Petting Zoo

Tuesday morning we woke up and got ready to go to a petting zoo in Denver.  We hadn't been there before and I was a bit nervous because Courtney's doesn't usually do well at petting zoos, but it sounded like a lot of fun.

We were nervous about having such a large group (about 20 people) go at one time so we staggered our arrivals.  But the petting zoo was so small and we didn't want to go in without everyone being there.  So we had to wait for everyone to arrive, which took a while.  So the kids went down to a smaller river that was by the petting zoo.  If we would have known, we could have brought the kids in their swimming suits and had a picnic lunch while they played in the water.  Oh well, maybe next time.  They still had fun in the water.

 The petting zoo was fun even though it was small.  The kids got to play with all the animals and pet them.  They got to "milk" a fake cow.  That was pretty funny.

 Here is Courtney's usual position, although she did pretty well and got down to pet the animals.

 There was also a train that we got to ride on.  Here is Ethan, Carter, Courtney and Josh waiting until it was time to get in line for the train.

 Ethan got to hold Ally for a while.

Bedtime Story

We finally got to Denver, without much hassle, at about 8:30 p.m. (I think).  We unloaded, got the kids ready for bed and then Grandpa Pack told them a Billy Roundup story.  Grandpa Pack makes up the best stories (he really needs to write them down for the grandkids to have) and the kids love them.  They even found Billy Roundup's hideout not far from Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The kids LOVE to hike there to see what they can find.

Here he is telling them another Billy Roundup adventure before bed:

The Funeral

After Church last week we loaded into the van and headed for Uncle Bert's Funeral.  The viewing was on Sunday night at the mortuary in Castle Dale.  We got to Emery County a bit early and went to Huntington to eat dinner.  There is a great park just off Main Street where we ate and then, after the rain stopped, we let the kids play on the equipment until it was time to change and go to Castle Dale.  They had a lot of fun.  We drove around Huntington a little to see what we hadn't last month.

The viewing was kind of an extension of last month's family reunion except there were a few more people there from the family who hadn't made it last month.  It was fun to catch up with everyone and offer support to Bert's daughters.

After the viewing, we went to Price to check into our hotel.  Monday morning we got up, ate breakfast, got ready and took off for Castle Dale again.  We got there in plenty of time to pay our respects, hang out with the Oman clan and be part of the family prayer.

Here are the last three living children of the Albert Vernon and Mary Dorthea Larsen Oman family.  Dad (Ferris), Voniell Judd and Eldon Oman.

The funeral was very good.  It wasn't a long, drawn-out funeral but a very nice and light funeral.  There were a lot of fun stories told of Bert by his one daughter and two grandsons.  He was a neat man and it was fun to remember some of the stories that I had forgotten and some of the things that I now appreciate about growing up in a small place.  The chapel was filled mostly with family (we took up a lot of seats) and there were quite a few Boy Scouts there to honor Bert also.  It was fun to see some teachers I had in high school attend. 

The burial was nice also.  We were all given a small rock and, after everything was over, we were asked to put it on his casket and the rocks would be buried with him.  I liked that touch.  Since he had been in the military, taps was played and the gun salute was done for him.  The boy scout leaders from the Scofield Camp also came down and sang two of the songs they sing at the close of scout camp.  It was nice to see how many scouts were at the funeral.

There was a luncheon by the ward and then we changed and were off to Denver.

My Family

Funerals always come in threes and this really is true.  We have had our share this summer and I am ready for it to be done.

Bryan's cousin, Jacob, passed away on April 24th.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/hjnews/obituary.aspx?n=jacob-anthony-pack&pid=157249254

My mom's sister, Avalon, passed away June 19th.
http://obitsutah.com/obituary/14193/avalon-waterfield-andersen.htm

My dad's brother, Bert, passed away on the 4th of July.
http://www.fausettmortuary.com/sitemaker/sites/Fauset1/obit.cgi?user=658776Oman

And between all those funerals was one in our ward for a woman who had cancer.  So I was in charge of the funeral luncheon. 

Interesting Summer!

Othodontist

It was time.  Ethan is going to need braces so I decided to shop around and see what our options are, how much we need to start saving and when we should have the braces put on.  My neighbor is a hygienist so I asked her about orthodontists in town.  She gave me a list of three, ranked in order of best, and I made appointments for initial consultations.  Now, there are A LOT of dentists and orthodontists in town.  But these are the three that I have heard the most about and so I decided to see what they would say.

The first doctor was great and I liked his office.  His staff was nice and they got us right back.  He looked at Ethan's teeth and said that he does need braces.  He recommended that we do a 2 stage process and put him in braces now with head gear to try and correct his slight over bite.  He gave us a couple of "what if" scenarios, a price and then we said we would get back to him with our decision.  I liked him, he is established in the community and was nice.

The second doctor was great but I didn't like his office staff much.  They weren't friendly and the office was crowded and crazy.  I found out, after speaking with the doctor, that he is just renting space from a children's dentist until his part of the building can be completed, so that will take care of the problem of a weird staff and noisy office.  He agreed with the first orthodontist but said that if Ethan were his child, he would do things differently.  He wouldn't put Ethan in head gear at all and he would wait about a year before putting braces on so it could be done in 1 stage instead of two.  Ethan liked this orthodontist a lot.  This doctor gives a discount through our insurance, so he is the one we will probably go to.  Ethan will go back in 6 months for another evaluation to see how things have progressed and will continue to go back each 6 months until it's time for braces.

I liked this doctor because he complemented me on knowing so much about braces and teeth.  Hahaha.  Bryan was missing teeth, I was missing teeth, Ethan has 2 peg teeth (tiny teeth) and Courtney is missing teeth.  A LOT of money is going to be going into their mouths while they are teenagers and I did a lot of research.  Plus, I have a lot of questions as to why I had to have 10 teeth pulled before braces were put on.  So I have done A LOT of research because this really is an investment.  This doctor noticed and was impressed that I asked a lot of questions.  I liked that.

We have an appointment with the third doctor in a few weeks and I'll tell you what he says but I think we will go with the second doctor.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Annual Bike Ride

When we are in town on the 4th of July, we have a tradition of biking to the Sand Dunes in Snow Canyon State Park and having breakfast there.  A few years ago, I ended up driving Ethan and myself to the Dunes because he didn't want to bike.  But this year everyone was happy to get on their bikes and go.  It's uphill to get there and so that is tough but we took stops and made goals and used our gears to make it.  It wasn't hot and so the ride was good exercise.  The ride home goes fast because it's downhill and great!

Getting ready to go:

We made it!!

 Eating our overnight cinnamon rolls.  Yummy!

 Goofy Courtney!

Hiking

So, the backpacking trip didn't go exactly as planned.  Bryan took Ethan to Bryce Canyon to go on a hike.  They hiked about 1/2 mile in when Bryan noticed that Ethan was in quite a bit of pain.  His backpack was way too small.  So they turned around, called us, came home and had a family date night instead.

We met the boys at Red Robin for dinner then went to the movie Mirror, Mirror before having a quiet night at home.  It was fun but Bryan was disappointed not to have hiked.  Courtney was ecstatic because now she gets the red backpack.