Mowing jobs

Sadie acquired a mowing job a couple of years ago from Sister M that Nathan home teaches.   I have had to take all the kids when Sadie mows so the boys get put to work by Sister M.  She has paid them to sweep and use the weed eater.   Over a month ago Sister M's neighbor asked if we could do his lawn too.  It works out perfect because Sadie mows her lawn and the boys mow Bill's yard.   The first month it took them forever to mow.   They are getting much faster so I keep telling them that their muscles must be getting bigger.  There are times I have to keep them lined up but overall they do a pretty good job.  I have been doing the weed eating job on this lawn till they can handle doing both.  This isn't an easy lawn for them to do with it being so hilly.  

Jarom caught off guard since I was actually able to take it without him noticing.

If you have to stick your tongue out you know it is tough work pushing the mower up the hill.  

Push Josiah Push

Jarom can start the mower on his own and insists he doesn't need any help if he is having trouble.  A month ago he wouldn't have even tried. 

Jarom's shoulder angels.  Captain America and Red Skull.  

The kids having jobs has been a blessing in many ways.  They don't beg us to buy anything because they know I will tell them to save up their own money. (not that I would buy much for them anyway as they will tell you)  They are making way more money than I have ever paid them to do odds and end jobs. It has been fun to see them realize that paying tithing blesses them, because it has.  They put some money into their savings account and some money gets saved up in a jar for things like action figures (see above). Sadie saved for a long time so she could buy an iPod touch.  She was so excited to go get it Saturday afternoon.  I have always worried about living where we do and finding opportunities for my kids to work.  We don't have much land to give them big jobs around here and we are not ones to pay an allowance.  In my opinion there are some things that my kids get to do because they are part of our family and everyone needs to be involved in what makes a household run.  I am thankful for people who offer my kids work for pay and yesterday Sadie got offered another yard to mow across from Sister M's.  We might be mowing the whole neighborhood before long.  Yikes!  Sister M is having Elijah do little jobs for her and she will give him some coins for doing it.  He thinks that is so cool.  

Boys

It is getting more difficult to get a good picture of my boys.  When they are all together they all act the same way.  They are stinkers.  I was able to get a few good ones of the youngest boy this last week because he wasn't influenced by the others because they were at school.  

Elijah at the Marine Science Center.   He had a great time touching the sea creatures in their pool.  He was determined to get the lady employees attention the whole time we were there.  He would say "Hey Hey" and tap her on the arm even when she was talking with others.  He caught on quick that she would take some of the creatures out of the pool so he could look at and touch them easier.  The sun was a little bright for him out on the octopus.

Elijah and our dog Allie.  He is good to play with our dog.   

I did get this fantastic photo just before these boys headed off to father and son's outing.  This was so exciting to them.  They woke up about 5:30 even though they had to wait to leave once school was out.  I really love it when my kids get excited about things.  It has been awhile since our ward has done this outing and I suspect as long as Nathan is willing to plan it, it will happen again.  

Webelos

Josiah has moved on from being part of a ground animal cub scouts.  He has joined the raven's.  His new scout leader has been with webelos for years.  She does a great job.  We have a combined pack with both of the wards that meet in our building. 

Taking the bear neckerchief off

Placing the Webelos neckerchief on 

scout hand shake with his new leader

Sister Mapes placing raven garb on Josiah

A friend was taking the picture for us and I happen to look over while she said something to me that made me smile.  

Doesn't he look thrilled to be a Webelos?  He actually has been so excited.

pan shattered

If you don't know how to properly get bread out of a pan I can tell you.  You give it a good shake then realize it isn't going to loosen up.   Then you decide to flip it back over to set it down on the hot pad on the counter so you can scrape the sides of pan a bit.   However if flipping it causes you to loose your grip on said pan then you are toast.  Well you won't get to have toast with that loaf of bread since you don't know how many shards of glass are in it now.  Bye Bye loaf of bread and bye bye pan we have had for 14 years.  Sad day.  The other loaves tasted great so luckily it wasn't a complete loss.     I was impressed with how this pan completely exploded on impact.  

camp cleanup and canoeing

Our ward was asked to help with cleanup at Zion's camp (an LDS owned camp ground).  We haven't participated in the cleanup for a few years because of other conflicting activities.   We always tease that this isn't real camping but it is a fun place to go.  There are tent sites and cabins.  We opted to stay in a comfortable cozy cabin this time.  

This was our cabin for the night.  It has eight bunk beds with a wood stove.  This camp ground is used for youth camps, scout camps, reunions, and other family outings.  The place gets cleaned and maintained primarily by stake and wards who volunteer their time to come get it done.   There have been many eagle projects (mostly building things) completed at this camp ground.  

We each got our own bunk bed to sleep in.  Elijah was so excited to sleep in the top.  I chose this one for him because he was pretty much corned in with a slim chance of falling out.  It was a rough night of no sleep.  Every movement anyone made caused the beds to creek loudly (WD-40 would have come in handy).  We had to be out of the cabin and ready to work by 8am.   When you stay in a cabin it has to be swept and mopped before you leave.  

We spent a few hours in the morning raking and trimming brush out of camp sites.  Nathan brought our hedge trimmer and was feeling bad about having it.  He would come buzzing through each site while another person was painstakingly cutting each branch with their pruners.   The person would move onto the next site.  

Jarom working hard er. ... playing with a stick.

After cleaning up everyone could go play.  This cargo net was a huge hit especially when an adult would try to shake the kids out of their spot.  

I love this picture.  Nathan is obviously concentrating hard (hence the tongue) on shaking the kids out.  

Jarom nearly getting knocked off his spot.

Elijah loved this

They are claiming that he couldn't shake them off.  

Once we were done we went down the road a ways and went canoeing to Hope Island State Park.  There are some cool state parks in the area .   

Sadie with Mt. Rainier in the background.  

We thought this island was a lost cause till we canoed around to the other side of it.  It would be so fun to own an island like this.  It was a privately owned till it was sold to the state in the 90's.  There is a caretaker but otherwise nobody lives on the island.  

An old engine that Nathan really wants.  

Our canoes near water with Mt. Rainier in the background.  Mt. Rainier is an impressive mountain becuase there are many opportunities to get different views of it as long as it is clear out.  

The kids taking advantage of the few times they get to ride in the back of the truck.  

Happy faces

This week we spent some time cleaning our house, mowing lawns, in an old bunker (battery), on some beaches, in a science center, followed by seeing a submarine while on a ferry,  in a monorail, and doing lots of walking.  It is going to be hard for these kids to go back to school on Monday.  They have had 2 1/2 weeks of spring break by default.  

Josiah in tunnel of the bunker

Elijah going down the ladder of same tunnel.

Sadie on beach at Fort Worden

Same beach

This beach is at Dash state park.  The tide was starting to get low when we showed up and it kept getting lower and lower with more beach to play on.  

Who cares if your wearing jeans.

Jarom didn't benefit from Josiah's happy face.

Does it look like he is walking on water/

He is all wet and not happy.

We happened upon Sadie's friend on the ferry.  She and her mom were going shopping.

On the monorail

Riding a caterpillar

Trying to avoid having his picture taken but I got him anyway

He was also trying to avoid his picture being taken but I got him too.  

Can you guess which boy this is?

We will see if these happy faces will be excited about school starting Monday.