Mission Post #6--May/June/July

So here's another installment in the life of the North Carolina Temporal Affairs missionaries, complete with some missionary stuff AND family stuff. It's definitely all good.
May 15 was a red-letter day in the Bosley family when Will was baptized. He is such a sweet boy and lots of fun. We surely do love him!
Here he is afterwards with his mom (Maren) and dad (Andrew). (Have I ever mentioned Andrew's website? You can see his work at http://andrewbosley.blogspot.com/. Check out his iPhone app--The Brainstormer--very cool.)

It's such a blessing to be so near family, and get to attend special events with them. Maren's boys had a piano recital and here's Hyde playing his piece. Both boys did a super job. I think it's in the genes.

Two little cousins, Nate (Maren's youngest) and McKenna (Casey's youngest) share a birthday on May 30, so both families came out to the camp for the weekend to celebrate the birthdays and Memorial Day. Our little cottage is way too small for that many people, so we did our eating down in the lodge, and for sleeping--Casey and Tim's family slept in one of the cabins, Maren and her littlest ones slept on our sofa, and Andrew and the boys slept in a tent out in back. All in all it was a VERY fun weekend.

Here's Will posting the breakfast menu for us.

After breakfast, the dads took the kids canoeing. Here's Tim with McKenna, Livie, Hyde, and Alexa.

Then the parents decided that they needed to have a race.

For a while, I thought Maren and Andrew had it in the bag, but in the end,
it was Tim and Casey who came in first.

When it came to the big dinner, Tim, of course, was our appointed chef--Old Settlers Beans, and barbecued ribs in his own sauce were the main event. YUM!!! After this, we were all so busy eating that I didn't take any more pictures.

One day in July--(have I mentioned how hot and humid the summers are in North Carolina?)--I left Stan to hold down the fort at the camp, and went with Maren to take her kids to the beach (a little over an hour away). I hadn't been to the beach on the east coast, so this was a treat for me. One nice thing was that it wasn't very crowded--unlike the beaches in California. Then, when we got there, I was expecting that nice cool ocean breeze, and what a surprise when it wasn't there. Will and Hyde had a great time. Will proved to be the "ocean dare-devil" and kept trying to go out a little too far.Maren spent her time chasing after the kids while I sat on the chair,

took pictures, and guarded our belongings.

That same day at the camp, Grandpa took Ivy for a ride on the tractor.
She finally decided it was more fun than scary.

Just so I don't give the impression that it's all play and no work around here, I thought I should throw in some camp "stuff." Here's the typical burn pile. Nobody comes around and collects this kind of "organic waste," so we just have to burn it. Actually it's really quite handy to have a pile to toss stuff onto when you're out raking, etc.
And here's my typical summer job. Mow, mow, mow. Actually, it's pretty fun. We even got a new mower that goes on the back and works better than the one in this picture. However, this one's great when you want to go back in the trees and clear out the undergrowth. (They don't let me do that, though--too dangerous they say.)

We got a brand new fence across the road from my house which I love.
I didn't realize how much nicer it was going to make things look.

Isn't that nice? If you look closely, you can see our little white cottage
through the trees right in the center of the picture.

I just had to throw in a picture of a member of our resident lizard family that lives by our door. Here's he/she is on the front step--such a vivid green and never frightened.
We have a little storage shed out in back, and in July, Stan put siding on it, and it really made a HUGE difference in how it looks. Now it matches the cottage.

Here's the step-by-step process.

Looking good.

For some reason or other, I neglected to take a picture of the finished product. So here's one I took in December after a snow storm. Gotta love the red door. Stan told me I'd have to paint it myself, so I did. Keep in mind--the roof isn't white--that's snow.