Happy Birthday, Christmas, Easter, 4th of July Mom and Dad

We had a family reunion!  I know, right?  We have only had one of those that I can remember, other than this one.  It's hard when you drop your kids off all over the country and when 2 of them marry military men themselves and some just need an attitude adjustment!  But hey, we did it and plenty of people came!

Finishing the binding on the quilt on the trip up to Mom and Dad's!

Mom came up with the theme of celebrating all the holiday's that they miss celebrating with all their kids and grandkids because everyone is so spread out.

We had 4th of July with sparklers and pool and slip and slide time,

We had Christmas presents- white elephant gifts,

We had birthday celebration complete with mini cakes to frost and decorate,

The book has pictures of all the kids and grandkids.  The quilt was a representation of each family.  They chose the main color.  I chose the square that would represent the family.  We have green and a hunters star since Rob is Army and we move a lot and we own a lot of guns.  Karl's is red- I assume for Arizona State and his is Wheel of fortune, because he is in the finance game.  Mike's is maroon, I assume for Texas A&M and his is Sister's choice, since they have a lot of girls in their family.  Cindy's is robins egg blue (not sure why.  Probably because she likes that color) and is a windmill- they live in Washington state and were Air Force, so it seemed to fit.  Dan's is.... I can't remember!  It was birds in flight though.  Was it blue???  Anyway, him and his wife both work for the airlines, so that's why the pattern.  Lise's was purple, because that fits her and the pattern was bento box, because she loves anime.  Tim's was a pattern that just looked digital to me, because he is into everything digital and it was grey, because he likes things plain.

We had Easter with the only two littles left that would participate in an egg hunt. 

We went on a treasure hunt of places that Mom knew growing up.

I can't tell you now what any of these places are, but we went there and checked them off our list!

We went to the temple and did baptisms for our dead ancestors.  

We visited with Great Grandma Keck

We played games and we chatted

What a great fun family reunion Mom and Dad planned!  It was so good to see everyone that came.  I haven't seen my sister in years and I had never met the two littles.  Gretchen and Dan were a blast.  I love people who aren't afraid to get into the fun even if it means getting soaking wet! 

 Until next time family!  Love you all!

Ending with the Best

After football and wrestling, I was pretty depressed about what we had done for our oldest son, but he moves well and showed it.  He went into track with determination and found some amazing coaches that helped him reach for his potential.  Coming out of Stuttgart, I think he only had a 17 sec (something) for his best time at the 110 meter hurdles and maybe 5'8 for his high jump.  Of course it was his first year in high school running or jumping.  He mastered the 3 step technique this year and learned to deal with ice baths.  

Even I became involved with the team, because the coaches were so awesome!  Rob and I tried to make most of the meets.  

So many parents were never there.  They are long and some think really boring, but I have always found track fascinating and it helps when you personally know the kids and their struggles.  We rooted for all kinds of kids, including from other teams, because we learned of their stories, or guessed at some.  A lot of the boys would come say hi to us and give me a hug.  Sam's hurdle coach was also named Debi and so we talked lots.  Such a great group of kids and adults! 

Sam made it to state in the 110 hurdles, high jump and as an alternate for the sprint medley team.  

For those that qualified they had a special dinner.  I was invited to participate.  So amazing to watch! 

 Hats were given out at districts for those who made state

 Goodie Bags!

 The 6A boys track team

 Isn't this cake amazing!

The meet itself was hot but the competition was fierce.  Those kids gave every last ounce they had.  We watched lots of throwing up.  They even had to move the podium because of a big pile of puke in front of it.  Do you know where they moved it- on top of the puke!  NICE!   

Our meet had 4 A, 5A, and 6 A.  It was interesting to see the difference.  Sam would have won or come close to winning the races of the 4 and 5 A schools.  He ended up getting 5th in the 110 hurdles for the big schools.

Our team was winning the whole meet.  We had got a good amount of people into state finals, so we were super excited and hopeful.  We lost in the very last race of the day and ended up getting 2nd.  Second in all of New Mexico for running is not bad. In fact it is very very good!  We had a kid high jump who tied 6 other kids in the nation that had jump the same height- only 7 kids in the entire nation! One of our teams racers went on to sign for BYU track team.  I expect him to do great things.  He was the national 400m winner.  I think we are pretty competitive.  But just as every one knows 2nd stinks.  1st you're the winner, 3rd you are happy you are on the podium, but 2nd?  Blah!  It was so sad to watch! It all was quite an experience and they have one more year to try and win it all- at least with Sam on the team!

So glad Sam chose to do track.  He ended with a 15.3 second PR I believe and a 6 foot high jump.  Not bad for a 5'8 kid!  He also ended up with another Varsity letter and another coaches award!  Way to go buddy!

 Coaches award- hugging Coach Nord

The Varsity Hurdling team

Summer Birthdays Aren't the Same!

My poor boys don't quite get the celebrations that most kids get.  We are either traveling or moving around their birthdays every year.  They say they don't mind- and they do get to do cool things on their birthdays, usually.  It just doesn't involve friends very often!

This year Max turned 11 on our big trip.  That day we saw Arles and the lavender of Provence, 

France.  He did get to choose presents and souvenirs, though!  That's how he got his Neymar shirt in Barcelona the next day!

We went out to dinner for Sam's 17th birthday.  I know- lame.  Sorry buddy!  We will try and do something fun for the big 18!

For Joseph's 14th birthday we were up visiting family- which was nice.  We went just for a quick weekend to pick up our truck and see everyone.  It was a nice visit, but a quick one with lotssssss of driving!

At least we were all together!  And they take it all in good stride. They are the best military brats ever!

Getting a little Intense at Europeans!

Rain, rain, go away!  Come again another day!

First day of European track finals were awesome.  Sam made it into all the finals- 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles and the mens 4x400m.

They got first in their heat with the 4x400m and were second overall. 

I was a little mad at this because I knew that they would end up medaling and since Sam was only the sub in for the first day would not get a medal despite helping get them to the finals!  I think I ranted about that one for a little while!  Especially since he had run it all year long.  Even when he wasn't officially in the race, the same guy would drop out every time and Sam would run it in his place- every time!  I was super unhappy that the other guy would get  a medal in the end even with all that supreme lack of effort!  See things were getting a little intense even on the first day.

Second day we noticed that Sam and his "girlfriend" were avoiding each other.  I asked him if they had broken up and he said, "apparently."  He didn't even know if they had for sure and why! Turns out it just has to do with Sam being too boy and not knowing anything about girl!  He rarely talks to anyone during meets of any kind.  He likes to focus and be in his head- think Michael Phelps with earphones on the entire meet.  Girl didn't understand that much, but dealt with it, because he would give her a smile or a laugh every once in awhile.  But since this was a two day event with a night in a hotel, I guess she figured there would be time to be a girlfriend.  Boy was she wrong!  At dinner, Sam decided to go talk to another girl (I know **GASP**) and then when it was time to eat, he looked around and saw her surrounded by people.  He wasn't, as he told us, going to go push people out of the way to sit beside her so instead he sat down with the girl he had been talking with.  Yah, my son doesn't understand anything about girls- poor guy!  So day two started with a confused and sad Sam.  Sam was able to run his races before even more intensity started. 

He got 5th in the 300m hurdles and 7th in the 110m hurdles. 

Then the heavens open and poured a monsoon down 

on us.  The teams all went to wait in the gym while hail started along with the puddles of water coming from the sky.  We went to the commissary and when we came out the standing water on the ground was above our ankles and there was no sign of the sheets of rain letting up.  There were MP's out and cars flooded in the middle of the street.  

The MP's directed us to park in the farthest parking lot away from the high school gym, because there was too much water at the corner you needed to turn to go up to the gym, but the gym being uphill was definitely the better option for parking! So we pretended to head to the parking lot and then made for the corner.  Thankfully, we made it through the standing water at the corner and up the hill.  It was still quite the sprint to the gym.  My pants were completely sopping wet by the time I made it inside.  I looked like a drowned rat.  They still hadn't decided anything.  So I waited until they came back with the final decision to cancel the rest of Europeans.  There were some pretty upset people in that gym!

I ran back out into the pouring rain and got the family and we all sat around and waited until they had decided who won what.  They ended up using the best times of the year, including first day trials as the deciding factor on who got 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  The 4x400m boys team got a silver medal in the end and Sam got to be one of the medalies,  because the other kid hadn't run it any other time that year and because the semi-final run was their fastest time of the year.   So Sam went home with a silver medal, 5th, 7th, a monsoon and a broken heart all in his first year of running track.  

Sam Finally Gets an Eagle

Sam wanted an Eagle before he turned 16, but things just didn't go that way.  He finished his project in May of last year, but getting the paperwork done and scheduling a board of review took us over half a year. Finally on Jan 28th he was awarded the Eagle.  Then we just had to wait for it to all arrive from America.  It showed up the end of February, so we finally got to plan a court of honor for him.  My Mom and Dad were able to fly over and join us for it.  They also wanted to go see Prague- something they had never done while living 2 hours away from it for years!  Silly parents.  To be fair, it was closed to them for several of those years and as soon as it was open they did go shopping for china in the Czech Republic- just not all the way to Prague.  Well they didn't make it this time either:( Instead they did little day trips and helped me get ready for the night.  We made eagle cookies

 Decorating the cookies

 Those stupid black dot eyes ruined the cookies once you stacked them, so I made more frosting and covered the eyes over with white which I think actually turned out much nicer!

Here they are in their nest- Mom came up with that.  Pretty cute!

and mint stars

and fire cupcakes-

 my red ran out and it's not like you can just run to any craft store around here and find it (ha ha, craft store in Germany, right!- Ok they have some, but they're no Hobby Lobby or Michael's!)  So my fire, didn't look quite like fire, but I was pretty excited about the fact that I figured out how to do the three color in on tube thing!

Also, kindling and fire starters. 

 Someone told me they really liked the strawberry ones.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was just white chocolate with too little red food coloring in it.

The decorations were supposed to resemble a camping theme.

 S'mores for the take home Thank You gift

 I was trying to copy a sign I saw at a friends Eagle court of Honor, but our tiny craft shop didn't have good paper.  My mom found plenty of cute fabric, though, so I resigned myself to making it with fabric.  Mom didn't realize what she had done until I started making it.  Actually it went really fast!

 I told the boys they had to figure out what that sign said and there would be a prize for it.  One of them actually had a morse code cheat sheet in his wallet and figured it out!

 Our Eagle's nest with a thing of yummy popcorn for the Eagles to enjoy during the ceremony

We weren't allowed to light candles so I used this lantern that had removable lights that could be shielded with just the right colors!  And can you see the branch in the background?  I was looking for anything that would make it look more nature-y.  Rob and I went running one day and there was a trailer filled to the brim with cut branches with pretty little flowers all over it.  We went back later that day and took them all!  They worked great in the decorations.

The ceremony went well, even though I forgot to put in a few directional things- I will work on that for the next one. 

 Joseph's first honor guard responsibilities

 We found things for Grandma and Grandpa to do.  Just before it all started they were sitting down and looking at the program and they said, "Debbie, we didn't know we were supposed to do anything.  No one told us."  Oops!  Sorry!

 Eagle's in their nest

 Our Master of Ceremonies, Marc

 The YM Presidents wife and the YW president did a musical number for us.

 We tried to use as many of the scouts as possible.  Sam said, "no one is going to be there just to watch!"

 Alex was the latest Eagle scout so we had him give Sam the Eagle pledge.  

 Candace is the advancement chair and was super excited that we asked her to pin the Eagle on.  She was one of the first female cadets to graduate from the Air Force Academy, is Airborn qualified and made the cover of the New Era.  Now she has 3 kids and is out the Airforce, but that hasn't stopped her- she is a real go getter!

Ramberto who is the Scout Master is in the Navy and was good enough to get a letter from the garrison commander congratulating Sam.  The commander also awarded him- through Rambo- the Patriotic Civilian Service Award, because of the gardens he helped make on Kelley Barracks.  That is totally awesome and extremely rare to be awarded to a teenager!

Our senior missionary couple started a program where they gave pocket knives to all the New Eagles.  They continue the tradition even while on their mission.

 The video wasn't part of the ceremony and it was a little too small of a TV for people to see.  We couldn't find the projector.  So some hiccups, but in the end he got his award, 

everyone liked the treats. 

 He had a good time with his friends. 

We used all these guys in his ceremony.  Will, the one holding Sam, was the scout that began and ended the ceremony.

One of his non-member friends got to come and participate from a different troop.  He was part of the honor guard. 

 Rob had to pick him up from baseball practice, run over to another base and get Sam from track practice and then hurry them up to the church which was 20 minutes away when they aren't in the middle of rush hour traffic- which they were.  I was a little worried, but they made it with a couple minutes to spare. 

 At the very end of it all, Sam finally got to eat something!

Congratulations Samuel!