The Bishop called a Trek Historian to go with the youth and take pictures to record the entire experience. She took over 1000 pictures and gave us access to them. I went through and found all the pictures of the kids and put the best ones into our own slide show so family can see.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Haircut
Courtney has been dying to get her hair cut short but we have been busy and haven't taken the time. The last time she got a shorter haircut I took her to Great Clips because we couldn't find anyone who had time to cut her hair. It ended up uneven and then we had to spend extra money on getting it fixed. This time we went to our regular hairdresser and Courtney LOVES her new cut!
I think it turned out really cute. She cut about 3 inches off.
I think it turned out really cute. She cut about 3 inches off.
Ethan's Job
Ethan decided on Friday that he wanted a job. He looked on indeed.com to find something and applied for a job at Staples (he really wants to be Dwight) and a job at Fiesta Fun Center. He filled out the online applications and sent them in and then began the wait. He told me on Monday that he was giving them until Tuesday and then he would call to find out the status of his applications.
I saw a posting online on Tuesday morning saying that Fiesta Fun was having open interviews on Tuesday from noon-4 p.m. and mentioned it to Ethan. He said he was going to get there at noon so he could get a quick interview.
I went to shower and by the time I got done, Ethan had received a call from Fiesta Fun asking him to come in to interview at 12:30 pm. He got ready (he even wore pants, so you can tell he really wanted the job), took a copy of his resume, and drove to Fiesta Fun.
They brought him in, asked him about himself ("How would you describe yourself?"), and then hired him on the spot. He will be a ride attendant outside with the bumper boats, go carts, and mini golf. He is so excited about it.
While he was at that interview, the people from Staples called asking if he would come in and interview for them. He decided he would like Fiesta Fun a lot more so he declined. I told him that it generally doesn't happen that way. Usually, you have to apply for a bunch of jobs before you get an interview, but in his case, he got 2 interviews from the 2 places he applied to. And he isn't working fast food, which is what he wanted to avoid.
It will be a fun job. He goes through training this week for 15 hours and then he will be put on a schedule (we assume). They use an app so you can see who needs you to work for them and you can sign up for their hours, so Ethan is hoping he can pick up hours that way.
After his review period is over, he will get a raise and then after 60 days he will get another raise if he doesn't have any marks against him. I think it's a perfect job for him.
He has been on the internet all day finding things he wants to save his money for so he can buy them. That is the kind of math he finds useful!
I saw a posting online on Tuesday morning saying that Fiesta Fun was having open interviews on Tuesday from noon-4 p.m. and mentioned it to Ethan. He said he was going to get there at noon so he could get a quick interview.
I went to shower and by the time I got done, Ethan had received a call from Fiesta Fun asking him to come in to interview at 12:30 pm. He got ready (he even wore pants, so you can tell he really wanted the job), took a copy of his resume, and drove to Fiesta Fun.
They brought him in, asked him about himself ("How would you describe yourself?"), and then hired him on the spot. He will be a ride attendant outside with the bumper boats, go carts, and mini golf. He is so excited about it.
While he was at that interview, the people from Staples called asking if he would come in and interview for them. He decided he would like Fiesta Fun a lot more so he declined. I told him that it generally doesn't happen that way. Usually, you have to apply for a bunch of jobs before you get an interview, but in his case, he got 2 interviews from the 2 places he applied to. And he isn't working fast food, which is what he wanted to avoid.
It will be a fun job. He goes through training this week for 15 hours and then he will be put on a schedule (we assume). They use an app so you can see who needs you to work for them and you can sign up for their hours, so Ethan is hoping he can pick up hours that way.
After his review period is over, he will get a raise and then after 60 days he will get another raise if he doesn't have any marks against him. I think it's a perfect job for him.
He has been on the internet all day finding things he wants to save his money for so he can buy them. That is the kind of math he finds useful!
Driving
I took Ethan out to get him more comfortable driving the CRX since it is a manual. We drove to Kayenta because there isn't much out there and the roads are windy. The AC controls are broken so we had the windows down. He stalled out quite a few times but there weren't very many people on the road so it wasn't too bad, or so I thought.
We got home and this is what his back looked like:
I thought it was from being hot in the car but Ethan said he was nervous and sweating bullets. He will get it. I remember how frustrating it was for me but I didn't have a choice. Ethan has a choice unless I need the van for carpool, but I think it's easier if he just learns to drive stick. Plus, it's a fun car to drive!
We got home and this is what his back looked like:
I thought it was from being hot in the car but Ethan said he was nervous and sweating bullets. He will get it. I remember how frustrating it was for me but I didn't have a choice. Ethan has a choice unless I need the van for carpool, but I think it's easier if he just learns to drive stick. Plus, it's a fun car to drive!
Pine Creek Canyon
Once again, Ethan's quorum was going on an adventure. This will be the last one until July when they go to San Diego on a temple trip, but that won't be strenuous.
Bryan went with them and had a blast. He thinks this is his most favorite hike/repel in Zion. Ethan liked it but he was kind of hiked-out so it wasn't as fun for him, although he seemed to enjoy himself in the videos.
They started by going to Zion Outfitters and getting gear. They needed wetsuits, booties, hiking boots, and helmets. When they had their gear, they drove to the trailhead, which is just on the other side of the tunnel. Then they got dressed and began.
This hike was a series of repels and water crossings/swims. Bryan took pictures and they are so beautiful.
They had enough gear that they didn't have to keep trading things around so it went quicker.
Bryan's repel:
Bryan went with them and had a blast. He thinks this is his most favorite hike/repel in Zion. Ethan liked it but he was kind of hiked-out so it wasn't as fun for him, although he seemed to enjoy himself in the videos.
They started by going to Zion Outfitters and getting gear. They needed wetsuits, booties, hiking boots, and helmets. When they had their gear, they drove to the trailhead, which is just on the other side of the tunnel. Then they got dressed and began.
This hike was a series of repels and water crossings/swims. Bryan took pictures and they are so beautiful.
They had enough gear that they didn't have to keep trading things around so it went quicker.
Here is a video of what the slot canyon looked like:
Bryan's repel:
Ethan's repel:
Courtney's New Bed
Bryan bought Courtney a new bed. She has been sleeping with her mattress just on the floor so he had her choose a bed. He ordered it months ago and it finally came (in 2 boxes). Courtney was anxious so she and I put it together. I only had 4 screws left over afterward, which I thought was really good for IKEA.
She loves the bed and it is reversible so she can have a canopy-type bed too. But she likes the loft. It isn't too tall that it interferes with the ceiling fan so it's perfect.
She loves the bed and it is reversible so she can have a canopy-type bed too. But she likes the loft. It isn't too tall that it interferes with the ceiling fan so it's perfect.
Dentist
The fun part of the summer...the dentist appointment. The kids don't have cavities but Ethan is really long on that dentist chair! Courtney got a rubber ducky as a prize and Ethan got a rubber Froggie that squeaks.
Hammock
Courtney bought herself a hammock months ago and wanted to use it as a bed in her room. When that idea didn't work out I went and got some hammock straps so she would sit outside and enjoy the weather. She loves to sit out there and read a book, which is something I always loved growing up. It is under the tree in the backyard so it is in the shade much of the day. Ethan also loves playing in it.
Chess
Ethan found the best opponent to play chess against...himself.
Yes, that's his arm sticking out from under the covers as he plays chess with himself. You gotta love Sunday afternoons.
Yes, that's his arm sticking out from under the covers as he plays chess with himself. You gotta love Sunday afternoons.
Ethan's Trip
When the kids turn 16 years old they get a trip with Bryan anywhere they want. Ethan researched what he wanted and decided that mountain biking in Park City is the best vacation he could ever have. So we planned it for him.
While Courtney and I were at girls camp, the boys went to Park City mountain biking. They had so much fun. They stayed in a little condo with a small kitchen so they could make their own food. It had a pool too. They spent 3 days on the mountain bike trails and loved every minute.
Turn your head sideways to watch this one.
We beat them home but it was fun to hear their stories.
While Courtney and I were at girls camp, the boys went to Park City mountain biking. They had so much fun. They stayed in a little condo with a small kitchen so they could make their own food. It had a pool too. They spent 3 days on the mountain bike trails and loved every minute.
Turn your head sideways to watch this one.
We beat them home but it was fun to hear their stories.
Stake Girls Camp
We had Stake Girls Camp on June 12-16. The Stake leaders and YCL girls went up on Tuesday, June 12th with the wards following on Wednesday, June 13th. It was nice to get out of the heat and into the mountains but it was a lot of work.
On Monday, June 11th, we asked all 40 YCL girls to meet us at the Center Street Church so we would load their stuff. We didn't have a trailer this year but our high councilman was able to get us a 15 passenger van which he took all the seats out of. The girls brought their bag, sleeping bag, cot (if they were using one), sleeping pad, pillow, and camp chair to the Church. Our high councilman is a master at playing tetrus. He got everyone's stuff in the van! It was a tight fit, but he did it!
On Tuesday morning we all met at the Stake Center to figure out how to get all the girls up the mountain. It's quite the task to get 40 girls and 20 leaders to girls camp.
I had to take a before picture because we weren't showering or anything until Saturday.
Camp Little Thunder is awesome. We have flush toilets, water spigots at each campsite, graded and graveled tent sites, and covered picnic areas. This year they even had poles above the amphitheater where we could string tarps so we had shade. That's what we spent 3 hours doing. It ended up only lasting a day because it was so windy up there during the day that the tarps created too much noise. We had to take them down We weren't using the amphitheater that much anyway.
With 40 YCl girls, we had a lot of help unloading and setting up the Stake camp.
Tuesday night we had a testimony meeting with the Stake leaders and YCLs. That is the meeting I love because we get to hear from the girls and we don't get to when it's Friday testimony meeting because those are done within their wards. So this is our chance and I love it.
Now, I wasn't prepared for how cold it was at night at camp. I had my mummy bag and figured that would be plenty (along with my coat). But I froze!! One leader had a thermometer and said it was 28 degrees when she woke up. It quickly heated up but it started out really cold.
We had the best cooks who fed us really well. And the girls, although there were 40 of them and there is always drama, did a great job of helping out and being cheerful.
The wards started arriving at 9:30 Wednesday morning and it was fun to greet them. Courtney didn't want too much to do with me so I did everything I could to embarrass her. haha!
The basics of what happened at camp were: rotations, rotations, more rotations, Friday bishop rotations, Friday spiritual night, camp clean up, leave Saturday. The rotations taught about how to be nice to others (break the mean girl cycle), games, art projects, feather headband creation, dutch oven cooking, geocaching, and first aid. The bishops always come up Friday afternoon to play games and teach the girls. Those are great because the girls get to hang out with their wards and see their bishops.
Thursday night we had a movie night that was The Greatest Showman. The girls loved it and sang along. There were only 10 out of all 200 that hadn't seen it before so they all knew the words. And they would yell at the screen and swoon. It was hilarious to watch it with them.
Our Friday spiritual night speaker was Sylvia Allan who taught the girls about scripture study. She was a great speaker and so gracious to drive from Springville to Cedar Mountain to speak to the girls. They loved it.
I had a lot of fun and every time I checked on Courtney, she was having fun too. Clean up and check out on Saturday went so quickly and really well. The missionary couple over the camp was laid back and easy to work with. Last year it took us 3 hours to check out because they kept wiping the backs of the toilet with white gloves and making us clean them again. This time the couple didn't even check the bathrooms. They trusted us because the girls had been so good at keeping them clean all week. It was great.
Now we have to think about next summer and youth conference!
On Monday, June 11th, we asked all 40 YCL girls to meet us at the Center Street Church so we would load their stuff. We didn't have a trailer this year but our high councilman was able to get us a 15 passenger van which he took all the seats out of. The girls brought their bag, sleeping bag, cot (if they were using one), sleeping pad, pillow, and camp chair to the Church. Our high councilman is a master at playing tetrus. He got everyone's stuff in the van! It was a tight fit, but he did it!
On Tuesday morning we all met at the Stake Center to figure out how to get all the girls up the mountain. It's quite the task to get 40 girls and 20 leaders to girls camp.
I had to take a before picture because we weren't showering or anything until Saturday.
Camp Little Thunder is awesome. We have flush toilets, water spigots at each campsite, graded and graveled tent sites, and covered picnic areas. This year they even had poles above the amphitheater where we could string tarps so we had shade. That's what we spent 3 hours doing. It ended up only lasting a day because it was so windy up there during the day that the tarps created too much noise. We had to take them down We weren't using the amphitheater that much anyway.
With 40 YCl girls, we had a lot of help unloading and setting up the Stake camp.
Tuesday night we had a testimony meeting with the Stake leaders and YCLs. That is the meeting I love because we get to hear from the girls and we don't get to when it's Friday testimony meeting because those are done within their wards. So this is our chance and I love it.
Now, I wasn't prepared for how cold it was at night at camp. I had my mummy bag and figured that would be plenty (along with my coat). But I froze!! One leader had a thermometer and said it was 28 degrees when she woke up. It quickly heated up but it started out really cold.
We had the best cooks who fed us really well. And the girls, although there were 40 of them and there is always drama, did a great job of helping out and being cheerful.
The wards started arriving at 9:30 Wednesday morning and it was fun to greet them. Courtney didn't want too much to do with me so I did everything I could to embarrass her. haha!
The basics of what happened at camp were: rotations, rotations, more rotations, Friday bishop rotations, Friday spiritual night, camp clean up, leave Saturday. The rotations taught about how to be nice to others (break the mean girl cycle), games, art projects, feather headband creation, dutch oven cooking, geocaching, and first aid. The bishops always come up Friday afternoon to play games and teach the girls. Those are great because the girls get to hang out with their wards and see their bishops.
Thursday night we had a movie night that was The Greatest Showman. The girls loved it and sang along. There were only 10 out of all 200 that hadn't seen it before so they all knew the words. And they would yell at the screen and swoon. It was hilarious to watch it with them.
Our Friday spiritual night speaker was Sylvia Allan who taught the girls about scripture study. She was a great speaker and so gracious to drive from Springville to Cedar Mountain to speak to the girls. They loved it.
I had a lot of fun and every time I checked on Courtney, she was having fun too. Clean up and check out on Saturday went so quickly and really well. The missionary couple over the camp was laid back and easy to work with. Last year it took us 3 hours to check out because they kept wiping the backs of the toilet with white gloves and making us clean them again. This time the couple didn't even check the bathrooms. They trusted us because the girls had been so good at keeping them clean all week. It was great.
Now we have to think about next summer and youth conference!
Fat Man's Misery
So I just remembered that I didn't copy the photos from Bryan's camera onto my computer, so I have some catching up to do. So go back to May 19th for Fat Man's Misery hike.
They got up early, packed up, and took off to Zion. They decided to do a loop this year because having someone drive in to pick them up is the biggest pain in the world. This is a hike the boys love! They fight for the chance to go and I'm glad they have this great tradition.
They hike, play games, jump in a pool of frogs, and walk in some amazing slot canyons. It's beautiful.
After they get all wet and swim with the frogs, they play some crazy game that I don't understand.
Bryan is always the "unofficial" cameraman on these adventures and I am so glad he is because he gets some amazing videos and pictures.
Here is the game I don't get:
The hike out was brutal because it was in the sand and long but they had great weather. It was cool temperatures and cloud cover so they didn't have too bad of a time. It was a great experience.
They got up early, packed up, and took off to Zion. They decided to do a loop this year because having someone drive in to pick them up is the biggest pain in the world. This is a hike the boys love! They fight for the chance to go and I'm glad they have this great tradition.
They hike, play games, jump in a pool of frogs, and walk in some amazing slot canyons. It's beautiful.
After they get all wet and swim with the frogs, they play some crazy game that I don't understand.
Bryan is always the "unofficial" cameraman on these adventures and I am so glad he is because he gets some amazing videos and pictures.
Here is the game I don't get:
Here is Ethan's repel when he knocked a chunk of rock off and it almost hit his leader below:
The hike out was brutal because it was in the sand and long but they had great weather. It was cool temperatures and cloud cover so they didn't have too bad of a time. It was a great experience.
Socks
Courtney loves it when Ethan wears her birthday present to him. He has worn them each Sunday and has fun with them! This is a more tame pair.
Angel's Landing
Ethan's ym leaders are amazing and love to take the boys on hikes and adventures. They decided to hike Angel's Landing in Zion. There were 2 leaders and 5 boys who went. The reward they always give these boys is lunch at Wendy's and the boys can eat and eat. They love it and have a great time.
Here is the pic from the top:
Here is the pic from the top:
Chicken Hat
Our Stake Girls Camp theme is "Birds of a Feather." We are trying to have unity among the girls and teach them that, no matter what bird you are, you are still a bird! The Stake is an owl and the YCL girls are the flamingos. But we went rogue and decided to be the Mother Hens. So I made the knit hat and my counselor added the beak, head, and legs. I think they turned out really well!
Trek
Our ward did Trek this year as their youth conference. Because they only do it once every 6 years, they invited the Beehives and Deacons to go along. So both Ethan and Courtney were able to go. They didn't go to Wyoming because it is so expensive to get all our youth up there, so the leaders found a way to do a Trek in Pinto.
Ethan was in the Evan's family and Courtney was in the Lee family. They were well taken care of and they worked so hard.
Thursday morning we took them to the Stake Center to get ready to go. I was in charge of getting snack foods so the kids could make snack bags for themselves for later. Ethan and Courtney were happy to start...kind of.
Ethan and Courtney are on the back row by the carts on the right-hand side of the picture. What a good looking bunch of trekkers.
Did I say this wasn't completely authentic? The porta-potty that followed them on the trail.
On the video, Courtney is on the far right on the first cart and Ethan is on the far left on the second cart. Then you will be able to see them easily on the other video.
This was the first day (ignore the watermark, I had to cut a lot out of the video and this was the free program I used):
This is how Courtney made it home from Trek:
The kids had a good experience but they don't ever want to do Trek again. Ethan ended up helping pull the sick cart and there were some heavy kids in the sick cart. But it was a great learning experience.
Ethan was in the Evan's family and Courtney was in the Lee family. They were well taken care of and they worked so hard.
Thursday morning we took them to the Stake Center to get ready to go. I was in charge of getting snack foods so the kids could make snack bags for themselves for later. Ethan and Courtney were happy to start...kind of.
Ethan and Courtney are on the back row by the carts on the right-hand side of the picture. What a good looking bunch of trekkers.
Did I say this wasn't completely authentic? The porta-potty that followed them on the trail.
On the video, Courtney is on the far right on the first cart and Ethan is on the far left on the second cart. Then you will be able to see them easily on the other video.
This was the first day (ignore the watermark, I had to cut a lot out of the video and this was the free program I used):
On the last day of Trek (Saturday), all the ward members went to the Ence cabin at Pinto to welcome the families back and to have a ward party. I almost didn't recognize Courtney because she was so tan!
She wasn't in too good of a mood, as you can tell from the "talk to the hand" picture. She was exhausted and just wanted to go home. Unfortunately, Bryan was in charge of cooking the Dutch Oven potatoes for the ward party. This is what Courtney thought of that:
Here are their families after 3 days of Trek:
This is how Courtney made it home from Trek:
The kids had a good experience but they don't ever want to do Trek again. Ethan ended up helping pull the sick cart and there were some heavy kids in the sick cart. But it was a great learning experience.
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