Random summer stuff

In August Ian participated in his first Raingutter Regatta. He loved making the boat and racing in the "gutters" set up in the Sage Creek ward's Bishop's backyard- it's as big as the lot our house is on.

I am also including a picture of Ian's first turn at mowing the lawn. He was very proud and excited. I was a bit nervous, but Kevin stayed right behind him just in case.

Random summer stuff

Cub Scouts Summer 2009

Today I attended the Cub Scout Day Camp at Staheli Farm with Ian. He is still the only really active cub in our ward. Luckily we got put into a group with friends from school and my computer guy- Charles- was in our group as a leader for his ward and was good about including Ian with his 5 boys.
Ian had fun! We started at the leather crafting station where they made neckerchief slides- Ian's had a bear, a forest looking thing, and arrows around the initial P. Next was one of Ian's favorite parts of the day- CANOEING! I was nervous because they had said they wanted one leader in each boat of 3 scouts. The last time I tried this was when I was a nanny and we were in Sun Valley. The 10 year old I was caring for stood up in the middle of the pond and we tipped- I was very sore and bruised! I was very grateful when Charles eagerly volunteered to be in a canoe and asked Ian to join him and 2 of his boys. Ian did great in the front of the boat and really loved it. Next was the bike rodeo. Ian didn't really like this one because none of the bikes really fit and they were trying to ride in deep, soft dirt. He fell a few times-hard!- but still got up. I was proud of him. After that we had about a 15 minute wait for the farm machinery/animals portion. The most exciting thing there was when a bull calf came toward us and everyone started to scatter (which made the calf a bit nervous). I walked over and practically had to slap the calf's rear to get it to turn around and wander the other way. The last few things were making Navajo tacos (all they did was stretch the dough) and planting seeds in wet cotton balls and then putting them in the fingers of a plastic glove. Our last rotation sent us to the archery/wrist rocket section the 8 year olds did the wrist rockets and Ian and the 9 year olds did archery. Ian loved it and is pretty good at it (if people will just remember he is a LEFTY and not try to "fix" his hold).
All in all we had a very fun day and after some grocery shopping came home and vegged.

Some summer fun

Okay, I know it has been quite some time since I blogged, so I will do a quick overview...We finished school in May and Ian is now 3 weeks away from starting the 4th grade! Time is sure flying!! We have spent the summer playing with friends and cousins and just hanging out. The pictures are of our Whittaker cousins from Mesquite. The boys like to play Playstation and/or DS and Alyssa just goes around looking for stuff to get in to.Ian would like to swim more- he would spend all day in a pool of he could.

We got to go visit Grandpa and the Dennis cousins after the 4th of July. The plan was to drop some of Grandpa's stuff off at Nicole's then go to Lagoon (a local amusement park). When Kevin and Leon got done putting the stuff in storage, Ian decided that 2 cousins, 3 dogs, a Wii and a pool held more appeal than a hot day at Lagoon! We didn't mind and had lots of fun hanging at Aunt Nicole's. The next day we stuck to schedule and went to Hogle Zoo and Cabella's on the way home. We will most likely go back up in another week or so to take the rest of Grandpa's stuff and maybe we will get to Lagoon that trip.

Kevin's work is really slow- unusual for this time of year- so he will be only working 3 days this next week. We can get in some more family time before I have to start work on the 27th. Yes, I have to go in 2 weeks before the kids start. This year the teachers have to teach their own computer lab classes, but I am still over the lab and I work in the office. I still do the assessments, so I will probably have a trip or two to Richfield again this year. I already have one TBA to Cedar City.

That's all we have for now, I will try to do better with the blogging thing. Between this and facebook I will have few secrets! :)

Little Black Mountain Petroglyphs Site Spring 2009

Here we are in the middle of Spring Break and Ian and I decided to go out and have a fun hike. I thought about going to a certain spot, but Kevin, knowing how I am about heights, reminded me it may be easy to climb up, but getting down can be hard. In other words, he knew if I got up some where, I might look down and decide, "No way!". So, we chose to go to Little Black Mountain Petroglyph Site. It's a little southeast of St. George out near the Arizona Strip. We went there about 4 years ago but haven't been back since.
It was a beautiful morning- 60 to 65 degrees- and Ian and I had it all to ourselves. We hiked both the West and East trails and even went off the trail in a few spots. It is such an easy-going hike that we were there a little over and hour and a half. We just took our time and had fun taking pictures of the neat petroglyphs. On the way back we drove slowly and ate our trail mix and jerky while listening to the birds. Tomorrow we are heading out in search of Old Fort Pearce and Warner Valley. What a great day!

Science Fair 2008-2009

Last week we had our annual Science Fair at George Washington Academy. Ian decided he wanted to participate this year, but didn't come up with anything doable until the night before. He decided to see how many teaspoons of salt it took to float an egg in 1 cup of water. He was very excited and loved taking the pictures we put on his display board. He won 2nd place out of all the 3rd graders who participated (I'm not sure how many there were). He was very proud and is looking forward to next year!

Choir Competition

The GWA Choir went to a competition this week at Desert Hills High School. I didn't realize how nervous Ian was until I watched him onstage. After each song- there were two- you could visibly see him take a deeeep breathe and let it out slooowly through pursed lips. I'm afraid if there had been more songs he might have passed out! This was their first competition and it was funny when we all regrouped back at the school and their teacher, Mrs. Whiteside, came over with their certificate and said, "We got a I (that's a one)- is that good?" YES!! That's the best score you can get!! She was very pleased since our choir is made up of 3rd-8th graders (mostly 4th) and there are only about 24 kids. They meet once a week for about 50 minutes and were by far the smallest and youngest choir there. In the group picture, Ian is in the very middle of the front row.

Great hair!!

Ian got a haircut and he looks GOOOOD!!! I let him tell how he wanted it and he was very specific. Makenna and I (the girl who cut it grew up in our ward and has always loved Ian) thought he might want the sides and back shorter, but he said no. She made note of which guard she used so that if it grows too fast we can go shorter next time. He probably should have had some of the top trimmed a bit more, but he likes it and it looks good, so we are happy!

THE HAIR!!!

Ian promised me that after his Elvis performance he would get a haircut. I wasn't asking for much, mostly a trim and MAJOR thin. Well here he is before the haircut. We didn't take an "after" picture yet because I needed to get all the other pictures off my camera. I would have done it when we got home from school, but he really concentrated today. I could tell because when he is working hard he twists his hair in the front and it tends to stand on end. In the morning we will do the after shot.

Colonial Times @ GWA

Last Friday the 3rd graders at George Washington Academy appropriatley enough, went back to Colonial America for a short visit. The girls wore skirts and covered their hair, while the boys wore knickers and knee socks. They split into groups and took turns playing games- marbles, jacks, and others- and learning useful skills like candle making and how to make a colonial game with string and a button!
The kids loved it- especially when Mr. McCleery told them the gross history behind the childhood game "ring-around-the-rosy". (If you don't know it, look it up or ask me and I will tell you.) The climax came when the kids got to eat colonial foods- berries, cheese, jam and whole grain bread with whole milk The only condition was they had to stand and eat in silence for 10 minutes!! They did pretty well, only cracking up when we adults made pretend conversation about our colonial families. Ian caught me when I said my son had milked the cow that morn- the girls did that chore in colonial times. I had already spoken of fictional daughters, so I had no excuse.
It was lots of fun and we are thankful we have teachers like Mrs. Raybould and Mr. McCleery to come up with these great ideas- I hear next year they are going to be Berzerkers and do some pillaging!!

Musical Extravaganza(ish)

Ian has been a part of a musical theatre class the past 2 trimesters and they finally had a showcase of all their talents. Of course Ian had to do his Elvis thing and he really rocked the school with "Jailhouse Rock"! He had some hip moves that he must have picked up from Daddy.

Ian's First Pinewood Derby

What a fun night! We weren't expecting much- we have a small troop and we found out just this past Sunday that it might be today- but it was just right. There were 4 scouts and the cub master's little boy. We hadn't spent much time on the car, Kevin and Ian had cut it down some and sanded it, so last night they painted it and that was pretty much it. I kept asking about weights, but Kevin said they didn't need them. The only other thing they did was add a tiny washer to each wheel between the wheel and car so there wasn't any friction with the wood. We got to the Derby and the other boys were "practicing" and their cars were pretty fast- one of the boys had added little weights to the entire bottom of his car. I had prepared myself to console Ian since I didn't think his car would do that well without the weight. Little did I know we had some kind of mojo going on and his car would win every heat he was in! A couple were close until the straight stretch at the end when his car would just pull ahead. It was so freaky! We even let the others check out our car after the races were done and they couldn't believe it either. On the way home Ian just kept exclaiming his amazement that he had won since he thought the other cars looked faster. He was very happy with his first Pinewood Derby experience- and so was Daddy! He got a little bit of "I told you so" on that one!

Latest trip

Once again, Kevin surprised me with the suggestion we go visit Grandpa in Ogden- 5 hours away. I was able to talk him out of leaving Friday afternoon around 2pm- it helped that the hotel we like to stay in was sold out. Go Jazz! Anyway, we left Saturday morning at 7am and once again "Lead-foot Annie" was driving and with a stop in Nephi for gas, we got there at around 11:30 or so. Grandpa was very happy to see us, but kept asking when we were going to get him down to St. George. My goal for the month- what's left of it- is to get on that and not stop until he is here. Nicole and her family have done a great job taking care of him this past year, but her health isn't the best and I know Dad would just feel better being "home"- and out of the snow!
We went over to Nicole's to visit and see her 2 new mini-schnauzers- Taylor (a girl) and Ruff( a boy). They are too cute! Ian had fun playing with the cousins and we just visited- Grandpa came too!- and ate some awesome Chinese food. The weather was great- we did have some ground fog along the way- and we were home by 11:30 pm. We did have a moment outside Parowan when Kevin suddenly swerved because he was about to hit a deer. Luckily the deer kept going across. He laughed because I was reading and when he swerved I looked up, saw the deer, and cursed loudly, "SH**!!" . Ian was so out he didn't even realize what had happened. We were all glad we had another safe and successful trip to Ogden.
We have just been enjoying our days off with the long weekend and are all rested and ready to get back to work/school! Oh! We also bought a chest freezer, so if anyone has any suggestions on freezing meals and such to put in the freezer- that means you Sherrie- let us know! Thanks!

Holiday recap

Okay, everyone is getting after me to update so I am going to update and try to do better this year. Over the holidays it was just nice to not have to be on the computer for anything. When it is a part of your job it gets old.
Our Christmas was nice. Like all of you, we kept it simple and didn't spend too much. In fact, Santa gave Ian a DS Lite and instead of playing with it all the time- like I was sure he would- he and I played Chess for almost a week straight before he picked-up the DS! He is such a smart kid! We got a game called No Stress Chess. It teaches chess basics with playing cards, and eventually you will be able to play without the cards. We both learned alot and now we we have to keep it at best of 3.
Christmas eve was an adventure! Kevin decided around 12:30 that we should drive up to Ogden- about 5 hours away- to visit my Dad in the Assisted Living place he is at. There was a huge storm on the way- as we all know by now- but we headed out anyway. "Lead-foot Annie" aka Ann-Marie drove on the way up. We stopped to potty and for gas and made it up there about 5pm. Grandpa was very surprised to see us, yet very tired. We stayed with him for about an hour and a half. We didn't know at the time he was fighting the lingering effects of his latest bout with MRSA- a super-bug type of staff infection that he picked-up last year and gets again and again. He was so out of it I worried he would wake the next day and think it was all a dream! Ian had tucked him into his recliner with the new blaket we bougth him and he was all set. He had the relcliner tipped all the way back, his blanket wrapped around him, and his oxygen mask on. I snuck a picture with my new cellphone I got for my birthday, but decided not to share it- it looks really Hanibal Lechter-like!
We stopped at my sister Nicole's house and had a quick bite to eat and then we headed home- it was about 7:30 pm. I thought we were doing a good job because we left before the snow started- I didn't realize the storm was coming from the South! We hit the worst spots around Fillmore- of course- and Cedar City. We got home safely- thank you Kevin- around 1:30 am. We all went right to bed and Ian had us up at 6:30 to open presents. We later went to Mesquite for Christmas dinner with my brother Wil and his family. All said, it was a pretty nice holiday.