Swimming

The kids have been enjoying having our pool set up again this summer. I love that it is shallow enough for Katy to stand up in, so that I can supervise swimming from a (somewhat) dry vantage point.

On Funerals...

I attended another funeral yesterday morning. I feel like been to a a lot of those over the last few years. Part of that stemmed from the fact that I was the Relief Society President of our ward for a couple of years. One of my responsibilities was to help out with the funerals for members of our church. I hope I was able to be of some help and comfort to those families who lost loved ones.

A year and a half ago, I participated in the funeral of my son's best friend Sarah. She was 4 years old. I didn't post about it at the time because it was just too...personal. I'm still not quite up to posting about it.

Yesterday the funeral was another little girl--the 6-year-old daughter of a family that I did not know very well. She was born within months of Andrew and Sarah. I'm glad that I went to the funeral. It was good...in a heartbreakingly sad sort of way.

But...I'd rather not have the opportunity to attend any more funerals for little girls. Or little boys for that matter. Can we make a rule? From now on, only people who have lived a good, long life are allowed to die. Let's say 80. Or maybe 90...


ETA: If you are interested, here is a link to the story about the family who lost their daughter earlier this month. They have a long road ahead of them, and there are some links to the left side of the story with information on how to help them.

Our Budding Photographer

Matthew got a hold of the camera again. I think it's fun to see the kinds of subjects that he chooses to photograph...



This one wasn't taken by Matthew, but it's too cute not to include (I may be slightly biased).

Katy and the Guinea Pig

We are currently pet-sitting a guinea pig for some friends who are on vacation. Katy has really taken to this little creature. Several times a day, she runs in to see me and announces, "I patting geee-pig!"

And this is what I find--


All by herself, she totally dismantles the cage, then removes all the guinea pig's hiding places so she can "pat" him. She insists that she "be soft" when she's petting him. But I'm not sure toddlers really are capable of gentleness. Poor creature. Hopefully it will survive its owners' vacation...

Geocaching

Have you ever been geocaching? It's a favorite weekend activity with Daddy in these parts. All you need is a GPS loaded with geocache coordinates from www.geocaching.com, a bottle of water, and maybe some toys to refill the caches that you find. The GPS will take you within a few feet of your chosen cache, then you have to hunt around until you find it. Some caches just have a log for you to sign your name. Some have inexpensive toys that you can take home (but only if you refill the box with your own toys--this is a great way to trade out Happy Meal toys).

Several weeks ago Kevin took the kids out to hunt for geocaches. One of the caches was forty feet inside a drainage tunnel. They initially found their coordinates in the middle of an empty field. Kevin had seen a clue for the cache indicating that it would be underground, so they knew to hunt around for the nearest underground tunnel.


Inside the tunnel--do you see the little speck of light where the entrance was?


Sometimes you have to cover some rough terrain:

Checking out the goods:


They found a bird's nest while they were looking for one of their caches:


Sometimes you can't find the cache, but maybe you can talk Daddy into taking you bowling instead:

Hiking, Part 2

The local hikes that Kevin took his Boy Scout Troop on were in preparation for their High Adventure trip to the Appalachians. They spent 4 days backpacking and a day white water rafting in North Carolina.

The kids and I drove up to Grandma and Grandpa's house in South Carolina and hung out with the Boy Scouts for the weekend before they headed up into the mountains for their hike. It was lots of fun for everyone.

The mountains themselves are so beautiful. We all wish we could live in Western North Carolina.



Of course someone has to go around catching reptiles to play with.


Hey, I think I recognize this guy...


It seems like they spent a lot of time laying around,


and catching...things.


But here's a few more pictures of scenery:

Hiking, Part 1

This summer, Kevin has been doing lots of hiking with the Boy Scouts. First they did a 15-mile hike at a local wildlife management area. He came home from that with heat exhaustion and a stress fracture in his foot. The doctor told him to stay off that foot for a month, but everything healed up in time for their next local hike, which was an overnight backpacking trip. I've got lots of pictures on my computer of Boy Scouts goofing off, but I'm pretty sure they're the only one who would be interested in seeing those pictures.

Here was the scene from their campsite at sunrise:


And if you look a little closer at that field:


I don't think I'd want to be walking through that grass:


Of course the boys had to spend some time playing with the local wildlife:


Oh ok, I suppose I'll include a picture that includes a Boy Scout, but only because his adult leader is in in the picture: