Freedom Trail

Just before school got out, I took one of my good friends Amy, on the Freedom Trail. She is a big time history buff, she even worked at the Old State House on the Freedom Trail at one point, but has never actually walked the trail. I told her that was not a good thing, she said she's always wanted to do it, so off we went, except for the fact, that it took us almost 3 months to actually get a date, along with good weather, where we could both go.
PATHETIC!

It just happened to be Bunker Hill Day, so around Bunker Hill we had all sorts of soliders walking around. I think they were getting ready for a presentation. I can't believe it, by I didn'tget any pictures of her or I, but here are a few of my favorites that I did take.

Swimming

ONE

TWO

THREE

TIMES THE FUN!

Weekend

This was such an amazing weekend. I love those weekends where you end on such a spiritual high to get ready to start the week. Mike and I spent Friday and Saturday at youth conference with the youth in our stake. These kids are such great kids, with amazing testimonies and such a strong desire to be around good. You could tell that they sense the happiness that comes from making good choices and trying to do what's right. The kids enjoy being with kids that share their same standards and beliefs, there is definately strength in numbers. I felt strengthened just being around them.
Then at church today, we were able to listen to a few testimonies from some youth, who shared their experiences of the weekend, which of course, they did a great job. Then to top it off the senior primary (ages 8-11) sang this great song, singing all 13 articles of faith. How many of us even know all 13 articles of faith? Those kids new each and every word.
There is definate strength and inspiration in this rising generation and I have felt so blessed to be a part of it this past weekend.

Forgot

All that rambling and I forgot to add in the highlight/funny for the day. As I mentioned, we've only had 4 1/2 days of sunshine in June. Yesterday was the 1/2 day. My visiting teacher came over with her little 3 year old boy. Since the sun was actually shining we sat outside and visited while the kids played. The little boy comes over to his mom and says mom every time I go over there (he points to a spot that is in the sun not the shade) something get's really hot on the top of my head and it hurts - translation - he could feel the sun beating down on his head and he had no idea what it was. HA HA!

Also yesterday, the boys were out playing and had a couple of friends over. They managed to catch a snake (just a garden snake) that lives in the bushes in our front yard (lovely) and also a small frog. They put them in the same container and watched the snake eat the frog. I think that's terrible he was such a cute little frog, but of course they thought it was so cool.
Life is a barrel of entertainment with boys!

Update

I'm sorry I've been so neglectful lately (it seems I've been apologizing about that a lot lately). It's been an interesting and hectic past couple of weeks. We finally finished up baseball. As busy as it makes our lives, I'm always sad to see it end. There is just something rewarding about watching them learn and develop and then put that action on the field. Of course, I have a ton of pictures and I will add those later. They each had a season full of good and bad. Ben's team lost every game except their very last one. That made the taste of victory even more sweet! Although, it was tough to watch them lose every game, Ben really grew a lot this season. For the first time since we've lived here, he had coaches that were very supportive of our "no games on Sunday" rule. They had him pitching, 1st base and the outfield, they really helped build his confidence and the other players on the team, which says a lot for a team with a losing record. The team was a young team, all the teams here play together for 2-3 years before they move up into the older groups. This team was the first year they were together, plus the ages of alot of the boys were younger. The coaches want to put together the same team and play together in the fall, if the do, come spring, they will be just fine. Luke's experience was the exact opposite, although they won most of their games. He had a coach with a temper who did not know how to build the team up in a positive way at all. Luke ended the season pretty frustrated. But we've done a lot of talking, and I think he'll be ok. He is supposed to be on the same team next year, and we'll make sure that doesn't happen. Josh had a great season. He is still at the level where everyone plays, everybody bats and they don't keep score. Most of the time he played 3rd base, he was the only kid who could actually make the long throw from 3rd to 1st. We had a lot of fun watching him this year.

School also finally ended, this past Friday and that has been so nice not have to deal with all of the running around that goes along with it. I'm not sure why the last couple of weeks of school have to be so busy, and this one wasn't any different.

Last but not least, Mike is making some changes with his job. He is going to start consulting on his own and also consult with his old advisor at MIT. It's pretty hectic right now, trying to figure everything out to make the transition, but he is really excited about this opportunity and we both feel it will be a better fit for us.

I'm off to youth conference for the weekend. Actually, I'll be there today and Mike tomorrow. We are all praying for no rain, since most of this will be outside. The sun has only shined 4 1/2 days the entire month of June and it's supposed to rain or be overcast pretty much the rest of the month. We are drowning here!

When I get back, I'll post my many pictures~

Happy Father's Day

I'm so thankful that I can pay tribute to my dad and tell him Happy Father's Day. I've always appreciated my dad, he's a favorite of mine. Dad you can always make me smile, if all else fails that little smile in your pocket works every time. You've always been there, even at 3am in Moscow. That evening I needed you so badly, I was so greatful that even on the other side of the world, I could find you. Your counsel and positive strength that you give is priceless. You're always the first person we call for help. Now since mom is gone, I appreciate you even more. All of us kids do, we value you and rely on you more everyday. Thank you for being that strong person so that we can. Thank you for being my dad, someone that I can be so proud of, and love so very much.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

I have thought more then once today, that I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such good men. My dad of course, my brothers and brother n laws - Marshall and Nate are both first time dad's for Fathers day today, my 3 amazing kids and of course Mike. He is such a wonderful husband, we have grown so much over the past year or so and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I truely do love the time that I get to spend with him. I'm thankful to have 3 boys that worship him and he feels the same in return. That is always such a joy and comfort to me.

Yesterday, we got to spend some family time together. Early Saturday morning, we threw the bikes in the car and drove to some near by bike trails. That's the first time the boys have done something like that in a long time. We rode about 4 miles, and they thought it was about the coolest thing they've ever done. They want to make it a Saturday morning tradition throughout the summer. That's a good possibility. They really enjoyed the time with Mike. It was nice to have so family time and to celebrate father's day a little early.

Luke wrote this poem for Mike

DADS!
by Luke B

Whenever I see some one playing with glee,
or feel the smooth fur on a suit.
When I smell coffee cake in the morning
or see his boots dirty and wet.

I think of a person
whose
cheerful,
happy,
loving,
smart,
and
kind,

My Dad!

Tonight, Jean joined us, for a great evening, we had a yummy dinner, with games, and wrestling.
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all!

A free evening

Tonight we finally had a free evening (which was very nice for a change) and to make it even better, it wasn't raining! The boys and of course my 4th son Max :-) spent the evening outside building this fort. I was impressed, it turned out pretty good!

A day at school

Today was such a great day. It was full of end of the school year events. Josh's class had someting called an "Authors Tea". They have each written and illustrated their own book over the past several months. Today the students read their books to all of the parents, which was then followed by a special breakfast. Josh's book was titled "Running Away" it was about some boys playing tag at recess, as they tried to get away and hide. He did a great job.


Here are some fun pictures of some of Josh's friends and his spectacular teacher, that were taken at the yummy breakfast afterwards.

After Josh's "Author's Tea" I went to Luke's class to watch them perform some short stories. For the past month or so, I've been helping the kids in his class get ready to perform these short little plays. This is something that his teacher does, to help their reading skills and also to help their oral presentation skills. I can't believe how much some of these kids improved in both of those areas, in just the past month. Luke's play was Henry and Mudge (mudge is a dog). They were hillarious. The girl in the picture is the dog (obviously) Luke was Henry. She made a great dog, they both really played their characters well and were able to really play to the audience. It was fun watching them everyone had a good laugh. Everyone in the class did really well.

Moving

Spring brings lot's of move outs in our ward. One of the families moving is our old Bishop's family. I love their family, especially, one of their daughter's which is one of my young women girls. I will miss her and her family a lot, we all will. Bejing is a lucky place.

Betsy's reception

Today I got to go to another LaPierre reception (that makes 3 this year, or I guess you could say 7 down, 3 more to go). Betsy was one of my young women girls when I live here before. I so enjoyed getting to know her then and just love her dearly now. She is a beautiful person inside and out. Her and her hubby, Tanner were married in Salt Lake, and make such a great couple. I wish all of the family could have made it to the reception but there were too many other things going on all at the same time, so Mike and I had to divide and conquer. Luke and I had a date and off we went to the reception, while Mike took care of the rest. It's alway good to go back to the old stomping grounds, and today wasn't any different.

We love you Betsy and Tanner, congratulations!

Don't you just love that smile!

Look at what we found in the yard today

LOVELY

Ben's Spring Concert

The end of school year is near, with that brings baseballs, book readings, spring concerts, class parties, field day, field trips and the list goes on and on. This past week has been full of events, one being Ben's spring concert. He has really come a long way this year, he and the band. They played one song during the concert, that they played at the winter concert. It was amazing the difference in sound. They had also added in several extra parts. It was great to hear them.

City Year

Last Saturday was a day packed full of events. Our youth in our stake, were involved in a major service project with youth all over MA. On our way to start our excitinig day I got a text message from my brother Marshall that he and Melissa had their first baby Katherine Ann Beeson - 6lbs 8 oz. I was so excited I about got myself in a wreck on the way into Boston! Mom and baby are doing great. From the pictures she is a darling baby, we can't wait to see her in July.




The organization that we worked with for this service project is called City Year. We were joined by 1,200 other youth. We were divided up into groups and were sent to different places throughout Boston. We had 160 youth from our stake and were sent to a building called the Round House. This building is like project housing. The inside halls hadn't been painted in more then 10 years. So we divided our youth in smaller groups, gave each group a floor and painted all 18 floors of the building. The halls were circle, with the apartments on the outside of the hall, which means the hallways had no circulation and it was a hot day. That was tough, but the youth worked so hard, I was so proud of them. They taped, painted edges, painted walls, did all of the touch up painting, and even cleaned up their mess. For the exception of the nice beautiful, nicely, painted walls, you would have never known we were there! They worked so hard they finished an hour earlier then expected. So many of the tenants were so appreciative of their work. It was a great experience.

Afterwords, everyone came back to our house for a pool party. We BBQ'd, played football, swam, had smores and just relaxed.

It was the PERFECT ending to a PERFECT Day!

Field trip

Friday I went on a field trip with Josh and his class. We went to a conservation place and checked out the birds, snakes, bugs, worms, plants etc. It was all cool stuff, the draw back is that it was POURING RAIN and a little on the cool side (the high for the day 58 degrees)! I went on this same field trip with Luke a couple of years ago and had perfect weather. I think we walked/hiked for a good mile but this time was the abreviated version. We did see lot's of cool of stuff, for example did you know there are poison ivy vines? They grow up trees and even when it looks dead if you touch it you can still get it's poison.

Although, it was cold and wet. Josh and I had a great day together and I'm glad I could go.

It was a beautiful place!

Memorial day BBQ

I'm afraid to say that last week kind of got away from me, which means the blog got put on the back burner. So here are some over due pictures.

Mike's mom came out to be here when Mike was ordained a Bishop, conviently that was also memorial day weekend, so the kids and Mike had the day off. Mike took the day getting the pool ready (that's actually the first day off -from church, baseball etc -he's had in weeks, it was nice to have him home, I must say) We ended the day with the first dip in the pool, the temp was a nice warm 70 degrees. FREEZING! The boys found a toad in the yard and tried really hard to get him to jump in for a swim (the toad was to smart for them). Grandma cooked us her yummy, yummy famous ribs along with corn on the cob for dinner. It was a PERFECT day!