Eagle Court of Honor and Mother's Day!

 It's crazy how much has happened since Cade's birthday! Here's the TL:DR version

• Cade got his permit and has quickly gotten comfortable behind the wheel
• I'm on all three antibiotics and haven't noticed any big difference in my health except the addition of frequent migraines... time will tell, right?
• Dan and I are fully vaccinated!
• We have been fighting the EFMP offices to get medical approval to go to Japan for two months now and finally got word that Japan is a no-go. It's looking like El Paso might be the new place we will live, but we have to get the same medical approval we needed for Japan. Just twiddling our thumbs and waiting while time passes and gets closer to when we're supposed to move without being able to do anything about it.
• I was able to go with a dear friend to the temple for her first time attending, and my first time going back since Covid! What a wonderful experience.
• We finally had Cade's Eagle Court of Honor, combined with the two boys who did their projects at the same place and within a few weeks of each other. 
• My mom and brother came out to visit for the Court of Honor and it just so happened to coincide with Mother's Day!
• Alex continues to fuel his creative endeavors by baking, teaching the deacons perler beads, and even creating another board game at school. 
• Cade applied, interviewed and got hired for his first job! He works part-time at Marcos Pizza!

Now for pictures of most of these things! :)

Sorting hat cupcakes for a combined YM/YW activity. Inside each one is a different color of frosting to determine which house you've been sorted into

After a rough day (and let's not kid ourselves, there's been a lot of those lately), Dan took the boys to pick some beautiful wildflowers for me :)

Here's alex with his latest creation- Power Chess. Yes, you can play regular chess with this, but you can also select some power-ups and roll for a chance to use them against your opponent. It's really clever and fun! He used the idea for a class project and was selected to have his 3D printed! He had to design all the pieces and power-ups so they would work with a 3D printer and for actual gameplay. 

Grandma Kathy and Uncle Kevin came to visit for the weekend of the Court of Honor and for Mother's Day! Here's some pics of us hanging out and visiting the Riverwalk.

Trying out the Oculus Quest 2- Kevin is currently dancing with a robot :)

We took them to our favorite taco place in town! 

Riverwalk pictures- we did a riverboat cruise, a little souvenir shopping and ate some Ben and Jerry's!

My mom just loved these carriages all lit up for the evening!

For Mother's Day, Alex got up and made us a wonderful French Toast Breakfast. The boys wrote me some really nice notes and found me a new bath pillow. For my Mom, us siblings pitched in and got her a digital picture frame so she can always see what we're up to! <3

Happy Mother's Day!

And now for the big event we've all waited for over a year for. We were originally planning on doing the Court of Honor in late March 2020, but had to cancel for obvious reasons. With our move quickly approaching we wanted to make sure these boys could do their Court of Honor together. 

It was a wonderful program put together mostly by Sam Spear, and led by Gamble Monney. The boys were officially given their Eagle certificates, were able to give pins to their mentors, were awarded military coins, and then were able to join the eagle's nest with others who had earned the Eagle Projects. As a special treat the had a live Golden Eagle for the boys to take pictures with, and even some eagle scout cookies made by Maggie Teruya- so awesome and delicious!

Cade in front of his table that displayed his time through scouts

My small addition to the awesome ceremony was to put together a power point about all three eagle scout projects

The boys all looking at their military coins!

The Eagle's nest before the boys joined

Getting advice from all the members of the Eagle's nest as they joined.

Now the Eagle's nest was complete!

Now for the pinning! I put a ribbon on Cade, then he was able to pin me, Dan, my mom and his mentor Brother Monney. We won't mention how Cade dropped the back of my pin down my shirt.... lol

The stake presented the boys with some awesome name plaques as well!

And you of course need pictures with friends!

What a momentous occasion to celebrate the hard work of these boys and all who helped them get to this point. AND it was great that things in the Covid world allowed for such a great ceremony as well. (And thanks to the Zimmermans for lending us a scout shirt since Cade had grown over a foot since his eagle project!)