4th of July

We just returned from a Hodgson Family reunion in Bozeman, Montana. I am going to post photos and commentary day by day so you can see what we were up to.

Bryan had a court hearing at 1:30 on July 3rd, so we left after his hearing was over. We drove to Pocatello, ID and spent the night. Friday morning (the 4th of July) we drove to Ennis Lake in Montana to meet up with Bryan's family. The lake was cold and it was windy, but Courtney went right in. Ethan thought better of it and stayed on the shore, although he attempted to get in the water a few times. Courtney and I played in the cold water while Bryan took a turn on Lisa and Mike's kayak. It was a fun time.



After we ate lunch, everyone packed up and we drove to Bozeman to the KOA we were staying in. Our kids love the water so much, we had to get back in our swimming suits and get into the pool at the KOA. It was a lot of fun to play around with everyone.

That night, Ethan and I went with everyone to the fairgrounds to watch the fireworks. Courtney and Bryan stayed at the KOA and slept. After a wait of a couple of hours, the fireworks began. Ethan was exhausted by that point (10:30 p.m.) so we only made it through about 10 minutes of fireworks before Ethan wanted to go back to the tent. But we got to see a bunch of them going off on our way back to the KOA.

Fun Facts

Here are some fun facts that I have learned today:

1. And adult cleaning a toilet takes the same amount of time as a 2-year-old to color the white faux wood blinds in the living room with a bright blue crayon.
2. A heart attack is something brought on by entering the living room to see a 2-year-old coloring your white faux wood blinds a bright blue color with her crayon while standing on a chair so she could "reach up high."
3. A 2-year-old caught coloring the white faux wood blinds in the living room with a bright blue crayon throws a temper tantrum for approximately 5 minutes because she is upset she got caught, not because she feels bad about it because "Mom, they're pretty now."
4. It takes a mom and a 2-year-old approximately 2 minutes to wipe all the bright blue crayon off the white faux wood blinds in the living room.
5. A smart 6-year-old stays in his room until the storm has passed. ;)

Luckily for Courtney the blinds are kid-proof and the crayon came right off.

Feeling Loved

Courtney and I were playing around with the digital camera. Bryan was going to take it to Youth Conference so they could play a photo scavenger hunt and I wanted to make sure it plugged into the TV easily. Courtney loved seeing herself on the TV so I aimed it at the two of us and, watching the TV to get us in the middle of the shot, took some photos. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that we had been swimming earlier and I hadn't put on makeup or done my hair. But that's okay. I still loved being hugged by my little girl.

It wasn't long until Ethan had to get in on the action. I got a couple of cute photos but this one is just so like Ethan and Courtney. Ethan is making a goofy face and...yes...Courtney is picking her nose.

Courtney's 1st Haircut!

Courtney was in need of a haircut! I have done a bit of trimming now and then, but she hasn't ever had a real haircut. I have tried to get her to let someone cut it but she wouldn't. I went to my friend's salon around the corner for a cut and decided Courtney needed one too. After my haircut, Courtney sat on my lap and had hers done. She wanted bangs because all the "big girls" have them. I didn't think she would sit still long enough to do the entire cut, but she did a great job! I think it turned out really well. I will post a before picture soon...hopefully.

Update!

Wow! This past week has flown by! So here's an update on the Pack clan.

Ethan: He has been attending Science Detective Camp at the Montessori school in St. George. He has loved it. They learned to dust for fingerprints, all about DNA, made a door alarm (that really worked) and tons of other things. It's been fun to see him play with his experiments after he gets home. The only glitch to his camp was the one day when I napped (not on purpose) and woke up at the time I was supposed to be picking him up. Luckily, Bryan works through the block from the school and was able to walk to get him. Ethan also finished piano lessons and now has a month break before starting the next level in group lessons. It's interesting that he woke up in the best mood this morning. I couldn't figure out why until he said, "Mom, I don't have to practice today." The joys of music lessons!

Courtney: She is about the same. Her days are filled with the wading pool (which she calls the "kitty pool"), the slip-n-slide and reading books. Her nap times have been off because of Science Camp but she still has been happy, for the most part.

Me: I have been the Shuttle Mom. It's been hectic but we have had a lot of fun with other activities. Some people in our neighborhood, who have a pool, have invited us to swim with them every Monday and Wednesday morning. They have all the fun pool toys and their two daughters live in the ward and have kids around Courtney's age. So we have had a lot of fun going over there and cooling off.

Bryan: He went to Youth Conference last weekend and had a lot of fun. He came home pretty tired due to the fact that two Mia Maids thought his room was filled with teenage boys and threw rocks at the window at 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. to wake them up. I think they were pretty surprised when Bryan's head poked out. ;)

Ethan and Courtney had their 6 month dentist appointments today. Ethan did great. He usually gags if they try to do ANYTHING! But he let them take x-rays and "tickle" his teeth without any tears. His two front teeth on the top are loose, so he said the tooth fairy should start saving money! Courtney wasn't sure at first, but after seeing how well Ethan did, she jumped right up on the chair and let the dentist do his thing. She even let him "tickle" her teeth too, which completely floored me. Hopefully it isn't just a one-time thing. They came home with new toothbrushes and timers. It's a good day in our house.

I think that's about it. I don't have any fun pictures because I haven't been taking my camera to the neighbor's pool, but I'll do that soon.

Happy Birthday Aunt Leigh Ann

Happy Birthday to you!!

Father's Day Outing...Early

Ethan really wanted to give Bryan something "neat" for Father's Day. We (Ethan and me) put our heads together and came up with a plan to give Bryan a "Father's Day Outing." But Ethan was a bit nervous that we wouldn't plan something that Bryan would want, so we asked him. Bryan said he would love to go on a hike in Zion National Park with the family.

We woke up this morning, got ready and drove to the Wildcat Trail Head in Zion (you turn off at Virgin and go the back way to Zion so you don't have to enter the park at the entrance gate, so it's free!). We were nervous about Courtney hiking a long distance so we took the baby backpack (it says that it only holds 27 pounds max, but Courtney is 32 pounds and it held up fine). Ethan and I had our hiking day packs on with water and Bryan had Courtney. We took off.

I discovered that it isn't a "hike" when you are going with kids. It's more of an "explore." The main difference is about 2 miles per hour! Ethan spent quite a bit of time trying to catch grasshoppers and Courtney spent her time looking through Bryan's binoculars to find squirrels (then when she found one she freaked out because she just knew the squirrel was "coming after me").

Once-in-a-while Courtney would ask to get down and we would slow down even more, but for the most part the hike went along well....That is until some very lost, very talkative, too-much-information-giving woman told us that there was a rattlesnake on the trail up ahead. Ethan flipped out and wanted to go back. I was pretty proud of myself because I have a history with rattlesnakes in Zion Canyon and I wanted to turn around. But I didn't want Ethan to get a phobia of snakes because of me (since he is doing so well developing one on his own) so we pushed on. Courtney was disappointed that the snake was gone...ignorance is bliss.

We finally got to the view point, sat down and Bryan read a chapter in the "Hardy Boys" book he has been reading to Ethan at nights.

Then we started back to the trail head. This is when the boredom struck Ethan. He was tired and kept wishing that the van was "right here!" This all went away when Bryan pulled out his GPS and let Ethan play with it. Ethan loved following the arrow on it. And after I showed him where to watch our hiking speed, he began running just to watch the numbers change. Ethan and I got to the trailhead quite a bit sooner than Courtney and Bryan (mainly due to Ethan's running to watch his speed on the GPS). We all had so much fun.

We drove back to St. George (Courtney took a nap in the car) and took Bryan out for a Father's Day dinner. He still gets a home cooked one tomorrow, but we both were tired and didn't want to cook ;)

All in all, it was a great present and one we may repeat next year!