Wow, I have a 12 yr old! Well, almost. Robert technically doesn't turn 12 until Monday. There are a few special birthdays - 8 (baptism), 12 (priesthood/MIA), 16 (dating/driving), 18 (moving out!!!) - days that really need to be commemorated. So, with that in mind, I asked Robert what he would like to do. He decided that to make this birthday really special, he needed to have a few friends over to eat junk and play video games (since I was envisioning theme parks I was more than happy to accomodate him). So, Byron has taken the younger boys to his parent's house to work on the bug and play with Grandma and Grandpa and we have become pre-teen party central! Here is the motley crew ...
I knew that the boys would be playing the Wii for most, if not all of the night. What I did not expect was that the most fun would be found using the Wii Fit - something we got for Christmas. I had the boys take a break so that I could show my friend Sherri some of the Fit features and the boys just got into it. I never new just how uncoordinated pre-teen boy hips could be ... it was truly hilarious!
And they really got into cheering for eachother - they even had fun trying to see who could sit still the longest - that is actually part of the video game.
The slumber party deal was that they could stay up until the first argument - which occured about 2am. After that, I they had typically disgusting boy issues involving flatulation, etc., until I finally shut down the party out of self-defense. So, the house got quiet about 3:30am and stayed that way until 7am when Ginny (who slept through it all beautifully) jumped up to play.
And they really got into cheering for eachother - they even had fun trying to see who could sit still the longest - that is actually part of the video game. The slumber party deal was that they could stay up until the first argument - which occured about 2am. After that, I they had typically disgusting boy issues involving flatulation, etc., until I finally shut down the party out of self-defense. So, the house got quiet about 3:30am and stayed that way until 7am when Ginny (who slept through it all beautifully) jumped up to play.Other than video games, about 11pm, we heard an animal rattling the side gate of the fence and we all went out en masse to check it out. There was a full moon, but of course, the gate was in shadow of the house on the side with no windows, so we couldn't really see, but it was obvious that an animal was caught somehow in the fence. Since I didn't have a strong enough light to see what was actually happening, I made the boys go back into the house and waited for morning to see what was happening (I honestly thought a rabbit or a squirrel had been caught by a predator who had been startled by us and would be back to finish their meal ... ewww). This morning, I found that a small grey fox had somehow managed to run its head through the chain link on the gate and, of course, could not get back out. I can't begin to imagine how fast it had to have been running to actually accomplish this! 
Now, I know I am a city girl because I called all over the place to find out what to do with it (animal control, the sherriff, fish & game). Finally a friend who works for BLM come over to see what he could do ... he had the idea of wrapping the fox's body in a towel and pulling it out and then quickly jumping on the fence so that when it inevitably attacked he might possibly avoid getting bit (remember that I was supposed to hold the gate this entire time). Then we tried to find someone who had some time of equipment to put it to sleep so we could work its head through the gate without getting mauled. We finally found a neighbor who works for one of the county's departments dealing with wild animals who told us to put the poor thing out of its misery and then knock it back through with a shovel (wasn't THAT an attractive image). So Dylan went home and got his .22 and came back. I had to admit that even though I have butchered lots of deer and elk, I have never actually shot a living animal ("Wuss" was the word Papa used and he is, as usual, quite correct). So, Dylan did the actual shooting. We thought it was a sad waste since the animal wasn't really hurting anyone, but it definitely turned out to be the best thing after all because we broke every one of its neck bones trying to get its head back out of the gate - an experience to remember. As a side note, other than to check out the fox when we first found it this morning, the boys didn't miss a video game beat.
Now, I know I am a city girl because I called all over the place to find out what to do with it (animal control, the sherriff, fish & game). Finally a friend who works for BLM come over to see what he could do ... he had the idea of wrapping the fox's body in a towel and pulling it out and then quickly jumping on the fence so that when it inevitably attacked he might possibly avoid getting bit (remember that I was supposed to hold the gate this entire time). Then we tried to find someone who had some time of equipment to put it to sleep so we could work its head through the gate without getting mauled. We finally found a neighbor who works for one of the county's departments dealing with wild animals who told us to put the poor thing out of its misery and then knock it back through with a shovel (wasn't THAT an attractive image). So Dylan went home and got his .22 and came back. I had to admit that even though I have butchered lots of deer and elk, I have never actually shot a living animal ("Wuss" was the word Papa used and he is, as usual, quite correct). So, Dylan did the actual shooting. We thought it was a sad waste since the animal wasn't really hurting anyone, but it definitely turned out to be the best thing after all because we broke every one of its neck bones trying to get its head back out of the gate - an experience to remember. As a side note, other than to check out the fox when we first found it this morning, the boys didn't miss a video game beat.
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