This is Noah's last summer before he starts school. He is so cool... as can be seen in this picture where he apparently is flashing gang signs of some sort?
As this is his last summer, he has been up to a lot of fun things. Going to Marine World with all of his cousins on the Bigelow side of the family a bunch, having sleep overs, hanging out with dad since he doesn't have any school over the summer... Even camping on the Father and Son outing without Eli... just him and dad.
Now Eli has been up to a lot of what he would call "fun," others might say "trouble," or "wow... are you serious?" (make sure that last one is said in an irritated kind of voice, with a bit of amazement).
He believes that chap stick and lotion should be applied regularly throughout the day. Regardless of how much has already been applied. This summer we think that he is trying to collect bruises... He can not go through a day without getting hurt to some degree... and knock on wood, it hasn't been anything that would require the attention of a medical profession... besides that of Dr. Mom.
But together they are goofing off and having a lot of fun. Our patience gets tried on a daily basis, as with most parents that have two little ones with more energy than then can possibly expend in a single day, but they make us laugh so much.
We are lucky to keep clothes on Eli during the day, or at least the same ones that he started the day with. He changes his outfits more than most... always looking for a reason to put his baseball clothes on that both Grandma Lynne (Bigelow) and Grandma Nartker have supplied him with (thanks a lot Grandma Lynne for starting that one!! :) ).
I am going to try to do better with this blog, for both Sweet Grandma who lives in Hawaii and Grandma Reynolds who is working in Jerusalem right now. But at the same time we are going to take this blog private.
If you would like to be able to access the blog for our very infrequent posts, please make sure that you forward me your email address. Send it to jenartker@gmail.com
Love to all,
the Nartker family
As this is his last summer, he has been up to a lot of fun things. Going to Marine World with all of his cousins on the Bigelow side of the family a bunch, having sleep overs, hanging out with dad since he doesn't have any school over the summer... Even camping on the Father and Son outing without Eli... just him and dad.
He believes that chap stick and lotion should be applied regularly throughout the day. Regardless of how much has already been applied. This summer we think that he is trying to collect bruises... He can not go through a day without getting hurt to some degree... and knock on wood, it hasn't been anything that would require the attention of a medical profession... besides that of Dr. Mom.
We are lucky to keep clothes on Eli during the day, or at least the same ones that he started the day with. He changes his outfits more than most... always looking for a reason to put his baseball clothes on that both Grandma Lynne (Bigelow) and Grandma Nartker have supplied him with (thanks a lot Grandma Lynne for starting that one!! :) ).
Then everyone found out that I had a meeting with HR right after this, so I found myself with a mohawk instead!
Needless to say, this lasted a very short time when I got home... I'm pretty sure Erin's first words were something like "that thing needs to go!"
We were able to escape a crazy schedule to enjoy time with the Bigelow side of the family down in Disneyland in early December. Eli just loved everything, except the fact that he couldn't go on all of the rides. Noah however, really enjoyed Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Tower of Terror, and the Matterhorn. It was a real struggle to get him on Pirates though! It was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa Biegelow there, all of the Phillips and Cervantes, and Brent and the kids.
Dennis invited us to go with them on their ward's Father and Son Camp-out up at Rollins Lake. My little Noah was so excited to go camping, but waiting to go was a really hard thing for him. 
This would be our first camp-out like this (the Spanish Branch really doesn't do this sort of stuff for some reason), so I was also excited to just spend some time with Noah.
Dennis, Ian, Noah and myself drove up together. We had plenty of time to throw the football around and go on adventures by the lake.
Just after it got dark and we had the Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration presentation by the fire pit. Shortly thereafter Noah wanted to go to sleep... and that kid was out cold!! :) 
