Lev and Grady Build a Raft but the water is cold

Every Memorial Day weekend we would camp at Panorama Point, on Baker Lake, with Craig, Sarah, and Grady. We've known Craig and Sarah since before we had kids, but Grady and Lev became friends when we moved up to Sedro-Woolley. Grady lived in Bellingham and they would get together most weekends for the last two years to go "boffing" (fighting with foam swords). On these camping trips Jaal would hang out with the adults and go hiking, kayaking, hang out, or play guitar but Grady and Lev would be off exploring. May of 2010 they spent most of the weekend on a tiny island just off the campsite, building their own fort, kayaking over supplies, making up stories. In this video, which I think is from 2009,  they built a raft (with some help, I believe) and Lev discovered the water was cold when he tried it out. Grady never minded the cold, and he waded in to pull Lev back to shore. This captures the fun they had together.
It seems like with all of Lev's best friends he would do different things. Kalyn was his local buddy, hanging out at school, after school, playing video games, or whatever, staying at each other's houses. Grady was the weekend friend, boffer, sleep overs, eating bagels, video games, movies, and camping. Zay was his buddy for long imaginary games on the phone, almost daily, bonding in a really deep, weird way.  And then of course he had other groups of friends, but those were the three he hung out with most often and I believe the kids most impacted by his being gone.

Making a bow and arrow

In this video, Lev is working on making a bow while Jaal finishes eating. They didn't like being videotaped.

Morning in Monteverde

Time for breakfast (rice pudding and a banana) and a morning chat with the boys. Lev's favorite thing in school is recess and reading. Jaal is excited about recess because he's learning to drum for the Independence Day parade and he's writing a memoir about building a raft in Puerto Rico that he says is boring.

getting ready for a bike ride in Monteverde

Jaal and Lev are getting ready for a bike ride at our house in Monteverde.

Lev tried dog food and likes to say Butt

This video captures a moment in our lives in Monteverde, when we reached the top of a mountain on a hike (the tv towers). We stopped at the top for a snack, and to rest, and Lev ate a piece of dog food. This was also the time in his life when he was obsessed with saying "butt." Also notice that he hiked up the mountain carrying a home made ax.

Lev in 6th grade: I don't feel good but I'm happy

In the spring of sixth grade, Lev came down with what the experts thought was "viral juvenile arthritis". He was really weak and tired for about three months, including going to school for half days for part of the time. Then, he just got better one day. Subsequent tests showed he was fine. We will always wonder if that weird illness weakened his system, if there was something we could have strengthened, or if he was just susceptible to really rare illnesses. Anyway, as you see in this video, he took his illness in stride. He had a spirit and love of life that not many people can duplicate.

The four of us in the car on our California trip Jan 2009

During winter break we took a road trip to California and visited friends, saw San Francisco, the giant Redwoods, Santa Cruz, etc. In the car we would often sing together, with Tony on ukelele.
Driving with just us three leaves a big hole. This video captures the moment pretty well.