Happy 8th Birthday Ethan!

It's really hard for me to believe, but I have an 8 year old.  This has been a much anticipated birthday and it seemed to suddenly sneak up on us.  Ethan really wanted a Lord of the Rings cake, but I have no imagination and I didn't plan far enough in advance, so he was kind enough to settle for Pirates of the Caribbean from Sams Club.

We had a whole crowd over for his birthday party.  Both sides of the family came over to help us celebrate and it was a lot of fun. 

 There were presents.

 We gave Ethan a camera.  He had wanted one and we had a gift card to RC Willey from our big house purchases last year, so we got him a nice little pocket sized camera.  In retrospect we probably should have gotten him a Flip camera since he mainly wants to use it to make videos.

 My parents gave him a laser tag game.  After a somewhat iffy start, it has been a hit.

 Brian manned the grill to provide everyone with eats.

 On Ethan's actual birthday we gave him his scout shirt and book.

 He was so eager to start scouts and has loved interacting with the other boys in the ward.  At the end of July he got to go to Cub Country and he was just in heaven.  One day they went to Fort Cub Frontier and the next day they went to Galaxy Quest.  His favorite parts were shooting the bee bee gun and archery.  I can't believe we have a scout in the family now.  One more thing to add on to my list of things to remember each week.  For years I've been able to get by without using a calendar, but I think those days might be behind me.  It seems like there's something going on pretty much every day of the week anymore.

Happy Birthday Ethan!  We love having you in our family and you are a great example to all of us.  We love you!