President's Day soccer tournament

Courtney's club team played in a President's Day tournament in St. George.  There were 2 tournaments going on the same weekend (and a lot of other things going on) so there were A LOT of people in St. George for the weekend.  It gets so crazy but we love the tourist money that comes to the area.

We were freezing (temperature at the game start was in the 30s) but the people who came from Logan were telling us how wonderful the weather was compared to what they left behind. It's all about perspective.

The girls played well.  They ended the tournament with a record of 1-2.  They were tough losses but they are learning to play with new team members and they are just getting started.

This game was played at the park on Bluff.

This game was played at a new park in Hurricane.  The wall that you see behind the girls is actually the wall of the dam that makes Sand Hollow Reservoir.  If that dam would have broken, we all would have been in trouble.

Cedar City Temple youth trip

We had another temple trip and Courtney came along.  Courtney's head is the one on the right side on top of the sign. Silly girl!

We had a fun group of youth.  We had a lot of youth cancel on us at the last minute so we only had 12 of the 16 that they allow, but we had a great time.  There were only 4 young women and 2 were going for their first time.  We asked Courtney to take one of the young women and then Hayley took the other.  They were able to help the girls so they weren't so nervous their first time in the temple.

We had a great time and when we were finished, Bishop took all of us to Costa Vida for dinner.  Food always motivates!

Science fair

At Success Academy, each junior student is required to do a science fair project and compete in the Success Science Fair.  This is their junior project.  It is supposed to combine all they have learned so far and help them win scholarships and awards.  Ethan's project was with crickets.  He was trying to figure out if you could stop crickets from eating crops by blasting certain sound frequencies.  Courtney's project was trying to figure out which turf in the county was the fastest for a soccer ball to roll on.  She wanted to see if newer turf fields would be faster than older fields.  I thought it was a cool idea and was excited to help her (although I wasn't really a lot of help and Bryan ended up being a hug help to her).

Courtney presented in the science fair at Success and was really hoping that she wouldn't be selected to move on to the next fair that is usually held at Southern Utah Univerity.  Unfortunately, Courtney won her category!

Normally, this would mean tweaking the project and then going to SUU to present her project.  This year, because of Covid and things, they did it virtually.  The advisor over the science fair digitally sent their projects on.  Courtney hasn't heard anything so she thinks nothing came of her project in the bigger fair, but I thought it was cool that both Ethan and Courtney were chosen to move on with their junior projects!

Soccer games

It's club soccer time! Courtney had some exhibition soccer games for her club team against teams that came from northern Utah.  They couldn't have picked a colder time to come to St. George to play soccer.  It was absolutely freezing!

The first game was at the Sullivan Soccer Complex in Washington.  This is a great complex with a bunch of soccer fields but it's also by a river and in a valley where the wind blows all the time.  It was freezing cold!  I took a sleeping bag, crawled in it, and sat on my chair while I was inside my sleeping bag.  I was toasty warm until the game ended and I had to get out of the sleeping bag to walk to the van. 

Our girls all had their long-sleeved warm shirts under their jerseys to try and stay warm.  Courtney claims that she doesn't get cold when she is running around, but I don't know if I truly believe her.  They played hard but ended up losing.  The team was really good.

  

 

The last game was held at Dixie High School on their soccer field.  The weather wasn't too bad for that game, which I was grateful for.  It's crazy how cold St. George can get, but it is the desert.

Here are some pics of Courtney from the last game:

Fun girls

The older YW class got to gether and decorated cookies for their activity this week. It's getting close to Valentine's Day so they decorated Valentine's cookies.  We have some fun girls and I'm glad Courtney has such great friends in our ward and neighborhood.

Courtney is on the left, 2nd from the bottom of the picture.

Sourdough bread

I have a friend in the neighborhood who brought me a loaf of sourdough bread one night.  It was so yummy.  I asked her if she could teach me how to make it and she said she would!  I spent 2 days running to her house at various times of the day to learn how to make sourdough bread and it turned out fabulously!  It is so fun.  Now I need to buy all the toys that go along with making it. haha!

Funny sign in Snow Canyon State Park

Bryan and I walk/run in Snow Canyon State Park 4 times each week and the other day I noticed this sign as I walked into the park:

I had to stop and read it a couple of times and then have a good laugh before taking a picture of it.  You have to give them credit for creativity.  If you want someone to stop to read a sign, this is the way to do it.