Sailing at Lake Shasta

We decided to take a sailing trip for the 4th of July weekend. We left Wednesday morning to drive to the lake....a lake. The lake we drove to on Wednesday was not the lake we spent our weekend on. The original plan was to go sailing on Lake Almanor, and that's where we drove. When we got there, it was extremely smoky. Some of us were pretty disgusted about that, and they wouldn't allow us to leave our car there overnight. That was kind of a problem since we'd be staying three nights. So Dad decided we'd try Lake Shasta instead, and that worked out great. We got everything all set up, and Ben and Andrea came and met up with us Thursday night. We had some great sailing on Friday and just had fun swimming in the Lake. It was a blast!

Probably what was the most entertaining part of the trip was the big tanker airplane that was fighting the fires near the lake. It was a huge airplane! It held two acre feet of water. We would watch it make trips back and forth all day. It was so fascinating that just about every time it came by someone would get out the camera. Consequently we have way too many pictures of that airplane, but it was really cool.

It only took about three seconds for it to dump all of the water.

Encampment in Humbug Valley

In spite of everything being on fire in California, Ryan and Dad went on a scout trip this last week in Humbug Valley. The encampment was to be held Monday through Saturday, but Thursday afternoon they were evacuated from the camp due to all of the forest fires. They say they had a good time though, even with all of the smoke. Ryan said, "My favorite part of the encampment was the obstacle course they held at the end of the week." I heard something about army crawling through a few inches of dust on the ground. Yikes! I think they got pretty dirty.

Part of Troop 58 before they left on Monday

Morning flag ceremony

Since Ryan is not quite 14 yet, he was sort of the "senior deacon" if you will and led the deacon hike. I don't think they got to do their original hike because they were again restricted by the fires, but it all turned out okay.

Now Mom is extremely proud of this piece of work right here. This is no ordinary welcome home sign. She decided we should cover the whole sign in a cloud of smoke. She even broke out the water colors. Ben, you think it's funny right? You and Mom usually have the same kind of humor. :)

I asked Ryan for a quote about the encampment and he said, "It was a really good experience, and I learned a lot." I don't know how sincere he was, but I know he and Dad had a lot of fun!

Boat House Progress

Eighth Grade Graduation

Ryan graduated from eighth grade this morning. He's officially a freshman! The lei was given to him by a friend whose sister graduated from high school last night. Isn't he hot?!

Ryan receiving his certificate from the principal
Ryan and Brett
Julia, Ryan, Mom, and Dad

Mom's 50th Birthday Party!

Last night Mom celebrated her first half a century on earth with her two babies. We had the traditional Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner. Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Renee came, and we ate dinner in the backyard.

Photos by Dad

The "Boat House"

Well, it's finally happening. Dad's building his boat house. Now that it's started though, it seems like it's going really quickly. I think Mom's still in shock about the whole thing. The boat can come and go and move around, but the boat house is here to stay. It'll take some getting used to. My Dad's really excited though, so that makes everyone excited. He comes home everyday and goes out and inspects the work to make sure they did it right. I asked him the other day, "Dad, what are you going to do if the boat doesn't fit?", but the question was just meant as a joke. Of course the boat will fit! Everything in that building will work perfectly because my dad designed it, and he's a genius! I can't wait until it's finished!

I think Ryan goes out pretty much everyday to inspect the scaffolding.

Julia at the NSCIF Finals May 23rd, 2008

Runners take your mark. . . get set. . . (gun!)
Julia takes off in lane 6 for the open 400.
She ran a lightning 200 split. Pictured above second runner from left.
(above) Rounding the final turn in fourth place.
Julia was the only person from her high school to qualify in three events. Pictured below she receives handoff for her second leg of the 4x100 relay. The team took second place overall.