Halloween 2016

Monday morning I was dreading Halloween!  Courtney had piano lessons and soccer practice.  Ethan was supposed to unload insulation with the young men and have his final mountain bike practice.  We had a neighborhood potluck and I was going to be running around getting everyone where they needed to be. Because Ethan was going to be across town unloading insulation, the carpool to mountain biking wasn't going to work. But it all worked out wonderfully!!

Halloween snuck up on us.  I had a cookie order from a friend who always buys my sugar cookies for her son's class party.  I had thought to make and freeze them last week so that was done.  But I had to run errands in the morning which included finding candy and a pumpkin.  All the pumpkins at the grocery stores looked horrible so I asked the produce guy at Harmons if they had any pie pumpkins that were small-ish but were perfectly shaped.  He went in the back and brought me the best pumpkin ever!  I went to the party store and bought some small candy that was on clearance and we were all set.

Ethan wasn't going to get dinner so I decided to run to Jimmy Johns to buy him dinner and put it in his locker so he would have it after school.  I finished that, dropped some invites off to the high school to invite their administration to the State Championships on Saturday, and then ran home to wait for Courtney.  I ran her to piano and then got a text that said "Insulation truck broke down we will unload tomorrow."  I was so happy!

I picked Courtney up from piano and ran her to soccer.  They had a fun practice with their costumes.

Ethan went to hang out with friends until it was time for mountain biking and then the carpool was able to take him there.  They actually just rode to a coach's house and had donuts and goofed off.  But it was a fun ride, Ethan said.

Courtney is a nerd!

While he was gone, Bryan, Courtney and I went to the neighborhood potluck and had a lot of fun with our friends/neighbors.  The kids loved getting together to go trick-or-treating as a group.  Courtney went off with her friends while Bryan and I went home to hand out candy.  I handed out candy while we watched a movie.

Ethan got home, put on his costume and then went to hang out with friends.  I can't remember what he is but he loved it.

They came home tired but they had a lot of fun and my day had been great.  Just by having the insulation truck break down it made life so much easier for me.  Sad, but so true!

Oh, and the Halloween fairy came so Courtney has her 10 pieces of candy and the fairy took the rest.  But not before she left some lip balm and 2 bottles of nail polish.  What a deal!

Sunday afternoon Selfie

I am blaming the red face on the race Saturday at Eagle Mountain.  It was super windy and I got a wind burn.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

It's pays off...

Ethan made a commitment to himself to go to the Wednesday night activities, when there was one planned, instead of going to mountain bike practice.  He made it a goal for his Duty to God.  This was really put to the test in September when the youth were asked to dance in the Ivins Heritage Day parade.  Only 10 youth ended up dancing (they even called to see if Courtney would dance because not enough YM or YW would) and Ethan wasn't very happy.

I hope this works.  Here is a video a friend posted on Facebook.  Ethan is the grumpy looking dancer on the right: Video #1  Here is another video she posted from another angle (he is still the grumpy dancer on the right): Video #2 

Anyway, the reason I am bringing this up again is that they won this...

Yup, they won 1st place in the parade and $100.  The leader decided to divide the money between those who participated so Ethan got $10 for his pain and suffering. ;) That's a reward in my book!

Eagle Mountain Race #2

Since the Vernal race was cancelled for mountain biking, they put a second race at Eagle Mountain to make up for it.  It's crazy because we now to have 3 bike races in 3 weeks but it's the end of the season and you get extra points if you finish all 4 races.  Since the team had been on this course earlier in the season, the coaches decided not to pre-ride and encouraged the kids to not miss school on Friday.

We woke up early Saturday morning (since Ethan wasn't riding until the afternoon) and drove up to Eagle Mountain.  Ethan was anxious because he was nervous something would happen and we wouldn't get there but we did just fine.  The road out to the course is HORRIBLE!  It's dirt and huge bolder rocks that you have to make sure you don't high center on.  But we made it!

Courtney and Bryan also had their bikes so while Ethan was getting ready to ride, they went on a bike ride of their own.

You can see them in this drone video of the girls race.  (Fast forward to about 5:30 and on the right you will see 2 riders in the trees.  At about 5:35 they are shown and Courtney is in a bright green-blue helmet.
Drone of Girls Race

Courtney had a lot of fun because we brought her bike.  This has been a learning season for us.  We now know better what we need to bring and what we don't need.

Bryan went down by the staging area to see Ethan and got some pictures of him.  I am so glad he wanted to spray paint his helmet bright green.  It is so much easier to find him in a crowd.

Here is the video Courtney took of his start as he came past us.

This is the video of his first lap passing us.

This is the video of his finish.  He was frustrated because he was going good until his chain skipped when he shifted.  It caused him to almost fall and it slowed him down so he was passed by a few riders.  But he finished well and did a great job on the race.

This is the drone footage of Ethan's race.
Ethan's race
The start of his race is at 2:48.  Look for his bright green helmet with the black racing kit on.  You can see him really well starting at 4:38 coming near the red barrier that says "CLIF" on it on the left hand side of the screen.  The drone flies over him at 5:08 and you don't see him until 8:25 when he is at the bottom of the screen (the kid in front of him gives a thumbs up to the drone).  That's a rough uphill because it is single track and they couldn't pass.  I think that's all the drone footage of Ethan, Bryan and Courtney.

At the end of the season, which was this race, the lowest score was dropped and 25 points were added to the scores of those riders who completed all 4 races.  Going into this race, Ethan was ranked 33rd out of 72 riders in the southern division.  After the lowest races were dropped and the extra 25 points were added, Ethan ended up 44th in his division.  That's awesome!  Last year at this time he was in a cast from his toes to his hip and was using crutches.  I think he should be very happy with how well he has done.

State Championships are in St. George on November 5th and Ethan races at 8:15 or 8:20 a.m.  It will be his final race of the season.  There is a banquet for all the riders and then a "Bike Prom/Stomp" which is a dance at the end.  The Flying Monkey's have their own end of the season banquet in a few weeks.  I am so glad he wanted to do this and he says he wants to continue next year.

It rained!

Courtney and her friends got caught in the rain on their way home from school.  They were biking so they could hurry but they were still soaked.  She loved it because Ethan had a photo like this also when he was biking home from Lava Ridge.

Office

I just realized that I haven't ever posted this.  It happened at the beginning of August so it's old news but I wanted it here for our family history.

Bryan's lease was up and he and his partner didn't want to renew it so Bryan moved to a new office. Everything is exactly the same as it was, he is just practicing in a new building with different guys. He took Bryan J. Pack PC and went in house with Bingham, Snow & Caldwell.  His partner decided to go with another firm in town.  So now Bryan is at the BS&C offices on St. George Boulevard.  He is working as an attorney at the firm and also as the Executive Director to get the firm more organized.

The kids, my dad and I helped Bryan move things from his old office to the new one.  They already had furniture for him so we had to move his office stuff home and then take his files and computer stuff to the new office.

His view is of the Boulevard and also a funeral home. ;)

He doesn't use three screens...just two...but it takes a lot of wiring to get it all put together.

Ethan was bored.

If you want to check out their website it's at BS&C.

Our Flying Monkey

One of the coaches for the Flying Monkey's is a professional photographer.  After each race, she will post a few photos of each of the team members.  I don't know if I have posted this before so forgive me if they are a repeat of what you have already seen.

Photos from Powder Mountain:

Photos from the first Eagle Mountain Race. 

Photos from the Soldier Hollow Race.

She hasn't posted any from the 2nd race at Eagle Mountain last weekend.  I was told that at the end of the season banquet for the Flying Monkeys, she gives everyone a flash drive with all the photos on it.  She is an amazing photographer and such a nice person.