Palmer Choir Trip to Charlotte, NC

Josh and I were a little nervous to send Palmer on the trip his choir group was going on to Charlotte, North Carolina  Luckily, the buddies that he has in the group are good kids so we felt a little better about it.  

 Notice all of the girls in this group...to say Palmer has a few fans would be an understatement.  Every time I would pick him up from choir there was a gaggle of girls around and some of them 8th graders!  I wasn't sure what I thought of that...

 The went to something called Festival in the Park.  They competed against other schools from the south who had chosen to come at an elementary near an amusement park called Carowinds.  After the competition they went to the park.  They ended up taking first place, which they were thrilled about.  Mrs. Grizzle his choir director is so talented and has good things for their chorus groups this year.

 The kids Palmer hung out with (including a girl from our ward and her mom, which I was thrilled about).

 The "Dab". Taking the country by storm (I will be glad when we are done with it...)

 Sad to say it rained a lot while they were at the amusement park, but I think they still had fun.

It's crazy to see Palmer growing up and I am grateful for his desire to do as much as possible.  He's turning into a well rounded kid.  He isn't doing choir next year, which I'm disappinted about, but I am sure he will fill the year up with lots of other things.  He really has had a great experience in chorus and chamber choir this year.  

Atlanta Zoo

 Our library system has a great program here where you can watch a video on the zoo and then get 4 free tickets to visit the zoo (we only had to buy one extra because Lincoln wasn't there).  I put our name on the wait list when we first moved here and two years later...we finally got to go to the zoo.  Oh well, totally worth the wait to get in for free!

 These three look like they are going to break into a dance number any minute.

 Cooling off in the mud.  

 Snakes like this always remind me of Harry Potter. 

 Giant pandas.  We were pretty excited to see these guys since it's not very common to see them even in the zoo.  We saw some in the zoo in Seattle, but the boys were little then and didn't remember it.  Too bad they were so tired (the pandas not the boys).  

 Farm animals.

 This bird was so cute!

 Hunter is always trying to get rides.

 He was pretty successful on this outing.  

 Bald eagle.  I'm always amazed whenever I see one.  I'd love to see one in the wild.

 Lots of people gettin' rides.

I sure love being with these people.  We missed Lincoln though!

Lincoln's Arrow of Light

 Our ward always does such fun things for Arrow of Light ceremonies.  Up until we moved here I had only ever seen a Native American type ceremony.  Palmer had a Thanksgiving one (it was around Thanksgiving) and Lincoln's had different game stations and things Lincoln had to do.  It was really neat.  Fun fact, in Palmer's ceremony the guy above's wife wore that same turkey headband.  

 At the beginning of the ceremony Hunter got an award too.

 Begin the ceremony

 Lincoln has some good buddies in our ward and he got his Arrow of Light with three other boys: Austin, Yoshi and Liam.

 Love my boy

 All of the scouts and their families were divided up into four teams and we all followed our Arrow of Light scout around.

 This game everyone had to get a partner and carry a balloon between their heads around some cones.

 The dads wanted to get into it. 

 Lincoln was blindfolded and rode this bike following peoples voices around a basketball court.  I wish I remembered why...

 Everyone had to make a basket.

 Scavenger Hunt.  Ours was the first team done with all of the stations.  

 Officially an Arrow scout!  Way to go Link!

 Going over the bridge to 11 year old scouts.  We are so proud of our sweet Lincoln!

I have been so grateful for the scout leaders in our ward.  They do such a good job!