More Pictures at Clear Lake

This summer we decided to do something different to motivate me to work out : ). I had some friends who had done a triathlon and really loved it. I was excited to do something besides running so we did a triathlon. I was done for the summer, or so I thought. Jaron, Nate's friend, wanted to do another a month later. I was hesitant, but thought we might as well. His parents were off on a Mediterranean cruise : ).

I really enjoyed the variety of the workouts, especially when working out in the extremely HOT and humid Houston summers.

The breeze on a bike is much better than a run! The swimming was nice, although by the end of August the pool water was around 80 degrees. . . yuck!

All of us did better than the race before. I'm not very fast, but enjoyed myself.

During the swimming portion I felt like I was going to drown! I had really worked hard on improving my swimming, but when you are swimming and you can feel people by you and bumping into you, it was a little rattling! After the swim was over the rest of it was fun! Of course Nathan loved the swimming portion too.

Right before the triathlon, as we walked out of the transition area we could see people entering the water right by this sign. They were "warming up" before the race began. Nathan and Jaron waiting for their heat to begin.

After the race Jaron and Nathan show their flexibility. . . or lack therof : ) Good thing that wasn't part of the race!

August - Clear Lake Triathlon

Nathan and Jaron in the transition area after the race.
Cameron being a great sport cheering for us : )

Nathan won third in his age group. He was very happy. . .

Scout Camp - Rappeling

First Day of School

Each morning at 5:50 am, Jaron picks up Nathan & Dallas for seminary. He is always right on time like clockwork! I really appreciate not having to drive Nate down the street to seminary each morning : ) and then to school after that.

Nathan LOVES seminary! He says it is the best class of the day.

As you can see, Cameron goes just a little bit later than Nate. There are so many middle schoolers at his bus stop that they had to add an additional bus to pick all of the kids.

Megan with her good friend. . . Megan : ).

White Water Canoeing

I have told Doug that he has the best calling in the church! He is the Varsity Coach/High Adventure leader. He gets to help the boys plan and carry out high adventure activities every few months. This time the boys chose white water canoeing. The following pictures are of their "training". They were with a BSA officially trained man who was teaching them the tips and safety. This was an all day event. The "real" white water canoeing trip is coming up soon. This was a very large spider they found along the way.
This activity took quite a bit of coordinating. Doug spent many hours arranging everything, getting CPR trained, rounding up a certified BSA instructor, finding dates that would work and rounding up and getting the canoes. As you can see, it was well worth it!

Cameron and Jason

Jaron, Nate and Jason

Sophie

Here is our Dog Sophi. She is really sweet and so much fun for our family. Here she is licking her chops, hoping to get a bite from off of the plates going into the dishwasher.

Megan had fun dressing her up in her blouse. Sophie liked that for about 2 minutes.

We have really loved having her around. . . except for the fact that she has torn up my oriental rug!!! Oh well. . .

Canoeing

We took a day off before school started to go canoeing! It was great fun.
Here are the kids "pretending" they capsized. The funny part was watching them try to turn it over and scoop all of the water out. They ended up taking it to the rivers edge to get the water out.

Cameron

Business Trip to London

 Doug got a chance to go to England on business.  He stayed in Derby, England which is out in the country side near Derbyshire where the Darcy's lived in "Pride and Prejudice".  Doug said it was incredibly beautiful.  His hotel is the oldest Marriott in the world.  It was a small castle built in the 1200's! 

 Here are the gardens at the hotel.

 The attorney he met up with was from New York City.  He found out Doug had never been to England so he insisted he stay an extra day and tour London.  Doug couldn't argue with that.  He took many great photos and told me he probably walked 10 miles.  I don't doubt it!

Doug and the attorney were rushing out to meet the client in Derby.  When they arrived at the clients they were asked where they had stopped for breakfast.  Doug said the woman looked horrified when they told them they had stopped at McDonald. . . I also thought that was a crime!

I have had many people ask me why I didn't go with him. . . the first clue was that his plane ticket was $9,000.00. . . yikes!  I wish he could have looked for his own air fare and we could have kept the change!

He was fascinated by the cabs.

Scout Camp 2010 - Rappeling

The last day of the mountain climbing merit badge the boys got to rappel off an 80 foot cliff.

Tarantula

When the boys got back from scout camp they had a "treasure". It was a dead tarantula. I'm pretty sure my husband is one of the only dad's who would let their sons bring that home. When the guys left for scout camp our home teacher e-mailed me to let me know he was really good at catching spiders if I needed him to. Well, scout camp is over and I would still like to take him up on that offer : ).

Cameron plans on "preserving" it.

Scout Camp 2010 - Scuba Diving

When I found out the scout camp was 10 hours away, I was surprised they wanted to go, until they told me all of the great things the camp offered. Scuba was one of those. Nathan got to do all of the fun merit badges since he has done all of the "required" ones : ).

Scout Camp - Cam - Scorpion!

Here is one of the scorpions they caught.

Both Doug and Cameron got stung. . . .

No wonder one of the other boys refused to go to sleep until his tent zipper was fixed!

Scout Camp - Sunrise Hike- Bug

This is a fun picture of a bug they caught. They told me it was a katydid, but I looked it up on Google images and I'm not so sure : ).

The boys got up early (4:30 am) to enjoy a sunrise hike.

Swimming the Mile

Cameron wasn't too excited about doing the mile swim. Doug really wanted him to do it, so with a little pursuasion ($20.00) he did it! : )

Cameron and Jason before the ceremony.

Doug placing the high adventure and camping pictures out. This was a big hit. Lots of people enjoyed looking at pictures of their kids.

Nathan and Jaron singing "Called to Serve". This is Jaron's favorite song. He was singing it after we picked him up from EFY. I thought it was neat they would be willing to sing : ).