Ethan's birthday (belated), Eagle project, and Transitions

Ethan turned 17 last month. SEVENTEEN. Crazy. He has giant hands. It's so strange.  Here he is with the rest of the fam at Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate. (We tried to go to Red Lobster but it was an hour and a half wait. I mean, c'mon.)

And here he is smiling his "I am now a 17-year-old" smile. The thing that really brings me up short (and kind of hurts my heart) is that next year at this time he won't even LIVE HERE ANYMORE. What the heck?

He's also done with everything but the final paperwork on his Eagle project. He built portable desks for an elementary school; they're used to carry papers and other items and to write on when kids do work outside. Here are a few pics of the project:

And now we're all full-steam-ahead with school, work, and everything else. Ethan is enjoying McDonald's and the school musical (he's in the chorus of Aida); Elise is having fun in her women's choir, and Jonas is rocking it on his new soccer team and just made Vocal Jazz, his middle school performing choir. Wyatt is doing a great job in first grade, too: his teacher told me he's "so nice and considerate and smart." Nice, considerate, and smart are three of my favorite things for a person to be. Here are pics of the other three kids, just for fun:

Jonas getting his First Class and Star scouts

Elise taking a picture of the two of us after I had her take a picture of me to upload to my faculty profile

Wyatt wearing the bribery moustache the Evil Lords of Fundraising gave to all the kids to convince them to sell wrapping paper, bad chocolate, and overpriced paraphernalia so they can "earn" fabulous "prizes." Like a stick on moustache. 

Things are going well for me at UWRF. I have a nice MWF schedule (three sections, all the same prep) and one of the sections is an honors class, which is a lot of fun. They're so talkative! My first batch of essays is due on Monday, though, so the deluge will begin.

And that is all for now. Coming up soon: new basement!

Cottage Grove Ward Triathlon

A portion of the Cottage Grove Ward Triathletes

Forrest is an excellent ringleader. He has this great gift for getting other people excited about stuff, sometimes against their will. (This was not the case when he proposed, of course.) Although he's never been able to get ME excited about triathlons, he's particularly adept at encouraging folks who are already leaning in that direction.

This year he took his triathlon cheerleading to a whole new level and recruited a bunch of people in our ward to give the race a try, many of them for the very first time. Some of them did relays (one person does the swim, another does the bike, and another does the run). In fact, next year I might even consider doing a relay if I can do the bike portion, since I'm an absolute no on both the run and the swim. I said I would CONSIDER it. Anyway, there were also a bunch of people who did the sprint distance for the very first time, and one intrepid fellow who did the olympic distance for his very first try . . . even though he couldn't swim. He got a giant C for Courage because he was the very last person done with the swim in the whole entire race, but he still kept a smile on his face and finished the bike and the run. I say, Go Him!

I was the official photographer. Well, not official, really. I nominated myself to be the official photographer. But I think people liked the photos. Here are some of my best shots. I realize that you, my five readers, don't know most of these people from Adam, but I still like the photos so I'm uploading them anyway.

You know the guy on the left. The guy on the right is another supportive spouse. Also Canadian.

Forrest and Dan. Dan is The Man.

Alli and Reed. Yes, they're married! Sheesh. Reed is one of Forrest's new little bros. (He likes to make friends with guys who are five years younger than he is. Deep down he always wanted a little bro. Or he just thinks he's five years younger than he actually is.)

Action shot. Get in that wetsuit!

A few of the ladies of the Cottage Grove ward, looking awesome in their swim caps

Our friend who finished the Olympic swim portion, even though he couldn't swim. 

Becky and Brooke. Relay handoff!

Brooke's daughter Lauren, just hanging out.

Forrest getting high fives from some of the kids in the ward

Mike, YM secretary and eye surgeon. Also a good runner.

Little motorized parachute thingie

The kids new seminary teacher. Is it wrong to post shirtless photos of your kids' seminary teacher? At least I didn't post any swimsuit photos.

Hooray Brooke! Brooke is the best! (Really, Brooke is the best.) Brooke is my good friend, married to Dan the Man, and serves with me in the Stake YW. She's also bald, and has an excellent sense of humor about it. She has alopecia and lost all her hair as a pre-teen. She's used to people seeing her as super-courageous: look at the lady doing the triathlon while she's undergoing chemotherapy! And really, Brooke is the best.

Shane, the recently returned missionary and oldest son in a family of super-competitive sons. You should have seen him kick it into gear during the last 20 feet of the race so he could speed past the guy ahead of him.

Brooke's Lauren with our bishop. Poor Bishop: he was planning to run the triathlon too, but then got a really bad intestinal ailment. Also too much info for the blog?

Our neighbor and Elise's YW leader Kimberley. She's a fitness instructor but hasn't ever raced before. She worked really, really hard and it was so fun to see the huge smile on her face as she came across the finish line. 

Awesome Noah, 13 years old. A handful of teenagers from the ward were going to do the sprint distance, but only Noah stuck it out and actually followed through.

Forrest coming into the finish, getting high fives from members of the ward.

The other fun thing about the triathlon was the kids' race. This year Wyatt decided he wanted to participate, so he did a 25 yard swim, 1 mile bike, and a 1/4 mile run. A group shot of all the Cottage Grove Ward kids who decided to race:

Here Wyatt is, racing with all his might:

Getting marked up

Practicing before the swim

Ready to rumble!

Ready, set, go! (He somehow ended up at the end of the line. He didn't mind.)

Splashing in

Wyatt and the Ladies, emerging from the water

Buff

Wyatt and Dad, taking off for the bike portion. (Dads were allowed to follow for the five and six year olds.)

Happy bike rider

Happy runner. I love this photo.

Getting cheered on by two random ladies at the finish line.

Wyatt and Harrison, all medaled up.

Riding back to the car with Dad, super proud.

It was a really fun morning. We'll see if next year I dare to do the bike. WE'LL SEE.

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair

Now on to a few final pictures from Grandma and Grandpa's week with us. The Great Minnesota Get Together! We went on the first Saturday of the fair and it was busy and hot . . . but that's part of the experience. I think my dad's favorite thing was seeing all the throngs of people. Here are some highlights:

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying some corn. It was the first thing they ate, and I think it was their favorite.

There are many opportunities to put your head in a humorous cutout 

One of my favorite things about the fair is seeing all the 4H and farm kids with their animals. I thought this 4Her did a particularly good job making the subject of chicken diseases "fun."

Ethan named this chicken "20 piece." (He's been working at McDonald's for a while now.)

Similar hair?

Awww

Not a bad photo for the cell phone cam!

Ethan was on this ride too, but (once again) I didn't take his picture. I promise he was at the fair. 

Unfortunately the really serious looking guy with the buzz cut won this round.

Grandma and Grandpa, observing a hog. I love the expressions of the faces of the people standing next to them.

The teeming masses!

Jonas climbed all the way to the top

Wyatt got oh-so-close!

Even more opportunities to put your head in a humorous cut-out

We searched far and wide for the famous deep fried Twinkies. Finally, we found them! Grandma said they were pretty good. But not as good as the corn. 

Three of my four children were up there. Ack.

Wyatt with his new snuggle buddy, Wolfie, on the shuttle bus to the parking lot. Sweaty and happy. (Wyatt, not Wolfie.)

We had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa--the week went by so fast. We're looking forward to the next time they visit when our basement is finally finished and Grandma can sleep somewhere besides the family room couch. (We promise we offered her other options; she chose the family room couch of her own free will. :-). Our kids are so lucky to have such awesome grandparents.

And speaking of the basement, it's still underway. We're hoping it will be completely done in about two weeks. Our contractor, Randy, is downstairs as I type, cutting and hammering away. Here's where we stand right now:

I just can't wait to get carpet down so we stop tracking sheetrock dust all over the house!

I still have to blog about Ethan's birthday and Eagle project, the triathlon, and school starting. Hopefully nothing else happens over the next few weeks so I can clear the backlog. Onward!