It's all about Connor

 It's been a fun and busy couple of months for Connor.  Swim started up in November.  He had about a meet a week.  It was a great season for him, despite getting pretty nervous before each swim.  One meet, he had to run throw up right before he started.
                                    

Despite that, he found he had a talent for butterfly he didn't know he had and set some personal bests in the 50, 100, and especially 200 freestyle.  Best of all, he qualified to go to State.

 High school sports are all about the friends and Con has made some good ones. The two boys in this photo, Curtis and Anzl are good friends of his and Seniors.  He will miss them next year.

 Early in January, Connor got asked to the Sweethearts Dance.  The door bell rang and he found this on our doorstep.

He opened it to find all this shredded paper.

Luckily, she left a clue that we needed to find the blue.  It still took forever.  After we found the letters, we had a hard time figuring out her name.  It's surprising how many names you can make. 

 If she hadn't sent him a friend request on Facebook, we might still be looking.  Connor didn't know this girl, so he was pretty nervous about the date.

 Of course, he had a good time and got to know some new people.  For the day date, they went to a gym and played basketball and volleyball and ate pizza.  She picked him back up at 4:30 for pictures and I didn't see them again until 11:30.

 I guess one of the mom's made dinner for the group and they just hung out and talked until the dance.

                                                                           The guys.

Last, in January Connor was chosen as student of the month at Skyview.  We got to go to a nice catered lunch and his got this sweet certificate plus an envelope of coupons for some free lunches.  I guess he was nominated by a teacher and also the faculty all votes on the nominees.  What a good kid.(More sweet swim hair)

Chase + Eagle=Yahoo!!

 Back in May, one of Chase's buddies got his eagle.  It was the 100th anniversary of the Eagle scout in 2012, so they got a special patch.  Chase decided he was going to get it this year.  He had a project in mind, he wanted to gather white shirts to send to Vanuatu, where Nanie and Pop are on a mission.  The people are very poor and need shirts.  The scout committee nixed the idea, not sure why, but something about it benefiting only one group, not a community. Whatever.  Chase lost most of his steam then, but on Dec. 15 we did the Eagle project, painting a bathroom at a community center.

 These fine young men, showed up to help.  It wasn't a glamorous project, but it did need to be done.  Chase did a great job of organizing it.  He applied for and got a Lowe's card to cover the cost of the supplies.

 This would never have happened it not for help from a lot of people along the way.  Mike is the one who really pushed at the end and helped Chase set the date for the project.

                                . He had his border review Dec. 29 to officially become an Eagle in 2012, barely

                           His court of honor was Jan. 29th.  Notice Connor's sweet swim hair.

 Chase gave one mentor pin to our neighbor and his scout leader, Garth Mikesell, for helping plan and fill out his packet.

 Presentation of the Mom and Dad pins.  Mike gave the life history or cool things about Chase talk.

 Chase gave another mentor pen to our neighbor and scouter extraordinaire, Jeff Barnes.  Jeff helped us with the project, the Lowe's card, and getting the paperwork done quickly.

                                                  Connor gave him the Eagle Charge

                   Here' s the cake the ward bought.  John was another kid who received his eagle that night.

Proud family.  I'm grateful for the scouting program and what it does for my boys, but honestly what this Eagle means to me is:  I'm done!!!!!  No more worrying about scouting.!  Seriously I'm very proud of Chase, he did most of this on his own, with just guidance from adult leader.  Way to go!