Geckathon

Every year, Lava Ridge Intermediate does their own Geckathon.  It's a triathlon the kids participate in and look forward to.  They only allow 40 girls and 40 boys to compete and you need to have parent permission and teacher permission.  The school gives the interested kids forms that they have to get their parents to sign and their teachers to sign.  The first 40 girls and the first 40 boys were allowed to compete.  Courtney was so anxious that she went to school early the next day to get all the teacher signatures.  I think her paper was the 2nd one handed in.

Bryan has taken her to the pool and had her bike and run a time or two to let her practice.  She felt she was ready to go but...she was pretty nervous this morning.  It was a 300 meter swim, about 3 mile bike ride (a little less) and a 2 mile run.

This was Courtney's face before the swim began at the SHAC:

Yup, she was nervous.  I think it was all so new to her (she has participated in triathlons before but not one for the school and at these distances) and things were really well marked, so she wasn't sure what was going on.

But she started her swim and did great.  They had 5 girls in her lane at once and they all started at the same time...kind of.  The teacher in charge asked "Is everyone ready?" and they started swimming.  He gave up and just let them go.  Courtney started at the back but passed a couple of girls and was number 4 out of the pool.

Here is her swim (it's over 6 minutes long, so you don't have to watch the entire thing unless you want to).  Courtney is in a bright pink swim suit and a green swim cap (but I guess you already knew that from the previous photo):

Her transition was kind of slow.  They had everyone go into the changing room and I think she got distracted talking with some of the other girls.  But she came out and got on the bike.  She used my road bike so it was lighter and easier to ride for her.

She took a bit longer than we anticipated she would but she finished the bike in 6th or 7th place.

Courtney handed her bike off and started running.  She did great on her first lap but got a bit of a side ache on the second lap.

She finished strong and with a time of approximately 51:43.  We aren't sure how she placed.  We think it was 6th or 7th.  And we know that at least 3 of the girls ahead of her were 7th graders.

Here is her finish:

Courtney was happy to be finished:

I am so glad she wanted to do the Geckathon.  A bunch of her friends told her they want to do it with her next year.  What a great motivator she is!

Dry Wall

The work on the walls in our bedroom are coming along.  Bryan put up most of the drywall, fixed the outlets and moved the pipe.

18 years!

I can't believe I forgot to post a picture of the roses Bryan bought me for our 18th anniversary.  He bought me flowers, took me to dinner and gave me a coupon for a professional massage.  I was spoiled!

Youth Conference

We got approval for the location for youth conference and the youth committee decided they need to take a trip to "check the place out."  I got approval from the Stake Presidency, call the owner and got everything arranged.  We left the Stake Center on Saturday around 9:15 a.m.  There were only 2 leaders and 6 youth, so we fit all in one vehicle.

It was a fun drive up to Brian Head and the roads were fine.  We met the owner at their rental shop and loaded into her 4x4 to get to the lodge.  It had snowed so the road was closed.  Her husband had plowed the road so we could get up there.  We got to the road and she tried to engage the 4 wheel drive but we don't think it really engaged because we were sliding all over the place on the way up.  We even slid and hit a rock.  The other leader and I were so nervous because we had 6 youth with us!

But we made the 3 miles just fine and got to this amazing lodge.  It was like glam-ping!  They have a bunk house, hotel, 12 cabins and 12 yurts (that are super nice).  The youth were so excited after seeing everything.

The best part is that the people have a pet deer...yes, I wrote that correctly.  They have a pet deer named "Thunder" that thinks it's a dog.  If you didn't pay attention to it, it would nudge you until you would pet it.  Crazy!

On the ride down the mountain the 4 wheel drive was engaged so we didn't slip but I was still nervous.  We made it home safe and sound and now the kids are so excited for youth conference.  I think that was a the best idea they have had so far!

This is the website it case anyone wants to see where we will be:  SML Resorts

I still got it!

Courtney has been taking a keyboarding class at school and was so excited that she has increased her words per minute.  It made me think about the time I won a hotel stay with a typing contest.  I won by typing 93 wpm.  I was curious to see how fast I type now (18 years after that contest).  The kids helped me find a typing test online so they could see if I really type that fast.  They had serious doubts that I could actually type 93 wpm.

I won't lie, I was nervous because, although I type a lot during the day, I wasn't sure I was still as fast as I used to be.  I was absolutely correct, I don't type the same speed I used to....I type FASTER!!

Yup!  I still got it!!

My typing speed was 106 with 7 errors (93% accuracy)  for 99 wpm.  (I printed the report out so I would have it as proof.)

The kids were speechless and, honestly, so was I.  😲

End of Season Banquet

Last night we had the Flying Monkeys End of Season Banquet and awards ceremony.  It was really fun to see highlights of the year and to hear how all the Monkeys had done this season.  They are a great team and there are around 144 kids who bike with the Monkeys.  The coaches are great and so are all the ride leaders.  They really care about the kids and put so much time into making it all a great experience.

At the end of the night, they had all the Monkeys do one last "Monkey Cheer."  It actually makes you kind of emotional when you know all the goes into making this team a success and how inclusive they are to everyone.

At the end of the night they gave each athlete a frame with an individual photo, team photo and their bike race plate.  One of the coaches is a professional photographer, so she takes pictures at every race.  She catalogs them by race plate and then puts those photos together and each kid gets their own zip drive that is engraved with the Flying Monkeys logo, the athlete's name and their race plate number.  The zip driv was taped on the back of their frame.  It was so neat.

One year down, 3 more to go!

Courtney Concoction

In case you were wondering...yes...we are still battling Courtney's hatred of stir fry.  I still make stir fry and she is still forced to eat it although she tells us that she will "hurl", "barf" and "throw up" if we make her.

The other day I made stir fry.  I knew a battle was coming and put Bryan on alert that I didn't have the energy to fight her so it would be all him.  After hearing her cry for a long time he asked her what she would like him to eat in exchange.  She said, "Would you drink a Courtney concoction?"  He told her he would and I really don't think he knew what that meant.

When Courtney was little, she and her best friend would make horrible creations in the kitchen.  They never ate anything because they were so awful but they used to giggle and make all kinds of horrible mixes.

Courtney had no problem at all eating her stir fry and got right to work making a concoction.  And it was vile!  She mixed milk, ketchup and lemon juice.  And then Bryan drank it!!

Here's the video:  (if you don't have a strong stomach, I wouldn't watch)

I think she was a little too gleeful as she was putting her dad through the horrors of drinking a Courtney concoction.  Bryan set some ground rules for next time.  She can't make him drink anything she wouldn't drink herself.

What an awesome dad!  You couldn't have paid me to drink that stuff!!

State Championships for Flying Monkeys

On November 5th we had the State High School Mountain Biking Championships in St. George.  It was a lot of fun and was the last race of the season.

The way the high school racing works is that they have 4 races in the regular season.  After the last race, the lowest time is dropped and, if a biker finished all 4 races, an additional 25 points was added to his/her score.  Ethan finished 44th out of 73 racers in the Southern Region Freshman Division.

State Championships are considered their own race and it combines the North and South Divisions, so there are A LOT of kids racing!  Ethan had bike problems on his last lap (his back tire tried to fall off and his gears were being weird).  He finished 102nd but I don't know how many raced.  But we were really happy for all the hard work he put into it!

We loved having the race in our home town because it made it so we didn't have to travel as far.  It was great because he had a 8:15 a.m. race start and had to be there by 7 a.m. to warm up.  He is an amazing racer and we are so happy with all the hard work he has put in this year.

The sun was coming up so these videos aren't the best, but here is Ethan's start.  Remember:  look for the green helmet.

End of lap 1:

Finish:

Here are some photos:

Teenaged Son

Garfield made me laugh today because I can relate.

Halloween 2016

Monday morning I was dreading Halloween!  Courtney had piano lessons and soccer practice.  Ethan was supposed to unload insulation with the young men and have his final mountain bike practice.  We had a neighborhood potluck and I was going to be running around getting everyone where they needed to be. Because Ethan was going to be across town unloading insulation, the carpool to mountain biking wasn't going to work. But it all worked out wonderfully!!

Halloween snuck up on us.  I had a cookie order from a friend who always buys my sugar cookies for her son's class party.  I had thought to make and freeze them last week so that was done.  But I had to run errands in the morning which included finding candy and a pumpkin.  All the pumpkins at the grocery stores looked horrible so I asked the produce guy at Harmons if they had any pie pumpkins that were small-ish but were perfectly shaped.  He went in the back and brought me the best pumpkin ever!  I went to the party store and bought some small candy that was on clearance and we were all set.

Ethan wasn't going to get dinner so I decided to run to Jimmy Johns to buy him dinner and put it in his locker so he would have it after school.  I finished that, dropped some invites off to the high school to invite their administration to the State Championships on Saturday, and then ran home to wait for Courtney.  I ran her to piano and then got a text that said "Insulation truck broke down we will unload tomorrow."  I was so happy!

I picked Courtney up from piano and ran her to soccer.  They had a fun practice with their costumes.

Ethan went to hang out with friends until it was time for mountain biking and then the carpool was able to take him there.  They actually just rode to a coach's house and had donuts and goofed off.  But it was a fun ride, Ethan said.

Courtney is a nerd!

While he was gone, Bryan, Courtney and I went to the neighborhood potluck and had a lot of fun with our friends/neighbors.  The kids loved getting together to go trick-or-treating as a group.  Courtney went off with her friends while Bryan and I went home to hand out candy.  I handed out candy while we watched a movie.

Ethan got home, put on his costume and then went to hang out with friends.  I can't remember what he is but he loved it.

They came home tired but they had a lot of fun and my day had been great.  Just by having the insulation truck break down it made life so much easier for me.  Sad, but so true!

Oh, and the Halloween fairy came so Courtney has her 10 pieces of candy and the fairy took the rest.  But not before she left some lip balm and 2 bottles of nail polish.  What a deal!

Sunday afternoon Selfie

I am blaming the red face on the race Saturday at Eagle Mountain.  It was super windy and I got a wind burn.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

It's pays off...

Ethan made a commitment to himself to go to the Wednesday night activities, when there was one planned, instead of going to mountain bike practice.  He made it a goal for his Duty to God.  This was really put to the test in September when the youth were asked to dance in the Ivins Heritage Day parade.  Only 10 youth ended up dancing (they even called to see if Courtney would dance because not enough YM or YW would) and Ethan wasn't very happy.

I hope this works.  Here is a video a friend posted on Facebook.  Ethan is the grumpy looking dancer on the right: Video #1  Here is another video she posted from another angle (he is still the grumpy dancer on the right): Video #2 

Anyway, the reason I am bringing this up again is that they won this...

Yup, they won 1st place in the parade and $100.  The leader decided to divide the money between those who participated so Ethan got $10 for his pain and suffering. ;) That's a reward in my book!

Eagle Mountain Race #2

Since the Vernal race was cancelled for mountain biking, they put a second race at Eagle Mountain to make up for it.  It's crazy because we now to have 3 bike races in 3 weeks but it's the end of the season and you get extra points if you finish all 4 races.  Since the team had been on this course earlier in the season, the coaches decided not to pre-ride and encouraged the kids to not miss school on Friday.

We woke up early Saturday morning (since Ethan wasn't riding until the afternoon) and drove up to Eagle Mountain.  Ethan was anxious because he was nervous something would happen and we wouldn't get there but we did just fine.  The road out to the course is HORRIBLE!  It's dirt and huge bolder rocks that you have to make sure you don't high center on.  But we made it!

Courtney and Bryan also had their bikes so while Ethan was getting ready to ride, they went on a bike ride of their own.

You can see them in this drone video of the girls race.  (Fast forward to about 5:30 and on the right you will see 2 riders in the trees.  At about 5:35 they are shown and Courtney is in a bright green-blue helmet.
Drone of Girls Race

Courtney had a lot of fun because we brought her bike.  This has been a learning season for us.  We now know better what we need to bring and what we don't need.

Bryan went down by the staging area to see Ethan and got some pictures of him.  I am so glad he wanted to spray paint his helmet bright green.  It is so much easier to find him in a crowd.

Here is the video Courtney took of his start as he came past us.

This is the video of his first lap passing us.

This is the video of his finish.  He was frustrated because he was going good until his chain skipped when he shifted.  It caused him to almost fall and it slowed him down so he was passed by a few riders.  But he finished well and did a great job on the race.

This is the drone footage of Ethan's race.
Ethan's race
The start of his race is at 2:48.  Look for his bright green helmet with the black racing kit on.  You can see him really well starting at 4:38 coming near the red barrier that says "CLIF" on it on the left hand side of the screen.  The drone flies over him at 5:08 and you don't see him until 8:25 when he is at the bottom of the screen (the kid in front of him gives a thumbs up to the drone).  That's a rough uphill because it is single track and they couldn't pass.  I think that's all the drone footage of Ethan, Bryan and Courtney.

At the end of the season, which was this race, the lowest score was dropped and 25 points were added to the scores of those riders who completed all 4 races.  Going into this race, Ethan was ranked 33rd out of 72 riders in the southern division.  After the lowest races were dropped and the extra 25 points were added, Ethan ended up 44th in his division.  That's awesome!  Last year at this time he was in a cast from his toes to his hip and was using crutches.  I think he should be very happy with how well he has done.

State Championships are in St. George on November 5th and Ethan races at 8:15 or 8:20 a.m.  It will be his final race of the season.  There is a banquet for all the riders and then a "Bike Prom/Stomp" which is a dance at the end.  The Flying Monkey's have their own end of the season banquet in a few weeks.  I am so glad he wanted to do this and he says he wants to continue next year.

It rained!

Courtney and her friends got caught in the rain on their way home from school.  They were biking so they could hurry but they were still soaked.  She loved it because Ethan had a photo like this also when he was biking home from Lava Ridge.

Office

I just realized that I haven't ever posted this.  It happened at the beginning of August so it's old news but I wanted it here for our family history.

Bryan's lease was up and he and his partner didn't want to renew it so Bryan moved to a new office. Everything is exactly the same as it was, he is just practicing in a new building with different guys. He took Bryan J. Pack PC and went in house with Bingham, Snow & Caldwell.  His partner decided to go with another firm in town.  So now Bryan is at the BS&C offices on St. George Boulevard.  He is working as an attorney at the firm and also as the Executive Director to get the firm more organized.

The kids, my dad and I helped Bryan move things from his old office to the new one.  They already had furniture for him so we had to move his office stuff home and then take his files and computer stuff to the new office.

His view is of the Boulevard and also a funeral home. ;)

He doesn't use three screens...just two...but it takes a lot of wiring to get it all put together.

Ethan was bored.

If you want to check out their website it's at BS&C.

Our Flying Monkey

One of the coaches for the Flying Monkey's is a professional photographer.  After each race, she will post a few photos of each of the team members.  I don't know if I have posted this before so forgive me if they are a repeat of what you have already seen.

Photos from Powder Mountain:

Photos from the first Eagle Mountain Race. 

Photos from the Soldier Hollow Race.

She hasn't posted any from the 2nd race at Eagle Mountain last weekend.  I was told that at the end of the season banquet for the Flying Monkeys, she gives everyone a flash drive with all the photos on it.  She is an amazing photographer and such a nice person.