Huge Jimmy Johns!

Ethan absolutely loves Jimmy Johns #1 sandwich.  The other day he heard a commercial about a 16-inch sandwich and HAD TO GET ONE!

He was in 16-year-old HEAVEN!

Thanksgiving in Arvada!

We got to join Grandma and Grandpa Pack, Andrew and Jessica, and their girls for Thanksgiving this year and it was so much fun!!

Lizza was fascinated with Ethan and his 3DS.  She would just watch him and he would chat with her.  It was really cute.

Courtney had a blast being the big cousin and having the little girls to herself.  She played with them, read with them, and babysat them while we went to a movie one morning.

The swing is always a huge hit no matter how old you get.  Ethan pushed Courtney and then Courtney pushed the little girls.  It was fun to hear them all laugh.

We had to go bowling Thanksgiving morning because it's a long-held tradition.  It is so much fun to see everyone from Grandma and Grandpa's stake.  It wasn't as crowded as it has been in years past but we had a lot of fun bowling.  Bryan told the kids he would pay them for a certain amount of strikes in a row and it caused a lot of angst with Courtney.  I think Ethan ended up with money in the end but I can't remember for certain.

Because Ethan is getting so tall, we had to compare him to everyone who was around.  We think David will still have him in height but Ethan still has years that he could grow.

These cute three liked to cuddle under the blanket.  It was so much fun to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house, watching movies, playing games, and enjoying being together.

Pie Making

The combined young men/young women activity before Thanksgiving is always pie making.  This year the YM President sent me pics of Ethan.  I didn't get any of Courtney but she was there making a pie too and did an amazing job!

Ethan's pie was going to be pumpkin so he didn't fill it and we took it to Denver with us for Thanksgiving.  Courtney's pie was peach and she filled it but we cooked it in Denver.  They did a great job!!

Turkey Trot

Courtney decided she wanted to get out of running the mile for PE by....running the 5K Turkey Trot.  Yeah, I don't get the logic either, but it is what it is.

I met Courtney at the school so I could watch.  She and her friends were all running it and they were pretty cold in their running clothes.  But they soon warmed up and off they went. 

Here they are waiting for the start of the race.

There they go...

Courtney finished in good time (I can't remember her time right now) but she ran quickly.

Catch up

I am behind on posting so I will combine a few things.

This is what Courtney looks like after she has scared me almost to death.  Yes, she thought it was hilarious!  I...however...did NOT!

Courtney finished her skateboard in Shop class and brought it home.  Ethan loved it and wanted it.  She didn't agree with him but she let him hug it for a while.  I helped her take her wheels off her penny board and put them on the skateboard and then she painted it.  It's pretty wobbly but she still likes to ride it.

Courtney and I were shopping at Partyland for something (I can't remember now) and she found this face thing that she just had to try on.

While we were shopping for something I can't remember, we went into Lins and Courtney had some money burning a hole in her pocket.  So we went to the drink aisle and she found a gallon-sized Gatorade.  She just HAD TO HAVE IT!

Ethan's frame for his mountain bike stuff came in and he was excited to have it.  Yes, this is his "I'm smiling this way because I don't want my picture taken but I love my mom enough to humor her" smile.

Our young men and old men did a service project one Saturday.  They hauled rock into the backyard of a woman in our ward.  They did a great job! Ethan and Bryan are in there somewhere.

Snake Hollow Bike Park opened and Bryan and I went to the grand opening.  It is such a cool place.  They are preparing to build a NICA course also.  The sad thing is that it won't be ready for this season so Ethan won't get to race on it.  The park is right across the street from Snow Canyon High School.  It is always busy with kids biking and has made the national news with how great it is!

Lake Las Vegas

We LOVE going to Lake Las Vegas because it is a nice place without any casinos, smoke, or bad places.  It is just a resort like you would find at Lake Tahoe and it is so far out of town in Henderson, that you don't see the Strip or the bright lights.  It is so fun to go to and you can usually find a good deal.

We have been there a few times and decided to go for our anniversary trip.  The kids were fine being on their own and Ethan did a great job shuttling Courtney all over for her activities.  We left them money and they got pizza, Jimmy Johns, Swigs, and who knows what else. ;)

We left our house in the afternoon and made it to the Las Vegas Temple for a session.  I had forgotten how dark it gets so early in Vegas, and it was cold and windy.  The session was really small.  But the celestial room in the Las Vegas Temple is the most beautiful room I have ever seen.

After the session, we drove around to look at our old neighborhood and house.  It looked really sad.  The house wasn't the same and the grass had all been pulled up or died.  There were cars parked on the lawn area.  It was just sad.  It always makes me feel bad for the house.  I really liked that house and wouldn't have moved it to St. George if it were possible.  Oh well, we gave it a couple good years.

Then we went to the Westin at Lake Las Vegas to check in.  They had made some changes but it was still the same nice place.  Our room was on the 8th floor facing the lake.  Beautiful!

We were hungry so we drove to the Mall on Sunset for dinner then back to our room.  We were going to go to the hot tub but it was windy and cold.

Saturday morning was beautiful.  We went to breakfast at the hotel then went on a walk around.

This is the pool Courtney spent all her time at when we were here the previous 2 times.

As part of our resort fee, we had a free bike rental.  But it was only 1 bike per room. ;)  So we rented the other for $10.  It was cold but we warmed up once we started riding. 

We rode around a residential area and then turned around and went the other way.  We went around part of the Lake and ended up near the other hotel/resort area.  It was beautiful and so fun because there weren't a lot of people around.  The weather was gorgeous.

We went back to the room, got ready, and went shopping.  We both Christmas gifts and just looked around.  Then we went to the movie "First Man" which was really good.  I hated that all the mall stores were playing Christmas music because it isn't even Thanksgiving yet!

Because we had so much for breakfast, we decided to go to a late dinner.  We ended up at Cheesecake Factory.  The wait wasn't too bad for a Saturday night and we sat on the patio under the heat lamps.  It was good food and we had a good time.

We slept in Sunday, got ready, ate our leftovers, and then went home.  We got home right before the kids got home from Church.  It was a great little vacation to celebrate our anniversary.

Barber

Ethan was getting really shaggy and needed a haircut. Usually, I just buzz him.  But he was wanting to keep some of the curls on top and didn't want it so short.  But he hates it when we go to someone and they give him a "pretty boy haircut."  He hadn't found anyone that would listen to him when he told them how he wanted his hair cut.

Bryan knows a guy (that sounds mob-ish, doesn' it), who is a barber and said he would cut it any way Ethan wanted.  So I made an appointment and we decided to try it out. 

It was a gentleman's barber shop with a pool table and dark wood everywhere.  The guy was great with Ethan.  Ethan told him what he wanted and the guy agreed that "pretty boy haircuts" are a fad and look dumb.  So he started in on Ethan's cut.  It took a while and Ethan even got a straight razor finish, but it was worth it. Ethan looked really good and loved his new "Caesar" haircut.

Temple Toast

There is a wonderful mom in the ward who takes the girls to the temple each month at 5 am so they can do baptisms.  That early in the morning they actually only let each girl do 3 names.  I guess they have a lot of youth they have to get through before school starts.  When they finish doing baptisms, Kneaders gives each youth (before 7 am) who have gone to the temple free all-you-can-eat french toast.  The girls love that tradition and they get food before school. 

I love this tradition!

20 years!

November 7th was our 20th wedding anniversary!  Wow!  I was home with the kids after school when the door rang.  Courtney squealed and told me I had to answer it.  A man was there holding a gorgeous bunch of red roses and said: "Someone must really love you!"  Yes, he does.  Courtney was hilarious how she was squealing and going nuts over the flowers.  I certainly feel loved.

When the kids went to mutual, we went to dinner at Magleby's.  It was nice and we had a great date.

Crickets!

Ethan has to do a science project for his junior project at Success Academy.  He decided to see if different wavelengths would repel a cricket.  He theorized that he would be able to help farmers keep crickets off their crops if he could find a wavelength that would repel the crickets.

So one day after school he went to PetSmart and bought 30 crickets.  Fun! 

He came home, got a bunch of jars to separate the crickets into, grabbed a clear plastic bin, and began.  He had to drill a hole in the bin so the cord for the speaker could fit and then he put a speaker in the bin.  After attaching the speaker to his computer, he brought up the website for wavelengths and was set.  He numbered the jars and put one cricket in each of the 12 jars.  He had the other crickets in reserve in case a cricket died in transit.  He then took cricket #1, put him in the bin, put a lid over him, and then started the experiment. 

My job was to videotape, so that's what I did...for 120 tests.  He did 10 tests on each cricket.  Two crickets each got the same sound wave before he changed to a higher sound.  It was tedious and took a couple of hours, but he got the data he needed to analyze and was done.  And only a few cricket legs were lost in the process.

Turns out, crickets don't care about sound waves.  Most of them just went along their merry way.  A few even jumped right on the speaker.  Once in a while, we would put a cricket on the other end of the bin to see if they would go toward the sound, but it wasn't conclusive.  Oh well, it was good to experiment.

When he finished he needed to do something with the crickets.  As a scientist, you can't release your test subject into the wild.  So I asked around to see if anyone in the neighborhood had snakes or lizards they needed to feed.  No one did but one family had chickens.  So the next day, Ethan put all the crickets in one bottle and the family came over to get the crickets.  Problem solved!

I had so much fun watching him and videotaping.  Now he has to collect his data, finish his 10 page paper, and be ready to present at the science fair next month.

Visit and Fun Run

Grandma and Grandpa Pack came to visit for a couple days.  They came Friday afternoon. Courtney was going nuts waiting for them and was watching out the back window when they drove by.  It was fun.  We had a lot of fun with them here. 

Saturday morning our Stake had a fun run/walk so we signed up to participate.  We walked to the Stake Center and were the first ones there. haha!  Bryan, Grandpa, and Courtney ran while Ethan, Grandma and I walked.  Courtney is a good little runner and Grandpa took great care of her and stayed with her.  We had a fun time walking and talking.  Grandma got to hear all about Ethan's science experiment.  It was a beautiful morning.  It was a bit cool when we first started so we were bundled up but warmed up as we walked.  Bryan dressed all in black and looked like a running ninja.  We got hot chocolate, water, and apples at the finish line.  They had a good crowd considering it was the same day and time as the Snow Canyon 10K.  They had a drawing for Golden Corral coupons and we won one!

We took it easy the rest of the morning and ate an early dinner at Golden Corral (we had a free coupon after all).  Courtney had a soccer game in Mesquite in the late afternoon so after we ate, we drove to Mesquite for the game.  Courtney was kind of tired from the fun run and full from all the food, so she was a bit sluggish.  They lost the game but played hard.  The team they lost to were undefeated.  It was fun to listen to the other team's coaches interact with the refs because they all spoke Spanish.  It was interesting.

Sunday was Church and then Grandma and Grandpa left on Monday to head back to Denver.  We were glad they came to visit!

Halloween 2018

Ethan didn't dress up.  The priests/laurels went to Tuacahn to watch "Thriller."  It's not something I would like to go and see, but Ethan said it was okay.  He said it had some boring parts.

Courtney and her friends dressed as fruit.  She was the pineapple. I bought her the yellow shirt and the green fat-quarter and she took care of the rest.  It was fun for her!

We had our 12th annual Heritage Estate Neighborhood Halloween Party and it was a lot of fun!  I love this tradition that we have.  Each street has a different food assignment and then we all come together to chat and see each other.  It's great fun.

When we had eaten and it was starting to get dark, Courtney and her group of friends went trick-or-treating.  And she brought back a huge haul!!  I was surprised at the quality of candy this year.  It was great for her.  She came home, sorted it, picked 10 pieces and then put the rest aside for the Halloween Fairy.

Bryan and I stayed home to answer the door and watch "Ghostbusters."  We were sitting on the couch when Bryan leaned forward and I was something HUGE on his back.  I yelled, we both stood up, I grabbed a paper from the piano, and hit him.  This monster was on his back!!  I told him all night that he was lucky I was there to save his life, ;)

We didn't have too many trick or treaters come to our house so we had a ton of candy left over.  Bryan takes it all to work and the ladies there LOVE him for it.