Braxton's #15

How is it even possible that I became a mother 15 years ago.  Braxton has now grown taller then I am and acts like a little adult.  Man the days are long, but the years fly by.  I am always so excited this time of year with it being fall and the pumpkin patch opening and Braxton's birthday always falls right in the mist of all of the crazy parties and gatherings but somehow we squeeze everything in.  This year we did our usual Bella's lunch with him during school and we had a really great conversation about life and friends.  Shane had the day off so we got to go all three of us, and it was so much fun and he really opened up.  Then on his birthday we took him for his first official drive!!  Holy Cow I am about to have a driver. He hasn't taken the test, but intends to soon.  We drove out west where there aren't many cars and he did great, only ran one stop sign because he thought you only had to stop one time and he did behind a truck, ooops.  He just went right after the truck, no stopping at the sign.  He will learn and be great I am sure.

15 things I love about Braxton:

1-Braxton is quite shy.  He doesn't love to talk to people but it is what makes Brax--Brax.
2-He is Handsome, he grew out the top of his hair and he looks really good with it a bit longer.
3-He is a very hard worker.  He loves to labor with his hands, except yard work, and he works hard.
4-He loves the great outdoors.  Braxton is one tough kiddo in the outdoors and he loves to hunt, hike, camp anything outside.
5-His mind blows me away how he can figure out things.  He loves to take things apart and put them back together making messes all the while.
6-Braxton will do anything you ask him.  He will grumble EVERY TIME but he always just does it.  He knows we wont let down, so he just does what he is asked.  He's a very obedient child.
7-He plays the guitar beautifully and I love hearing the sound of the piano and guitar first thing in the morning.
8-He loves machines that go fast.  He loves 4-wheelers and the Rhino.  He wants to fix and redo them and figure out how they tic.
9-Braxton secretly loves serving.  He wont admit it out loud but he loves to go help other scouts with their eagle projects and go help his grandparents with whatever they need help with.
10-He can not stand to be alone so he is often up for anything I drag him around to do.  He likes to go for a ride in the car just to get out of the house.
11-Brax has been working on his Eagle project that is almost finished and he has acquired a love for tying quilts.  He has to have his hands busy all the time so it is a great hobby to keep his hands busy.  He even pieced together the extra pieces of fabric and batting and made himself a quilt.
12-He has a kind heart especially to younger kids (except Cam, we're working on that one).  He doesn't like to see them sad and is great at comforting them. He is very helpful.
13-Brax is our first born child so he is training us on how to be parents and he is doing a great job.  He is patient with us and puts up with all of my crazy worries and twenty questions.
14-Braxton is very intelligent.  In fact, he slides by quite often with fantastic grades with very little effort.  He doesn't even have to study to get good grades on a test.  I am unsure of how this will get him through college, but for now it is working just fine.  Very little extra effort gets him pretty great results so far.  He is attending a class called Project Lead the Way at a different school.  It is for engineering and it is right up his alley.  Maybe he can put his intelligence together with some hard work and it will pay off in this program.
15-Braxton is very easily distracted and we love that about him.  It is just who he is.  He will often be called to dinner and not come and we will find him in the garage working on a project.  He can not be distracted once his mind is set on something, but if it is something he doesn't care much about he will be distracted 10 times in 10 minutes.  He has been like this since birth and I am sure it will be there throughout his life.

 We took him to get a slushy and snapped some photos of us and of course he would not sit right by us.

"Squirly brains"

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August Little things

Binding quilts at Lisa's house.

We have been busily working on Braxton's Eagle project.  We had the whole family come over to help tie one night.  We got 5 done that night.  Our family is always so supportive and we love them so much.

Jake and Alayna invited us to go boating and watch fireworks on the Bay.  It was a blast, our kids sure love doing fun things like this.  Their tube fits a ton of kids and they loved it.

Pilgrim reunion was put on by Kiley this year and we had a great time tie dying shirts, playing games, and doing the wet banana. 

It was the solar eclipse the day before school started for the year.  Me and the boys spent the morning outside with Shane's welding helmet and some other cool ways to experience the eclipse.  It was very scientific and a cool experience feeling the temperature drop in a matter of minutes.  It was one of God's really cool things he created for sure.

End of July, Gonzalo leaving.

Some other fun things we did while Gonzi was here are in this post in random order.  We did flags two times, one time we did the McConkie's route which had 52 flags, it was quite the team effort but only took 45 minutes to take them down. We celebrated the 4th which is always a party.  The boys slept on the tramp, played dodge ball at the square and watched fireworks over at Brent's like we always do.

We took Gonzi to temple square, and got awesome photos but this is the only one I can find.

Awesome park we found at the end of our trip in California.

Braxton's first paycheck from Bella's.  He bused during the summer on Wednesdays.

Dakota's first year of scout camp.  He had a great time.

We took Gonzi to the rodeo, he had a great time.  It was so Americana and I loved watching his eyes light up when he watched.  He especially loved the motorcycles at the end doing their tricks.

Making Crepes.  He loves crepes in Spain and loved that Shane knows how to make them here.

Until next time, my friend.  You will forever be in our family as our Spanish son.

We headed straigt from the airport up to help at Brent and Cody's cabin.  The boys sure love doing hard work like this.  It was a very scary experience for me when we had to lift a giant beam to support the second floor.  One I will never forget--awful!

Jelly hurt his eye while we were working at the cabin.  I think he scratched it when he tried to get out a piece of sawdust.

Cam got to go with Jeff Broadbent to the Flowrider, he had a blast.

Another School year

We went to a chalk art contest, it was so fun to see all these peoples talents.

California Redwoods

Oh the majestic trees of the redwoods.  Last night we watched a movie called "The Bucket List".  On the mans list was to witness something truly majestic.  I believe on this vacation we witnessed two things truly majestic.  One being these giant trees that reach clear up to heaven.  They are strong and big and amazing.  The hiking is breathtaking and a little bit damp because the sun can't make it through to dry things out.  

The second thing we saw that was truly majestic was Crater Lake in Oregon.  It is a lake with cliffs all around because it was caused by an old volcano caving in creating a crater.  The water is blue and clear like it is untouched by man.  There is only one way to get down to it, so most people walk around the top edges and just soak in the true beauty of the lake.  

This tree had fallen recently and they said it woke up the ranger like it was an earthquake.  It made a very loud boom also.

Our second tree we got to drive through.  This one wasn't as cool because it was more money and only the tree.  The other place had other trees and hiking and a little shop full of cool redwoods junk.

More soccer on the beach.  We played all the time, it got the kids running around and wiggles out from the long car rides.

We stopped by this wood carving shop.  He showed his this giant chainsaw that he uses.  He is very talented and we were fascinated by his work.  Shane had very good talents working with wood and this guy was so kind to let us see his things.

Crater Lake Oregon.  This is the true color of the water it was so blue and so beautiful.

Our last camp spot in Oregon.  In Oregon there aren't signs that say you cant camp on the side of the road and the ranger told us we could pull over and dry camp at most places so we did.  It was fun until these two took over my bed after Shane left in the morning.  Oregon was beautiful, but cost a bit of money when Shane got pulled over and the ticket cost $160.  Oh well, it made for good memories.  On that same day I booked a hotel room for the wrong night and the website was nonrefundable so we had a major kick in the wallet that day! So we decided to cut our losses and head on home and took a 14 hour drive that day.  The boys watched 5 movies, thank goodness they could be entertained that way or we would have gone crazy.  It was overall a grand adventure that Shane took us on and we will forever be thankful we had the opportunity to go and take Gonzalo along.