LaVerkin Creek Backpack Trip

Bryan and I went backpacking last Friday and Saturday in Zion on the LaVerkin Creek trail. The kids were super excited because they were going to stay overnight at Grandma and Grandpa Oman's house and they get spoiled when they go there!

We dropped them off at Grandma and Grandpa's house, ran to the store to buy food for the trail, got lunch to eat on the road and took off. We got to the trail head, packed up and were on the trail at 12:39.

The last time I did this hike was 9 years ago and it was from the opposite direction (starting at Hops Valley). We did it all in one day, which is about a 13 mile hike and I wasn't very happy when we finished. The last 4 miles of the hike are mainly uphill with some of the grades being quite steep. I was a bit nervous but I was excited to be backpacking.



We hiked down in and it wasn't bad except for all the WIND that was smashing us in the face! Sometimes my backpack acted like a sail and I almost flew away, but it kept things cool. I hiked with my jacket on most of the time because it was a bit chilly, but Bryan said it wasn't that bad.

There was a lot more water this time and so we had to cross a bunch of small streams. I was surprised by how much water there was but it was pretty. And the views are gorgeous from up there because it's so green from all the rain we have been getting.




When we got to the creek it was larger than a creek. Now, I HATE snakes!!! The last time we hiked this trail we saw two rattlesnakes and I almost turned back around and went the other way. I was leading and there were a lot of lizards on the trail. I almost stepped on what I thought was a lizard when I realized that it was a snake! We can't remember if I screamed or not, but I jumped back really quickly, grabbed Bryan, put him in front of me as a shield, and began shaking. It really was a small snake (only about 3 feet long and thin) but I just hate snakes. Bryan watched it, taking pictures all the way, until it was gone and then I quickly passed and we were on our way.

After 7 miles we finally got to where out campsite should have been but we couldn't find it. We went back a bit to see if we had passed it and then went farther upstream to see if we just hadn't gotten there yet. We finally found it a bit farther up the creek. Our campsite was across the river but the rocks used to cross the river were underwater. We explored around trying to find a way to cross and finally decided that we would have to wade across. So we unzipped the bottom parts of our hiking pants, took our socks and shoes off, and waded across. We had the best site! It was above the trail so people couldn't really see into our site and it was shaded. It was great!



We set up camp, washed our feet, and began filtering water. It was so silty that the pump had a hard time after a while. Some people passed by and told us of a spring a little farther up from our campsite where we could filter water more easily so we decided to look for it. There wasn't a trail and we didn't want to wade the river again so we sort of made our own way and it wasn't easy. After a while, the shore was just sandstone that we had to try and climb along and not fall into the river. It wasn't easy and it was really steep. We made it and filtered water. On the way back I was carrying the 2 water bottles and Bryan was carrying the filter. At the steep rock part he, being a gentleman, took both water bottles to carry so I could have two free hands and then promptly slid down the rock into the river. Luckily he was wearing his water shoes and not his hiking shoes or we would have been in trouble. It was actually really funny and we laughed about it.

Filtering water:

The trail we found the next day:

A view from above of the rock Bryan slid down:


(The next day we found a small trail that led from our campsite to the spring and it was much easier.)

We then had dinner, played cards, read books and went to sleep. It was great and so relaxing!

The next morning we slept in, ate breakfast, filtered water, broke camp, packed up and found a rock path down the river that we could use to cross so we wouldn't have to wade out.



Then we started the long 7.1 miles hiking out. It wasn't too bad and we actually made the same time hiking out as we had hiking in, which shocked me. The last 4 miles were rough and very steep but they weren't as bad as they had been last time. My feet were tired and my calves are pretty sore today, but it was a fun trip!!

Bryan takes Ethan backpacking next month!

Schools Out!

It is now 12:01 p.m. on May 27, 2010 and SCHOOL IS OFFICIALLY OUT FOR THE SUMMER!!! Yeah! Now we just have to wait for the bus to bring Ethan home. Courtney is so excited because this means that she can tell people that she will be in kindergarten when school starts.

Ethan's Award

Last year Ethan got an award for 100% attendance. I didn't know he was getting the award and so I wasn't there at the assembly when he got it...so no pictures exist to mark the momentous occasion. This year he told me that I needed to go to the assembly because he wasn't sure he was getting an award but wanted me there just in case. So I went to the assembly. I really didn't think he was getting anything because no one had told me and I couldn't remember if he had been at school every day or not. So...I didn't take the camera...and he won an award for 100% attendance.

I used my phone to snap some photos but they aren't very good. He wanted me to post one anyway. He cleaned up in the prize department for the award: 5 free tickets to a St. George Roadrunner baseball game, free meal at Iggy's Sports Bar, a backpack, a candy bar and a certificate. He thought he was pretty hot stuff. At least I was there this year!

The picture is blurry, but Ethan's in the middle in the red/gray shirt with numbers on the front. The guy in front of him with a baseball cap is a member of the Roadrunner's baseball team and Ethan got to shake his hand (it doesn't matter that we don't know his name and he isn't famous, but Ethan was impressed).

Pack Meeting

Growing up with only two girls in the family I am completely clueless when it comes to scouts. Luckily I have a husband who knows it and friends in the ward that help me out. Today was our first Pack Meeting. Ethan was so excited to get in his uniform. He looked so cute.

We went to Jacob Hamblin's home for the meeting. Ethan, and two other boys in his primary class, were earning their Bobcat. He was so excited! He has been looking forward to being a Cub Scout for years and now it is finally here. After the awards ceremony we all went on a hike to the flags that mark where Santa Clara Fort used to be. It was fun. Then we had treats and the boys played around until it was time to go home.

Hot Chocolate Party

Courtney and I had a "hot chocolate" party today (instead of a tea party). I put a nice table cloth on our kitchen table, pulled out some nice dishes, made some pb&j finger sandwiches and hot chocolate, and then we had a nice party together. She is a chatter box so we talked all about how she thinks her life is going and had a grand time sipping our hot chocolate. I may have to make this a weekly tradition. We decided that we may even ask Ethan to have tea with us too. Won't he love that?!?! ;)

Here's Courtney at our party:

Fur Elise

Here is Courtney singing Beethoven's "Fur Elise." She is going to perform this at the Primary Talent Show next month so we have been working on it. She is still working on a couple of spots, but it's still cute!

Deer Video

Here is a video Ethan took of the deer in our camp (he is whispering, so turn your volume up if you want to hear him):

Zion's Campout!

On Friday afternoon we loaded the van and headed off to Zion's National Park for our family campout! We had reservations at the Watchman's Campground near the Visitors Center. I hadn't been there before but when we made the reservation we tried to get a good shady spot. The weather was great. While Bryan set up the tent, I made the campfire. When the coals were good and hot, we put our pre-made tin foil dinners in to cook. While they cooked, Bryan and Courtney went for a bike ride while Ethan and I hung out and talked. Then Bryan and I ate some good tin foil dinners while Ethan and Courtney roasted hotdogs. We had a deer who came into the meadow right by our camp so the kids got to take pictures of the deer. It was pretty neat. We then had smores, read stories and went to bed.

The next morning we got up, ate cereal for breakfast (this was the best food campout because we did things really easy and it made for a fun time), packed up camp, then got on the shuttle. We got off at the trail head for the Emerald Pools. We hadn't been there before and it was a fun hike. The kids loved it and the falls were pretty. We then detoured and came out at the Grotto trail head (where you start for the Angel's Landing hike). By then we were tired and hungry so we drove back to St. George (Courtney napped on the way) and ate lunch.

It was a fun camp out and a great start to the camping season!

Agent 003

Ethan had his duet piano recital last night. He played a trio with his piano teacher and another student. The teacher asks everyone to dress up according to the song they are playing. So Ethan had a spy hat on. I tried it get him to wear a mustache I bought for him, but that was a no-go.

He was a bit nervous but he had practiced and did a great job. He even played his part of the trio at a Cookie Concert his music teacher at school had last Wednesday.

Here's the video:



Here are some photos:

Class Party

Ethan's 2nd grade class has a few boys in it that struggle to behave. It has been a rough year for his teacher and for the kids who behave because they have spent all year trying to earn a party for good behavior. The teacher has a big plastic container with three lines on it. Each time they got it to a line they would have a party. It took all year long but they finally got to the first line!! Their teacher wanted to celebrate so we had a big party on Thursday.

The teacher borrowed a popcorn machine and a movie for one station, another mom had a game on the grass, another mom had a balloon game outside on the sidewalk, and another mom had a game in the outdoor classroom. I rotated the kids around and helped out where I could. It turned out to be a lot of fun and the kids loved it. Courtney came along, as usually, and helped. On one game a boy was acting up and wasn't allowed to play so Courtney got to play. It was fun.

I am so proud of Ethan and all he has accomplished this year. His teacher has been great and he has learned so much! He is a good worker and helps others.

Ethan's Big Day!

Ethan had a great day yesterday! Thanks to everyone who helped make it special for him. He truly was spoiled!

His birthday-day began at 5 a.m. when he woke up to read. Yeah, he loves to read that much. He then had breakfast in bed (eggs, sausage links, bacon and orange juice - a real clog the arteries morning). Then he did awesome at practicing the piano and running around the house telling us how much he loves us and how he loved how we decorated the house. Courtney and I had made a huge sign that we put outside on the window and he LOVED that too. Then he was off to school.

At school, he got to decorate and wear a birthday crown all day long. His entire class made him a birthday book where they all wrote notes to him and let him know things that he was good at and that they liked about him. They sang him birthday songs all day long and just gave him a ton of attention. I showed up at the end of the day with some brownies (he had me buy a certain kind because those are what "everyone loves") to hand out. He was in high heaven.

We came home and began to get ready for his party. Bryan came home from work early to control all the guests (11 kids with only one being a girl). Ethan wanted a Lego party so the first game was to guess how many Legos were in a jar with the winner getting the jar as their prize. I had bought a small Lego set for each child (on clearance at Walmart, gotta love it!) so we spent the next 20-30 minutes putting those together. The kids loved them and Courtney was happy to pull out her pink Legos and build something right along with the kids. Our next game was to dig a Lego piece out of jello with chopsticks. The kids thought this was too hard but they loved making a mess of the cup of jello! Then it was time for the way-overfilled-because-I-wasn't-sure-how-much-candy-would-do pinata. It was so heavy! But when they broke it apart they loved all the candy and legos that spilled out.

By this time my parents had arrived with the pizza so the kids and adults chowed down. When we were full, we had cake and ice cream. Ethan bought me a Lego person cake pan last March when we went to Legoland so I used that to make a cake with Agent Chase (from Lego Agents) on it. It turned out well, thanks to all the help from Bryan! I had bought a sparkler candle in the shape of an 8 and it was SOOOO hard to light. But it finally went off, we sang and then had cake and ice cream.

Opening-presents-time finally arrived. Ethan made out like a bandit! He got a bunch of Legos, water toys (2 huge water guns), 500 water balloons (he can't wait to use), and a bunch of scout stuff from friends. He loved it. Then the party was over and all the kids left.

We then opened family presents and he loved it. We gave him scriptures with his name on them and a case, scout stuff, books and a pocket knife (his favorite). He got all kinds of transformers, Lego sets, books and money from family. Courtney gave him some night vision goggles she found at a store last month. He was in heaven.

Now, our little guy is officially 8 years old and a scout. He had me help him pass stuff off in his scout book this morning and said, "I bet I could do this whole book in a month!" Not quite, but I'm going to do my best to keep him excited. The fact that he got so much scout stuff and 2...yes, 2, pocket knives for his birthday helps!

Thanks everyone!!!

Ethan's 8

Here is the slide show I did for Ethan's 8th birthday. It's about 7 minutes long, but it's pretty cute (if I do say so myself!). We are so excited for him to turn 8 years old but it's a bit unbelievable that our little guy is getting so old. But he is such a great kid and we are so blessed to have him in our family. We love you Ethan!!

Flag Football!

Our Stake had a flag football tournament yesterday. Each ward was asked to fill out a roster for the young men's and the men's divisions. Our ward was supposed to have 2 men's teams and 2 young men's teams. Saturday at noon we loaded into the van and drove to the local elementary school where the fields were all set up (our Stake High Councilman over the sports is in our ward and amazing). Only enough men turned up for one team from our ward and other teams didn't show up. So, after the first games were played the bracket had to be tweeked a bit, but it all worked out. Our men's team (after 3 games and 4 hours) won their division and our older young men's team won! Then our young men challenged the "old men" in the ward to a game...and lost! But it was close. Our young men are, for the most part, on all the high school sports teams. But the men pulled it out. They are all sore today and it will be worse tomorrow, but they have the bragging rights!

Courtney's Dance Recital

Here are videos of Courtney's dance recital at the beginning of the month (I'm a bit behind on this). The music was really loud that night so it doesn't sound great, but she did a great job. She is the one on the far right.


Oh, You Beautiful Doll:


A Cowboy Needs a Horse

Ethan's Baptism

Here is the invitation to Ethan's baptism in June! He is so excited. We went to Deseret Book last night and let him pick out his own pair of scriptures and a case. He was so excited. But he doesn't get them until his birthday. I'm so proud of him!!

Courtney, Courtney, Courtney

She is having a rough time not being able to suck her thumb. She hasn't sucked it in 2 weeks and it's been horrible! The poor girl can't calm herself down and has trouble napping. Tonight she has decided that she doesn't like any of her pjs and wants us to figure out something. I told her that she could just wear what she has in her room but she insists that they are all dirty (she dressed her dolls in all her pjs today and that seems to make them dirty). Bryan finally went in to try and help her but she told him to get out and that she will just "sleep naked" if he doesn't get her the pjs she wants. Then I heard her yell "It's not funny. Just stop laughing... No it is NOT funny!" I had to laugh.

My questions are: #1) How long does it take a screaming 4 year old to lose her voice; #2) When will she figure out that it really IS funny?; and #3) How do we help her to self-sooth so she calms down?

Bryan keeps saying: "This too shall pass" but I'm not so sure. Maybe this is what my parents meant when they said I was stuck in the terrible twos for 16 years. Hummm...

Teacher Appreciation

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week at Ethan's school. The theme is "Teachers Color Our World" and they want us to do things with the teacher's favorite color. On Friday we had to decorate their door. I wasn't going to be able to do it so I talked to the other room mom and told her that I would make the decoration if she would go and hang it. It all worked out and I think it turned out well. I need to run up and take a picture of it hanging on the door. (If you can't tell, it's a bunch of flowers with the students' names on them and then paint dropping down.)

Cakes

I made these cute cakes for my neighbor's twin boys who turned 1 yesterday. They are little 6 inch cakes and then a bunch of cupcakes. (I need to work on my backgrounds when I take pictures.)

Ethan and Courtney

My neighbor is a photographer and she took Ethan out to have photos taken for his 8th birthday. Courtney had to be included in some of them so we decided to have them both dress up and take pictures at the temple and then Ethan had photos taken by himself at another place too. Here's some of them:


Don't bother me!

Cute Ethan

The kids

Courtney on the Bike

Courtney is a wonder girl on Ethan's old bike. She has more freedom now and is able to go all over the place quickly. I can't believe how well she can ride after only a week or so.

She was riding bikes with Hayley (something that happens all the time now!) when Hayley's mom took this wonderful pictures. (Her mom is an awesome photographer!) She emailed them to me and I thought I would post them.

Ethan's Old Bike

Courtney has decided that she is "way too old" for her little pink bike. So she had Bryan pull out Ethan's old bike, lower the seat, fill the tires and let her try it. It's good for her and she loves riding it. But now the bike is "my bike" instead of being "Ethan's old bike." Bryan laid down the law and told her that it is the "family's bike" and that we are letting her use it. I'll post a picture tomorrow of her on her new bike. ;)

She wondered if Ethan would be upset if we painted it pink. ;)

Courtney's Fit

I got photos of Courtney throwing a fit the other day and I just had to post them. It had been a LONG day and she didn't take a nap. This all means that she was really grumpy. The fit was over...well, now I don't remember, but it was a doozy! She was yelling, waving her arms and stomping her foot. She went to bed without a story, without a song, and way before her brother.

As you can tell from the pictures, Bryan was enjoying himself. ;) There are some times when the big brother in him comes out and he just has a field day with irrational females. ;)

The stomp (see how high she gets her leg? that is for maximum stompage):

Trying to reason with her:

Laying down the law (see the arms waving?):

The "I love you" quiet moment (the calm before the storm):

Ironman St. George

The Ironman came to St. George this weekend and it was so awesome. They had the Fun Run on Friday night and then we woke the kids up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and met up with my parents and aunt and uncle to drive out to Sand Hollow Reservoir to see the swimming competition. We had to park at the fairgrounds and then take a shuttle bus to the lake. When we got there it was about 20-30 minutes to start time so we walked around and found the best position to watch the start. It was cold and I'm sure the water was freezing. It was amazing to hear stories about the competitors.

Here we are:


The age grouper group:


The professionals started their ironman at 6:50 a.m. They had to swim out to the starting point, tread water until the gun went off and then swim as fast as they could. It was cool to see them start. They followed a woman paddling on a surf board so they knew where to go. Then all the age groupers started. It was one mass of people. They started at 7 a.m. The ironman competition has a time limit for each event. If they got out of the water after the time limit, they were disqualified. They had 2 hours and 20 minutes to swim 2.4 miles in freezing water. After they were off, we walked around and looked at the bikes ready to go (this was Bryan's favorite part), walked around to see the transition point, then found a good spot to watch them come out of the water.

When the first pro came out it was so cool. He ran up the ramp, sat on the carpet, people ran up to pull his wet suit off him, grabbed his bag of clothes, changed, got on his bike and began the long 112 mile bike ride. They shut off access to the reservoir so once you are there watching you have to stay the entire time. So we watched thousands, literally, of competitors come out, change and bike off. We saw some who had to be carried out of the water, we saw some who barely made it and it was amazing.

Bikes before the swim:


Bikes after the swim:


We were there after everyone else left to go to the shuttle buses while the last 2 competitors swam to the shore and we were there when they told them they were disqualified because they were 2 minutes too late. It was inspiring to watch. These men had done an amazing feat and should be proud but it was sad that they couldn't keep going and it was sad that there weren't more people there to cheer them on when they came out.

We then got on a shuttle bus back to our car, drove home in time to watch them ride by our house on one of the two loops. It was cool to see them go by. Ethan and Courtney made encouraging signs to put on the wall.

Biking with the Ironmen:


Then we got on our bikes and rode next to the athletes to Unity Park. We didn't quite make it all the way on our bikes because Courtney was startled by a dog (surprise, surprise) and ran into Bryan's back tire, which then popped and we had to walk our bikes the rest of the day. But it worked out and we had fun at the park where the city had a Fitness Festival set up. Bryan rode my bike back home to get the van and we all went home so Courtney could take a nap.

Ethan and I then went to the finish line in downtown St. George to watch the bike to run transfer and to see the winner cross the finish line. It was really cool and Ethan had a lot of fun watching them.

Here's Ethan at the bike to run transition:


Here's Ethan at the finish line: