Pine View Invitational

Emily was very excited to be able to run at the Pine View Invitational Varsity Track Meet this weekend. She ran the 800 meter race and did amazingly.

 

She was in the 7th heat of girls running the race and she said this heat was pretty fast. That was good for her though because it really pushed her to run faster than she has before. For most of the race she was in the top four. In the end, this fast pace helped her get her personal record (PR) in the 800 with a time of 2:47!  She was so excited about that.

We were also happy she was able to go to Pine View because we got to go down to St. George and enjoy the warm weather and family. Colby and I brought down our bikes. I was able to ride 25 miles and loved the warm weather. Colby and the other kids enjoyed the skate park and the playground. They were very happy to see the sun and not have to wear coats. We were sad to leave…

Earlier in the week, Colby, Logan, and Charlotte had their AIM piano recital. All three of them performed very well!

Logan and Charlotte each passed off a level of AIM and received their scores for all of their piano tests. This is Charlottes first year and Logan’s fourth year doing AIM. Colby decided not to do AIM this year but still learned a fun song, The Entertainer,” for the recital. They are all so talented!

Track Meet, Band, & Nerf Wars

Track season is now in full force and Emily had her first track meet this week.  She has been running a lot throughout the winter and her goal is to qualify for the Varsity Invitationals this year.  During the track meet this week she ran the 3200 meter and the 1600 meter races (or 2 mile and 1 mile).

She did great in both events.  In the 3200 M, she was able to place second overall in girls with a time of 14:10.  She said she felt slow though because the boys and girls raced together and the boys kept passing her.  She said it was hard to keep track of 8 laps so she was glad she had her watch to tell her when she was close to the two mile mark.  In the mile she ran a 6:45.  It was not her best time but still really good.  She is hoping her performance in the 3200 will enable her to go to the Pine View Invitational next week.

Right after the track meet we had to rush over to Sky View so she could perform with her percussion group in the Region Solo & Ensemble.  The song they performed was "Escape from a Nightmare."  It was a pretty intense song and it sounded really great to me.  Unfortunately they scored a I- so they are not moving on to State.  Dumb judges...

On Tuesday the boys had an Ultimate Nerf Gun War for Young Mens inside a $35 million house!  They said it was amazing!

The owner of this house is the father-in-law of one of the YM leaders so he was able to let the boys go inside.  Underneath the house are many tunnels and passageways where the boys played and ran around.  This house is huge and every room is decorated and designed as a different Disney theme.  He built the house so that all of his family, kids and grandkids, could live there in case of some big emergency.  It is on 150 acres with ponds and waterfalls and a hobbit village and even an airplane runway.  Needless to say all of the boys were in awe.  They had a blast playing Nerf Wars.

Our ward got split last week so there are a lot of changes going on right now.  We stayed in the same ward but now it is just the old original ward again without the townhouses.  Because of this change, Russell just got called to be the Elder's Quorum President.  This will be a big calling for him and effect us a lot but it will be good.  I am still a Primary Teacher which I am really liking so far.

Leadership Conferences & Band Concerts

This week was pretty eventful.  It all began with Colby's birthday and ended with a packed Leadership Conference for the Youth Council.  Thrown in the middle was a couple band concerts for Colby and Emily and Parent Teacher Conferences for Charlotte and Logan.  Along with the PTC, I put together a meal for the teachers and staff.  I cooked sweet pork and we had delicious nachos. Yum....

Thursday night after the band concert Emily and I headed over to our Youth Council's rented AirBnb and spent the night so we could be ready for the Utah Youth Council's Leadership Conference.  I spent the next 2 days with these awesome kids from the Hyrum Youth Council as we were trained and encouraged to be better leaders in our community.

We spent a lot of time in break out sessions learning about overcoming trials, networking with others, encouraging personal growth, and learning from each other through Legos.  We also listened to a speaker talk about how to get out dreams and goals off the ground right now.

 

Along with the classes, we also had a lot of fun.  There were a bunch of Minute-To-Win-It games, a wild Goose Chase competition, a formal banquet with our city dignitaries, and we finished the night off with an exciting dance!

During our council free time, we got together with the Amalga Youth Council and went to Angie's to clean the sink.  It was delicious!

I hope the kids had a good time and learned a lot of good information to take back to the council.  It was very informative for me as well as I participated in the advisor training.  

Along with the two band concerts, the younger kids also had a music performance this week.  Charlotte and Logan participated in their AIM music performance on Saturday.  This was the final evaluation for the AIM program this year.  They had to memorize two songs and perform them for a judge.  They both felt like they did pretty well so that is great.

Happy 14th Birthday, Colby!

Happy 14 Birthday Colby!!  You are growing up too fast.  

 

I had a great birthday and enjoyed every bit of it. This year for my birthday I got a new Utah Jazz shirt and a couple things for my new BMX bike that I got a few weeks earlier. Another thing I received for my birthday was a pickle ball set of paddles and a phone. That's right, I finally got a phone. This birthday present was probably the best of all my new presents.

For my birthday we went to the Running Utes basketball game.

 This was super fun but sadly the Utes lost to West Virginia just barely by three points.

Since we got back from the Utes game super late we had to have the cake and ice cream the next day which I was fine with.  I also got to go to my very first job interview the day after my birthday. When we were done with that we went to pick up a new bike for me to work on.  We got the cake and ice cream anyway so it didn't matter to me at all.

Happy Birthday!  We love you Colby!  I'm glad you had a great day.

Utah State Capitol

On Friday we took the Hyrum Youth Council to the Utah State Capitol Building to experience a day in legislature.  This was a very fun and educational experience. 

We started the day off pretty early meeting at 6:00 am to drive down to Salt Lake.  We were scheduled to have a tour through the Capitol with our Senator's Intern at 8:00 am.  We met with the intern, Rebecca, and she gave us a personal tour through the building.

She took us through all of the rooms, showed us all of the amazing murals, and also took us downstairs to show us the building's base isolators that protect the building in case of an earthquake. The most fancy room was the State Reception Room or the Gold Room.  This room was literally wallpapered in gold leafing!  It was very beautiful and very colonial looking.  This is the room the Governor does all of his meetings and press conferences and things so it is like the Oval Office of the Utah State Capitol building.  I thought it was amazing to see all of this beautiful building and learn about the history and uses of this place.

While we were there, we also got to meet with our local Utah Senator, Scott Sandall and our local House Representative, Casey Snider.  These guys were so happy to meet with us and talk about what they do.  They encouraged each of the kids to look at politics as a way to help the community as a whole.

Senator Sandall and Representative Hawkins (another Utah House Representative) took us out onto the floor of the Utah Senate and House of Representative meeting rooms.  This was so cool because no one is allowed to go into these rooms unless they are invited in by a Senator or House Representative.  It was truly a once in a lifetime thing.  They talked about the things they do in these rooms during the 45 day legislative session.  They taught us about the legal process of making, debating, and approving Bills and Laws for the State.  It was pretty fascinating.  

Later, when the House and Senate were in session, we were able to watch from the gallery above and actually see how these things are done during a session.  I was kind of disappointed that we didn't get to see any major debates or discussions about the bills being talked about.  Then I realized that because we came so late in the legislative session, (the 45 day session ends next week) all of the Bills we watched had already been debated and rewritten multiple times.  This was the third reading for all of them.  Next time we should go earlier in the 45 day session. It was still pretty eye opening to me to watch the legislative process.

One more exciting thing that happened was that Cosmo, the BYU Mascot, was there wandering around for fun.  After leaving the Capitol Building, we headed to Golden Corral for lunch.  This seemed like the highlight of the trip.  Ha ha!  I hope these kids learned something from this experience as well as had a good time together.  

Snow!

The last couple weeks it has been snowing.  We have not had any snow this winter until now which is kind of strange. Oh well, we took advantage of the snow this week by playing in it.  First on Saturday we went snowshoeing up Blacksmith Fork.

The boys didn't want to come because they were being lazy, I guess, so it was just the girls and Russell and me.  We trekked a total of 3 miles in our snowshoes and it was the perfect day for it.  The sun was out and it was beautiful in the canyon.  On the way back to the car we saw a large herd of elk on the side of the mountain.

The kids have also been having fun in the snow by sledding behind the four-wheeler and building forts.  Logan and the neighbor kids built a large fort in the neighbor's yard so they could play an epic game of capture the flag.  Unfortunately, they used all of their time building the fort and were not able to play the game because it got dark.  The fort is still standing though so I'm sure they will play another day.

Emily and I went on a trail run on the Highline and Logan River trail with some of the kids from her track team.  This was a fun run but also rough on our ankles as we ran through the frozen snow dodging tracks and indents all along the way.  I would do it again though because it felt magical running through a frozen forest.

Russell was awarded his 10 years of service recognition this week as well.  It is hard to believe we have lived here for 10 years!

Yes it is crazy that we have been in the Cache Valley area for 10 years. The longest job I have ever had. It has been a great 10 years full of ups and downs. I have enjoyed every part of the 10 years at LCFD. For the every 5 years the city does a little get together to read a special letter from the Captain. They also gave me a free day off and an Amazon gift card. Captain Hogland wrote my letter and it was well written. He told me I was a great family man and is still not sure how many kids I really have. I can't believe 10 years have gone by so quick. I am looking forward to the years to come.

Dino-mite!

 For President's Day yesterday we drove down to Thanksgiving Point in Lehi and went to the Museum of Ancient Life.  This was an awesome museum full of dinosaurs!  We got to travel back in time 65 million years and learn about what life was like for the dinosaurs that lived then. 

While at the museum we got to see over 60 full dinosaur skeletons.  These dinosaurs were huge!

As you can see we only come up to the knee or ankle of the Brontosaurus! The full body took up the entire room.

We were able to see a Brontosaurus, Supersaurus. Stegosaurus, Triceratops, T-Rex, and a lot more.  All of the kids thought it was fascinating.  I was also amazed at everything we saw, read about, and learned as we walked through the museum.  We learned about all of the different geological time eras beginning with the Paleozoic Era.  In this era we learned about the first fishes, crustaceans, trilobites, and other first living things.  We learned how these small life forms evolved into bigger fish and then amphibians and other animals that started to walk on land.  

From there we got into the Mesozoic era including the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods.  We spent most of our time in this era because this is where all of the dinosaurs were.  We were able to see all sorts of dinosaurs and learn about how they lived and what they ate.  There were also a ton of hands on learning things like an erosion pool the kids could play in and interactive games.  There were many actual dinosaur fossils and bones but most of the large skeletons were replicas.  The items under glass and away from touching hands were the actual fossils.  The things people could touch were casts which make sense because real fossils would be pretty fragile.  They casts were still awesome to see. In the Cretaceous period room we saw a giant sea turtle skeleton and a giant ancient fish skeleton.  They were so cool!  

From here we moved to the Cenozoic Era and the evolution of animals and the evolution of humans.  We got to see a full skeleton of a wholly mammoth and a life size replica of a Megalodon Shark!  Everything was so huge!  I am glad we live now and not in the time of these larger than life animals.  

In all this was a great time spent with the family.  The kids loved seeing the dinosaurs and learning more about them.  Brooklyn calls the dinosaurs monsters.  Thanksgiving Point has a bunch of other museums on their property that we would like to go back and see especially the Butterfly Biosphere.  I am thinking a membership to this place would be fun to have in the future.  

On the way home, we stopped at Scheels to ride the Ferris Wheel but sadly it was not going when we got there.  So instead of riding, we browsed the store and saw all of the taxidermied animals.  We will have to go back another time for the Ferris Wheel.

Alien Removal

This has been an eventful week for us. We started the week off with a mini surgery! Charlotte had an alien removed from her ear, hence the title of this post.

Okay it wasn’t a real alien but it was a foreign body. Back in October, we noticed a bump in her ear and wondered what it was. We decided to just keep an eye on it for a while because she said it didn’t hurt or bother her at all. As we watched it over the next couple months, we noticed that it continued to grow. Finally we got an appointment with our pediatrician to see what was going on. He told us it was probably just a cyst but referred us to an ENT doctor for a second opinion in case it was something else. The ENT agreed that it was most likely a cyst and we decided to have it removed with a minor in office surgery.

On Tuesday, I took Charlotte in to have the bump removed. After numbing her ear, the procedure was painless. I actually got to watch the whole thing and I thought it was fascinating!  The doctor cut around the bump, pulled back the flap of skin and the cut around the cyst ball thing and cut it out. The doctor called it a dermoid cyst. A dermoid cyst is a growth of normal tissue enclosed in a pocket of cells called a sac. This tissue grows in or under your skin in an unexpected location.

The cyst was literally the size and shape of a pea. The doctor took it out and then stitched her ear skin flap back down. Charlotte was pretty loopy until the Versed wore off but she was awake the whole time. Her ear should heal just fine and not have any major scarring. The doctor said he got all of it out so the cyst shouldn’t grow back. Yeah no more alien!  

Along with this surgery, we also celebrated Valentine’s Day, planned a fun Valentine’s party for Charlotte’s class, made sugar cookies for the neighbors, and had our first major snow storm of the winter. I know winter is almost over but, yes, it was our first snowstorm complete with a snow delay for school. It is supposed to snow the rest of this week too so maybe the kids will get to play in the snow a couple times this year. I prefer to stay inside when it is snowing but maybe I’ll get my snowshoes out for once. We’ll see.

Princess Tea Party

Today was fun.  For Christmas, the little girls got tickets to go to the Family Place's Princess Tea Party.  They have been looking forward to it for a while and finally today was the day of the Tea Party.  Emily, Charlotte, Brooklyn and I made a day of it and had a fun girl's time at the Party.

While at the Tea Party the girls got to meet all of their favorite Disney Princesses.  They were able to talk to and get a picture with each of the princesses.  Brooklyn said her favorite princess was Cinderella.  Charlotte's favorite princess was Jasmine.  We even got interviewed my a camera man from Channel 2.  We'll have to see if it actually gets on the news.

We met up with Charlotte's friend Gracie and her little sister Abby at the Party.  These four girls had a blast running from princess to princess and activity to activity.  They were able to make bracelets, play Pin the Nose on Olaf, color pictures, make magic wands, and floating lanterns.  The girls also got their faces painted and hair tinsel put in their hair.  

After meeting all of the princesses, it was time for the Tea Party.  We got to eat mini cupcakes, grapes, strawberries, cheese and milk. 

The best part of the party was the dance party at the end.  The girls loved dancing with all of the Princesses and other girls.

I loved seeing the smiles on their faces as they were having fun.  Emily and I were just hanging out watching everyone.  We were laughing at the Prince Eric and Kristof actors because they were really getting into the dances and singing.  Charlotte's favorite part was hanging out with her friend, Gracie.  Brooklyn said her favorite part was searching for all of the characters on the scavenger hunt.  In all we had a great time at the Princess Tea Party.

FCCLA and Science Fairs

FCCLA stands for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. This week was the region competition.  The event I competed in was Repurpose and Redesign.  For my project I used a service project I found on JustServe Little Dresses For Africa. This project takes pillowcases and turns then into dresses for refugee girls in Africa.

I worked on this project all month and learned a lot.  I made two pillowcase dresses and made my poster.  I presented this project at the region competition.  At the competition we checked in and found out where and when we were presenting our projects after that we went to the opening ceremony.  After the opening ceremony we all split up to the places we needed to go.  I went down the hall and waited for my time. I was supposed to go in at 9:25 am but because the judges were behind I waited nervously for another hour to go in. When I went in I set up my board for the two judges to see and then stepped back out of the room as the judges looked over my board. When I was called back in I presented my speech, explaining my project and going through what I did. Afterward, the judges asked me a few questions and then I was done.  I put my things away and met up with my friends who were already done.  We played games and ate lunch as we waiting for the closing ceremony where we would learn how we did.

At the opening ceremony the person in charge read through all the events and who competed in them and what place they got.  The placing is off how many points you got on your event rubric.  You have to get at least 60 points to go to state.  Bronze is getting 60-70 points, silver is getting 70-80 points, and gold is getting 90+ points or something like that. Basically everyone goes to state.  There was a lot of people and different events.  Finally they got to my Repurpose and Redesign event. There were a few people who competed in my event and the projects I saw were really cool.  

They finally said my name I got silver! I get to go to state!  I was super excited. We had a few people from our school get gold and my friends also got silver.  Now I just have to get the rubric back and see what the judges thought of my project and see what I can improve for State.  After they announced everyone, they then drew some names for some cool door prizes.  Surprisingly my name was called and I got a funny baboon stuffed animal and some Jamba Juice fruit snacks.  It was super fun and cool experience and I can't wait to go do it again at State!

We have been working on project boards and projects a lot over the last few weeks.  In addition to Emily's FCCLA Project, Logan and Charlotte also participated in the school Science Fair.

Their projects were really well done too.  They each researched all about their topics by reading books about their subjects.  After researching, they typed up everything they wanted on their board and we put them together.  Logan did his project on the Solar System and told a few fun facts about each of the planets in our solar system.  Charlotte decided to do her project on Plants and Seeds.  She told all about how plants grow, what they are used for and why plants are important.  She even planted a couple of bean seeds in a Ziploc bag and watched them grow over the last few weeks.  During the Science fair she pointed out just how each bean seed was germinating and growing.  

After the Science Fair presentations, we got to check out the STEM Night activities and we learned a lot about other science and engineering things.  It was a fun night.

Good job on your projects kids!!