Garrett 12 y 1mo

Garrett has enjoyed a number of occasions of taking over the house with Lego or Star Wars big figure battles.  He has continued to improve his cooking skills, now assisting Joy on the making of pizzas.  He has enjoyed playing on a summer league baseball team as well.

I need two more minutes to have all my troops set up for battle.

Mom, we have successfully baked two more pizzas together.

If I could give an executive order, what would it be?

Griffin 8y2mo

Griffin has been enjoying the opportunity to play games and play with his brothers during the little bits of downtime that crept into a somewhat very busy first month of summer.

Preparing for battle...Legos attack.

Yes, I will eat this, especially the corn!

Bryce 9y11mo

One more month until he would be a full decade old, Bryce continued to contemplate all that he wanted to do on his birthday.  What would we eat, where would we go, what games would we play?  All questions that swam around in his brain and would come out as questions to be pondered.

What would I do with a day as the President?

Lego battles everywhere in the house, taking over...

Helping to make meals for everyone to eat.

Super Hero VBS

Joy, along with Garrett and Bryce, helped in the VBS at our church the week after returning from LA and the homeschool conference.  They had a class of 15 four year olds. Griffin attended the VBS.  Unfortunately, we had to leave for Idaho due to Joy's grandfather's medical condition and they didn't get to finish out the final day of VBS.  Garrett has been helping on Sundays once a month, so he was able to show Bryce the ropes. Bryce really enjoyed getting to be a mentor for some of the kids and helping them to play better together.  He picked a few kids who looked lonely and started playing with them to get them involved. They also enjoyed manning the Lego table at the sensory site. 

Posing with superhero faces and classic 60s superhero comic book "sound effects."

Lego starfighters at VBS?  What?

The classroom Joy and the boys helped out with during the VBS week.

CC Practicum

Joy attended and taught at the CC Practicum that was done locally.  The boys were in classes during the three days which they enjoyed quite a bit.

Griffin lines up with his class from Practicum to show his geography work for the week.

Garrett and Bryce learned some Latin during their days at practicum...

...and demonstrated a gladiatorial fight with water noodles.

Creative box art...made into space crafts.

After a long tiring day of practicum and Brett working at the hospital, the boys consulted him at night regarding the game they were making.

Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day the weekend before going to LA, since we would be getting back late on the actual day.  For the pre-celebration, we met in Tracy to enjoy James, Wendy, Haley, Rachel, Grammy, and Poppy's company.  The cousins put together one of their creative skits which includes music, commercials, and acts.  On the actual day, after church, the five of us went to see Cars 3 in 3D, a couple of the crew may have fallen asleep, but we will blame that on the long car ride late into the night and not the movie itself.

Come on Dad, open your presents...we got you some more Star Wars toys!

At the movies for Cars 3 in 3D.

Celebrating Father's Day AND James' birthday with two quality cakes.

Gathering round Poppy while he opens his presents.

Brett and Poppy were squared off in building destructive devices for battle and here are the results.

The cousin crew.

So Cal Trip- Presidential Libraries, Universal Studios, Friends, Homeschool Convention

Needing a change in the speakers and in the variety of topics presented, Joy investigated other home school conferences and landed on one in Los Angeles.  Since we had not sojourned to southern California in quite some time, we thought it prudent to add a few days to our trip and enjoy a day at Universal Studios and some educational time at the two presidential libraries in the LA area (Nixon and Reagan).  We were invited to stay the night with friends Stacy and Adrian the night before our Universal Studios day which ended up being an eye opening game time for our boys.  Grammy and Poppy joined us for the Nixon library and the home school conference.

The award winning poster created by our boys in the VBS program they attended while we were at the conference.

Relaxing on their shared bed in the hotel.

Taking a picture with President Reagan and First Lady Nancy.

Oh you gotta take a picture of the model aircraft carrier!

A replica of the Reagan's Oval Office filled with jelly beans.

The Titanic Exhibit was also being featured at the Reagan Library which was quite interesting as well.

Air Force One, retired to the Reagan Presidential Library--we walked all the way through it, amazing.

A portion of the Berlin Wall, which came down during Reagan's Presidency.

F-14 fighter jet, famous from Top Gun, and during Reagan's Presidency.

Getting an education on Star Wars X-Wing the miniatures game, from Adrian.  Oh, boy, are they into it now.

Adrian let Garrett try out his electrical guitar with all sorts of different settings.

Enjoying the hospitality and company of Adrian and Stacy.

Family photo op--we didn't get many with the whole crew.

3-D ride experience.

Hanging with the Minions...

...before screaming with Harry Potter on the Griffendorf ride.

Harry's castle--a few too many spiders for our taste.

Everyone was burned out on rides at the end of the day, but Brett couldn't bear not going on the ride...how could he face his friend Eric who is a huge Transformers fan.  Going solo turned out to be a good move--in and out in 10 minutes!

In the meantime, the boys took pictures with Optimus Prime and Bumblebee.

At Nixon's Presidential Library, a replica of the seal of the office.

What would Nixon have said to our crazy crew if they had been with him that day?

Navy One--the helicopter version of Air Force One and more convenient for landing on the lawn at the White House.