And another Eagle fly's

February 23, 2013

They say some people learn from others experience, and others have to learn from their own.  I know lots of people in each category, and I can safely say that our son Cody has the best of both worlds.  Cody seems to learn a lot from others experiences, especially his older brother Austin.  Cody is four years younger than Austin, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to be involved in all the activities Austin does, and on occasion Cody gets to go and hang out with Austin and his friends.  They go shooting, have Bon Fires south of town, ride dirt bikes, go four-wheelin', and all kinds of other things that are a dream for a fourteen year old to do.  Cody also has seen Austin struggle with challenges, one of which was getting his Eagle project and paperwork finished.  Cody learned from his older brothers' experience and made a goal to have his Eagle before he turned 14, which he accomplished five days before his birthday. (The rule for Austin was that he couldn't get his drivers license until he had his Eagle, and he was nearly 16 1/2 before he had it accomplished.  Cody didn't want to waste a moment of driving time so he took care of his Eagle early, even though we weren't going to enforce that rule anymore because it seemed to punish us more that it did Austin.)   We waited until February to have Cody's Court of Honor so that we could have all of our family here and coordinate it with Austins' mission farewell.  It ended up being a LOT of work to do both at the same time, and was a very emotional weekend for us, but we "Got-er-done" and everything went really well. 
We had the Court of Honor on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 at 5:00 pm at the high school.  (The church was scheduled for a wedding and we needed a lot of seats for everyone coming.)  So many people helped me get it all together, and I was very excited to have my brother Troy come down and do the ceremony.  He is a big scouter up in Preston and really did a great job with everything.  I will let the pictures tell the story. 

The table setting in front of the room honoring Cody.  His Cub Scout pictures
are so cute! 

Brother Stratton conducted the court of honor and Laron Stout opened it.

Austin, Cody and Mady played the song by Aaron Tippen "And the Eagle Flies".
Cody and Austin played and sang on their guitars, and Mady followed up the song with a few measures of
"America the Beautiful" played on her violin.  It brought chills. 

Brother Holland and Brother Mason, Cody's 11 year scout leaders, gave a tribute
to him and talked about him in their scout group.  I was glad to see that Brother Holland
cries like I do. 

Uncle Troy gave the Eagle pledge and presented Cody with his award.

He then lead him in the Eagle Challenge, with the other Eagle scouts standing behind him.
There was a very good spirit there as Cody accepted his responsibilities as an Eagle Scout.

Pinning the mothers and fathers pins.  I can't believe Cody is almost a head
taller than I am! 

Cody was able to give two mentor pins, one to Jimmy Hall, his current
scout leader who helped him and believed in him.

He gave the other pin to Austin in a very emotional ceremony.  He told him
that he is the reason Cody got his Eagle so early.  I still cry as I think about it. 

Brother Wood from the Mormon Battalion gave a presentation and gave Cody
a buffalo skull neck slide and made him an honorary battalion member.

Uncle Troy presented both Austin and Cody with flags that have flown over the United States Capitol
and read to them a poem that was written for the occasion.  (He wasn't able to make it to Austins Court of Honor two years earlier).
 

Dalyon, Josh Hall, and Caleb Furse were the color guard.

Refreshments were cupcakes and yummy lemon water from my dear friend
Bobette Green.  (I was so glad for her help!) 

 

We followed the court of honor with a barbecue with our families, and nearly everyone was there.  It was a great night for our family, and for Cody.  We are so proud of him and his accomplishments!