Officially Licensed

It's official.  Nathan has his driver's license.  He took his test Friday morning and he guesses he did fine - the lady never said a word to him!  He is very excited and has already gotten the scary "first drive alone" over with.  He survived.  And so did the car.  :)

We enjoyed a visit from Grammy.  She took Grace birthday shopping Friday morning.  Grace was very gracious and invited everyone to come along with her as she picked out her pocket knife.  Nathan went shopping with Grammy in the afternoon.  No one else was allowed to come as he looked for new "cool" clothes. :)

We celebrated Grace's birthday dinner tonight - "hot wings", broccoli and cheese sauce, roasted potatoes, and caramelized brussel sprouts. yummm.  Tomorrow we head to the fair.  Pictures to follow...

Officially Licensed!!

Nathan's 16!

Oh Boy!  Today is Nathan's 16th birthday!  Hard to believe my "little" boy is growing up.   I think he had an enjoyable day, other than the fact that he found out he had to take a midterm for his C programming class.  But he scored a 100%, so he is fine. :)  He enjoyed his requested dinner - fried shrimp, broccoli (okay, I pushed the broccoli), potatoes, and warm bread.  For dessert he had an oreo ice cream cake with hot fudge and cherries.

Next week, DMV for license! :)

We measured Nathan tonight and it's official - he's just shy of 6'3".  I had to stand on a chair to measure him!

Had more pictures on the camera, so enjoy!

This was taken as a joke when Danielle was sending naughty messages about boys. :)

Joy Anna brought Daddy her shoes and asked him to put them on. I don't think this is what she had in mind.

Once she got them on her own feet she was happy. :)

JJ-PIG's decided to play "sub" at the submarine museum.

Look, we are a submarine!

Here was a really cool and rare site - a submarine coming back to port!

The tugs push the sub into the pier.  Not sure I would want to be one of the guys standing on deck if the tug bumped hard.

JJ-PIG's

"cheese"

Nathan notices the color of the balloons...:)

Birthday Boy

Nathan wants to post this card from Grandma Wight. :)

Joy Anna climbed into Nathan's lap to help open his cards.

Nathan's gift from Danielle

Isaac's fair entry - Captain America shield

Nathan's shrimp dinner

Isaac decided Danielle would want a picture of Troy. :)

Up In the Air...

Nathan is getting to fly this week...a LOT! :)

He is enjoying his missionary aviation camp, Brigade Air, and the flight time that accompanies it.  This has been the most relaxed camp he has been to, and he seems to be enjoying the change of pace!  We will pick him up Friday afternoon and can't wait to hear all about it.

The kids and I drove down to Waxhaw (3 hours south west) Sunday after church.  We stayed with our missionary friends, the Gaynier's (who were at our house the previous weekend).  The kids had a blast - horses in the backyard, chickens, a trampoline, and, best of all, an above-ground pool!  The horses belong to the next-door neighbor, but they were stampeding around the fence that runs along the back of the Gaynier's property.  Unfortunately I did not have the camera with me when we went down to see what had them riled up, and they were not in a photogenic mood when I returned with the camera. :(  One of the horses had the most striking eyes - they were a crystal clear blue!  I wish I could have captured it on film.  Oh well.  Now I know why Danielle wears her camera wherever she goes...

An unexpected blessing came from this whirlwind trip.  The route to the Gaynier's took us RIGHT by another friend of ours  - the Gaskins!  So we dropped in on the Gaskins for lunch on the way home Monday.  It was a short, but fun visit.

Here are some pictures:

Pool fun!  From left: Promise's head, Rachel, Grace G., Grace W., Isaac G., Joshua, Isaac W.

Rachel, Joshua, and Promise  

Doing tricks off the slide was a huge hit!  From bottom to top: Rachel, Grace W., Isaac G., Promise, Isaac W., Isaiah, Joseph, Stephan

Flying Grace

How many kids can you fit in an above-ground pool...

Nathan's hair does the funniest thing when it is buzzed - he gets these lines!  It is all cut even, and no amount of going back over it with the clippers will get rid of them.

Raccoon eyes from goggles.

Joy Anna liked the hose, and balancing down the steps of the deck. 

Sand box fun

The horses were right at the tree line.

Chickens

Another flying Grace.  Love the curls!

Joy Anna found a box.

She decided to put herself into it.

And close up the sides.

All ready to be shipped!

Disappointment

Sometimes life doesn't work out quite the way we plan.  Such was the case for Nathan this weekend.

He left very early Sunday morning for Command and Control School (CCOC) - a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) week long camp with the Air Force Special Forces.  To even be considered as an applicant for this camp, he had to pass a tough physical fitness exam.  He passed.

However, after being accepted to CCOC and reading through the recommended work out regime (5-6 days a week, 1-2 hours per day) to prepare him for the week, he realized that his way of doing some of the exercises were not the special forces way.  So Andy took it upon himself to train Nathan, and train they did!

Nathan made phenomenal strides - from not even being able to really swim the length of the pool, to being able to complete 6 laps in less than 6 minutes!  He went from only being able to do one pull-up, to being able to do six!

Alas, all the training was not quite enough.  When he got to CCOC, the very first thing he had to do was pass the physical fitness test.  And unfortunately, he couldn't quite squeeze out the required number of special forces push ups.  Rats.  Double rats.  All the rest of us were so bummed for him when Nathan called to tell us we needed to pick him up.  The disappointment is huge.  But he is holding his head up and hanging in there.  We are very proud of his effort and fortitude. And he is already planning on what he will do to excel next year at CCOC.  That's my boy.

Another crazy weekend at the Wilson House.  We had our good friends, the Gaynier's, stay with us.  They are currently serving as missionaries with Wycliff Bible Translators in Waxhaw, NC, at the JAARS base.  The funny thing when our two families get together is figuring out who is being called when someone is called.  We both have Danielle's, Isaac Jame's (yes, even the same middle name!), Grace's, and Nathan's (Nathan Andrew, none the less!).  We joke about which names of one another we can use whenever either family grows again! :)  It was fun.  And even more fun, we get to crash on their house next week when we take Nathan down to JAARS for his week long camp with missionary aviators.  He is looking forward to lots of flight time, while the rest of the kids are looking forward to playing with their friends!

Well, it's official.  Danielle takes too many pictures.  She has managed to fill up all the free space allotted for photos with blogspot.  So, we now have to pay in order to continue adding pictures.  The temptation to say forget it is huge, but I know too many folks love her blogs, especially for the photos.  So, it looks like we've got to pay to continue posting her wonderful pictures.  If I can't post photos with this post, they will be on the next one.

The temperatures have been in the high 90's, with 70% + humidity, making the heat index into the 100's, so the kids found indoor activities to keep them busy.  Here is an intense game of Apples to Apples going.  From left to right are: Rachel, Promise, Isaiah, Isaac and Isaac.

Grace and Nathan Andrew

Book worms - Grace, Joseph and Stephen

Nathan ironing his uniform pants.  Can you tell he has bulked up?

Andy trying to teach Joshua how to play Battleship.  As Joshua doesn't yet know his numbers or letters, it was a losing battle (pun intended).

Grace and Isaac coloring

Not a flattering pose, but you can kind of see how buff Nathan's arms are getting.

Wazzup July?

Hey Guys, wazzup?

This is Nathan, finally taking over Danielle’s blog. Last week I went to TeenPact Judicial (TPJ) and had tons of fun and no sleep! TPJ is basically a week long Moot Court training and competition event. Cramming in around 8 hours of classroom instruction a day, the staff forced us students to work insanely hard to write our cases in the little free time provided as well as worshiping God and exercising. However, the week was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. The work load pushed me to my mental limit while the ice skating, Ultimate Frisbee, and snowboarding breaks allowed me to hangout with tons of AWESOME people. As mom previously posted I took 3rd in the oral Moot Court competition, as well as in the written brief. Though exhilarating, the competition was only one of the minor perks during the whole event. 

The best part of the week consisted of getting the whole TPJ family on the ice and playing Ultimate Frisbee. The rules were almost exactly the same as normal Ultimate, however, you had to be going side to side to catch the Frisbee and couldn't glide forward with it on your skates. Our group started a new sports tradition which I hope will be preserved by all future camps of Teenpacters. 

Another awesome part of the week was all the fantastic friends I met. When I first arrived I observed many different, random teenagers milling all over the place. When I left I recognized a group close knit friends with their own lives and hobbies dispersing all across the US; Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Chicago, and even Hawaii. We forged some amazing friendships strengthened through all-nighters and shared pranks. During the competition I found myself just as happy when I lost and my friend won, as I did when the situation was turned. The greatest trophy I took home from the competition was a shirt, with all the signatures and nicknames of my new friends, representing the special bond we possessed.

Well that's a recap of my week. Below are some pictures of a watermelon seed spitting competition organized by our amazing Grammy. The winner happened to be the only kid in the house over 6 feet tall.

Joshua spitting seeds

Grace taking air

Random neighbors Grammy invited over

The Amazing Grammy

Peanut taking a spit

The lineup

Not all frogs are found in Grammy's ponds

My beautiful Sister Joy Anna

Joy Anna preferred eating to spitting