Scouts hike Antietam

Jason writes:

In my new callilng as Varsity Coach, I've got a great opportunity to work not only with my boys, but with their friends in Scouting.

Last weekend I took the Scouts to Antietam National Battlefield (hailed in previous posts as one of my favorite spots in the world) for a hike and campout. Two weekends ago the weather was gorgeous: 70 degrees, sunny, light breeze. The weekend of our hike, however, was not so much: 48 degrees, cloudy, cold and windy.

Our group (minus photographer) at the cornfield,
site of some of the fiercest fighting of the battle.
Yes, it is as cold as it looks.

But we still had a great trip. We hiked the entire battlefield, tracing the battle's timeline as we walked across fields, over hills, and through valleys over the course of 10 miles. There were very few visitors (most likely because of the cold), so we basically had the park to ourselves for most of our trip. That allowed time and quiet space for us to consider all that had happened on that hallowed ground: brothers fighting alongside brothers; so much noise and smoke and commotion and confusion; and ultimately, so much bloodshed and death. We also considered how those soldiers must have kept themselves together, relying on each other as they hiked from battle to battle, just as we all rely on each other in our day-to-day lives.

I had a great time hiking with Colin and Carson and all the boys, and sharing stories of not only the history, but their stories of everyday life.

Hiking across Burnside Bridge. I'm standing to take the photo where
Georgia marksmen stood firm to hold back Union advances across the creek.

After a long day on the trail, we were able to camp on the battlefield, right next to Antietam Creek. It was a great location -- very quiet, and beautiful despite the cold. We ate great, and all in all it was a good trip. It's a real blessing to have so much history be so accessible and real. I believe we'll have more photos of neat trips in the future.




The boys -- Colin second from left, Carson far right.



Dylan’s FBI Car

Jason writes:

Over the last several years, the boys and I have enjoyed the annual rite of the pinewood derby. Over the years we’ve developed a process for creating our designs, and the boys have been able to do more and more of the work.

In the early days I told them we can make the car fast, or we can make it look good, but we wouldn’t have time to do both. The boys always chose for it to look good, and their cars won some prizes as the "Scouts' favorite." And some years, we’ve been fast, too.

Last year was the first time we missed building a car. February is always so busy for me, with Simplot Games and everything else going on, and last year it just got away from us, so Dylan used the same car he’d built in Las Vegas when he was eight (it was a great car – Scouts’ choice, and runner up). It was the runner up in his new pack.

The last several months have been incredibly busy, so this year’s derby snuck up on me. I toyed with asking Dylan to forego another car. But before I could, Dylan asked me if we could build a car. So, yes, I told him we’d build it, but he needed to accept that we just didn’t have the time to do it right. He said he didn’t care, he just wanted to build one with me.

So on a Sunday afternoon, just nine days before the derby, we sketched out the plan that we’d create a car that looked like a killer whale. On Monday night we put our process to work in double-time. We drilled it for weights, cut it out, sanded it, and applied putty for the finish. That was for looks.

Dylan took charge of making it fast. Working on the drill press, he polished the axles until they had a smooth mirror finish, and sanded the wheels perfectly round.

I took the sanded block of wood with me that night to my hotel in Baltimore (I had all-day meetings on Tuesday) and primed it on the hotel’s bathroom floor (I used a complimentary copy of USA Today to protect the floor). On Wednesday morning Dylan and I hopped on a plane to Idaho for Simplot Games. Inside Dylan’s carry on: Zip-Loc bags with his car (now in white primer), wheels, and axles. That night we drove to the Pocatello Home Depot and purchased black spray paint and masking tape.

It wasn’t until late Friday night, (after two days and almost 30 hours of work at the Games), that we were finally able to apply the paint in Yvonne’s parents’ garage. We worked fast, because it was well below freezing – but the finish was smooth and glossy. Back on the airplane the following Monday, Dylan securely and carefully placed the dry car in his carry-on. The pinewood derby was the very next day.

So d-day (derby day) Tuesday, I got home from work early so we could place the wheels and axles on the car. Thirty minutes later we were off to derby with no test run, no pre-weigh-in, nothing. I told Dylan again not to be too disappointed if it wasn’t fast, and to be happy because it looked great.

At the derby we finally weighed it: too heavy. To add a little drama, I couldn’t get the weight out of the car. Borrowing a knife, I was able to pry out the extra 0.4 ounces and narrowly avoid snapping off the back end of the whale. The second time on the scale, we were on the money.

Dylan and his friends were wrapped up in the excitement of the derby as the races started. On the fourth heat, Dylan’s car finally got on the track. Yvonne and I watched nervously. He had worked so hard and been so patient, we didn’t want him to feel a let-down if it was too slow.

The cars were off, and Dylan’s edged forward on the slope. A promising sign. Then it hit the flat portion of the track…and it exploded to the finish line, winning by more than three feet. Dylan turned around and looked at us like “where did that come from?”

And so it went for three more races, Dylan’s car winning by three or four feet every time, going away. I was asked how we made it so fast. I said I didn’t know. Dads were carefully examining the car to find our secret, but there wasn’t one. Dylan worked hard to contain his enthusiasm, but he couldn’t hide his smile as he accepted awards (and a box of candy) for the “killer car”, the fastest car, and, yep, Scouts’ favorite.

 

I was proud – but not of the car. I was proud of Dylan. He was so patient, and so flexible, and so surprised that we pulled it of.

Finally, the headline – Dylan’s FBI car. We needed to come up with a name, and FBI just made sense, because it was built and assembled in Frederick, Baltimore, and Idaho. Perfect.

Back on the grid: the long lost Bohne Christmas letter

Yikes! We haven't posted since October. Let's just say that it's been a crazy, crazy, crazy several months. So we'll work on catching up on some things. First things first -- our Christmas letter.

December 2010 February 2011

This isn’t our first time being late. Sometimes we have great excuses: stuck in traffic, weather delayed our airplane, one of the boys can’t find his church socks…things of that nature.

And sometimes we’re just plain late, with no excuses; we lost track of the time, forgot where we were supposed to be, or became absorbed in a rerun of The Office.

In either case, we apologize for being late and try to do better next time. So, we’re sorry this “Christmas” letter is so late. We appreciate the cards and letters and e-mails we received over the holidays, and always appreciate hearing from our family and friends. We’ll work on getting our 2011 letter done in 2011.

To catch up, 2010 was a crazy year for us – even by our typically busy standards. We are making the most of our time in Maryland (a year and a half already). We’ve found a favorite museum (the Newseum), battlefield (Antietam), and place to hang out (downtown Frederick) – and have made multiple visits to each.

We had a nice Spring and Summer – after years of Las Vegas summers, we didn’t mind 95 degrees, even with humidity. Winter was, well, winter. The boys enjoyed shoveling the driveway during our first few storms, but by the time “Snowmageddon” and it's 50+ inches of the white stuff hit in February, they reached a unanimous verdict on shoveling snow: it sucks. Fortunately the winter of 2010-2011 has been fairly dry, although cold.

Spring was baseball season with five kids playing on five different teams – a year we’d been waiting for since Levi was born and we figured out the timing. Melissa played second for TJ High, earning all-district honorable mention honors and having a blast with her new teammates. Colin moved up to the big fields (90’ bases), Carson played majors, Dylan played minors, and Levi finally (finally!) got to play t-ball. It was a logistical challenge, but we enjoyed seeing everyone play well.

We watched two of our kids move on last year. Melissa (19) began her freshman year of college at Idaho State, while Levi began kindergarten. That was a one-two punch for Yvonne, but she recovered quickly. Melissa is doing well at college, enjoying her freshman year back in Pocatello, our home for six years in the 1990s. She made many great friends here and keeps in regular touch with them, and with us.

Melissa’s departure caused a real shift in our house – from “big sister rules” to a house of boys…plus mom. After returning from dropping off Mel at school, the change was evident at dinner. Yvonne looked around and said, “uh oh.” It’s fun adjusting to the new family dynamic. Melissa noticed, too, when she was home for Christmas.

Colin (14) has grown about half a foot since we moved, which has helped in basketball while stretching our clothing budget. He enjoys hanging out with his friends, attending regional dances, and playing guitar (along with late night Xbox Live sessions with his friends in the West).

Carson (13) is participating in Science Olympiad again at school after winning several medals at the state Olympiad at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is learning the piano and playing point guard for his hoops team, and has proven to be a strong leader in his Scout troop.

Dylan started drum lessons, learning the basics of the snare drum – he’s got rythym. We still laugh at his cool, calm demeanor. In one baseball game he entered the game to pitch with two outs, bases loaded, and his team winning by one. He only needed one pitch to end the game, then nonchalantly jogged off the field.

Levi is learning to read and loves going to school every day with his friends and learning to play the piano – then trying to squeeze in some time on the Xbox when he’s home. He continues to make us all laugh with his observations.

Besides the trauma of two kids hitting milestone school years, Yvonne has been doing well. She works with Primary-aged children at church, a position she really enjoys. She also plays piano regularly with the church choir and has been asked to play several special musical numbers.

She was able to join Jason on a couple work trips last year, a nice diversion for both of them. In May they went to Sun Valley, where they enjoyed cold mountain air and mountain biking. On the ride home on Mother’s Day, a United gate attendant heard that Yvonne was the mother of five children and upgraded Jason and Yvonne to First Class, a cool treat. Then in July they were able to spend several days in San Francisco following another work trip. It was cold, but they saw a performance of Peter Pan on the Embarcadero, ate at Jason’s favorite restaurants in the Bay Area, climbed Coit Tower, braved the trail to the Point Bonita Lighthouse, and more.

Jason’s hectic travel schedule continued, with around 25 trips to points across the U.S. in 2010. While being on the road is tiring, he enjoys taking photos and finding cool local restaurants on his travels, and occasionally take side trips to spend time with friends and family. He was able to coach Levi’s t-ball team, and is active with Colin and Carson in the Boy Scouts.

We’ve all managed several home-improvement projects, too. We’ve re-painted several rooms, re-done the basement (including hard-wiring for Internet and tiling the floor), kept up with the yard, and more. It’s taken some time, but we've done it together and the house now reflects our family's personality.

So that’s us for 2010. We hope your holiday was great, and we offer our best wishes for what’s left of 2011. If you are in the Washington, D.C., area, we hope you’ll look us up. We’ll always have room.

The Bohnes

Grandma and Grandpa come to Maryland

Inside Dunker Church at Antietam National Battlefield

Yvonne's parents, Merv and Leahmae Erickson, made their first trip east of the Mississippi to visit us earlier this month. They spent two weeks with us, and it flew by.

The kids really enjoyed having their grandparents around. For much of the two weeks they were here we had rainy fall weather, so we spent lots of time inside talking, showing off school projects, watching sports on television (plus some shows the boys had never heard of -- Little House on the Prarie?), and staying up late almost every night.

The boys even got patches sewn on their Scout uniforms (finally), thanks to Grandma, so they looked sharp at September's Court of Honor -- extra nice since Carson and Colin both received rank advancements, and Carson received an award for his leadership in the troop. 

We took a few drives in the rain to show off the area's scenery and history. They seemed to especially enjoy the rolling cornfields, and the dense green forests that made even the highways seem claustrophobic.

When it wasn't raining, it was gorgeous. Maryland does do fall really well. It was good baseball weather, and the grandparents caught their fill of games to see Colin and Carson play.

At Colin's game in Emmitsburg, Md.

We also were able to take them on our two favorite day trips.

The first day trip was to Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Md., site of the bloodiest single day on American soil (in September 17, 1862, a battle that resulted in more than 23,000 casualties) -- and then to historic Harpers Ferry, W.Va. We walked them through Antietam's Dunker Church and other significant areas of the battlefield, ending at Sunken Road -- site of the infamous "Bloody Lane."

Overlooking Sunken Road -- "Bloody Lane" -- at Antietam National Battlefield.

Levi had photo duties for Grandma at several locations.

We got to Harpers Ferry around dusk -- a great time to experience the historic town when it was mostly empty. We hiked up the Appalachian Trail to Jefferson Rock -- so named because Thomas Jefferson used to like to go there to think -- and we got there just in time to watch the sun set over the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.

Our second day trip was to Washington, D.C., for a driving tour of the monuments, and then a visit to our favorite museum, the Newseum and its fifth-story balcony with a great view of the U.S. Capitol. We ended that day with a visit to Five Guy's burgers -- a D.C. original that is now everywhere.

Yvonne and her parents at the Newseum, high above Pennsylvania Ave. in D.C.

We were sad to see them go home. It was great to have them around, whether we were just hanging out, watching baseball, or viewing the sites. We're hoping they find themselves in the East again soon.

Three boys, three birthdays

For us September, like most families with kids, is a crazy, busy month that ushers in a new school year, seasons starting to change, fall baseball, and all the other events that happen during the normal course of life.

To make our Septembers a bit more difficult, we add three birthdays -- Carson on the 5th (he turned 13), Colin on the 21st (14), and Levi on the 24th (6). Let's just say we had lots of cake this month, a few presents, and a really cool birthday party for Levi (although if you look at the photo of him and his friends, it's hard to tell that they had any fun).

As for Dylan...he gets November all to himself.

Brothers, Nine Years Later

Jason writes:

Colin, Carson, and I (and some others from our ward) went hiking yesterday, to Old Rag Peak, along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia. It was a gorgeous day -- and a tough climb. Overall, it was a lot of fun.

Our climb to the ridge rewarded us with spectacular views of Shenandoah National Park and rural Virginia. At one point, I had Colin and Carson stand together for a photo. As I did, my mind suddenly rushed back to more than nine years ago, May of 2001, when I took a similar photo on a trail near Mt. Charleston, outside of Las Vegas. So I positioned the boys for a shot reminiscent of earlier days...

A fresh school year

August 23 was a big day in our house -- all five kids had their first day of school (well, mostly, as we'll explain in a minute) -- including one beginning college and one beginning kindergarten. Talk about big changes.

Melissa, already in Idaho, started her freshman year of college with freshman orientation before a full week of classes (none before 9:30 a.m., though, so her sleep time isn't disrupted too much).


Colin and Carson are back in middle school (8th and 7th grade, respectively). We are fans of their school and it's pre-high school program. Colin is taking high school geometry, and Carson high school algebra.


They're also looking forward to their CCP (core curricular period -- time during the school year that they can explore other interests such as fossils, cross country, or extra tutoring).


Dylan is in fourth grade. No big deal (just ask him). He has a "man teacher," his first. He made a good group of friends last year, so he's happy to back with his buddies. He is hoping to be selected to the band so he can learn how to play drums.

And then there's Levi. As the youngest of five, he's been waiting for this moment to arrive for years. His anxiousness to start school elevated as we shopped for school clothes; multiplied as we shopped for school supplies; and was further amplified as the calendar wound down to August 23rd.

And then, a week before school started, we got a letter (in our house, THE letter). Levi would start school on Wednesday the 25th. Ouch.

But we made the best of it. Levi got dressed for school on the 23rd, got his picture taken, and went to school with Dylan. Then, when the bell rang for classes, he went to Dunkin' Donuts.


On Wednesday, his official first day, he decided he would ride the bus with Dylan. Yvonne offered to drive him to school for his first day, but Levi insisted that he would ride the bus because it WASN'T the first day for him. He had been to school. Over Levi's protestations, Yvonne went to the bus stop with him (Jason, under the presumption that school started Monday, was away on travel).

As you can see in the photo below, Levi was ready for her to leave so he could get on with his day. He got his photo done, and got on the bus. He came home from the full day of school dog tired. His comment: it was kind of boring, but he enjoyed gym time. It's gonna be an interesting year.