My Eagle Scout

Okay, so now it is time for the proud Mama to brag , just a little. Drew is now officially an Eagle Scout!!!!!! Last summer, Drew came to Karl and me and told us that he wanted to be an Eagle Scout. I have never pushed him with scouting and he has always just gone along. So we went to the Scoutmaster and found out what he needed to do be an Eagle Scout and Drew has spent the last year working really hard to complete this task. His project was to make a trail guide for the Luzerne County Conservation Districts Natural Habitat, and to stain the pavilion they have on the property.
Drew has had some wonderful examples through his scouting career. Karl has always gone on campouts and enjoys going to summer camp with the scouts, Gunnar was an Eagle Scout and always has had wisdom and help to share with Drew, and my Grandpa Bennett (Drew's Great Grandfather) was also an Eagle Scout and even though he only had daughters stayed active in scouting for many, many years. Drew is the first of my Grandpa Bennett's Grandsons to get his Eagle Badge so even though Grandpa is gone I am sure he was smiling down on Drew. Below is a small portion of the memorabilia that Gunnar and Grandpa have from Scouting.

Attending the Drew's Court of Honor were many of his Aunts and Uncles, as well as, Many of his grandparents. (Grammie, Grandpa Gunnar, Great Grandma B, Grandpa Pitcavage, Nana, Grandma Lynn, and Grandpa Pollock)

Here is the whole troop getting ready for the Court of Honor to start.

Scoutmaster Bill Roberts started out with Drew in Cub Scouts and has moved up with the boys over the years.
Wouldn't be a church event without cake.

Drew relaxing and visiting with everyone afterwards.

So now I have an Eagle Scout and I can sit back and relax or not I still have Steven who is in Cub Scouts, and I am Committee Chairperson for the Scout Troop. So I will only slow down a little with Scouting. Congratulations Drew, Mom and Dad and very proud of you!!!!!

Catch Up

Okay, Okay me bad, I know it has been a while since I have added to my blog, so please excuse the large amount of pictures that I have included in this blog. The week before school started we made a day trip to Ocean Grove, New Jersey. The trip takes about 3 hours, but the family needed beach time and I just like Salmon I needed to go back to the beach to relax and prepare for a new school year. All the kids came plus my niece Wanda, my great niece Tenley, and Mark's girlfriend Amber came with us. We met Mom and Gunnar there and had a wonderful day. We ate at our favorite restaurant (Nagel's), walked around the stores, went to the beach, walked around some more and ended our visit with ice cream. Yummy!!!

The next week the kids started school, this year Drew is a Senior, Mark is a Sophomore, Luke is still in a Life Skills Class, Katy is in 6th grade, Steven is in 4th grade, and Becca is in 2nd grade.

Over Labor Day Weekend a new addition joined our family. Shayla is now 10 weeks old and has fit in wonderfully. The other cats adjusted to her within a day and even Cody likes her. She weighs only 2 pounds and is full of energy and keeps the other cats hopping.



So that is a quick overview of the last few weeks in the Dymond's home. Enjoy!!

The Dymond Family's Busy Summer

This summer has been very busy for the Dymond family. New babies being born, parties, swimming, and just being lazy. School starts again in just a few weeks and I am trying to remember where the time went. It is the same every summer, when school ends I say to myself, 13 weeks with the kids home, what will I do and now I wonder WHAT did we do and WHERE did the time go.

Over the last few months Karl's brothers and their wives have welcomed 1 nephew and 2 nieces into the family. (We have one more on the way in October!) So now I'm going to brag just a little about the new little sweeties. Eddie and Lynn had Sam in April, John and Valerie had Sage in May, and Mike and Jaime had Emma in June (Jim and Liz will be having a baby in October). The whole family (all seven siblings) were together for Emma's Christening in July. The pictures below are from that party. Karl is helping Tenley stay cool in the pool and Katy was teaching Lilly to swim.

Okay, how do you know when your kids are staring to get bored and ready to go back to school.....They start doing strange things. One day the kids were bored and getting rowdy, so I told them to get the camera and take some pictures of themselves. They went off happy that Mom was letting them play with the camera. They had a fun afternoon, but didn't show me the pictures they took. The next day I looked to see what they had been taking and this is what I found......

After I was done shaking my head and laughing. I thought, "I can't wait to put these on my blog!!! Aren't the little rodents/rugrats creative.

This summer we also had to cancel any plans that we had for going on vacation, because Karl works for the state of Pennsylvania and had been told that they were not expecting a budget to pass, but state employees still had to work and they would get paid once a budget passed. So we decided to stay close to home this year and do stuff around here. I have been calling this summer the "Summer of Movies" since so many movies were coming out and we wanted to see them all, that is what we have been doing. We have also made several trips to Knoebels Amusement Park this summer.

If you live in Pennsylvania and have never been to Knoebels you are missing out on a great time. Parking is free, there is no park admission fee, and you only pay for the rides you go on. Mom and Gunnar come last week for several days and we were able to finally take them to Knoebels and they LOVED IT!!! Here are pictures from our time there last week:

In the van on the way to the park

Mark and his Girlfriend Amber



Steven was finally old enough and big enough to ride some of the bigger rides with Katy. This is after he rode the Phoenix, one of the top wooden roller coaster in the nation. Karl was the lucky one to go on the rides with the kids. Becca even went on the flume for the first time. Later she told me that Daddy must have been scared because he was holding her so tight. For years Steven has wanted to go the Skloosh, but Karl and I didn't want to get wet, so he couldn't get on it. This trip Katy took him on it and boy did he get wet!!

Fun was had by all. Mark even bought a hermit crab while we were there.

In two weeks the kids go back to school and another school year will be here.