hansen, Riley Burton, James Cluff, Brother Madsen and Ephriam Hansen

Day 2:  White Water Rafting Category 5 rapids
Left:  Riley, Ephriam, James, Devon, Ethan, Brandon and Tyler

Day 3:  Climbing and Rapelling the New River Gorge

Bellarmine Soccer Camp - Second Year

For the second year in a row, Robert is attending Bellarmine's Full Day soccer camp.  Camp starts at 9:00 am at the Bellarmine Campus Soccer fields and doesn't finish until 8:00 pm at night.  Camp is every day of the week for one week!

Robert is attending camp with his friends:  Nathan Ball, Mason Rice, Eric Kirby, Ben Carper and Ryan Gohegan.

Left to right:  Eric, Ryan, Nathan, Mason, Robert and Ben

Robert had a great time and scored very well on his evaluation!  He felt good about his week at camp.

Starting the Patio

Betsy dropped Robert off at Bellarmine Soccer camp and decided to stop at Lowe's hardware on the way home for some home repair items…

Well, she didn't make it out with only those items.  She found new lights for the kitchen - amazing, but more importantly she decided to (as they say) bite the bullet and get the items necessary to put in the second stair case for the back deck.

In purchasing the second stair case she has opened the door to creating the patio that she's always wanted to do … because … the stair will lead down to … what?

She figured the only way to get something done is to start it, so with that in mind she took the saw in hand and sawed away the section of the deck that will soon be the location of the second stair case.

Next step is to finalize the design of the patio then start pulling up the grass.

Go Betsy!

Soccer Nightmare for Robert

Robert was offered a spot on the Javanon team on Friday, June 8.  He left for Boy Scout camp on Monday, June 11.  Mark went to the Javanon meeting and turned in his papers, money, picture and medical release.  Everything seemed fine.  He even signed in for the meeting and left making sure he introduced himself to Tina Smith, the team manager.

Because the coach didn't see Robert on Monday he assumed Robert chose to go with another team, Mockingbird, and cut him!  UGH!!!  You know what they say about assuming.  Well, that's not the worst of it.  He also didn't bother to tell anyone.  So Robert (and Betsy) came back on Friday only to find out after we had lost a spot on Mockingbird and United that he didn't have a spot on Javanon.

Robert was in tears!  Literally - all night.  We talked to him about it.  We shared how it could be for the best and we will make the best of it - but right then we needed to find a team for him to play on.

He was accepted immediately on Legends, but also invited to a try out at LSA on Saturday evening.  Another try-out.  Robert was sick of try-outs and, personally, I don't blame him.  He did a fine job and was offered a spot on the LSA team too.

Now he has to decided - LSA or Legends.

Devon leaves for High Adventure!

Devon has been preparing for this trip for 8 weeks - riding a mountain bike on local trails, running and biking around the neighborhood.

all packed up and ready to go

Monday Devon plus four other boys (Ethan Hansen, Ephriam Hansen, James Cluff, and Riley Burton) and three leaders (Brandon White, Tyler Madsen, and Jim Brovont) left at 3:00 am to drive to New River Gorge in West Virginia for fives days of high adventure activities.

CREW:  Devon Lowe, Ethan Hansen, Leader Brandon White,
Ephriam Hansen, Riley Burton and James Cluff.

Monday - they hope to arrive and be set up by 10:00 to start their mountain bike route.  Their goal is anywhere from 57 to 100 miles.  I know Devon is ready and anxious to get in the mud.  Monday it rained all day, so they were riding in rain for most of it.

Tuesday - they boys and leaders will white water raft the lower New River.  This section of the river has four category five rapids.  Betsy wasn't to thrilled to hear how dangerous this section of the trek would be, but really can't do anything about it - so … there.

Wednesday - Devon and the boys will climb and incredible section of the New River Gorge and then rappel that cliff.  Should be fun.

Thursday - Devon and the guys will start off on a two day backpacking trip along the Appalachian Mountain trail.  They will camp on the trail.



Friday - they will continue the trail - then head home.  They are expected late Friday night.

Robert and Devon go to Scout Camp

The same week that Marissa and Mommy are at YW camp, Robert and Devon were at Boy Scout camp.  Devon didn't get to go last year so he was super excited to go this year.  He needs three merit badges to earn his Silver Palm and he passed off four at camp.  Done!

Robert and Devon met at the church at 6:00 am with the other boys going - there were approximately 18 boys from our troop - that's huge:  Robert, Ben, Max, Trevor, Reece, Talan, Derek, Austin, Henry, Conner, Ephriam, Riley, Will, and Devon - Devon being the oldest.

The boys were busy all week long attending sessions in their merit badge subjects.

Robert took shot gun, kayaking, forestry, and wilderness survival.  During shot gun Robert's arm was hit by the kick back so he wasn't able to finish the merit badge during the week, but he has a year to finish it.

Devon signed up late but was still able to get into some great merit badge classes.  He took shot gun, pioneering, orienteering and rowing.  He earned all four merit badges and I'm sure he will have a chance to use them when he is away at high adventure next week.

Young Women's Camp - Marissa is a 4th year

Monday to Friday Marissa and Mommy were at Young Women's Camp.  This year it was held at the same place as last year, Camp Crescendo Lion's Camp.

Monday - Marissa arrived at the Crestwood Stake Center at 6:30 am to meet the other 4th Years girls (24 in total) to head out on their 12 mile hike!  They were transported to Bernheim Forest (right where Devon and Robert were) for their hike and overnight camping.  The girls hiked for 12 miles - 7 miles longer than the required 5 miles.  They hiked all day with a day pack and sleeping bag.  Sweet dreams Marissa.

On the other side of the mountain (really a hill) Mommy was with Sister Vicki Johnson, Camp Director and the YCC's getting camp ready for the campers.  We made door signs, bed signs for absolutely every girl coming to camp, YCC assignments, reviewed the Faith walk, Personal Progress, and the YCC skit.  That evening after the Faith walk, Vicki and I treated the girls to an hour and a half at the pool.  AWESOME!

Tuesday - preparations, registration, campers arrive, lunch, field day, dinner, speaker - Kari McOmber, faith walk, ward devotional and lights out

Wednesday - Rise and Shout " oops".  4th Years very tired, breakfast, certification, personal progress, lunch, fun classes - extra pool time, dinner, speaker - Rick Diamond, ward devotionals and lights out.

personal progress 

lake time

Certification about plants and insects

Certification for first aid - injured person relays

Thursday - YCC's wake girls up - not me.  Breakfast, speaker from Karen Hansen, service project, lunch, recreation time - zumba, pool, lake, certification, cooking, fire safety, dinner, testimony meeting, campfire and smokes, dance, lights' out.

Marissa, Meg and Rachel pulling weeds
at the cafeteria after staining a band stand

service with a smile

Every day we had singing time, devotional time, and scripture time

Marissa, Morgan, Rachel, Amy, Bethany, and ???

More lake time for everyone

Game time was so much fun

 Friday - pack up and head home

Jessica got a Job at DQ

Jessica tried for several weeks to get a job somewhere other than DQ but everywhere she went did not want to hire seasonal help.

Jessica finally decided to go back to DQ.  She is working full time!

A Week of Try Outs

On Monday Robert had try outs with the new Rover Academy Team
On Tuesday he had try outs with Javanon
 - Will find out on Friday
On Wednesday he had try outs with Rover again
 - Robert was not given a packet so we don't know if he made the team.
 - We will find out by Friday
On Thursday he had try outs with Kentucky Fire Junior (Mockingbird)
 - Will find out on Friday
On Friday he had try outs with Javanon and United
On Saturday he has try outs with United.

The trouble is that Javanon and United might not have teams because many of their players could be pulled to Rovers.  We will find out how it all shakes out by Sunday.

YARDWORK!

Mark and I (Jessica and Marissa, too) spent most of the day pulling weeds, mowing the grass, trimming edges, removing old mulch, buying 18 bags and laying mulch (still need another 9 bags), transplanting flowers, and more…

At the same time we cleaned out the garage, swept, washed windows, got rid of anything we didn't need, reorganized and put everything back in the garage.

It was around 8:30 when we finally quit for the night.  We were both exhausted!!!