Gavin's Home!

When we started talking about Gavin attending the Boy Scout Jamboree it seemed like such a long time off; we still had about two years before the actual Jamboree.  It didn't seem to get any closer until the beginning of summer.  Then, the time until Jamboree really flew!
I knew I would miss him - I just didn't know I would miss him as much as I did.

The morning of Jamboree (July 13) - 2:30am the morning of Jamboree.  Does he look happy, excited and a bit stressed?  Funny story - at least it is funny now.  None of us were laughing that morning.  Greg and Gavin both set their alarms for 1:30 am to get up and get Gavin to Lehi High School by 2:30 am.  Gavin's went off and he hit the snooze, but he accidentally hit the off button.  Greg changed the time on his alarm, but forget to actually set it.
At 2:30 am we get a phone call from his Scoutmaster asking if Gavin is on his way.  Yep! He is.  Luckily, everything was packed and ready to go.  Gavin dressed in record time and we got him out the door.  Greg said it was fine, they were still loading the bus, nobody seemed upset.  But, Gavin was the last one there.
During Jamboree we heard from Gavin every night by text, usually saying, "I'm okay."  A few times we got some descriptions like "It's really hot!", "Went rafting today".  As the trip went on, communications became spotty.  Gavin would text us right before bed and he was usually dead on his feet by then.  I just needed one word to let me know he was fine.  He did call twice - each Saturday.  He sounded exhausted, but happy to be there.
Kate asked every day (multiple time a day) since the day Gavin left when he was coming home.  She cried herself asleep every night for the first week.  Enoch missed Gavin too - although he didn't miss Gavin teasing him.  I'm wondering what Guard was thinking.  I know he missed Gavin because I would find him down in Gavin's room a few times.  He would be laying on Gavin's pillow.  I hope Guard understood that Gavin was coming home.
We were so excited to pick Gavin up at the airport. His flight got in at 7:11 pm.  We were there at 6:35 pm.  The boys didn't come down the escalator until 7:45 pm.  We were all quite anxious.  Luckily for us, Gavin was one of the first ones down.

There were a lot of families waiting for these boys.  A huge cheer went up when we saw the first Scouts coming down.  Enoch and Kate were cheering, I was crying and Guard went ballistic.  Greg was holding him and as soon as he saw Gavin he staring wiggling and reaching for Gavin.  Once Gavin picked up his little brother, Guard wouldn't let go.

Look at that little hand!  Guard would not let go of Gavin.  He was clenched onto him.  He threw a huge fit when we had to put him in his car seat and didn't calm down until Gavin sat next to him and held his hand all the way home.
We all missed him so much!
He looked so good, so happy.  He had some amazing experiences that I hope he will share with all of us.  The Spirit is with Gavin and it is so easy to see.
We weren't the only ones who missed Gavin.  Coal was so happy to see Gavin as well.

Gavin brought the kids some fun souvenirs.  We told him not to spend all his time looking for souvenirs, but he still managed to pick up some fun things.
For Enoch:  a t-shirt, a water battle, a giant patch, a bookmark and some patches all from The Summit, and a tie tack from the Kirtland Temple.  Enoch thought all The Summit stuff was beyond cool!

Kate got a stuffed animal and some patches from The Summit.

Greg and Guard also got some patches.  Gavin managed to trade for a Star Trek patch for Greg.  Those were in high demand!

We all wanted to hear Gavin's stories and he told us a few over cookies and milk.  It was late and we needed to get the kids to bed.  Gavin needed to get to bed as well since he had Band Camp the next morning at 7am. 
It is so good to have him home!
Now, on to the piles of extremely stinky laundry!

The Zoo

I mentioned before that this year we got a year pass to Hogle Zoo.  It has been so much fun.  I thought the kids would get bored with it, but they haven't.  Now, they just know their way around better and know which animals are their favorites to see.
Our favorite times to go are on member nights (the zoo is open late for members only).  It's cooler, less crowded and so much fun.
Guard loves the elephants.  He knows exactly where they are in the zoo and gets so excited when we go down the hill to get there.  He could watch them forever.  He is always sad when we leave.

Rocky Shores is a new addition to the zoo and it is wonderful.  It houses sea lions, seals, polar bears, otters, black bears, eagles, etc.  The kids love it.  They also have a few things to play on.

Another huge draw for the kids is Asian Highlands with all the big cats.  Kate loves the 'kitties' and it is fun to see them in the evening when they are more active.

We saw more - wolves, giraffes, monkeys, etc, but one of the biggest highlights at the zoo is the water world at the exit.  The kids love playing in it.  And since we are going home after, we let them get as wet as they want.

We love the zoo!

Days of '47 Floats

We have made it a family tradition to visit the float party for the Days of '47 Parade (which is held on the 24th of July).  The kids love seeing the floats up close, it's inside and air conditioned and this year we went with cousins.

 

We took our time walking around, looking at all the details on the floats - all the colors and sparkles.

The kids voted on their favorites.

And even became part of a float.

It was a fun afternoon, out of the hot sun, and great to see all the amazing floats.

Scattered Thoughts on Guard

1.  Guard can now climb up on chairs and tables.  I'm pretty sure I have pulled him off the kitchen table about 800 times this morning.

2.  We have discovered that Guard and Coal are at about the same level with their mental development.  We knew that border collies have the same intelligence level as toddlers to small children, making them the smartest dog.   I find myself treating them the same and giving them the same instructions:  stay, leave it, drop it, good girl/boy.  Greg pointed that out to me the other day.  "You're treating Guard like a dog."  Too bad Guard isn't as obedient as Coal.

3.  We had a crazy night in our house last week.  We usually read scriptures and say prayers before bed, but this night we were doing good to get prayers done.  As we knelt down by the couch to say prayers, Guard had his arms folded, but then ran off.  He came back carrying Greg's scriptures.  He plopped them down in front of Greg and said, "Uhh!"  Greg looked at me and smiled.  He opened the scriptures and read a few verses.  Then we prayed.  And Guard put the scriptures back.  Thank you, Guard, for helping us remember what we should be doing.

4.  Whenever Guard wants to go outside (which is constantly!) he goes into his room, gets a hat and puts it on.  He walks to the back door, pats his head (telling me he has his hat on) and then bangs on the door and says, "Uhh!".  Sometimes if I'm lucky he puts shoes on as well.  However, the shoes are always on his hands instead of his feet.

5.  Guard likes to clean up.  He will put away toys, help me with laundry and stack newspapers. Of course, he gets out about 10 times more than he cleans up, but I appreciate his help.

Xactware at Thanksgiving Point

Our family (minus Gavin who is at Jamboree) were able to spend a fun-filled day at Thanksgiving Point for Greg's summer work party.  We had tickets to all the venues at Thanksgiving Point, movie passes and dinner at the Gardens (reserved all for Xactware).  It was such a fun day.
We started the day by taking in a movie, Monsters University.  It was fun to see all the people at the movie theater in their green Xactware t-shirts.  There were about 1700 people who attended the party, so quite a few people we saw that day had on the same t-shirts we did.
The movie was good.  Guard and I spend half the movie out walking the halls.  He ran into the boy's bathroom once (luckily he didn't get too far in because I had to go in after him).  And he reached over and stole popcorn from three people walking past us.  Luckily again, they were all very understanding and just laughed.
After the movie, we went to the dinosaur museum.  Since we have a pass to Thanksgiving Point, we didn't feel the need to rush to every venue and see everything.  We just took it easy.  Enoch had seen the Tinkering exhibit as part of one of his camps at Thanksgiving Point and he wanted to show the family.  It was really fun with a lot of hands on experiments.

 

 







After the Tinkering exhibit we went through the Dinosaur Museum.  Kate's favorite part is always going through the stars.  We did that about five times.  Again, we saw a lot of green shirts.  It's about darn near impossible to get track of Enoch in that place, but when 3/4 of the kids are wearing green shirts, I finally gave up.  Luckily, we all got out of the museum together even though Enoch was missing from our family for a good part of it.

 Since it was so crowded, we spent most of our time upstairs putting together the dinosaur fossil puzzle.  Guard loved getting the bones from the dirt and then putting them on the magnet wall.  Greg and the kids put the pieces together after Guard delivered them.

After the museum, we drove to the Gardens for dinner.  We spread our blanket by the Waterfall Amphitheater and stood in line for dinner.  Actually Greg, Enoch and Kate stood in line and I sat with Guard.  It took quite a while to get through the line because, again 1700 people are all trying to eat.  We had a yummy dinner of hamburgers and all the sides.  We went through a lot of lemonade and tried to stay cool in the 100 degree sun.  After dinner, we were entertained by comedian, Brian Hamilton.  Apparently he is famous, but since Greg and I don't keep up with that sort of thing, we hadn't heard of him.  He was very funny and family appropriate.  Greg and I laughed and the kids played in the background on the hill with friends they had made.  Guard had a great time playing with his cousin, Quincy, and his wife, Emily.  Quincy also works at Xactware.
It was a fun day to spend with our family.  We miss Greg's old company, Northwest Research, but we are so thankful that he works for such a great company now.