Star for Life (not on your Life), going on 39

Today is the day I brag on my son. He is great. Sometimes a little cranky, but what pre-teen isn't, right? (Or any of us, for that matter.)

Bryce is a Boy Scout, and a very determined one at that. He is 12 (and a half, that part is very important for this brag post). He is a very determined Boy Scout. So this is already very confusing. This post has 2 parts to it. It is most definitely all about Bryce, but I'll just get right to it. First off, Bryce had a court of honor on June 1st, and was awarded his Life rank, which he earned on April 27th. That makes him eligible to earn his Eagle Scout rank as early as October 27, 2011. (Eligible, is the key word.) He could quite possible pull it off! Now the 12 and 1/2 part that I told you was so important... Bryce won't turn 13 until December. So, if he does pull off earning his Eagle at his eligibility date, he will EARN (I am a firm believer the term earn, versus given... another rant for another day) his Eagle Scout Rank before he turns 13. So early you ask??? (You are not the first...) We'll get to that in a bit.

Second. Bryce also EARNED 16 more merit badges. This brings his total up to 39 now. (A Boy Scout only needs 21 to be eligible for Eagle.) Bryce has put in A LOT of hard work for each of these merit badges. He has earned 3 with his troop and all the rest on his own. He has not been to scout camp yet. Bryce has set the goal for himself to earn all of the merit badges that are currently offered. Right now he can earn 130, so we'll see where he is at when he turns 18. So that kind of brings me back why would he want to get his Eagle so young? If he can get his Eagle when he is still 12, AND he stays active in his troop until he is 18 (among other things), then he would be eligible to earn 20 Eagle Palms. There is a time requirement for each Eagle Palm, thus the time crunch. At this point he seems committed, we just have to keep him on the right path, so we'll see how long it lasts!

This is a list of the Merit Badges that Bryce has earned so far (in the order that he has earned them):

First Aid*
Swimming*
Tracking (2010 only)
Pathfinding (2010 only)
Cycling*
Music
Communications*
Signaling (2010 only)
Carpentry (2010 only
Lifesaving*
Law
Family Life*
Personal Management*
Fingerprinting
Electricity
Citizenship in the Nation*
Reading
Leatherwork
Basketry
Snow Sports
Aviation
Insect Study
Space Exploration
Scholarship
Sports
Computers
Genealogy
Citizenship in the Community*
Citizenship in the World*
Astronomy
Salesmanship
Golf
Soil and Water Conservation
Environmental Science*
Oceanography
Automotive Maintenance
Art
Coin Collecting
Public Health

With all of that out of the way, he has a few more merit badges that are in the completion stages and then he'll be taking a break for a while. Bryce has 3 more required MB's that he has to do before he can qualify for Eagle (one almost finished, one that he'll be doing in July, and one that he won't finish up until after Scout Camp). Right now he is focusing on his Eagle Project which he is in the final stages of approval on. He is a great kid with lots of ambition. Way to go Bryce!

Here is a picture from the Court of Honor:

3rd Annual Super-Duper-Cooper-Looper Marathon

On Saturday May 28th, 2011, we had the 3rd annual Super-Duper-Cooper-Looper Half Marathon. What a smashing success! Thanks to everyone who helped out this year. We had a great time, and thanks to everyone who came out and participated. We had 54 recorded finishers. Great job everyone. A special thanks to Doug and Connie Asay who came out just to help, and Dave Burton to helped with the aid stations as well. We couldn't have done it without your help! Now, I only have one picture to post, sorry! That is what happens when I participate. It is of the wisest of the bunch who finished (way to go Grandma!) and one of the youngest (almost), great job as well, Chase!

I am not going to take the time to sort the times by first to last, so just scan down the list to find your number (if you remember it) and your time. Just remember, these were bikers, walkers, and runners mixed in. Next year I'll try to keep track of who did what.

301 Oakli Burton 1:49:08
302 Chase Burton 2:00:15
303 Bryce Burton 1:16:54
304 Ambri Burton 1:29:55
305 Kari Burton 1:48::45
306 Mike Dedera 1:55:55
307 Jodi Dedera 1:29:58
308 Maddi Dedera 1:23:55
309 Mya Dedera 1:28:58
310 Danny Dedera 1:57:53
311 Angie Dedera 1:29:13
312 Josiah Dedera 1:24:00
313 Lilly Dedera 1:29:13
314 Steve Farrar 1:54:12
315 Kris Farrar 3:04:16
316 Kraig Farrar 1:42:25
317 Joe Phair 1:42:10
318 Katie McGowan 1:58:28
319 Kyle Latimer 1:39:10
320 Goldie Burton 2:00:23
321 Jamie Stover 3:26:51
322 Raine Morris 3:26:47
323 Debi Burton 2:15:43
324 Jamie Pierce 51:36
325 Cody Bush 1:16:50
326 Garrett Burton 1:17:03
327 Jenna Burton 1:29:46
328 Sam Burton 1:39:28
329 Kelly Merrill 2:11:08
330 Sarah Merrill 2:11:08
332 Maria Burton 1:39:28
334 Tom Burton 1:39:30
335 Nathan Tolman 1:40:22
336 Nick Tolman 1:17:06
337 Satina Tolman 2:10:19
338 Tatiana Tolman 1:40:22
339 TJ Hafner 51:36
340 Heather Clark 2:05:42
341 Jason Hawthorne 1:28:09
342 Angela Smith 2:07:07
343 Bethany Marteeny 1:29:54
344 Doug Marteeny 2:28:39
345 Hannah Marteeny 1:11:08
348 Allison Parmenter 3:04:17
349 Jennifer Madsen 2:06:28
350 Rachel Madsen 1:21:01
351 Larry Sykes 1:18:57
355 Teresa Gardner 2:17:21
356 Rob Simmons 55:22
357 Andrea Simmons 55:22
360 Crystal Sublett 1:57:32
361 Paul Tappana 1:27:57
364 Brady Tappana 1:32:57
365 Ryann Tappana 1:27:57

If I have made any typo-s or left anyone off the list, please, Please, PLEASE, let me know. The list was very long this year (a good thing) and I could have made any number of mistakes. Feel free to pass the good news along to everyone who is on the list so they can check out their good work! I'd be happy to post pictures as well, if you would like to email them to me as well.



This is the logo that Bryce designed for this year's race. It was also on all of the finisher's medals. He did the design this year for his Art Merit Badge that he successfully completed after the race was over. Bryce is a Boy Scout and is now working on his Eagle Project. Awesome job Bryce!




Great job everyone, and thanks for coming out. We'll see you next year!

2010

I definitely didn't blog much in 2010. I still blame it on the blog post a day for a whole month. (You can go back and find it if you are interested.) It pretty much killed me, but I did it. It was hard. But, here I am now. I don't really make resolutions, so don't expect me to say that I am going to blog more. If you see it, then you get it. BUT, I did figure I'd do a re-cap of the last half of the year (and maybe some stuff I missed) considering I didn't blog for the last half of the year. Don't expect any pictures at this point, that is asking a lot. Maybe I can update the sidebar pictures, what do you think about that idea? Maybe tomorrow. Maybe.

Where to start, I don't even know! I'll just jump in, so this may be a little random and crazy. I think I'll do list format, and then expound if I need to. That way my fingers (and sanity) will still be intact when I am finished, AND I'll still have a desire to do another post SOON.

Bryce - That kid, you just HAVE to love him! He is CRUISING through his scout stuff. He shot through Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, 1st Class, and is now sitting pretty at Star (but only for a little bit longer.) He has earned about 15 merit badges so far, and is not slowing down anytime soon. Okay, maybe he will once soccer starts again. Wait, it never stopped. (I was supposed to be doing list format.)
Excelling at Piano (still)
Turned 12 and ordained a Deacon
Outgrew ANOTHER suit
We FINALLY Painted his room. It is an awesome Red and Black, with silhouette images of him (and Chase) on the walls in soccer action shots. There are also some cool quotes and other things. I'll try to get pictures posted (as soon as they clean it up!)
6th grade now, and "afraid" of girls
Academic All Stars for Science (this means he got the highest score on his science test, IN THE WHOLE SCHOOL!)
Student of the term for academics. (Bryce is not at all "nerdy" though, he makes being smart, cool.) He has gotten a few of his friends interested in reading, and is working on the Reading Merit badge right now.

Ambri - She is still "Taylor Swift's Biggest Fan", and has every one of her songs on her iPod.
Turned 9 this year and started 4th grade
She loves school, and still wants to be a teacher, because of the great 3rd and 4th grade teachers that she has/had
Still doing soccer and piano
Student of the Term in June for Academics, which is very hard to do, because there are so many good students, and there are only 3 chosen for the whole school year!
Last year her "Rock Band" did a great recital in their music class. They Rocked! This inspired her to buy her own guitar and she is working on it again this year, with her awesome music teacher at school.

Chase - He had an awesome "Wings of Wonder" field trip at the end of Kindergarten, where they went to a Butterfly farm and saw all kinds of butterflies and got to go into the greenhouses where they fly around and live. Amazing!
Kindergarten graduation last year and thoroughly got into each and every song that they sang for the program. He has quite the personality.
Turned 6 over the summer and then started 1st grade.
Soccer
Chase is an amazing reader. He is challenged at school, and reads the scriptures very well.
He was Santa in his class play, and was hilarious!

Oakli - She also has been doing soccer. She turned 5 over the summer, got her shots, and zipped off to Kindergarten. She has waited for this day for SO long. She is loving every day of it, and she brings mom along with her 2 days a week to help out. She asks mom every day if she is coming to help out, just to see if she can talk Mom into coming a little extra.
Oakli was also student of the term, for the first term of Kindergarten. Way to go!

Doug - In June brought a new challenge for Doug, he was called to be the bishop of our ward. He has made some interesting changes, and we have been blessed as a family for all of our sacrifices.
We had a good wheat harvest this last year (17 acres) and then part of that land, Doug planted with more blueberries. The rest he put back into wheat for this coming year.
We made it through a strange flood in June, of all months, and the blueberry harvest was good, better than 2009, so that was a blessing.
Doug participated again, in the Newport Marathon in June, and finished again, just like he always does!
November took Doug and Kari to Santa Barbara where they did another marathon, hoping it would be warm. It was warmer than Oregon.
The summer found us at OMSI with Grandma and Grandpa Baxter, boating, water skiing (Ambri tried for the first time) Doug water skied with his own flag (hilarious, maybe I can figure out how to put the video up... you know when the skier goes down and you have someone hold the flag up? Doug skied with his own and held it up. So funny!) We also spent time camping, swimming, a little fishing, and time with cousins.

Halloween found us with 2 pirates, a rockstar, and a security guard. We had a wonderful Christmas that we got to spend with Grandma and Grandpa Baxter here for a whole week, what a surprise for us! All in all, we had a wonderful 2010! Here's to hoping for a great 2011.

January 6

Today is my sister's birthday. I don't know how to contact her, besides e-mail, sad I know. So I decided that I'd do a blog post to say "Happy Birthday". (Okay, I admit, I did wish her happy birthday on Facebook, but since I don't spend half of my life there, I don't consider that really counting, plus everyone else gets a reminder for it, so that is cheating.) Besides that, I don't know what else I am going to type about. I guess I'll see how far I get until I have a child come in and see "what I'm doing". (Sadly, I probably won't get far, but here's to hoping... maybe that's why I haven't blogged much lately.) Someone came in. Here's hoping for tomorrow.