Birthday part 2

Courtney was excited to decorate Ethan's birthday cake this year. She had a lot of fun!

The finished product...

Ethan requested lobster tail for his birthday dinner. So he got lobster tail and steak with garlic mashed potatoes. It was very yummy and he was in heaven.

After dinner my parents came over and we had cake and ice cream. They gave Ethan some birthday cash, which made him very happy!

The celebrations are now done and we hope Ethan has a great year!!

Ethan's birthday!

Ethan is 14 years old!!! I can't believe it until I turn and look up at him. It's then that I realize he isn't my little boy anymore.

He requested a Texas sized maple donut and oj. He got his wish.

After he filled up on donut, Courtney sent him on a hunt for his presents.  She had hidden his presents and taken pictures of where they were. He had to go and find them. He was a good sport.

Then he opened presents. Grandma and grandpa Pack gave him a Spikeball game. Courtney gave him a new phone case and we gave him a new phone. His old phone was so old that the apps he needed for school and the mountain bike team wouldn't work. So we got him a new one. 

Funny story about the phone. It came last week and so I have been putting  parental controls on it. I didn't want to set the whole thing up because I knew Ethan would have fun with the new phone. But in order to out controls on the App Store I had to log into Ethan's google account. I didn't even think about it until I got a text from Ethan saying "I just got a notification from google that someone just logged onto my account from a Moto g phone. Weird, isn't it?" I was busted. I said "yup, that is weird." And he said "I sure hope no one has my password." I replied "if they do, they are using a pretty cool phone." So his birthday present wasn't a surprise.

Anyway, back to Ethan's day. Today was the "No Tardy Party." This is for the students who didn't have a tardy or unexcused absence all quarter. They were going swimming at Sand Hollow and Ethan was able to go. So he got to go swimming during school!

After school he had mountain biking 101 with the team so he got to ride for an hour and a half. They sang happy birthday to him. 

Leigh Ann dropped by to give him a present. It was a new video game and some money. Score!!

On the way home from mountain biking, they picked up pizza for Ethan's dinner. His real birthday dinner is tomorrow and we will have cake and ice cream with the family tomorrow. So he will have 2 days worth of celebrating.

I am so glad Ethan is part of our family. He is hilarious, kind, generous and a great tease!!

Oscars and Zion

We usually go on a hike for Mother's Day.  But the Saturday before Mother's Day was the Ironman and the Pizazz end of the year review...it was also rainy and cold.  So we decided to stop in Zion on our way home from Courtney's soccer game and go hiking.

Since it was later in the morning and the kids had eaten breakfast so early, we decided to stop at Oscars for lunch before hiking.  Ethan had the time of his life ordering his food.  He got the "Big A** Burger" and then laughed after he ordered it.  It was a full pound of meat and HE ATE IT ALL!!  I couldn't believe it.

He had to cut it up to fit it in his mouth!

Look at all that meat!

This is how he wants to us think he feels after eating it all....

but this is how he really feels.

I couldn't believe he ate it all.

We then drove into Springdale to find a place to park to hop on the shuttle into Zion.  It was crazy with how many people were there that day.  We parked and then waiting just a little bit for a shuttle.  We were lucky because we got on the shuttle close to the start so there were plenty of seats.  The closer you park to Zion and try to get on the shuttle the less likely you are to get a space because the shuttles fill up quickly.

We bought a new National Parks Pass, went into Zion and hopped on another shuttle that took us all the way through the park to the River Walk trail.  This is our favorite because it isn't too hard and you can get in the water at the end or along the way.  We had fun walking around and trying to scare off the psycho squirrels.  They are everywhere and they aren't afraid of anything!  Ethan almost stepped on one and it didn't even move out of the way.

We decided to get our feet wet in a shady spot near the river.  The water was really cold but it was nice to put our feet in.

We tried to keep cool.  We walked back to catch the shuttle and then hopped on another shuttle to take us back to our van.

This makes me happy!

She still gets Ethan to give her piggy back rides.

When we got off the shuttle we decided it was too hot and we needed ice cream.  So we got some and sat next to the monument explaining how Isaac Morton Behunin had named Zion while we ate our ice cream.

Then we took off for home.  We were tired and sweaty so we were happy to get home to shower and relax.  It was a great belated Mother's Day hike in Zion!

Last Galaxy Game of the Season

Courtney had her last Galaxy Elite FC soccer game of the season on Saturday.  It was in Cedar City at 9 a.m. so we had to get up and get on the road by 7:30 a.m.  Their team did a great job.  It was a physical game with a lot of parents yelling and screaming but in the end...we won!

We ended the season in 3rd place, which isn't bad at all!  She now has the summer off, kind of, and then will start again at the end of July.  The league has changed the dates of eligibility but we will still have the same basic team.  The age deadline was August 1st so Courtney was always the oldest on her team.  This season she was supposed to be a U10 because she was only 9 as of August 1st, but her team didn't have a U10 team so they played her up a year and she as on a U11 team.  This was great because she was playing with the girls in her grade.  The new rules goes by birth year.  So all those born in 2005 will be a U11 team because they were 10 at the beginning of 2016, but with the way the birthdays fall of the players, they are going to play up the team born in 2005 (so the team will be girls born in 2004 and 2005) and Courtney will be on a U12 team.  Clear as mud?  Yup, it is for us too.

Courtney is third from the left.

I noticed a couple of girls on the opposing team wore mis-matched socks.  I have always wondered why Courtney hasn't done this before.  She rarely wears matching socks!

Track Meet

I thought it would be fun to sign Courtney up for a track meet because she has been doing so much running with soccer.  We signed her up for the 400 meter, 200 meter and 100 meter (I think).  It was a hot day and she wasn't too thrilled to be sitting around waiting for things to happen.  She ran the 400 meter and qualified to run the next day in the finals (although she had a soccer game at the same time so she wasn't able to) and Bryan took her back later to run the 100 meter but then she was finished and didn't want to go back.  I had forgotten how long track meets were!

Her numbers:

Getting ready to run the 400 meter:

Choir Concert

You will notice that there aren't any pictures or videos from Ethan's end of the year choir concert.  That is by Ethan's request.  He didn't want video or photographic evidence of his dancing and singing skills because they did go together in this one great concert.

They sang great oldies like "Good Vibrations" while pretending to surf on a surf board.  But I really have been sworn to secrecy so that's as much as I can tell you.  He tried to talk us out of going because he was quite embarrassed but I told him we had the right to go as his parents but promised that we wouldn't take photos or videos.  In fact, I left my phone at home so I wouldn't be tempted.

He did a great job and it was hilarious to watch his face and eye rolls as he danced around.  Poor kid.

Snow Canyon Middle School Awards Night

We received an invitation to attend the Snow Canyon Middle School Awards night because Ethan was receiving an award.  We didn't know what it was for but I made him go...and I made him dress up in Church clothes which he was not happy about.

Yes, I am a mean mom that makes their children go to receive recognition.  Ethan says that it wasn't hard but with all that has happened this year (his leg, his toes, etc.) I felt like he did work hard.  So we went.  He was on the high honor roll (which he was for all 4 quarters now).  They called his name, he walked across the stage, grabbed his certificate and everything.

Thank you Ethan for doing that for me!

Everyone was given a generic certificate when they crossed the stage so they wouldn't have to take the time to find the right certificate for the right person.  Great idea!  After the awards were over Ethan found his homeroom teacher and she gave him his real certificate.

Here is the picture of his 3rd quarter certificate (he just found the certificate in his locker):