Eagle Scout!

We had Mitchell's Eagle Court of Honor on the first of February. I feel bad that it took so long to have it. He actually had his board of review back in October. But life has been so busy, it took a while to get it on the calendar. Mitchell's good friend Jake got his the same night. It was so nice to see them share this night together! They have been in scouting together since we moved here 8 years ago. They got their arrow of light awards together, went to Catalina scout camp together and worked their tails off at Philmont scout camp together. Good job guys!!

pinewood derby 2004

arrow of light (We miss Brother Lefevre!)

We had a really nice program. Bishop Hodson said some nice things, Bishop Lords spoke about becoming an Eagle and what that means. Then we had a fun slide show of the boys. Mitchell was a cute little boy! I can't believe he is all grown up! Becoming an Eagle scout is a huge deal. Mitchell worked so hard for this! I am so proud of him!

Mitchell and Jake

The Eagles and their Momma's

The Whitings gave us some great decorations

Mitchell pinning on the mothers pin

The proud parents!

Mitchell gave his mentor pin to Jeff Vance. Jeff was Mitchell's scout master his first few years of scouts. He is a great guy! The boys call him Ffej.

Brother Thorley reading the Eagle Pledge

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Mitchell and Jake cutting the cake...

Grandma and Grandpa Westra made it!

My 2 scouts. Now we need to get Tanner going on his!

So many of their friends came! It was great.
Caroline, Sara, Kristen, Kenny, Michelle, Mitchell, Jake, Karli, Christina, Alex, Chad and Cielia

Great Job Mitchell!!!!!!!

Scorpions Volleyball

Mitchell played on the Scorpions club volleyball team this season. His high school coach decided to start his own team this year and begged Mitchell to join the team. We felt bad that we had a hard time getting to all of the tournaments. I hated missing them, but they were all down in Anaheim during December! We finally made it to the last one. It was lots of fun.

I wish I had taken a better picture of the arena. There are probably 50 volleyball courts in the  warehouse and they are all divided by these nets. It was pretty amazing!

Team huddle. Go scorpions!

Mitchell ready for the serve

Mitchell

Mitchell is the setter

Showing his teammates the next play

The tournament didn't start off too good. I think they lost every match. Coach wasn't very happy!

We had the team down for dinner on Sunday evening. I think the home cooked meal helped the team! They won all of their matches on Monday. It was nice to end on a positive streak.

About half of the team is from Bonanza and the other boys go to Las Vegas High School.

Silly shot

We did make it back to the beach each day to see this!

I am excited that high school volleyball season starts in a few weeks!

Happy Birthday Tanner!

My baby boy turned 14 on the 13th of January! How could that be??? 

We were lucky to be in California for Mitchell's volleyball tournament. The Jarman's let us stay in their beach house for the weekend, it was so beautiful! So we went to dinner at his favorite  place, Ruby's on the pier in Oceanside. It was very strange just having the 3 of us! We miss Ashley and Mitchell was with the team in Anaheim.

We went back to the beach house and opened presents.

We got a kite and the wind was dead all weekend. bummer.

Mitchell got him nerf gun

Happy boy!

I wasn't texting, I was taking pictures!

New skate gloves

I searched all over for this taco bell seasoning he wanted and didn't like it when he tasted it!

new wheels for his long board.

Thanks for being such a fun loving boy! I can't believe you are getting so old!

Date with my boy

On January 6th Tanner and I went to see Nathan Burton at the Flamingo. We had a fun mother son date! Surprisingly we had never been to the Flamingo. We enjoyed walking around the flamingo habitat for a while.

Cute Tanner

The fish were huge!!!

The comedy/magic show was good. He was a pretty good magician! We had some good laughs and left wondering how in the world he did a few things!! Thanks for a fun date Tanner!

Mitchell's City Council Award

Mitchell was the service project co-chair with his friend Michelle for youth conference this year. They worked really hard on planning it. They met with our councilwoman Lois Tarkanian a few months before youth conference and asked her if their was a project in the city that the youth could tackle. She told them about a park that needed some fixing up. So Mitchell and Michelle headed up the service committee's in our stake and the Red Rock stake to get the job done. The project was huge! The Red Rock kids went and got things prepped on Friday night and our stake went to work on Saturday. (This was back in October!) Well, Lois Tarkanian was just shocked to see all that the youth did! She was so happy! On December 21st She and Mayor Goodman recognized the youth conference chairs and the service committee chairs and several other stake leaders at a city council meeting in December. It was pretty cool. She showed a video of some of the work that was done and gave them all certificate of appreciation. My friend Linda wrote about the service project here.

Mitchell shaking council members hands and about to shake Mayor Goodman's hand.

Lois Tarkanian explaining all the work that was done!

The 2 Stake Presidents and the youth conference chairs

President Schlauder said a few words. He is so inspiring. It was wonderful! I always feel the spirit when he speaks. 

Dillon, Karli and Mitchell (Michelle had to work)

Councilwoman Tarkanian and all the stake leaders and business men that made donations to get the job done.

Dillon, Mitch and Karli with Lois Tarkanian

It was a pretty exciting day! We are very proud of Mitchell and the hard work that he did for this great activity!