He's 9!!!

Ethan is 9 years old today!!!

Blown Away

We went camping last Friday night at Sand Hollow Reservoir. We loaded the van, picked Bryan up (he drove his car behind us) and went to the reservoir. We had dutch oven, rode bikes, explored the reservoir (which is up 20 feet so it's really fun to play in), made smores and then got ready for bed. While Bryan and I were getting ready to climb in the tent, the wind began to really blow! The tent came un-staked and folded over on Courtney (who was screaming her lungs out). While Bryan and I got it staked down, Ethan comforted Courtney. But the wind didn't die down.

Bryan and I climbed in the tent to try and keep it down but the gusts of wind were crazy! The kids were scared and it was obvious that we weren't going to get much sleep. At 10 p.m. we decided to pack it in...the first time we have EVER done that!!! It took us 25 minutes to take everything down and throw it in the van and the car while the kids cuddled in the car. By the time we got it all put away and were ready to leave...the wind died.

But we drove home and got the kids to bed around 11:10 pm. I was glad we came home because it was pretty miserable in the wind.

Ethan's Recital

Last week was Ethan's duet piano recital. He played with his piano teacher. His song was "Chopsticks, There and Back." It was a song where they played Chopsticks from Japan, Russia, France and USA. It was fun.

We had been working on his song for a while and had it really well. He did a great job! There was one funny moment which you'll see on the video. I had the introduction to the "Russian" version of chopsticks memorized so he would turn the page about 4 measures early. When he did this in the recital to his teacher, she had to turn the page back. It was funny!

Season is Over

The soccer season at our house is official over! Ethan had his last Bombers Crash game on Saturday and they WON!!! It's their first...and only...win of the season. It was to the Cedar City team they had to forfeit to earlier in the season because we had too many boys sick and didn't have a team. But they did a great job. Ethan played really well but he is happy that practices are over.


(He is the bushy-haired kid on the back row second from left. He got a haircut Saturday night.)

Fathers and Sons

I don't know a whole lot about what happened...you know what they say "What happens at Fathers and Sons, stays at Fathers and Sons." But they had a great time. Ethan jumped in a little river that was near where they were camping and got all wet. He liked that. He went fishing, played games, ate (A LOT) and slept.

They woke up, ate breakfast, packed up camp and came home in time to watch some of the Ironmen competitors bike past our house. Then we had to get ready to go to Ethan's soccer game.

They came home dirty and tired, but they had a lot of fun!

Ironman Kids Fun Run

It was time once again for the Ironman St. George. It's pretty exciting and fun to watch. But this year the Ward had Fathers and Sons on Friday night which put a cramp in our Ironman activity plans. Oh well. While they had fun Courtney and I played.

Friday night is the Kid's Fun Run for Ironman. I had registered Courtney and were told to get there early to pick up her packet. So we went about 45 minutes early, got her number, t-shirt and wrist band, then we had a ton of time to wait. There is a made-made kids river to play in so I let her do that while we waited for the race. At 6 p.m. they took all the kids to the starting point. On the way there Courtney turned to me and said, "You can leave now, I'm fine." So I found my parents at the finish line so I could watch. But they did the race differently this time and they let the kids running the mile go first. I was a bit nervous because Courtney was waiting without me but when I checked on her she seemed fine. It took all the mile runners about 20-25 minutes to finish (they had some little kids running that mile) and then it was time for the 200 meter run.

My mom spotted Courtney first but I got a great shot of her running with her tongue hanging out! It's hilarious. But she did a great job and had so much fun. They gave her a plastic medal (the same as last year) and then she went to our pre-arranged meeting place while I ran all over trying to find her. I finally remembered that we had a meeting place and when I got there she was wondering where I had been. ;)

The event had twice as many kids as last year so they ran out of juice/water with the mile runners, so I took Courtney out to dinner. I was going to do this anyway because the boys were at Fathers and Sons and we wanted a "Girl Night" but I let her think it was because she did so well in the run.

What a great event!

He did it!!

Santa Clara Elementary School challenges their students each year to read the "Beehive Award Winners" in the categories of Picture Books and Children's Fiction and then take tests on them to prove they read them. Ethan took the challenge this year and it's been a rough one. He LOVES to read but some of the books are harder to get excited about. Although I did find that if we could get him started, that he would finish in a day or two on his own without a problem. He made it a goal at SEPs and has been working on it all year long. On Monday, he took his final 2 tests!! Our wonderful librarian, Mrs. Roberts, let him pick out a book (he chose "The Lightening Thief"), him his "Rockin' Rad Reader" shirt and dog tag, and then announced his name over the intercom saying that "Ethan Pack is our newest Rockin' Rad Reader." He was in HEAVEN!

I am so happy that he worked on this and completed it. This morning he told me "it feels so great to accomplish something like that." It does!!