The Last Day of Summer Break

The kids wanted to take advantage of the last day of Summer, so they called some neighbors over and used the kid wash and slip-n-slide one last time.  It was hilarious to watch them because they kept pushing each other so they would be faster on the slip-n-slide.  I don't think it worked but they had fun "launching" each other.

Courtney's Party!

Monday morning we had Courtney's birthday party!  She wanted a water party so we set up sprinklers, bought water guns and I made a "kid wash" (like a car wash). They had a blast.

First, they played a game where they had to fill water buckets by using a sponge.  It was really funny because they were on relay teams and one of the girls would just run with the sponge but not squeeze it so the bucket didn't fill up very fast.

They then played another game where they had to fill water buckets using squirt guns.  When we declared the winner, we let them have  a water fight!

We had the party over lunch time so we had mini pizzas for them to make.  Each pizza was unique and it was fun to watch them with the toppings.  Then they ate and we had cupcakes and ice cream for dessert.

 After lunch was over, Courtney opened presents.

When they were all sugared up, we turned on the kid wash and let them go through it with the slip-n-slide at the end so they could slide really well.  I even put some dish soap on it to make it more slippery.  They had a lot of fun!

The guests:

 I love this picture because it pretty much sums up her party!  She had a blast!

Courtney's Birthday!

Courtney is now 7 YEARS OLD!!!  I can't believe how fast time flies by!  Bryan sent me a text when I was waiting for my plane in Dulles asking if I was going to be free in about 10 minutes to help sing happy birthday to Courtney.  Of course I would be free!  I didn't belt it out but I did sing to her over the phone while the boys gave her a birthday breakfast and sang too.  Bryan took pictures!

The birthday girl (notice Ethan is playing on his iPod Touch):

 The wonderful birthday breakfast (Bryan said she only ate a small bit of it, but oh well):

 When they got ready for Church, Courtney let Ethan give her an early birthday present...she let him pull out her loose tooth.  He was in heaven but she was excited to get money from the toothfairy (who had jet lag and forgot to come to our house that night so she had to come a few days later and in the morning after Courtney had gotten up, yeah, our toothfairy is a bit off but Courtney does wake up when most kids are still asleep).

Bryan's phone has a bit of a problem sometimes to the photo is kind of weird:

Church went well for the family.  Courtney was super nervous that they would forget to highlight her on her birthday because no one had filled out the form for her.  Well, someone did, or at least tried to.  When they began giving clues as to who had a birthday that day they said, "This person was born in Provo, Utah."  Courtney promptly said, "I wasn't born in Provo!"  They then said "This person doesn't have any pets."  Courtney said, "I have a pet fish!"  SO...obviously someone tried to fill out the form but didn't do a very good job.  Courtney was okay about it because she was just glad they hadn't forgotten her.  I was just glad Courtney knew where she was born and could set them straight.

My plane was 20 minutes early, so I was able to get home a bit earlier than expected.  Bryan had everything under control (the house was very clean!) and Courtney's birthday dinner was already cooking (spaghetti, corn on the cob and mashed potatoes with gravy).

After dinner we had cake and ice cream.  I made the cake before I left for DC and froze it.  Bryan took it out of the freezer and it was ready to go.  After cake, Courtney got to open family presents.  She was in heaven!

Happy Birthday!!!!

The Wedding in DC

When my cousin's daughter got engaged in February, they called me to see if I would be willing to do the wedding cake for them.  After talking it over with Bryan, we decided that it would be fun to do!  So I got a plane tickets, they sent me pictures of what they wanted, I gave them a list of ingredients I needed, and then I was off.  I am so glad I went!

I left really early on Wednesday, August 8th and got into Dulles in the afternoon, just in time for dinner and to go help decorate the Church.  Then we went back home and made truffles for hours....and laughed...and laughed.  I had forgotten how little sleep I get when I get together with Connie!

Thursday morning we made more truffles, decorated the Church more and then went to the DC Temple for Steph's endowment session.  I had never seen the temple before and it was beautiful!  It was also fun to see all the Conover family who were there for a reunion and the wedding.

After the session, we went to Cafe Rio for dinner and the home to make more truffles and laugh some more and stay up really late.  Seriously, I was glad that I went from the West Coast to the East Coast otherwise I would have DIED staying up until 2 a.m. each night and back up at 6 a.m.

Friday morning I began the cake and spent all day making it while everyone else went to the Church to decorate (I think I got the easy part).  When the cake was baking, I hemmed 2 bridesmaids dresses, so I felt useful.

When the cake was finished, Connie's sister-in-law gave me a ride over to the Church to put it in the fridge and then my job was done...except I helped Connie fit her skirt for the wedding (it was 6 sizes too big so we put elastic in the waist)...and stayed up laughing. 

The water pressure in their house is kind of funny, so I woke up really early to take a shower before anyone else got up.  Then we took off for the Temple and the wedding!  It was a beautiful sealing ceremony.

Here they are as husband and wife!

After pictures were taken, Connie's sister-in-law and I took off so we could help at the luncheon, but Mitt Romney was in DC so his motorcade blocked off the freeway.  We went around it but the rest of the family went right down the freeway and ended up  getting to the luncheon about 1 1/2 hours late, but it all worked out just fine.

Before the luncheon began, while we were waiting, my other cousin Karen (Connie's sister) drove me over to the Church and I put the cake out and my job was done!  The cultural hall was gorgeous!  I was so impressed by how it all turned out.

The reception began and I was assigned to take pictures of all the guests as they came in.  I did that until I was asked to help with something else and then it was time to cut the cake.  So it was busy!

 Here is what the cake looked like (sorry, it's blurry but I took this picture during the reception and it was dark):

 Here they are cutting the cake:

 The top layer was chocolate nutella, the middle layer was chocolate mint and the bottom layer was raspberry hot chocolate.  I was asked to cut up the cake and serve it.  Here is the aftermath:

 When the bride threw her bouquet she had quite a few eligible young women waiting to catch it!  The main contenders were Shannon (a cousin) and Ashley (a sister).  Steph threw the bouquet and....the 10 year old little sister caught it!!  She told us that we have to go to her wedding in another 40 years.  When we asked why it would be so far out she said "There are just too many cute boys out there to choose from!"  She is hilarious!

Anyway, the two girls had to have a rematch in the hallway.  As you can tell from the photo below, they really got into this tradition.  hahaha.  No, it was a lot of fun and both are beautiful girls so I can't figure out why they are still on the market!

 

The bride and groom took off wile we were blowing bubbles at them.  It was cute!

Anyway, it took hours and days to put up all the decorations and it only took 1 to 1 1/2 hours to take it all down.  Talk about depressing, but we had a lot of help and, when you take things down, you don't have to give a lot of instruction so it goes faster.  We were still up pretty late hauling things from the Church to Connie's house....and talking....and laughing.

Sunday morning I woke up, got packed up and then Connie and Mark drove me back to Dulles to catch my flight.  I was sad to leave because I don't see them very often since we live so far apart, but I had a great time while I was there!

The flight home seemed really long (I was anxious to get home since it was Courtney's birthday!) but I got some much needed rest!

Oh, just a little side note:  A few years ago Connie told me about an LDS author that "is in my ward" and I started reading her books.  They are really good books and I have become a big fan of her writing.  Her name is Traci Abramson.  Anyway, the day before I left for DC, I went to Seagull book and bought the latest 2 books written by Traci to read on the plane.  One of which had only been out about 5 days.  Imagine my complete surprise when Connie introduces me to her best friend, who she has known from college and who is her visiting teaching companion and who is doing the food...Traci Abramson.  I was proud that I didn't make a fool of myself.  She is a really nice lady and we had a lot of fun laughing while we tried to figure out food (and why Connie and I had bought so much of it!) and hearing stories from the past.  Before I left for Dulles on Sunday, she had us come over to her house so she could autograph (and write a little message) in my 2 books.  It was so cool!!  I also learned that it's Connie's fault any time there is a large lag time between books because Traci said it takes her about 2 months to write a book unless she and Connie are goofing off.  hahaha

The Shooting Range

At my Uncle Bert's funeral in July, they told stories of him teaching his kids/grandkids to shoot a gun.  He was the range master at the Scofield Boy Scout Camp for years.  Ethan really wanted to learn to shoot so Bryan told him to ask my dad about teaching him.  So, while I was gone to a wedding, Dad took Bryan and Ethan shooting at a local shooting range.  Mom took Courtney shopping, so everyone was happy!

Ethan had a GREAT time!  And he did really well shooting too.  The only funny thing was that he would shoot left handed but aim using his right eye.  They had him try shooting right handed too.  The first picture shows his funny aim stance. 

Ethan shooting:

 The target:

 Shooting right handed:

 Grandpa and Ethan getting ready:

 Shooter Ethan:

iPod Lessons

I am completely paranoid when it comes to electronic devices.  Our bishop once shared with me that we had a few kids in the ward with problems with pornography because they were given phones without filters.  So I investigated a lot before we let Ethan buy the iPod Touch.  I even changed our router so it's now filtering content that is allowed in our home by wireless devices.  (Super easy to do if you go to http://www.opendns.com/ and it's free!)

When the iPod Touch came I disabled everything, put passwords/codes on everything and basically made it so it would only play a few games.  But I didn't disable this little thing called "In Apps" because I had no idea what it was or what it did. 

Well, last week I was balancing our checkbook and was amazed that there were $73.00 worth of charges from the iTunes store.  I flipped out!  I called Bryan asking where the iPod Touch was because we take it away at night so he can't stay up playing.  I tried to figure out what he had downloaded but couldn't figure it out by looking at the device so I called iTunes and was told to go online.  After about 30 minutes, I got on a chat with a very nice man from iTunes who explained that "In Apps" are offers in games that, when accepted, are charged to the credit card on file.  These are things such as extra coins to complete a level or an upgrade to a helicopter in a flight simulator games...yup....$73 worth of upgrades. 

Since I was stupid and didn't know what they were, the very nice man reversed all the charges and walked me through the process of taking that feature off and blocking anything else from coming up.  That is the first time I was really happy to be completely clueless!

When I picked up Ethan and his friends at school, I told them, "Guys, I learned something today that I want to teach to you too.  Now, no one is in trouble but it's something you all need to know."  I then explained what I had learned about in apps and they were shocked.  It was actually pretty funny because they know how much money $73 is.  Now Ethan is really careful about how he uses his iPod Touch, so maybe something good came of it!!

In the beginning of July, Ethan decided he wanted to get an iPod Touch.  We weren't about to buy one for him so he brainstormed to figure out how he could make some money.  His bright idea was to ask Grandpa Oman if he had any work for him to do.  Now, these are not the paying parents that I had growing up.  Our lawn was HUGE and I had to mow it just because I was a part of the family.  Their lawn now is A LOT smaller and Ethan gets paid big bucks to mow it!

Anyway, so for a few weeks, I drove Ethan over to my parents house so he could mow the lawn, pull weeds, cut down trees, etc.  They worked him hard and in about 3 1/2 weeks he had earned enough for an older generation iPod Touch off of eBay.  But my dad still calls each week asking if his "lawn care servicer" could come and mow his lawn.  Ethan is in heaven!

He told us that he would actually mow our lawn for free if we would just get a self-propelled lawn mower like Grandpa because "this pushing thing is just too hard."  hahaha!

Ethan's Lawn Care Service

In the beginning of July, Ethan decided he wanted to get an iPod Touch.  We weren't about to buy one for him so he brainstormed to figure out how he could make some money.  His bright idea was to ask Grandpa Oman if he had any work for him to do.  Now, these are not the paying parents that I had growing up.  Our lawn was HUGE and I had to mow it just because I was a part of the family.  Their lawn now is A LOT smaller and Ethan gets paid big bucks to mow it!

Anyway, so for a few weeks, I drove Ethan over to my parents house so he could mow the lawn, pull weeds, cut down trees, etc.  They worked him hard and in about 3 1/2 weeks he had earned enough for an older generation iPod Touch off of eBay.  But my dad still calls each week asking if his "lawn care servicer" could come and mow his lawn.  Ethan is in heaven!

He told us that he would actually mow our lawn for free if we would just get a self-propelled lawn mower like Grandpa because "this pushing thing is just too hard."  hahaha!

Home Depot

On the first Saturday of each month we do parent's interviews.  Bryan and I switch off taking one child to breakfast and the other to ice cream.  We switch the next month.  This month it was my turn to take Ethan to breakfast and Courtney to ice cream.

Ethan needed to build something for a scout badge so we went to breakfast and then drove to Home Depot to meet up with Bryan and Courtney, who had ridden their bikes from our house to Home Depot.  They used the tag-along and had a great time!

Bryan then went to work for a bit while we painted and built!  It was a lot of fun.

Pack Meeting

We had Pack Meeting last night.  Ethan got a couple more badges (traveler and fitness).  He is working on a few more and should have his Weeblos badge next month!

They played a few relay games afterward and Courtney had to get in there and play with the boys.  It was hilarious.  Ethan and Courtney are good with each other.  Ethan is really patient and Courtney is really excited.

Here is Ethan getting his awards:

 Getting ready for the relay (notice that Courtney is the only non-scout playing):

Ethan's Swimming Lessons

Ethan had a choice this year whether he wanted to take swimming lessons or not.  He had already passed all the classes that the teacher offered but he wanted lessons again.  Like I have said, our kids love the water!

The teacher actually taught 2 classes to the students instead of just one.  Ethan was the youngest, by far, but he did really well and passed both classes.  She had them learn life saving and life guarding saving techniques.  So Ethan ended up having to jump in the water fully dressed (he had to wear Bryan's clothes because he didn't have any pants...it's summer!) and then inflate his shirt and pants to use as floatation devices.  It was fun to watch!

If he wants to take more swimming lessons he will have to wait until he is 12 before he can do the Guard Start program that is a pre-training for life guards.  We'll see how he feels next year.

Here is his front crawl:

Above is a picture of Ethan in Bryan's clothes before he jumps in.  He actually lost the pants before he could fill up his shirt with air.  He had to dive to the bottom to get the pants before he could inflate them and float.  It was hilarious!

Here is Ethan being rescued.  I never saw anyone so happy to pretend to drown!

Courtney's Swimming Lessons

Our kids LOVE the water and are little fish!  Courtney was so excited to be doing swimming lessons again this year.  We have an amazing teacher who has a great pool in her backyard.  It's about a 20 minute drive from our house (using a short cut through Snow Canyon State Park) but it's so worth it!

Courtney was supposed to work on her rotary breathing and she did a pretty good job.  She passed the level but her teacher recommended having her repeat it next year just to get stronger on the skills.  And she can't wait for next year!

Here is her front crawl:

Here is our cute mermaid:

 

 Falling asleep doing the back float:

 Diving: