Art Projects

Ethan is in Art 1010 (art appreciation).  The course requires him to take 4 tests and do 2 art projects.  He took the tests first so he had 2 art projects to complete.

His teacher doesn't give them much advanced notice (only about 4 days) so it's kind of crazy.  The project has to take 7 hours.  Along with creating art, Ethan had to have pictures taken of each step which he would use to make a PowerPoint presentation.  He also had to write a 500-word essay explaining his process and how the art he created fits into the teacher's expectations.

The first project was given to them on Halloween (Tuesday) and it was due Thursday morning.  It was kind of crazy.  Ethan was asked to create a 4-panel drawing/painting showing the 4 stages of love.  But they were asked to do it with a modern twist.

Ethan decided to draw panels showing Facebook and the 4 stages of falling in love using Facebook.  The first panel was "The Search," the second panel was "The Chat," the third panel was "The Post," and the fourth panel was of "The Status Change."

He did really well and earned full points for the project.  It was crazy busy for him to get it done in 2 days, especially when one was Halloween night!

The second project was a sculpture that he had to make beautiful and take pictures of.  He then had to change the sculpture into something either tacky, ugly, etc.

He was given this one on a Friday and it was due Tuesday, so he had more time to take care of it.  We went to Michael's and bought some sculpting clay and he started to make a man.

He decided to sculpt a man who was dressed nicely and then change him to be dressed in crazy colors.  It turned out great.  He hasn't received a grade yet on this one but it wasn't as crazy as the last one.

He needed pictures of himself buying stuff.

The nice looking man he sculpted:

The tacky guy:

Geckathon 2017

The Lava Ridge Intermediate Geckathon was last week!  Courtney signed up to do it again this year and convinced her best friend to do it with her.  She is a great job.

Courtney and her best friend before the swim:

Courtney was in lane 1:

The swim was 12 lengths (6 laps) at Sand Hollow Aquatics center.  She had a great swim and was the 2nd out of the pool.  Here is her swim if you want to watch it.  The video is 5 minutes long so I won't blame you at all if you don't watch it.

Courtney wanted to wait for her friend so she waited in the locker room for her friend to finish.  Then they came out of the locker room to their bikes together.  The only problem is that while they were changing, Bryan checked Courtney's bike tires and the back one was flat!  We had checked it that morning and we also checked it when I took it out of the van on the way to the event.  She was so bummed so I went home really fast to get her bike while she rode the flat one as far as she could.

I met up with them at the top of the lava flow and Bryan gave Courtney her other bike.

They had a great time biking.  This race was all about having fun for the two of them. 

They dropped their bikes and began the run around the school. They were hilarious on their matching soccer team jackets.

This is the video of their finish.  I'm glad they sprinted to the end.  They finished in 1:03 (I believe).  She will get her official time at the award ceremony next week.

It was a fun day and the weather was beautiful to do a triathlon.  I am so glad she did it!

Family Game

I got to choose the family game and I decided I wanted to play Wii Bowling.  I kicked everyone's cans!  So I decided to stop while I was ahead but the kids wanted to play Wii Baseball.  This got a bit chippy.  They both loved mouthing "Batter, out" when the other person got out.  It was hilarious.

Watch Ethan mouth the words of the announcer in these videos and then Courtney takes over and does it.  It was hilarious!  And watch how they pitch the ball.  They just wiggle their hands and the ball is thrown. 

Crazy Kids

We have some crazy kids.  There is never a dull moment around here.

Courtney likes having her hair braided crazy so it is wavy in the morning.



Ethan has a whipped cream mustache:

Monkey Banquet

We had the final season-end banquet for the Flying Monkeys.  It was sad but it was also a good time to say "goodbye" to everyone.  They held it at DSU.

They had a video with pictures of all the mountain bikers along with a video to the coach to tell him "thank you".  It was a great tribute to a man who has done a lot for these kids.

At the end, they did one final Monkey yell cheer.  It was so sad but we are excited to see how the next year will play out.  It will be fun to be with our own school.

Here is Ethan with his framed race plate and picture:

So Cute!

The other day Ethan and Courtney cuddled in her bed while Ethan read a book to Courtney.  It was so sweet to see and made my heart happy.  They may bug each other but they are the best of friends.

Who is taller?

We wanted to see if Ethan really is taller than Bryan or if it's just the hair that makes him appear taller.  We went into the laundry room to see and it turns out that...Bryan is just a hair taller than Ethan.  But it is really close!

Party

We have a family who used to live in our neighborhood who lost their little girl in an accident 4 years ago.  Each year to commemorate her birthday, they have a party and ask everyone to donate toys to the Toys for Tots program.  They have food, bounce houses, face painters, and tons of other games and activities for the kids.  Courtney had a lot of fun hanging out with her friends and having her face painted.

Cedar City Temple Open House

We went with Grandma and Grandpa Oman and Aunt Leigh Ann to the Cedar City Open House.  We went on a Saturday so we knew it would be busy but we went early enough in the day that it wasn't too bad.  The Temple is beautiful and has a lot of details in it that are really beautiful.

State Championships in Cedar City

The mountain biking State Championships were held in Cedar City this year.  It was great for us because we could go up that day and not have to spend the night.  Ethan didn't get to pre-ride the course but he wasn't too upset about that one.  He wasn't riding until the afternoon so we didn't go until later in the day.

We had to walk to the pit zone which was right on the side of the bike path.  It was great to watch the start from the pit zone and then walk a little way to watch the race.

Ethan and Courtney before the start of the race.  Ethan is always in a good mood when he is getting on his bike.

He had to ride 2 laps and this was during the first one.

We were waiting for our monkey to come by the finish line.

Courtney is in the middle of this pic on the rock.  This was a great place to watch the race.

He was all smiles after his last race as a Flying Monkey.  The season is over.

Cute Courtney!

Our mountain biker

They had the awards ceremony at SUU in their basketball arena.  They had a bunch of awards.  Our coach received the coach of the year award and one of our bike riders won the Spirit award.  It was an amazing night for the end of the Flying Monkeys.

Snow Canyon High School won third in the region and 5th in State and they were given trophies to take home.  They took a picture with all the kids on the Snow Canyon team (Ethan is in there somewhere).

The Flying Monkeys: 

Halloween 2017

Courtney was a bunny for Halloween!  She put on her PJs and went to school.  I am not sure how much work they got done but Courtney loved being in an easy costume.  And the PJ costumes are really in this year, so she was happy.



After school, her friend invited her to go to the mall with her to trick or treat.  It was really crowded so they didn't stay too long but they did have fun walking around as Bambi and Thumper. ;) 




We had our annual neighborhood Halloween party that evening.  We had to take hotdog buns and condiments.  It was great to see everyone and have time to talk to all our neighbors and meet new people who have moved in.  It is such a fun tradition.  They had bounce houses for the kids and a bunch of food. Each street is asked to bring something different and it is a huge potluck party.  So much fun!!

We went home, turned on the pumpkins and Courtney went trick or treating while Ethan did homework and handed out candy.  I wanted to hand out little toys or pencils. I have done this before and the kids have loved it.  This year, Ethan and Courtney told me not to do that because they thought we would get toilet papered if I did.  I caved and bought candy and we still had a huge bag of it left over at the end of the night.  Ugh!  Next year, I'm buying pencils!


Ethan had fun with some of Courtney's stuff when she got home.


He answered the door like this:


When Courtney got home, she had to divide up her candy.  She was allowed to keep 10 pieces of candy and then the rest would go to the Halloween Fairy.  Ethan wanted to help her with the process but kept stealing her candy.  She was not amused.


In order to stop himself from stealing from her, he had to curl up on the couch and try to pretend there wasn't candy 3 feet from him.


She had a hard time narrowing down what she wanted to keep and what she had to give away.  It was so hard when she got so many good pieces of candy.


The Halloween Fairy showed up and took away the candy on Halloween night.  She left a couple of canvases for Courtney to paint and a Lego for Ethan.  It was a fun Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

We don't carve our pumpkins until the day before Halloween because they go moldy really quickly in the hot sun.  I bought Courtney a small one that she could paint (and I got one for myself too) and I bought a huge one for Ethan to carve. 

This is what mine ended up looking like:

Courtney wanted to paint hers, so it ended up being a blue bunny.

Ethan had fun gutting and carving his pumpkin.

The final products:

Ward Court of Honor

Ethan only has a few merit badges left before he is finished.  They had a ward Court of Honor and he got a merit badge from scout camp.  It was a crazy night with a youth fireside, so we had to run from one place to another.