Relief of Utah

The 4th grade students made relief maps of the State of Utah last week. The teachers sent home a recipe for salt clay which we were asked to make at home. Then we sent the salt clay and a piece of cardboard back to school with Ethan. They molded the clay into the shape they needed, added lakes and mountains, and let it dry over the Labor Day holiday. On Tuesday they painted it and brought it home. I think he did a great job!!

Children's Dentist

There is a commercial on the radio where all these kids say, "I love my dentist!" It's a commercial for the dentist we use for the kids and they really do love their dentist! He has video games on the walls and a movie going in the waiting room. In the examination room, you get to watch your own personal choice of a movie that is shown on a TV in the ceiling. When you are finished, if you were good, you get a balloon, book (not cheap-o ones either) and a coupon for a free "monster milkshake" at Red Robin. What isn't to love?!?!

Waiting to see the doctor:
The kids did awesome. Ethan loved it because he had a complete, around-the-head x-ray that he said made him feel like he was an astronaut or something. It was the best time he has had for a while. He also gets a lot of complements about pulling teeth out (he loves to do that).

We decided to go to lunch as a reward and use the kids coupons from the dentist. Bryan noticed that the certificates had expired. So we went to lunch anyway but took the kids out to a new place called Fusion for ice cream. They actually take cream and then freeze it using a gas (I can't remember which one right now and if I put the wrong one down I will get tons of comments, so I'll just let you figure it out). It was really cool but Ethan got quite possessive of his ice cream. He didn't want Bryan to taste it because "Dad always takes a HUGE bite!"


Great job kids!!! No tears or cavities!

Labor Day

Sorry, I'm a bit behind on the blogging, but here we are:

We tried to do our usual tradition of riding our bikes to Snow Canyon, having breakfast and then coming home but...we had some resistance from Ethan. The last time he didn't have a very fun time biking up the hills. So we decided that he and I would take the food up in the van and Bryan would bike with Courtney on the tag-along. We planned it just right and met up when they got to the park.

Ethan and I drove ahead to the picnic area by the sand dunes and got the breakfast stuff out. I had made overnight cinnamon rolls (without the cinnamon so I guess they were brown sugar rolls) and then we had fruit and juice also. It was amazing that the bees left us alone while we ate because that is usually a problem.

We then went and played in the sand dunes. The kids love doing this and we never give them enough time to play but we had things to do. It was a lot of fun!

The kids look good in this photo but Bryan and I are kind of odd looking. I guess that's what you get when you take it yourself with the camera at arms length. ;)


The bikers:
The drivers:

BYU WON!!!

I just had to blog that BYU won their game last night. Bryan went nuts when they scored the winning touch down. It was quite a game with no score for a long time and then BYU behind for most of it. But they pulled it off against Old Miss!!!

Way to go Cougars!!!

Walking

Bryan was doing some work from home on Wednesday and I was doing my usual stuff around the house. The kids were gone so I was trying to get things done. At one point I walked into our bedroom to put something away and Bryan turned to me and asked, "Do you always walk that fast or is it just because I'm here?"

I didn't know what he was talking about. He said, "You sound like you are sprinting from one place to another."

I didn't realize until I started paying attention that I do walk fast. Courtney is always telling me to slow down but I thought it was because she had smaller legs than I do. Maybe I still have some residual "Sister Missionary" effects. I remember being teased by the elders about how fast the sisters would walk. I guess things don't change. ;)

Small World

This is Ethan's favorite shirt. Grandma Pack found it at a garage sale in the Bay Area and bought it for Ethan. It is from the playoff season a few years ago for Cal High, the high school Bryan went to. In fact, Bryan and a few of his buddies from high school flew out to watch the Cal High playoff game in this season.

Well, Ethan wore the shirt to school the other day and his teacher stopped him to look more closely at it. It turns out that she grew up in Pleasanton and went to Amador High School. She googled the other schools and found out that Bryan went to Cal High. We had SEPs that evening and she was excited to tell us that she loved Ethan's shirt.

Small world!

This

Curtains

There was a set of curtain panels that came with the bedspread set I bought from a neighbor for Courtney's room.  But the panels were too short.  So I bought some extra material and added to the length.  While I was at it, I added the sun/heat blocking panel to the back of the curtains so her room wouldn't be so hot (I did this to Ethan's curtains last week also).  I think they turned out pretty cute!