Clark is 16!

You might think this has to be the last trip of the summer, but nope.  There is more to come!  I love summer.  I love traveling.  I love seeing family.  That keeps us on the go a lot! We kept busy the whole summer and had fun celebrating Clark's 16th birthday!

Before the birthday stuff.....Cal managed to squeeze in his Eagle Board of Review between all the craziness and his poison ivy bout.  But he did it!  He is now an Eagle Scout!

Cal and Lee with Len Aamodt.  Len has been such a great asset and help to us with our boys receiving their eagles.  He loves scouting and is so willing to help, and very knowledgeable! 

We went to Cook Out to celebrate.  We loved the "Its our Pleasure to Serve You? CAL"

Haley still having fun in the kitchen and coloring frosting!  I heard her say recently that she has the buttercream frosting recipe memorized.  Ha ha, love it!

One weekend Lois went up to look for housing since they moved closer to where Jeff's residency will be, and we hung out with her boys.

Actually some of these pictures might be from when we were on Trek.  Either way, fun cousin times in the summer!

Cub Scout hike

We took a trip over to West Virginia so Shanna could see her new best friend from Young Women's camp-Courtlyn.  Funny enough we found out that Kinzley, one of trek daughters, is Courtlyn's sister!  It's a cute pool in Franklin.

We helped out one morning at the Blessed Sacrament church in Harrisonburg.  They have a lunch every Thursday for whomever wants to come.  Usually those who are homeless or struggling financially come in.  Our ward provided the lunch this particular Thursday.  We will do this again in December.

I was hoping the kids could help me, but they didn't allow them out in the dining hall because of some of the people that come in. So Shanna, Haley and Elden hung out in the back stairwell right by the kitchen.
So

We have a fun summer reading program here with lots of treats and incentives!  Like free ice cream!

This ice cream place, Smiley's, is located on a dairy farm. The kids like to go see the animals after.  If you go at the right time you can watch the milking as well.

Oh, and Clark, Cal and Reed were at scout camp this whole time.

We went to Family Night at Camp Shenandoah.  Their last scout camp.  Kind of sad.

Reed started the stuff of Legends.  One day at lunch Reed told Cal a made up story.  Part of it was this guy saying "Hey kid, want to share a Nesquick?"  Well, that phrase caught on and spread through camp.  Cal shared it whenever he could.  He had fun playing Yahtzee as well with his homemade dice.  He and Reed even played it in the middle of the road during a 5k run.  Yep, they finished last. 

We had fun seeing the family program.

I think the boys enjoyed scout camp.  Cal was the senior patrol leader and Clark got to help also.

As soon as scout camp was over we hit the road and went skiing for Clark's birthday at Smith Mountain Lake. The Petersons and Brandon Mantell joined us.  I need to find some pictures of Clark blowing out his candles!  Not sure where those are....  But the big 16!  Such a fun birthday.  He will get to drive this fall, which is soooo exciting.  We love you Clark!

Cal playing Yahtzee with Christian.

We also rented a jet ski which was amazing and crazy!  I didn't bring my phone with me, so not many photos...

Happy birthday Clark!!!

Before we left the marina we had cupcakes and then later at a park we sang Happy Birthday to Clark and he blew out candles and opened presents.  For dinner we ate a Five Guys.  We were worn out, but it was a great day.  Happy Birthday Clark!  16 will be a great year for you.

Bartholomew Family Reunion

Another whirlwind of a trip.  Saturday afternoon we arrived home from Trek, then Sunday after church we headed to Tennessee for a family reunion. It's been fun working with the sister missionaries and doing visits.  We recently lost our sister missionaries due to the lack of work in our ward and due to the mission getting much bigger, but with fewer missionaries available.

We had a good drive down to Gaitlinburg area.  I'm glad we can get there on one tank of gas!  We stopped at Stephanie's condo that she rented.  We met up there to celebrate Jame's 3rd birthday.

I love seeing all the cousins playing together.

Sadly, right before Jame's birthday party Stephanie found out that the Relief Society secretary in her ward was killed, and her twin girls.  Stephanie is a counselor in Relief Society so worked with her quite a bit.  I had just met her a couple weeks beforehand.  After church that Sunday she was on her way home after church with her twins, when a semi driver wasn't paying attention to a slow down in a construction zone, and smashed into her car, making it explore basically, and them dying almost instantly.  Her husband was a church for his temple recommend interview.  What a tragedy. 

Sunday night we stayed at Cosby Campground.  We had breakfast the next morning then went to a place to play at the campground then to a visitor center for a little hike.  Sadly the kids were swinging on a vine by a tree at the campground. There was poison ivy and Cal, Elden and Haley all got a bad case of it.

I love that Lillie likes hanging out with Lee.

The little hike was to Cataract Falls!  How appropriate, haha.

Then we went to the cabin for the reunion!

We enjoyed walking around, checking out the space and hanging out.  It took way too long to figure out the bedroom situation. 

The first full and only full day we had the lovely hubbub of family photos!

Everyone was there except Lizzy and Jeff.

All the grandkids with parents assisting some with sad kids.

More activities and games!

 

Love this game--Jokers and Pegs. 

The views were great.

I loved catching up with people and visiting. 

We left very early the next morning so Lee could work at his office.  So we didn't stay up super late that night.  We had a great time with family.  Thanks Sam for arranging all of this and for all the food!  He was in charge of the reunion and put in a lot of work for it.  I love being with my family!