Courtney's 1st Haircut!

Courtney was in need of a haircut! I have done a bit of trimming now and then, but she hasn't ever had a real haircut. I have tried to get her to let someone cut it but she wouldn't. I went to my friend's salon around the corner for a cut and decided Courtney needed one too. After my haircut, Courtney sat on my lap and had hers done. She wanted bangs because all the "big girls" have them. I didn't think she would sit still long enough to do the entire cut, but she did a great job! I think it turned out really well. I will post a before picture soon...hopefully.

Update!

Wow! This past week has flown by! So here's an update on the Pack clan.

Ethan: He has been attending Science Detective Camp at the Montessori school in St. George. He has loved it. They learned to dust for fingerprints, all about DNA, made a door alarm (that really worked) and tons of other things. It's been fun to see him play with his experiments after he gets home. The only glitch to his camp was the one day when I napped (not on purpose) and woke up at the time I was supposed to be picking him up. Luckily, Bryan works through the block from the school and was able to walk to get him. Ethan also finished piano lessons and now has a month break before starting the next level in group lessons. It's interesting that he woke up in the best mood this morning. I couldn't figure out why until he said, "Mom, I don't have to practice today." The joys of music lessons!

Courtney: She is about the same. Her days are filled with the wading pool (which she calls the "kitty pool"), the slip-n-slide and reading books. Her nap times have been off because of Science Camp but she still has been happy, for the most part.

Me: I have been the Shuttle Mom. It's been hectic but we have had a lot of fun with other activities. Some people in our neighborhood, who have a pool, have invited us to swim with them every Monday and Wednesday morning. They have all the fun pool toys and their two daughters live in the ward and have kids around Courtney's age. So we have had a lot of fun going over there and cooling off.

Bryan: He went to Youth Conference last weekend and had a lot of fun. He came home pretty tired due to the fact that two Mia Maids thought his room was filled with teenage boys and threw rocks at the window at 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. to wake them up. I think they were pretty surprised when Bryan's head poked out. ;)

Ethan and Courtney had their 6 month dentist appointments today. Ethan did great. He usually gags if they try to do ANYTHING! But he let them take x-rays and "tickle" his teeth without any tears. His two front teeth on the top are loose, so he said the tooth fairy should start saving money! Courtney wasn't sure at first, but after seeing how well Ethan did, she jumped right up on the chair and let the dentist do his thing. She even let him "tickle" her teeth too, which completely floored me. Hopefully it isn't just a one-time thing. They came home with new toothbrushes and timers. It's a good day in our house.

I think that's about it. I don't have any fun pictures because I haven't been taking my camera to the neighbor's pool, but I'll do that soon.

Happy Birthday Aunt Leigh Ann

Happy Birthday to you!!

Father's Day Outing...Early

Ethan really wanted to give Bryan something "neat" for Father's Day. We (Ethan and me) put our heads together and came up with a plan to give Bryan a "Father's Day Outing." But Ethan was a bit nervous that we wouldn't plan something that Bryan would want, so we asked him. Bryan said he would love to go on a hike in Zion National Park with the family.

We woke up this morning, got ready and drove to the Wildcat Trail Head in Zion (you turn off at Virgin and go the back way to Zion so you don't have to enter the park at the entrance gate, so it's free!). We were nervous about Courtney hiking a long distance so we took the baby backpack (it says that it only holds 27 pounds max, but Courtney is 32 pounds and it held up fine). Ethan and I had our hiking day packs on with water and Bryan had Courtney. We took off.

I discovered that it isn't a "hike" when you are going with kids. It's more of an "explore." The main difference is about 2 miles per hour! Ethan spent quite a bit of time trying to catch grasshoppers and Courtney spent her time looking through Bryan's binoculars to find squirrels (then when she found one she freaked out because she just knew the squirrel was "coming after me").

Once-in-a-while Courtney would ask to get down and we would slow down even more, but for the most part the hike went along well....That is until some very lost, very talkative, too-much-information-giving woman told us that there was a rattlesnake on the trail up ahead. Ethan flipped out and wanted to go back. I was pretty proud of myself because I have a history with rattlesnakes in Zion Canyon and I wanted to turn around. But I didn't want Ethan to get a phobia of snakes because of me (since he is doing so well developing one on his own) so we pushed on. Courtney was disappointed that the snake was gone...ignorance is bliss.

We finally got to the view point, sat down and Bryan read a chapter in the "Hardy Boys" book he has been reading to Ethan at nights.

Then we started back to the trail head. This is when the boredom struck Ethan. He was tired and kept wishing that the van was "right here!" This all went away when Bryan pulled out his GPS and let Ethan play with it. Ethan loved following the arrow on it. And after I showed him where to watch our hiking speed, he began running just to watch the numbers change. Ethan and I got to the trailhead quite a bit sooner than Courtney and Bryan (mainly due to Ethan's running to watch his speed on the GPS). We all had so much fun.

We drove back to St. George (Courtney took a nap in the car) and took Bryan out for a Father's Day dinner. He still gets a home cooked one tomorrow, but we both were tired and didn't want to cook ;)

All in all, it was a great present and one we may repeat next year!

Cute Kids

Courtney doesn't like having her hair done. Usually it's a fight to get her hair into some order. When we have a tough hair morning and she has been forced to have her hair done, she feels like she has to have some control over the final look. She usually puts an interesting "finishing touch" on the 'do. Yesterday it was a bright green headband.

Courtney went down for her nap yesterday a bit late and slept for a long time. Ethan was nervous that she was sleeping too long so he kept going in to check on her. I thought it was a cute "big brother" thing to do.

Ethan's Swimming Lessons

I have been driving Ethan up to Diamond Valley, about 20 minutes away, for swimming lessons with a woman who has a pool in her backyard. She has been teaching for years. Ethan has done very well in her class. Today was the last class of this session so they got to show off. My digital camera's battery died when we showed up (I know, I should have checked it) so I don't have photos, but my video camera worked. So here are some videos.

This first video is of Ethan swimming across her pool. He doesn't like to take any breaths when he is swimming for fear that he will sink. So he just goes as fast as he can until he absolutely has to take a breath. On the video, you can hear me telling him to breath. We will have to work on it.

Here is a video of Ethan flipping from his front to his back.

Here's a video of Ethan diving into the pool in the deep end.



This last video is of Ethan going down the slide. He was fearless and kept going down and down.

My Garden

Here are the latest pictures of my garden. I actually got some tomatoes, squash and a huge zuccini. I have a couple of watermelons growing too (but they are only about 3 inches around right now).

Splash Pad

One of my friends from Las Vegas was passing through town and wanted to take her kids to the Splash Pad/River in downtown St. George. I had only seen it running but hadn't ever taken the kids. Courtney and Ethan loved it!

After a while it was time to take Ethan to piano lessons. Luckily for Courtney, there is a park down the hill from Ethan's piano teacher's house that has a huge splash pad too. So while Ethan played the piano, Courtney and I were at the splash pad cooling off.

Fiesta Fun

Last Friday we went to Fiesta Fun Center for our family outing. We played miniature golf. Ethan had a good time. Courtney became bored after a while and found a castle with a moat. She tried to climb the ropes and get to the castle. Luckily we caught her before she got over the rope and into the moat.

After golfing, we played some games in the arcade. Courtney and Ethan split the tickets and choose toys. Courtney chose some dracula teeth, in purple, of course! Ethan got a slap on bracelet. It was a fun outing!

Baseball

The weather has been so nice here that Bryan wanted to go to the park last night. (The temperatures have been about 15 degrees below normal, so it was been in the high 70s.) We took Ethan's baseball stuff and Bryan pitched to him. Ethan did really well for not having too much practice this year. Courtney and I gathered the balls after Ethan hit (or missed) them. We all had a great time.

Bryan's Nose

Some have asked about Bryan's nose. To give an update, the surgery was great and the doctor said that he is healing really well. I think it looks really good, but it still is a little crooked.