Summertime

It has been an interesting summer. I have been consumed with wedding prep, some mission prep and more wedding prep....But the summer is passing and we have had some fun regular summer activities as well. Here are a few.....Today we spent the day in Seattle...

Monorail and the Seattle Center...

Mariners game!! We were in the very top row at Safeco field and had a great view of the field, the city and the Puget Sound. Can you see the players way down there?

GIRL's Camp at Zions camp was great. Katie was a C.I.T or Counselor in training and had a great time this year. I also went for 3 days and taught a Destiny class. I loved teaching this class. After just 3 days and two nights I came home and crashed. How do these other women leaders survive the full week??!!

Katie's skit with Andee, one of her first year girls.

Christian all packed and ready to go on his high adventure camping trip to Lake Chelan.

We are loving our new patio and how the flowers look with the new terra cotta tile....so fun to sit in the sun and relax a little each day.

In preparing for her mission, Emily went to the temple for the first time...wonderful to be with her on this special day.

Swimming at the Garlocks almost everyday has been a great diversion. Preston has learned to swim this summer....yeah!

Tacoma Stake Pioneer picnic... Preston loved the pioneer activities.

Finished

Finished product. Glad to be done. Mike and Christian did a great job masterminding the whole thing. This will be enjoyed for many many years.

Love those summer projects...

It was time to refinish the east patio. The green carpet that was put in 15 years ago for Ben and Rachel's wedding was tired, worn down and full of moss. So.... Christian tore out the carpet and we took out all the crumbled concrete and poured a new slab. Now we are laying tile. It has been exhausting and back breaking but also fun to work together. Everyone had a job: Christian mixed the concrete and cut tile, Grandma prepped each tile piece, Mike was the mastermind and he layed and cut the tile, Marie washed the tile and did the final positioning, Hannah was our official photographer and errand girl, Emily was Mike's assistant tile layer and Preston gathered spacers and washed the tile. Finished project will be posted soon.

Shout out to Hannah

Hannah had a great time Rocking with her cello for her Mark Woods concert. She sang, danced and played her cello in a most exciting way. We loved the entertaining songs---Yellow Submarine, Strings will Rock You and All Together Now.

Hannah with orchestra friends Lexi (behind), Mandy and Savannah.

When Hannah was in Kindergarten thru 3rd grade she had special tutoring to help with her reading. Now we rarely see her without a book in hand. When she was 10 she tore through the Harry Potter Books. This summer I challenged her to read the Narnia books by CS Lewis before the 3rd movie comes out in December. Within 10 days she had finished all 7 books in the series. I never thought anyone in our family would out-read Bethany but I think Hannah has done it. Way to go Miss Hannah!

Family Time

Happy Father's Day to the most amazing and awesome father in the world. We love you!

Kisses for Daddy...

We tried a new treat for family night. Mini-smores!

1. You take mini-marshmellows and put a couple on the end of a toothpick.

2. Roast them over a candle.

3. Put the melted marshmellows and 2 milk chocolate chips between two teddy graham cookies.

Of course you'll want to eat more then one...they are tiny and yummy and a fun to make as well. Enjoy!

A night to remember...

The making of a princess...Bethany and Kelsey worked their magic.

Katie had a 9th grade celebration dinner and recognition assembly Friday evening. We can't believe she will be a sophomore next year. We had a fun and fancy dinner with her seminary friends, then they attended the assembly, dance and after party at the Lundquists.
Wow, Katie looked stunning.

Katie's description of the dinner was this: she talked to the boys, the rest of the girls were either quiet or they made awkward comments the whole time. She conceded that as the night wore on things got more fun and comfortable.

The girls...

The boys showed up first and so Katie had to entertain them for a few minutes until the rest came...a little awkward but she handled it all well.

At the assembly with the girls

Mother daughter love!

Sara Rosengren, Spencer Nhem, Madison Garlock, Will, Sarah VanValkenburg, Adam Lundquist, Katie Baldwin, Katie and Melanie Eggleston.

High school here we come!

Man of the Hour

Proud Grandma Betteridge with Ben and Christian her two graduating grandsons.

Christian has had a busy weekend. Graduation was Friday evening, June 11th with 415 classmates from Curtis High School. We were so proud of him as he received a special honor at graduation, the George R. Curtis Award which is given to one graduate who exemplifies the true Viking Spirit. I think all his extra activities from Swimming, water polo, drama and music and especially his ASB leadership service really qualified him for this award. He also received several community scholarships from the Kiwanis club, the Choir Booster club and the Jim Baurichter PBA (Percieve, Believe, Achieve) swimming scholarship. WOW.

EAGLE SCOUT

Sunday evening, June 13th, we had his Eagle court of honor. We were very happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Bateman here with us to celebrate.

We loved celebrating this event with Christian's good friend, Brady Morrison and his family. It made planning of the event alot of fun. Curtis Valhalla choir sang the national anthem and the Curtis ROTC performed the flag ceremony. Christian and Brady created a really fun slide show of scouting memories and several of their leaders told some fun stories about their scouting days.

Brady and Christian Scouting Memories Video...