12/01/2008
Another year has come and gone and our holidays can't start until I get the annual letter together to share with our family and friends! Much has happened in the last year, but I'll try to imit the beding of ears (or eyes) to a minimum! As a familly we have seen a lot of personal changes and growth amoung us, to be expected with the passing of time!
Everyone in the household is now in DOUBLE DIGITS! Kason just turned 10, Kaine is almost 12 and we will just let your imagination play with Reb and I's ages!! We are now rightly classified as middle aged I guess. We are in the tug-a-war between Elementary and Middle School; chasing Kaine from ball practice to games, and then catching Kason in between swimmng and student council activities. YES, Kaine is now in 6th grade and entering a whole new level of boy to manhood activities. He has a passion for football and currently loves playing for the North Park Wildcats Basket Ball team. He is still the runt on the court, but he makes up for it in aggressiveness and intensity. Jr. High was a tough transistion, but he's finally got the hang of balancing the books and sports. He is a great student and is working hard to have straight A's so he can go to Japan on a 4H Exchange program.
Kason is having fun in 4th grade, although he's found the work a little more intense than his liking. He works hard at it though and made Honarable Mention 1st quarter so we are very proud of him. He started palying the violin/fiddle this fall as well and has picked it up quikly from sound. He still swims on the swim team and was also elected Student Council Vice President. He has plenty to occupy his time when not in the classroom. He is quite the socail butterfuly and is a source of entertainment for anyone around. He and Cyrus (his best friend) have plans at becoming Mountain Men and have put their heads together on building forts, whittling spears and mastering archery!
Both Kaine and Kason still love hunting, fishing and dirt biking. They took a trip to South Dakota with Dad last winter and brought home a load of pheasant that has been enjoyed since. They still are in 4H and added the Wildlife project to their list of things to do this year. They also did 4H Cooking, Shooting Sports, Exchange Club, Judging and Livestock Club. Both had a good fair coming home with another year of experience under their belts and lots of ribbons. Some of their highlights from fair were Kasons' Champion Muffins, Reserve Champion Wildlife project, Reserve Champion Meat Rabbits, 4th in Hog Carcass & Reserve Champ Middle Weight Hog. Kaine won Champion Cookies, Grand in the Cracass Contest with his Hog and placed 9th in Carcass with his steer. He earned his NRA shotgun patch in Shooting Sports as well. Steers are always a huge project we weren't sure of undertaking again this year, but we're committed now after buying 3 at the sale this fall. 4H dows consume our life but the boys have found time to have fun outside the 4 H arena as well. They love to bowl in Jr. League, compete on the swim team and both played Little League this summer. Kaine & Kason were nominated to All Stars and Kaine was selected. It was an exciting time!!
OUTSIDE of the Busy Brown Boys schedules, we manage to maintain a happy medium with work and our families. Reb & the boys built an Ice Fishing CONDO last winter and spent many a blustery day on the lake reeling em' in! The boys absolutely loved it. Reb also spent part of the winter rebuilding his Jeep CJ5. Other tidbits from 2008 include celebrating my Grandfather Cliff's 93rd birthday last spring and we are happy to say how wonderful is is doing. We also welcomed a new member into OUR family. We hosted an exchange student, Shingo Tanimoto, a 12 year-old-boy from Kanagawa, Japan. He was a wonderful addition to the family who spent a month with us in August. I am sure he went home with LOTS of stories to tell! While he was here he traveled far more than I thnk he ever has! He was lucky enough to take part in COUSIN CAMP 2008; road tripped through Wyoming to pick up Tyler and Ashley, then again to my Cousin Heathers' wedding near Greybull, WY; We spent a morning in Billings, MT, then went to Cody, WY taking in the Buffalo Bill Museum; went wading in Newcomb Creek on the Chance Cattle Company Ranch; Attended the opera; Rode in a Hot Air Balloon; Tubed the Yampa River; Went camping and fishing; Hiked to Big Creek Falls... and that really just touches the surface because we still had everyday life to contend with here (4H, football practice, chores, etc...)
Other happenings were our Family Camp Out at Line Creek; Lots of celebratorial parties for birthdays and anniversaries; a quick family vacation to Rapid City, SD Kaine graduated 5th grade into Middle School with a luau AND finally helping my sister Jodie and her family move to North Park!! That has perhaps been the best part of the last year for us. Other big family news are the future additions of babies in 2009... 2 coming from my "Pittington Cousins" and 1 from my baby sister Jen! The news of Jen's new baby was announced on Thnaksgiving and as you can imagine, I was elated to find out because it should be due around MY birthday! The most difficult part of our year was the sudden loss of Reb's Grandmother Bakki whom was a young 84! Life will never be the same without her and our boys are so blessed to have had her in their lives. She taught us many virtues of life and we know her presence will always be with us in some way!
In June we changed business around a little by selling our truck and buying more logging equipment, so Jodie and Alan along with their girls moved to Walden and became partners in our logging operation. Brown and Son's is now... REBAL Logging, INC.! We have loved having them here and personally I don't know how I managed without Jodie near! About a week after she got here, I had surgery (Jodie was my nurse maid and co-Mom), then we were gone for a week taking care of Bakki's arrangement (their family took care of our life from feeding to business)... then it was cousin camp (a huge joint effort with 8 kids and 10 days of fun)! It was a whirlwind of a summer for sure! The girls are here in school and it is great to have more sousins around. Now we just need to persuade Jen... OH Christopher:) :) :)
As you can see I never do have a dull moment... hence the name of my blog! We truly enjoy raising our boys and watching them grow into such wonderful little men. Of course we are never free of the trials that go with raising children, but I have to say I am truly blessed to have such wonderful boys that don't offer my TOO MANT pains. Somewhere I squeeze in time to still work on my photography and continue to grow that buisness. I am working with a publisher on a coffee table book on the Grandeur of North Park so maybe by NEXT winter I'll have it ready. I continue to volunteer with 4H and serve on the school board as well. The School Board has went through a complete overhaul and I really feel we are going in a great direction with positive leadership! I just returned from a 4 day State Conference and have been reenergized with the passion of education and the importance of life long learning! I had the opportunity to meet the Commissioner of Education, Dwight Jones, and was asked to work on a State Committee regarding Forward Thinking in Education. What an honor and challange! I can't wait! I continue to enjoy my scrapping hobby and have picked up learning to quilt, but haven't had the time I'd like to indulge since summer, so needless to say I am dreadfully behind! I also continue bowling on ladies league and love the camaraderie I find with my bowling ladies.
Reb is not bowling this winter, but is serving on the Fair Board, which has been an exciting challange for him. He is a great assett to that team. Work keeps him busy and he enjoys working wtih Alan and hey have appreciated a drier than normal fall! Last spring he hung new drywall in the dinig room and porch, then textured it and put new wood flooring throughout the living room and porch here recently. Work on this old house is never ending, and we hope to next summer put an addition off the back to expand the kichen and include another bathroom and bedroom. At some point our boys will decide they can no longer bunk together and it is coming sooner than we think!! He hopes to take the boys deer hunting yet this winter and will be going back to South Dakota for another pheasant hunting trip around the New Year.
Thanks for lending your eyes to another addition of our lengthy family letter. Keep up with us here on our blog and check out our scrapbook as well. That is if I can keep up!! Enjoy the simple things than mean so much this holiday seaon!!
May you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2009!!
Always~ Reb, Jamie, Kaine & Kason
Comments