Kids and Pictures

Oh yes, I was *finally* able to make David sit down long enough to let me grab a picture of him. Don't get me wrong, he's fifteen and sits a lot, but he is also camera shy these days. So while the younger two posed for me in the fall, David got around to it yesterday. I chose the best of them and these are their "school year" pictures.



David is 15, in 9th grade and loves to read, read and occasionally fits in some video games and television. He is taking Hebrew this year, being tutored by a pastor from our former church who is also a friend of the family and is in a "class" of 3 others. He wanted to do it because it was a challenge, a rare language not everyone else is taking and thought it would help him study the Bible better. Go figure, he is a kid who has his life together better than we did at his age. He is very intelligent, is studying all his courses above his grade level with the exception of math, which he is at grade level with Algebra I. Right now he thinks he'd like to either be an engineer or architect when he grows up, which is really going to happen way too soon.



Zach is a man on a mission - all the time and never stopping. He is only 12 years old this year, but has always possessed the Midas touch when it comes to any physical activity. Whether it be skiing, wave boarding, baseball, football, or just video games., he excels at all. He is repeating the sixth grade this year more due to the fact he'd rather be out doing something than studying. He simply didn't finish his school work by the end of the year. (Yes, kids, it is possible to fail a grade even when you're home-schooled). Regardless of his past failure, he is still a kid with a lot of spunk. It didn't deter his hyperactivity or need to win, but instead his failure seems to have made him realize life isn't all a bed of rose petals waiting to fall from the sky at his victory celebrations. He is making sure to do his work in addition to his play these days, so if nothing else, this was a quality learning experience. So far, his ambitions in life are joining a ski racing team and meeting all the cute girls on the mountain he can. Guess who he gets that from?



Alex is, simply put, the politician of the family. While he is the best brown-noser I've ever met, he has the charming smile and personality to pull it off. He just turned 11 in October and loves the idea he is catching up to Zach in grades and surpassing him in height. Alex is in the fifth grade and is starting to come into his own. He has a big heart, too big at times and so it is easily broken. I suppose it could be said he is the heart of the family though, so while he will say whatever he thinks you want to hear, he also likely means it. Alex's ambitions include joining youth group as soon as possible, completing two years of school in one and getting as much time in front of video games as possible. With great ambition comes a great need for Halo, I guess.

Firing Squads

Ever since we acquired our first gun, just before our cross country trip, the family has enjoyed learning to fire guns while also learning weapons safety. After we arrived in Idaho was when we were actually able to begin learning this as a family. We began our journey with the .40 calibre Baretta, we gained a hunting rifle that used to be his father in Florida's. Two weekends ago, John went down to help settle the affairs of his father's estate and brought home two more guns, much to the boy's glee. One of which was a 12 gauge semi automatic shotgun that can fire three rounds with simple successive pulls of its trigger. The second was a smaller hunting rifle, equipped with a nice scope.


This past weekend was a beautiful weekend, after a couple of weeks of much rain and clouds. We took advantage of the sunshine and packed up our guns, both old and new, and took to the hills. Any place outside of the city limits is open for shooting a gun. We happened on a place in our off-roading trips in the jeep that had several pull off spots where people would go for target practice. It wasn't too far from the house, which was also a welcome improvement over our previous 45 mile trips to a shooting range we knew of.




The boys, and I must admit me included, absolutely loved shooting the shotgun. We found many unbroken clay pigeons in the area and took turns tossing them into the air for one another. David got one on his first shot, but the rest of us struggled to get any after that. I have personally found moving targets to be much more difficult, but i was able to shoot every shotgun shell off a platform about 20 meters in front of me with the Baretta. I felt pretty good about that and John started calling me Calamity Jane. All in all we had a blast and I know at least two of us with quite visible bruises from that shotgun! Still, I'm sure we'll all go out again soon and won;t hesitate to fire it over and over again in our feeble attempts to hit those little clay pigeons. >.<

Craters of the Moon

We finally had a chance to get away for a while two weeks ago. Summer was seemingly not busy and yet we never could get away, so we finally knuckled down and made a long weekend for the family. We took the RV. The boys have missed it and kept reminiscing about "the old days" when we were on our trip and traveling in it all over. So even though it was more expensive, we determined it was important to take the tank.




Craters of the Moon is a national park in southeast Idaho, a little less than 300 miles from us. It is a little different than expected and was filled with lava beds which now look more like just a lot of black rock! We were able to see long dormant splatter cones and climb some other small mountains (small as in they were not very tall from our starting point, but rose over 6000 ft in elevation).



We all went spelunking as well. The caves were actually lave tubes that had long since just become home to more rocks and little else. Because there is no water or much vegetation aside from sagebrush in this national park, there was also no birds or other wildlife to be seen. The only insect we really had to deal with were flies.







We took Scoobi with us. It was our first time taking her on such a long voyage, let alone a trip that spanned more than a couple of hours. She did quite good, although she did get out of her harness once when we were off exploring caves and such. Our camping neighbors helped to call her back to the RV, where she ended up just laying (unleashed) right by the door and waiting for us. She really is a good girl.




So that was our minor vacation this year. It has already begun snowing here in Idaho. Odd for it to happen in October, let alone early October, but the snowboarders and skiers in the house are excited about it. We are looking forward to making more memories and just enjoying the time we have with the kids. God knows time flies and they are growing up fast!