Pioneer Day Fun in the Park

There is a huge celebration in Ivins for Pioneer Day.  It starts with a pancake breakfast (which we never go to), a flag raising ceremony, the parade and then games in the park.  Each Stake auxiliary mans a booth and has free activities.  Vendors come in and sell things but there are always free games and things to do if you don't want to spend a bunch of money.  We haven't ever stayed.  Usually we are off camping on the 24th, but this year I wanted to stay...HomeDepot was doing a free kids u-build that I wanted the kids to do.  Okay, to be completely honest, I love doing the u-builds and I needed a child to go with me and it also passed off a Webelos requirement for Ethan.

So Courtney got to build a planter box:

  Ethan got to build a periscope.  And they loved it!

 Then we went walking around to see what other activities there were.  The Stake Primary Presidency had a bean bag toss through some beehives with President Hinckley's B's on them.  It was cute.

The Stake Young Women's Presidency were painting faces so we had to stop there.  Courtney had a rainbow painted on her face.

 While we were doing the face painting (which took a long time because the line was long), the boys sat down in the shade.  Ethan was pretty grumpy because he was exhausted from his mile, snail pace bike ride in the parade.  He wasn't happy about anything I asked him if he wanted to do.

When Courtney was finished, we walked around some more.  The Stake Relief Society Presidency was sponsoring a watermelon eating contest and the Stake Young Men's Presidency was sponsoring a "potato derby."  The kids stopped at this one.  They each got to pick a potato and decorate it the way they wanted.  Then it was put on a pinewood derby car that had nails sticking out of it (so the potato would stay on the car) and they ran it down a track.  Ethan lost but Courtney won.

We walked around some more and found an obstacle course (I think this was the Stake High Council) made of hay bales.  Courtney didn't want to do it but Ethan did.  By this time he was starting to feel better about life.  He had to climb under a bale, walk a balance beam, climb over a bale, climb under another bale, then hop to the finish line in a gunny sack.  He got a popsicle at the end of it.

 After the obstacle course, Ethan was ready to have some fun.  The High Council had set up a tarp on a hill and were hosing it down for a slip-n-slide.  A few years ago, at the Hodgson reunion, and the kids loved it.  I had pointed it out to Ethan but he DID NOT want to go on it because he wasn't in his swimming suit.  Courtney wasn't so timid about getting her clothes wet and she went running for the hill.  Ethan changed his mind after seeing Courtney go down it and he let loose.  It was hilarious because there wasn't any organization so the kids kept piling up in the middle.  It was great!  They both spent quite a bit of time on the slip-n-slide.

Here is Ethan on his back:

 Courtney (in red) going down on her bottom:

 Courtney (at the top in red) and Ethan (in white right in front of her) going down the slide:

 After a while of sliding (a long while), Ethan saw the dunking booth and thought that would be fun.  The line to get dunked was really long but he wanted to wait anyway.  Courtney went through the line to throw the balls and dunk people a few times and then she got bored.

Courtney got tired of waiting for Ethan to get dunked so she did the obstacle course and got her popsicle.

After a few hours, they were soaked and tired.  We took them to Red Mountain Market for treats and then home.  It was a fun celebration!

 

The Parade

Ivins has a Pioneer Day Parade and each of the wards is asked by the Stake President to enter something.  One year the dad's pushed kids in strollers; another year the kids rode bikes; last year the kids rode on a trailer pulled by a huge truck while spraying people with water.  This year the youth went on Trek so they were supposed to walk in their pioneer clothes for the parade...but none of them would do it.  We have 60 youth!!

The Primary, as always, were then asked to do something for the parade.  So the leaders bought balloons and had the kids ride their bikes with balloons attached.  Our kids were excited to be in the parade.  Courtney decorated her bike, all on her own, Monday afternoon and she was ready!  Ethan was going to rollerblade instead of biking but changed his mind.

We woke up to RAIN.  (The weather here has been crazy this month!) But by the time the parade began at 9:30, the skies were overcast and there was a slight breeze, but no rain.  The kids had a lot of fun, even if they did have to ride r.e.a.l.l.y...s.l.o.w.  At least it wasn't hot!

Biking down the street:

Wet St. George

We left Denver on Sunday morning so we could get home in one day.  It is a 10 hour drive!  We were rained on off and on during the drive but it wasn't a big deal.  As we left Cedar City the emergency broadcast broke into the radio program we were listening to.  It said that there was a severe storm warning for Ivins, Snow Canyon and the areas in Western Washington County.  It said there would be quarter sized hail and to stay away from windows.  It also warned that there would be sky to ground lightening in the area so people were advised to stay indoors.

The clouds over St. George, that we could see, were really dark.  I sent a text to a neighbor to ask how bad the rain was and she said it was raining hard but no hail.  Bryan was sad to miss the storm at home.

It rained on us as we were getting close to St. George but it stopped before we got to town.  But we couldn't believe all the water we saw on the roads.  Snow Canyon Parkway was flooded and had standing water that was, who knows how deep.  We took another way home and as we drove down Pioneer Parkway a bunch of people were getting out of their cars at the bridge near the Entrada Golf Course.  As we drove by, I took this picture of the flooding that had happened at the course:

The water must have gone over the road some time in the weekend because there was mud all over the place.

I guess we missed a bunch of rain and crazy weather while we were gone.  Bryan looked at the info from his weather station and found that the temperature had dropped 10 or 20 degrees in an hour (I can't remember which).  Crazy!!

Arvada Splash Pad

Saturday mid-morning we loaded the kids into vans and drove to the Arvada Splash Pad.  Grandma stopped by Burger King and got 60 nuggets and some fries for lunch.  Courtney, Brooke and Josh has one box of 20 piece nuggets gone before they even got to the splash pad!  The rest of the kids demolished the other 2 boxes of 20 pieces and were still hungry.  Crazy kids!!

It was a small splash pad but there weren't too many kids, so it wasn't a big deal.  The kids had fun running through and getting all wet.  It was REALLY COLD WATER!!  We are used to the water warming up a bit before it comes out because of the heat of the day in St. George.  But this felt like water straight from the snow on the mountain!

Here is a dry Ethan and a wet, cold Ethan trying to get warmed up:

 Courtney and Brooke:

 Here is Ethan sitting on one of the sprayers, waiting for it to go off:

 Courtney and Brooke trying to get warm:

The Park

After the hikers left we loaded a picnic and took all the kids to the park.  They got to swing and play in the small stream that was near the picnic area.  Ethan loved playing with the crawdads that there in the stream.  It was fun and they all got some energy out before we put them down for a nap.

 Courtney next to the stream:

 Grandma and some of the kids:

The Long's Peak Climb

I wasn't there so I am going to just post photos of their adventure.  If Bryan wants to fill in any details, he is welcome to do so.

The hikers got ready on Friday morning and took off for Long's Peak.  Courtney was a bit sad to see Bryan go and shed a few tears but then she was off to play.

Here are the hikers (and their farewell crew): Ally, Mike, Brooke, Josh, Julie, Luke, Grandpa, Andrew, Courtney and Bryan.

I am assuming this is at the trail head:

On the hike:

At the boulder field (I think):

 They had to do some climbing and here is a photo of Grandpa throwing the rope down for the climbers to tie into.  The only problem is that the rope got caught on the way down and so Julie had to free climb about 20 feet (I think) up to get it.  Then they had a few more problems and ended up with three climbers on the rope at once.  Needless to say, it was a very interesting time listening to them tell their stories.

Bryan at the top:

All the climbers at the top (Andrew, Julie, Bryan, Grandpa and Mike)

 Another shot (Julie, Bryan, Andrew, Mike and Grandpa):

The Denver Children's Museum

On Thursday, we loaded up and drove to the Denver Children's Museum to spend some time.  It was pretty fun.  We have been to a few other children's museums so we knew what to expect and the kids loved playing around.

There was a fire house right when you walked in and the kids spent a lot of time there.  Ethan and Andrew immediately went upstairs to play with the stuff that was for older kids.  There was a bubble room where you could put yourself in a huge bubble. 

Ethan in a bubble:

I had to borrow Carter at one point so I would have an excuse to go into the train room and build a huge track!  I love building tracks and have missed it.  Ethan and I used to play with his train stuff for hours when he was a little kid.  I was happy to see that I haven't lost it!

Andrew, Ethan and David made some rockets out of paper and then were able to launch them using a air propelling unit.  It was cool but Ethan's didn't fly too straight. ;)

Courtney and Bryan made a dragon fly.  It was really fun and used screws and saws.  This was a cool room but it was more for parents to help out with so it was kind of a pain.

In the bubble room you could create bubbles and see how large you could get them.  Here are David, Ethan and Andrew playing with bubbles.

It was a fun time.

Hiking/Climbing at White Ranch

Wednesday morning we loaded up and drove to White Ranch, an area outside of Arvada where we were going to do some hiking and climbing.  We packed in a picnic lunch, climbing gear and plenty of water.  This was a try-out climb/hike so that those going on the Long's Peak climb could get used to their packs and climbing.

Here we are at the trail head (minus Dad).  Front row, l to r: Carter, Josh, Luke, Brooke, Courtney and Zach.  Back row, l to r: Mike, Bryan, Michelle, Julie, Andrew, David and Ethan.

The hike up wasn't too bad and it was only 1 mile.  The kids did a great job and had fun as they were going along.

After our 1 mile hike in, we got to the camp area where we ate lunch.  The kids got to climb all over the smaller rocks there and the climbers (plus Ethan) got into their climbing gear.  Ethan was pretty excited to be climbing.

We hiked down to where they were going to climb and then watched as Grandpa tried to find a path up the rock.  It was harder than it looked at first and he ended up just hiking around to the top and throwing the rope down.  Then the climbing began.  Ethan had a rough time because his legs really weren't long enough to get good footholds and then he hit his knee and scratched it pretty badly.  So he was frustrated and didn't get to climb.  But he got to watch everyone else and see how it was done.

Courtney played with her cousins and cried because she wanted to climb too but we didn't have gear her size.

The climbers had to hurry because the storm clouds were starting to roll in.  After a while, the kids were starting to get antsy and wanting to go back so I took some of them back to the camp area to wait.

After a while the rest of the family came up to finish out picnic with us and then we went back down the mountain and back to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  But the kids that didn't get to climb wanted to.  So Grandpa took us to the APEX Center near their house so they could climb.

Here he is like the pied piper with the kids following behind him:

Ethan was a bit afraid of the heights but he could scramble up the wall.

Here he is getting checked by Grandpa to make sure everything is secure.

Here is a video of Courtney going up the climbing wall: