Ethan's Lawn Care Service

In the beginning of July, Ethan decided he wanted to get an iPod Touch.  We weren't about to buy one for him so he brainstormed to figure out how he could make some money.  His bright idea was to ask Grandpa Oman if he had any work for him to do.  Now, these are not the paying parents that I had growing up.  Our lawn was HUGE and I had to mow it just because I was a part of the family.  Their lawn now is A LOT smaller and Ethan gets paid big bucks to mow it!

Anyway, so for a few weeks, I drove Ethan over to my parents house so he could mow the lawn, pull weeds, cut down trees, etc.  They worked him hard and in about 3 1/2 weeks he had earned enough for an older generation iPod Touch off of eBay.  But my dad still calls each week asking if his "lawn care servicer" could come and mow his lawn.  Ethan is in heaven!

He told us that he would actually mow our lawn for free if we would just get a self-propelled lawn mower like Grandpa because "this pushing thing is just too hard."  hahaha!

Home Depot

On the first Saturday of each month we do parent's interviews.  Bryan and I switch off taking one child to breakfast and the other to ice cream.  We switch the next month.  This month it was my turn to take Ethan to breakfast and Courtney to ice cream.

Ethan needed to build something for a scout badge so we went to breakfast and then drove to Home Depot to meet up with Bryan and Courtney, who had ridden their bikes from our house to Home Depot.  They used the tag-along and had a great time!

Bryan then went to work for a bit while we painted and built!  It was a lot of fun.

Pack Meeting

We had Pack Meeting last night.  Ethan got a couple more badges (traveler and fitness).  He is working on a few more and should have his Weeblos badge next month!

They played a few relay games afterward and Courtney had to get in there and play with the boys.  It was hilarious.  Ethan and Courtney are good with each other.  Ethan is really patient and Courtney is really excited.

Here is Ethan getting his awards:

 Getting ready for the relay (notice that Courtney is the only non-scout playing):

Ethan's Swimming Lessons

Ethan had a choice this year whether he wanted to take swimming lessons or not.  He had already passed all the classes that the teacher offered but he wanted lessons again.  Like I have said, our kids love the water!

The teacher actually taught 2 classes to the students instead of just one.  Ethan was the youngest, by far, but he did really well and passed both classes.  She had them learn life saving and life guarding saving techniques.  So Ethan ended up having to jump in the water fully dressed (he had to wear Bryan's clothes because he didn't have any pants...it's summer!) and then inflate his shirt and pants to use as floatation devices.  It was fun to watch!

If he wants to take more swimming lessons he will have to wait until he is 12 before he can do the Guard Start program that is a pre-training for life guards.  We'll see how he feels next year.

Here is his front crawl:

Above is a picture of Ethan in Bryan's clothes before he jumps in.  He actually lost the pants before he could fill up his shirt with air.  He had to dive to the bottom to get the pants before he could inflate them and float.  It was hilarious!

Here is Ethan being rescued.  I never saw anyone so happy to pretend to drown!

Courtney's Swimming Lessons

Our kids LOVE the water and are little fish!  Courtney was so excited to be doing swimming lessons again this year.  We have an amazing teacher who has a great pool in her backyard.  It's about a 20 minute drive from our house (using a short cut through Snow Canyon State Park) but it's so worth it!

Courtney was supposed to work on her rotary breathing and she did a pretty good job.  She passed the level but her teacher recommended having her repeat it next year just to get stronger on the skills.  And she can't wait for next year!

Here is her front crawl:

Here is our cute mermaid:

 

 Falling asleep doing the back float:

 Diving:

Pioneer Day Fun in the Park

There is a huge celebration in Ivins for Pioneer Day.  It starts with a pancake breakfast (which we never go to), a flag raising ceremony, the parade and then games in the park.  Each Stake auxiliary mans a booth and has free activities.  Vendors come in and sell things but there are always free games and things to do if you don't want to spend a bunch of money.  We haven't ever stayed.  Usually we are off camping on the 24th, but this year I wanted to stay...HomeDepot was doing a free kids u-build that I wanted the kids to do.  Okay, to be completely honest, I love doing the u-builds and I needed a child to go with me and it also passed off a Webelos requirement for Ethan.

So Courtney got to build a planter box:

  Ethan got to build a periscope.  And they loved it!

 Then we went walking around to see what other activities there were.  The Stake Primary Presidency had a bean bag toss through some beehives with President Hinckley's B's on them.  It was cute.

The Stake Young Women's Presidency were painting faces so we had to stop there.  Courtney had a rainbow painted on her face.

 While we were doing the face painting (which took a long time because the line was long), the boys sat down in the shade.  Ethan was pretty grumpy because he was exhausted from his mile, snail pace bike ride in the parade.  He wasn't happy about anything I asked him if he wanted to do.

When Courtney was finished, we walked around some more.  The Stake Relief Society Presidency was sponsoring a watermelon eating contest and the Stake Young Men's Presidency was sponsoring a "potato derby."  The kids stopped at this one.  They each got to pick a potato and decorate it the way they wanted.  Then it was put on a pinewood derby car that had nails sticking out of it (so the potato would stay on the car) and they ran it down a track.  Ethan lost but Courtney won.

We walked around some more and found an obstacle course (I think this was the Stake High Council) made of hay bales.  Courtney didn't want to do it but Ethan did.  By this time he was starting to feel better about life.  He had to climb under a bale, walk a balance beam, climb over a bale, climb under another bale, then hop to the finish line in a gunny sack.  He got a popsicle at the end of it.

 After the obstacle course, Ethan was ready to have some fun.  The High Council had set up a tarp on a hill and were hosing it down for a slip-n-slide.  A few years ago, at the Hodgson reunion, and the kids loved it.  I had pointed it out to Ethan but he DID NOT want to go on it because he wasn't in his swimming suit.  Courtney wasn't so timid about getting her clothes wet and she went running for the hill.  Ethan changed his mind after seeing Courtney go down it and he let loose.  It was hilarious because there wasn't any organization so the kids kept piling up in the middle.  It was great!  They both spent quite a bit of time on the slip-n-slide.

Here is Ethan on his back:

 Courtney (in red) going down on her bottom:

 Courtney (at the top in red) and Ethan (in white right in front of her) going down the slide:

 After a while of sliding (a long while), Ethan saw the dunking booth and thought that would be fun.  The line to get dunked was really long but he wanted to wait anyway.  Courtney went through the line to throw the balls and dunk people a few times and then she got bored.

Courtney got tired of waiting for Ethan to get dunked so she did the obstacle course and got her popsicle.

After a few hours, they were soaked and tired.  We took them to Red Mountain Market for treats and then home.  It was a fun celebration!

 

The Parade

Ivins has a Pioneer Day Parade and each of the wards is asked by the Stake President to enter something.  One year the dad's pushed kids in strollers; another year the kids rode bikes; last year the kids rode on a trailer pulled by a huge truck while spraying people with water.  This year the youth went on Trek so they were supposed to walk in their pioneer clothes for the parade...but none of them would do it.  We have 60 youth!!

The Primary, as always, were then asked to do something for the parade.  So the leaders bought balloons and had the kids ride their bikes with balloons attached.  Our kids were excited to be in the parade.  Courtney decorated her bike, all on her own, Monday afternoon and she was ready!  Ethan was going to rollerblade instead of biking but changed his mind.

We woke up to RAIN.  (The weather here has been crazy this month!) But by the time the parade began at 9:30, the skies were overcast and there was a slight breeze, but no rain.  The kids had a lot of fun, even if they did have to ride r.e.a.l.l.y...s.l.o.w.  At least it wasn't hot!

Biking down the street: