Jared's Eagle

Here he is.  It's official.  He is now an Eagle Scout.

Warning:  Picture overload ahead!

 With all the crazy things happening for the rest of the month of May, Nate and I had a quick getaway south of town on Friday night to celebrate 20 years of wedded bliss.  We came back on Saturday and got everything ready to go for the Eagle court of honor that night. After we got the church all set up we headed to the local restaurant that loves old fashion ranges and had dinner with our friends and their family.  There were 16 of us at the restaurant and we got to listen to the local band that was performing later that evening do their sound check....and we heckled them...because they were encouraging it :)

 Below are the pics of the decorations.  We almost didn't decorate, but then I decided to not be so minimalist that it looked like I didn't care.  There is a close up of the Mormon Battalion slide that was presented to the boys by a member of the organization - pretty cool (you'll see a pic of him later) There is also a nice little close-up of how we roll - duct tape style.  Yep, we're awesome like that.

 Below are pics of everyone that spoke.  A fellow troop member conducted.  Dad did the oath and charge.  The MB representative presented the slides.  Our scout master and State Representative.  Our Bishop, and the 2 boys.  

 All the awards.  The pining of Jared and getting his kerchief and slide.  Getting my "mom" pin and Nate getting his "dad" pin.  The mentor pin was also given to the scout leader that got Jared off to a running start in the program.  The MB rep presenting the slides.  

 Lucky for us we have some family that live in town.  They both came out to support and made us feel loved.  We also had our Seminary teacher (and also rescuer of Watson) come to support.  The boys in the troop (one of which made the candy leis).  We had to get a mom picture with our boys because we both did a lot of work to get these boys through the program.  It was great fun getting to work together.  

 The kid's piano teacher was there and her husband who is the scout guru - we are super lucky to have them in our ward.  The cousins had lots of fun entertaining themselves after sitting thru the program.  

Phew, so glad it's over......now I need to start getting serious with Ethan because he's already 11.  There's no rest for the wicked. 

ps, I survived teaching Sunday School today.  Now I get to check that off the list of things I've done.  Nate said that I said the word "saliva" too many times.  I'm a completely honest person and when I get nervous my mouth gets as dry as the sahara desert.  I had to excuse myself to get a drink a couple of times and told everyone that it was because of a lack of saliva.....just trying to lighten the mood and bring an element of realness!  haha  Sometimes I can tend to over share.  I call it setting the stage for my future failure....that way if I don't bomb, everyone is pleasantly surprised and if I do - everyone already saw it coming.  To prove that I wasn't afraid to look like an idiot in front of everyone, I even donned a makeshift "frontlet."  Yep, it was pretty awesome!  Oh and a member of the Stake presidency was there and was making some hilarious comments which played into the light heartedness I sprinkled in to break up the seriousness.  This led me to joke about having a tattoo on my back of the angel Moroni.  We'll see if I ever get asked to sub again :0)