Read the Book of Mormon--Get to go to Dinner

This boy read the whole Book of Mormon on his own! So we finally (should have gone over the summer) went out to celebrate and give him his reward of a dinner out on January 3rd, 2015. Well, we went at lunch time, which was just as good.

Bruce has a list of foods he doesn't like. No Mexican or Chinese (or any other Asian food that involves rice) and no hamburgers. Well that really narrows the choices down. I wanted to take him some place new and a fun. So we tried Moon's Kitchen Cafe in downtown Boise. It has a fun atmosphere reminiscent  of the 1950's. He'd like to go back again sometime.

Bruce had one of their world famous milkshakes. Butterscotch. Mmmmm! He let me have a sip. It was tasty. He also ordered the Mile High Sandwich and fries. He loved it.

This boy is up to some good things! Good grades, tries hard to do what he's told, and really just wants to be good. Did I mention how patient he was waiting for his reward? He waited a long time to get this date with me. I'm so proud of him for reading on his own. I'm going to have to reward him for something else, because he's fun to spend time with!
Love this boy so much!

First Day of School 2014

In the whirlwind of sending off a missionary, we still managed to get ready for school to start too. Here's the traditional first day of school pictures. Just basic pictures on the front porch.
Everyone is pretty much out the door between 7:10 and 7:15 every morning.

This year Thayne and Bruce are High School Freshmen! They LOVE it! Was fun watching them confidently go to registration, navigate the halls, and chat with the upper classmen completely unaware that lots of freshmen are scared out of their minds to do all that. It really helps to have a big brother. Even though they won't be in school together, they know a lot of people because of Dallin. They are comfortable in the high school because they have spent so much time there already. The best part has been hearing some of Dallin's friends figuring out that he has twin brothers. Carson Trautman says that they are so "Totally COOL! They are like each half of Dallin. Bruce is the serious side and Thayne is the fun, goofy side." He thinks they are great.

Kuna High runs 4 classes a day on an A/B day schedule. I really like for high schoolers. They can take a few more classes and it gives them time to do homework or projects over a couple days. It does take a bit of practice to get good at staying on top of everything though, as Thayne has been finding out. He doing okay though!

 Bruce is taking Intro to Ag, Air Force ROTC, Men's Choir, Geometry, Global Connections (Thayne is even in his class), Seminary (Church History and Doctorine and Covenants this year), Language Arts, and Physical Science. He is most excited about ROTC. They even get real uniforms and have to wear them to school every other Friday.

I love it when they love each other!

 Thayne is a lot of the same classes too. Intro to Ag, Global Connections, Seminary, Language Arts, Physical Science, German I, Algebra (They both have Mr. Rippy. Dallin had him for two years too.), and Men's Choir (They are together once a day. On A days they have choir. On B days it's Global Connections). Thayne was most excited about German! He loves it and has a "gut" ear for it.

Luke is in 4th grade at Ross Elementary this year. He moved up from Indian Creek. He is pretty confident too and feels comfortable at the new school. It helps that the music and p.e. teachers are the same people. Plus they did a field trip over to the school at the end of 3rd grade to meet the 4th grade teachers, see the classrooms and tour the school. Luke has Mrs. Johnson this year in a 4th/5th grade combo class. He goes to Mrs. Stear for math and a student teacher, Mrs. Dribnak, teaches them 4th graders Idaho History. I am pretty excited for him to get Mrs. Johnson. We love her! She's taught Thayne in 2nd and 5th grade, and Hunter last year in 5th grade. Luke is settling in and getting used to his bigger responsibilities this year. He has been diligent at reading 30 minutes everyday and doing his homework on his own too. I like it!! He does too.

I couldn't resist this shot! Luke was very unhappy with Hunter for just jumping into the picture. Luke wasn't quite ready for Hunter to be center stage at this point. They were supposed to be posing together.

That's more like it! They really are the best buddies.

Hunter is in 6th grade at Ross Elementary. He gets to rule the roost with all the other old kids now. He has a homeroom teacher, Ms. Cyr. They go to their "specials", a.k.a. music, physical education, or library, with their homeroom class. After their special they are broken into a different class that they rotate with in three different blocks for language arts, science/history, and math. Hunter loves his class he rotates with. Great group of kids and most of his friends. He's not as crazy about his homeroom class. There are a few serious trouble makers in that class and they feed off of each other and cause problems. He's always been lucky to be in (according to him) the "BEST" class of the grade. This will be a good "learning to tolerate others" and "still choose the right" kind of year.

Kuna Football--the Freshmen Boys

A twin problem: When both are playing football and the coach puts them in at the same time (one on left defensive end and one on right defensive end). How do you watch them play?

Seriously?

They both play second string (just not that big of boys compared to the first string boys). So when they got in for the first time against Emmett High School I was unprepared for where they'd be and who to watch. I watched Thayne. He was closest, playing left DE. He was easily knocking some boy twice his size onto his rear end. But then I missed Bruce make his first tackle of his high school career. And according to Lance and Bruce, it was really GOOD.When Bruce asked if I had seen him I had to tell him, "No. I didn't know who to watch. So I was watching Thayne on that play." Bruce just said, "Mom, just watch the where the ball is." Okay, that makes a little sense. But I had just spent 6 years training myself to watch a specific player when he was on the field.

They haven't had a lot of playing time this year. The games have been really close several times. They sure enjoy being part of a team though and they realize that what is best for the team is most important. I love these tough pictures of my good lookin' football players.

Bruce #60 5'7" 124 lbs.


Bruce is behind the ref to the right. Emmett game.

Thayne #75 5'6" 135 lbs.

Thayne #75, left side of photo, going after the guy with the ball, who you can't see. 

So far the team is 4-2. Two more games left in the session.

2014 Kuna Freshmen Football and Coach Adam Cobb

 They call this the silly picture, but I think it is a bit more like their normal selves than the serious picture. 

A few extra pictures from Ronnie. I tried to protest because I was make-up less and still in work-out clothes.

Ronnie doesn't care! He says the memories are more important. And he thinks women always look beautiful.  I guess I won't care in years to come, because he captured a fun moment with my two boys! I sure love these boys.

Here's the boys pictures from 8th grade football last year. Just so you can see that they really have been growing up!

2013 Kuna Middle School Football Players

Thayne #31 and Bruce #65--Kuna Middle School

Labor Day Hikes--a Warnick Tradition

For the past several years, not sure how many, but quite a few now, I have insisted on doing something outside for Labor Day as a family. So typically it has been a hike. This tradition always makes the kids a mixture of grumpy and excited. I actually didn't realize it was a tradition until one of the boys complained that Labor Day was coming up and "do we have to go on a hike?" Of course that just sealed the deal! We were hiking!

I think the first year we hiked was 2009 and we headed into the Owyhee Mountains close to Reynolds Creek. We took all of our food from our 72 hour kits that was getting old for snacks. We checked out a pioneer cemetery  and just hiked up a few hills. Several of the boys say this was their most favorite hike we've done. A few others didn't like it. They say we tend to always hike were it's hot and there is no shade. It was true that it was a bit like that.  

Here's some pictures from that hike! They were all so cute! It doesn't feel like it was that long ago.
But boy have they changed!

Bruce in his cute blue jacket Thayne orange one. Dallin pointing out some wild life. And Luke was never far behind.

Hunter with his cute new front tooth. Looked so big at first!

One of the few pictures with Lance in it. See him in his orange hat in front of Hunter?

Bruce surrounded by dessert mountain beauty.

This is when Luke discovered how much he likes hiking.

Thayne! We just had to take a picture of him with the matching lichens on the rocks.

Luke just could not be left out of the photo session!

Dallin, Bruce, Melissa, Hunter, Thayne, with Luke in the front.

I just laughed when I saw this photo because I think this might be Luke's natural "pose." For fun check out this picture from our family photo shot this August 2014.

Just thought this pose was a little funny, but maybe I taught it to him 5 years ago.

I think the next year we just went for a hike with trail mix along the Nampa Greenbelt. No pictures from that year. But we did find a bunch of snails along the path and we had no idea there were snails like that here.

In 2011 we went to Celebration Park south of Melba, Idaho at hiked to Lake Halverson. Another hot, non shady hike. This is Hunter's favorite. He remembers the three waterfalls we saw. This was the hike were Luke really established that he LOVES hiking and carrying a backpack. We were so impressed with his determined hiking skills!

One of my most favorite pictures of Luke! Love the hat that covers his ears, orange backpack that is Lance's childhood backpack, and the orange water bottle.

Dallin was the biggest complainer about the hike for years. Especially once he started having football practice on Labor Day. So last year in 2013 we made sure to go on Saturday. We headed up to Bogus Basin for our hike and hiked along one of the cross country ski trails. This was an "approved" of hike! It was mostly shady and very pretty.   

We went on a different Labor Day "hike" this year. Lance thought it would be fun to take our bikes and go on the greenbelt in Boise. So he bought a bunch of bike locks, a good bike pump, and a new inner tube for Bruce. Saturday morning we fixed up bikes, took all the back seats out of the van and put ALL the bikes in the back of the van! (which is a bit of extra work, since none of the garage doors open and we had to do it all through the man-door and up and down the front porch--no one complained though). Then we drove over to Boise and parked along the greenbelt by the zoo.

Everyone really liked it! There were so many people biking and walking along the greenbelt. But it was a cooler day and shady (an important part to a successful Labor Day "hike"). We headed east first and rode along the river until we came to the golf course that is just below Table Rock. Then we rode back. Luke was having a hard time not wanting to pedal continually and his seat was really bugging him. Once Lance fixed the angle of his seat it really helped.

We headed back west and then stopped for lunch at The Ram Restaurant. We had a good lunch and then hopped back on our bikes and continued west past all the parks and then we came upon the "white water" park that they built in Boise River and this really great lake, that is just off the river. There were a lot of people canoeing, rafting and wind surfing in the lake. I had no idea it was there--I think we were just on the boarder of Garden City and Boise area. Dad said were we over by ACHD when we went over a bridge just for fun. Then we headed back to toward the van. Crossed over the river and biked through a couple parks and BSU and crossed the bridge that is by the zoo. Luke did SO much better the second half of our ride. (I think he had been hungry previously)

Thayne rocking the shades and helmet. Luke and Melissa in the background.

Hunter loving his new bike! And looking good in the white sunglasses Dallin bestowed upon him.

STUDLY BRUCE! Need we say more?

Lunch Break at the Ram Restaurant (Bruce, Thayne, Melissa, Luke, Hunter)

Now that I've finished writing about the past several years of Labor Day hikes. Maybe this tradition is actually more deeply rooted than I was realizing. For years and years, Lance's family would head "Out West" each Labor Day for a horse back ride and some Dutch oven food. That draw to do things together as a family is so important. It really does help us grow closer together and creates so many memories.

Eagle Scout Service Project #1--Day 2

Everyone was so exhausted after the first day of work. We really wanted to quite earlier than we did but several people suggested that we just keep going until the first coat was done. So glad we did that! The second day Dallin specifically asked for older volunteers to come because he needed people that would pay attention to the finishing details. There was a lot of cutting against the ceiling to do--which was mostly all done by Sara Williams with her awesome tool. Filling in the tons and tons of deep holes in the cinderblocks to make sure the red, yellow and blue paints didn't show through. Plus putting on the second coat. It still took all day!

Dallin had to mark off sections as finished or we'd still be there filling in little white holes with our paint brushes.

Kylie H. helping edge against the ceiling.

Lauren S. likes to help paint. She was willing to try all the different jobs.

Sara with her edger. She was a ROCK STAR! Up on the ladder for two days straight.

Sean and Candice H. cutting in against the door frames and wood work.

Julia H. so happy to help paint. She thought she was going to get to paint a fence. This project was harder than a fence!

The photographer, Thayne! You can tell from his hand he was busy with the paint too.

Kimber H. came to help for a while before going to work. 

Hunter, Kyle J. and Andrea J. back for a second day.

Bruce applying the second coat.

 

Pretty sure Lance is talking about work while painting. So great he could do both on these two days.

Melissa followed behind Sara and filled in the holes the edger couldn't get.

These three girls came back to help again too, and it was even Andi's birthday! What a sweety!

 Here's the finished photos! We were there until 6:00 p.m. putting on the final touches.

Hunter vacuuming up the messes from scrubbing the baseboards off.

Done!

Finished!

Looks Fabulous!

After we cleaned everything up, Dallin took us all out to eat at Firehouse Pizzeria and Grill in Kuna. Yum! It was so nice to have dinner served to us after our long days! 

I'm going to have to get another finished picture with all the teachers things up in the halls and backpacks on the hooks so we can remember how good this looks.

Here's some comments from facebook posts-

• Miss McMorrow: Nice. 

• Mrs. Sanders: You all are awesome, I wish I was able to get there to help. 

• Mrs. Tolbert: Oh my word! I love it! 
•  
• Mrs. T. Christensen (who helped paint the second day): You were right. It was a lot of work. I thought he was doing just a section. He did both sides! Glad he finished it.

• Mrs. Drake: The hallway looks great! Amazing what a coat of paint will do.

• 
  

  Mrs. Johnson: O wow! Beautiful. Dallin, What a difference you have made for us. Thank you very much.
  

  
  
• Mrs. Forrey: Very nice!!
• Mrs. Boone: Wow Beautiful!! That will be so nice!