jkslade.net

We enjoyed listening to General Conference this weekend.  It always seems so chaotic having the boys there in the room ‘listening’ while building legos, drawing, whatever else they are doing.  But they continue to surprise me with how much they do pick up on.  I’m grateful we have that opportunity, and I have to trust that that, along with the many other efforts large and small, will give them each a solid foundation in the gospel, and the desire to gain their own testimony and live accordingly.

Sunday was also Trent’s 9th birthday.  Perfect timing to have some fun things to do during General Conference.  Trent loves computer games and video games.  He enjoys school and does well in all subjects.  He loves to laugh — he’s always had the heartiest belly-laugh that is contagious.  He’s great fun to have around.

Last Friday we also attended the re-scheduled Pinewood Derby for the Cub Scout Pack.  Caleb has graduated from Cub Scouts, and only Trent made a car this year.  Our cars are always middle-of-the-pack in speed, but the boys have a lot of fun designing and building them.  Trent won one of the Best In Show awards this time around, so he was thrilled.

The Derby was rescheduled due to a late-spring snowstorm the previous week — the boys finally had a snow day.

We got more snow on Saturday, which means the first two weeks of soccer games have also been snowed out.  Hopefully we get to play this coming Saturday.  One last snowstorm is currently on the forecast for Sunday, though… Hope I get one more chance to get bundled up and shovel the driveway!

Just to illustrate how long it’s been since I posted a family update — here are pictures from Alec’s birthday party in January.  We did a ’science lab’ party, culminating with Diet Coke & Mento rockets / fountains in the driveway.  Fun for all

Caleb’s birthday was also in January, but we just had his birthday party a few weeks ago — I took him and a couple friends to play paintball, so we had to wait for nice enough weather on a weekend that was open.

Weekends were not open through most of January and February, due to Caleb and Trent playing basketball.  Kim was the coach for Trent’s team, and that was a fun experience for all involved.

Early in March, the older boys all played in a violin recital.  I played duets with Caleb and Trent, but Alec wasn’t happy with the way I played Twinkle Variations with him, so I was banned…

For Spring Break, the plan was to mostly relax around home, but we ended up scheduling a trip to Copper Mountain for some skiing at the last minute.  Last minute trips mean no relaxation whatsoever, but it was fun, we made lots of good memories.  Trent was just getting comfortable on the skis when he took a little tumble.  He was okay, but was just laying there, when another man came up to see how he was (turned out to be a doctor).  Trent said the man told him not to move, so he didn’t, even though he was fine.  He ended up getting a trip down the mountain in the ski patrol toboggan, while I waited at the botttom of the run wondering what had happened to him.  He thought it was great fun.

I was finally released as Ward Clerk last week.  It was a great experience to work with the bishopric and other leaders, and learn more of the administration of the Church.  With all of us essentially untrained volunteers, it is indeed a miracle that work of the Church carries on despite our best efforts   I was asked to serve next as a Scoutmaster for the 11-yr-old boys (which includes Caleb).  I’m looking forward to that, if not so much to sitting in primary each week.  It will be great to be with the boys each week, at least.

By and large, things are going well for us.  Kim’s busy as always managing the family, planning and prepping the garden, and keeping us all fed (very well, I might add).  We’re planning our summer projects, deciding on priorities.  The big projects competing for time and other resources will be sprinklers, a bay window, a patio in the front and redoing the front stoop / entryway.  Plenty to keep us all busy.

This was the last week of school and work for us all… looking forward to the next two weeks off.  We’re basically spending it at home.

Saturday we had our annual event of building/decorating graham cracker “houses”.  We had the Carnley’s (Steve, Tiff, and Zach) over to share in the fun.

My creation this year was a giant spider / bug ridden by Santa.  Inspired by giant pretzel sticks, and I even had to get out the hair dryer to pull this one off.  It was fun to build, and I even impressed myself   However, pride got the better of me, and it collapsed when I was moving it to get a better picture…  Oh well.

This week, Caleb also was awared his Arrow of Light.  He’s just about done with Cub Scouts, and really looking forward to going on campouts and all the other fun of Boy Scouts.

Merry Christmas to all!

We decided to take advantage of the great fall weather we’ve been enjoying, to take some family pictures.  Not perfect, but good memories…

We got a simple little video camera back at Christmas, but I haven’t bothered to upload / post anything before now… I spent a few minutes to see what’s involved, so here goes — a couple today from Colin visiting for dinner:

A couple comments on the yard: we just had the old patio torn out and a new stamped-concrete patio poured. Next comes the deck where the old patio was, then hopefully a sprinkler system so we can finally grow grass consistently. It’s going to be a busy summer

My birthday was last week. Happy birthday to me. I’ve been recovering from a bad ankle sprain the last few weeks. Playing ultimate is one of my favorite things, so it’s pretty frustrating when I can’t.

We also celebrated Mark’s 1st birtday a few weeks ago. Mark and my other boys definitely rank very high on my list of favorites.

Halloween was fun for the boys, but I think the most fun was harvesting the pumpkins from our garden, then carving them together. The fall weather has been awesome, and we’ve enjoyed lots of outdoor activities, including some corn mazes.

At the corn maze, we saw a large trebuchet for launching pumpkins. We were all impressed by that. It was the inspiration for Trent’s simple machine project — we chose to launch jumbo marshmallows, and he had a lot of fun demoing it at school.

More pictures from recent weeks, including Halloween and other fall fun:

2428