Camping, Bowling and Seven Peaks

We wanted to go to Provo one last time to go to Seven Peaks.  Courtney and I wanted to show the boys where we had camped while they were at scout camp.  So we made plans and drove to Payson to the Nebo Loop.

We left Friday morning so we would be able to go to Seven Peaks on Friday and Saturday but...it was raining so they closed Seven Peaks.  We went to the campground and set up camp in the same spot Courtney and I had stayed in.

 Courtney's tent is the green one on the left.  Our tent is the blue one in the center.  Ethan's tent is the orange one on the right.

Since our plans were frustrated, we decided to go bowling at BYU.  It was so quiet and we had a lot of fun.

Then we decided to go to the movies.  We ended up at the Shops at the Riverwoods where the boys were watching one movie and Courtney and I were watching another one.  Before it was time to go to the movies, we went to Provo Beach to look around.  It was great and we want to go back to play there sometime.

Here is beach babe Courtney:

After the movie was over, we bought KFC (a family camping tradition) and went back to the campground.

Ethan made a fire and we had s'mores until it was time to go to bed.

That's when it got interesting.  We noticed some pretty dark clouds coming in and about 10 minutes or so after we got into our tents (Courtney in one, Ethan in another, Bryan and I in the last) it began to pour...hard!  Bryan and I sat up, unzipped a bit of the rain fly and tried to listen to see if Courtney was yelling.  She was all alone in her tent so we were afraid that she would be afraid.  We couldn't really hear anything but thought we may have heard her yell.  When the rain died down a bit we could hear her yelling so Bryan got out of our tent, grabbed Courtney out of her tent and threw her (almost literally) into our tent.  He then climbed in.  We yelled over to Ethan to see how he was doing and he said he was fine and asked if Courtney wanted to stay in his tent.  She was thrilled so Bryan, once again, got out of our dry tent, grabbed all of Courtney's stuff, took it to Ethan's tent and then took Courtney into Ethan's tent.  Bryan was soaked by the time he finished but everyone slept well and were dry.

The next morning I was up early to take a walk and this is what crossed my path:

I went back to camp and made a fire but the fire pit was really wet so it wasn't a great fire.

Then we packed up and were ready to go to Seven Peaks for the day.  You can faintly see the dry spots from under our tent and Courtney's tent.  Ethan's tent was totally wet underneath but he was all dry inside.  Great tents but we had to really clean them off when we got home.

We drove to Provo and went to Seven Peaks and had a blast!  The kids loved swinging on the rope swing and had a lot of fun going down the slides.  Bryan didn't have too much fun because his tube flipped him and then he ended up with burns on his ankle and elbow from another ride.  But we all had fun in the wave pool and other things.  Since we got in early, we had plenty of time to enjoy things before it got too crowded.

Before we left we went by and saw Andrew, Jessica and Clara.  Courtney loves holding her baby cousins.

We also went and saw the memorial on Center Street in Provo for soldiers.  Ethan loved the big cannon.

We also went to see the museum at BYU.  Last time we were there, the boys went to an origami exhibit and wanted to show it to us, but it was gone.  We went through to see what was on display anyway and it was fun.

Then it was time for us to go home.  It was a great trip.

End of Summer at Veyo Pool

We LOVE Veyo Pool.  Bryan's firm has always had an end-of-the-summer family party there but this year we decided to bag that and just take the kids and some friends to Veyo ourselves.  We bought pizza and drinks and then Bryan took Ethan and the boys in his truck and I took Courtney, her girl friends and Cameron.

The first thing we always do when we get to Veyo is catch crawdads.  I had brought string, weights (screws, actually), bacon and plastic cups.  Each kids got a string and I tied a piece of bacon on it with a weight (so it would sink to the bottom of the river) and then they were off!  The pool has a little plastic kiddie pool that you put your crawdads in after you catch them.  I assume they release them back into the river at the end of the day but I've never asked.

The kids had a blast and one boy caught something like 12 crawdads in a half hour.  He has the touch!

Here is the bucket they gave us to keep them in so we didn't have to go from the river to the kiddie pool constantly.

Bryan always ends up helping Courtney catch her crawdads.  She is a bit impatient (wonder where she got that from?!?) and then freaks out when they get too close to her (again, I wonder where she got that from?).

But eventually they do get one in the cup.  Actually, Bryan usually get one in the cup.

But Courtney is just as proud to have a crawdad in her cup.

The patience of Job when catching crawdads.

Ethan and one of his friends were trying to find a good place to catch them.

After catching their fill of crawdads, we all went swimming in the pool.  It is a great pool and so much fun because it is deep enough to dive into.  The kids had a blast!

We all got shakes or ice cream and then it was time to go.  It was a lot of fun and now we are ready for school to start.

Nails

Courtney has always bitten her nails.  When she is playing soccer and is nervous, she will start biting her nails.  I have tried a lot of things to break her of this habit but nothing worked.  Last year I told her that if she would stop biting her nails that I would take her to have a manicure.  It didn't work....until this summer.  She doesn't know what happened but this summer she quit biting her nails.  I didn't realize it until mid-July when she asked if we could schedule a manicure for her birthday.  When she showed me her long, long nails I happily agreed.

We decided to try shallac at a nice place as her birthday present.  She has so much fun and the woman was great with her.  They didn't last too long (I think they were too thin) but Courtney had fun with them while she had them.

This is the before picture:

 She wasn't too happy with me taking pictures.

 Showing off her sparkly pink nails:

 These are my nails afterward.  I had to get in on the fun too.

Crazy Kids

I can't take the kids anywhere because they always find something hilarious/embarrassing to do!  We were walking through Michael's and they found foam swords.  So what did they do?!  They started sword fighting in the middle of the aisle.  I was laughing so hard at the funny looks they were getting from the older ladies shopping in the store.

Class list

Courtney has been anxious to find out who her teacher will be next week.  She put her request in with her 4th grade teacher (who makes the class assignments for 5th grade) and I put my request in with the principal but you never know where they will put you.

On Monday they put the class lists in the window at the elementary school and so I went up to see who her teacher would be.  She was thrilled that she got Mr. Hansen.  He is in our Stake and his wife is the Stake RS President, so I know them well.  I was excited too.  He actually retired about 5 years ago from teaching after a long career but then his wife was called as Stake RS Pres and they had to put their mission dreams on hold for a while.  He prayed about it and felt like "some kids needs a grandpa" so he began teaching at Santa Clara Elementary.  Mr. Hansen is great at art and so Courtney is thrilled to be in his class this coming year.

Courtney's back bend

Courtney has wanted to do a back bend for a long time but just hasn't been able to.  After spending 3 days in dance camp she decided she could do one and this is what happened...

Can you tell she is really excited?!?!

Dance Camp

On July 30, 31st and August 1st, Courtney had Summer Slam Dance Camp at Snow Canyon High School.  She was pretty excited about it.  This year it was required for all Pizazz team members to attend so we had the biggest team by far.  They had three days of learning routines, learning technique, learning acrobatics/tumbling, and having fun with their friends.  Courtney had a great time.

Pizazz won the award for the "Hardest Working Team" at the camp.  Here is their team with their trophy.  Courtney is standing right behind the trophy so you really can't see her.

This is the entire dance camp group.  They had high school teams from the area along with other dance teams from the county.  It was great to see them all and their hard work.  Courtney is on second row, sitting on her knees, second from the right.

 On the last day they had a show for the parents.  So we went to Snow Canyon to watch her and see what she had learned in the last 3 days.  The school has specific parking spots and so we park in ours when we are there.

Haha!  It's really not for us.  We think there must be a teacher named "Pack" and that's his/her spot.  But Bryan thought it was fun to park in "our spot."

It was fun to watch Courtney dance.  Now remember, she learned these routines in only 3 days.

Beginning contemporary dance (Courtney is on the left):

Intermediate lyrical dance (they put her in the intermediate group with the older girls so she was really challenged):

Beginning hip hop dance (This doesn't have sound because youtube said the song is copyrighted so they took the sound off.  The song is "Hey Ma-ma-ma, Hey Ma-ma-ma."  I am trying to get it to upload from my computer but blogger said the file is too large.  So you can see her and it's a really cute dance.  Just pick your favorite song and hum it.)