Celebrating the End of School

School is out!  Yeah for the kids! This year will be the most memorable school year ever in history.  With the Covid-19 running crazy they cancelled all schools so we had to do home schooling with virtual teaching. It was very tricky and took some adjustments at first, but the kids did a great job adjusting to the few last months of home schooling. It was a little stressful for them, but they pulled through and we had a big celebration once school was out. 

We decided to celebrate by going to Fire House Pizza for pizza and bread sticks. We had some coupons for a brownie and ice cream desserts and we also got a really big one to share. The big one was the best. It was Aggie Blue ice cream with chocolate syrup. All of us were in heaven. All of the kids earned this we are so proud of them and the hard work and positive attitude they had. 

On the way home, I had a thought. I dug into the coupon bag and found the mini golf coupons we won a while ago. We turned right in to the Willow Mini Golf place and surprised everyone. The kids were excited because they had been asking for two years to come here and golf. What the heck why not we thought let's go have fun. 

We all got our clubs and golf balls and headed to the warm up putting green. Charlotte was way excited to have her own ball and cool club. I think this is the first time for all the youngsters playing mini golf. It was fun to watch them hit the ball. Some went into the water, some went into bushes, and some went under trees and others bounced all over the place. It was a fun time. 

By the end of the night we were finally getting a little better at aiming but we still needed a ton of strokes to get the ball in the hole.  Oh well it was fun anyway.  At the end of the 18 holes we all got Popsicles when we turned in our clubs.  We will definitely have to go back another time.

The next thing we did to celebrate the end of school was have a big fire in the backyard to burn all of our school work!

This just might become a new tradition for us to do at the end of each school year.  We invited our friends, the Checketts, over to burn their school things too.  It was a party!

The kids had a blast getting rid of all of their old school work.  Emily may have gotten a little too into it because she was starting to go crazy pyro on us.  She is definitely glad to be out of school for the summer finally.  We had a good school year but it is time for a break and time to have fun this summer.  We can't wait to make some fun plans despite all the changes Covid-19 has caused.  Bring on summer!!

Flatten the Curve Virtual Race

Because of Covid-19, basically all races have been cancelled or reinvented. St. George Races decided to reinvent their racing by putting on a Virtual Race Series.  For this series, you signed up to run at your own pace, own time, and own way. We raced to see how many miles we could do in one month and received pins and prizes for hitting different milestones up to 200 miles. This sounded like a good idea to me and it kept me motivated to push myself to run more miles.  I signed up for the running division for the month of May for the Flatten the Curve Virtual Race.

This race challenge definitely pushed me to run more than I ever have.  I typically try to run 100 miles a months which is about 20-25 miles a week. This is very doable for me. Originally I had just planned on doing my 100 miles because 200 miles seemed way out of reach. Then my friend, Trista, said she was going to try for the 200 and challenged me to do the same. So of course I had to try. 

I started the first day of the month with a 15 mile run so then I only had 185 to go!

I continued running more and more miles each day and planned longer and longer runs for each week. If I had a marathon in the future this would have been perfect because I basically did a marathon training schedule and more! But of course all races and marathons have been cancelled...

I also ran to some different places like the Logan Temple and around Logan rather than just Hyrum.  I ended up running double my average and did 50-60 miles a week.

Probably my favorite part of running is getting out early in the morning and enjoying the quiet of nature. There were many times I watched the sun rise over the town.  I also liked running up to the MC on the mountain to get away from everything and see the whole world from that point.

One morning I had Russell drive me up to Hardware Ranch and I ran home. It was the most perfect and peaceful morning for a run.  It had rained the night before so I was worried I would get caught in the rain on my run but it ended up being perfect. The foggy clouds on the mountains really contrasted with the greenery for an amazing view. And everything smelled so fresh after the rain. Perfect for 18 miles.

These are some more awesome views I witnessed on my morning runs.  We definitely live in a beautiful place.

Some mornings Emily would join me on my run. Her goal for the summer was to run a 5k so together we trained to work up her endurance.

Along with this Flatten the Curve race, I also did another challenge to help me get to 200 miles. I did the Yeti Ultra 24 hour Challenge. The challenge was to run 30 miles in 24 hours by running 5 miles every 4 hours. This was rough, (especially running at 1:00 am...) but I was able to do it! I decided to add one mile to the last run to make it an even 50k. This enabled me to add 31 miles in one day.

Finally here I am jumping for joy because I passed the 200 mile mark for the St George Flatten the Curve Virtual Race!! This was a major accomplishment because I have never ran this much in a month.  One thing about it though, 10 miles used to be a long run for me but now it is a usual run. It is amazing what your body can do if you push it. I am so grateful for my health!!

After hitting the 200 miles mark, I still had a couple of days left in the month of May so I kept adding miles. On the last day of the month I ran from our house to the Logan Temple. I had wanted to do something like this before but thought it was too far. Well, come to find out, it's only 10 miles! So I ran there and Russell picked me up. It was fun to run to the temple because like life, getting to the temple is our goal! 

At the end of the month, the results were in and I ended up running a total of 221 miles and earned 3rd place in my age group!! I thought that was pretty awesome for how hard I worked to reach this goal.  I don't know if I will continue to run 200 miles in a month because that was just really time consuming and hard to plan around but I am glad I was able to push myself to achieve this goal!

A few weeks later, my medals and prizes came in the mail. I was able to earn every pin for every milestone.  The cool thing about this medal is that it can be worn as a mask! This will definitely be a good reminder of the craziness we live with right now. This was a fun race challenge.

Last Month of (Home) School

What a crazy few month of having school at home. 2020 will be one year to always remember. It threw the whole world off orbit of being normal. COVID-19 made it so all schools were shut down and almost everything else. It was very different having the kids home everyday and all day. The coolest thing and the biggest blessing was that we were prepared for it. Tiffany had huge feeling that she needed to be a stay at home Mom years ago so she could be there for the kids. It was a fun few months for all of us. There was some adjustment time for all of us and as soon as we found a groove we were moving. The kids did some really cool activities for their school work. The teachers got really creative in their work to keep the kids motivated. 

Tiffany also did some cool activities with each of the kids. We made some great memories and it was good being with them and seeing them grow and helping them. Sometimes I think I did more harm than good. After a while I found out while the kids did their homework, it was best if I found some projects outside. All four of them were good sports through the whole thing. The two biggest things they missed about school was their teachers, and playing with friends.  

Every Friday was School Spirit Day.  We took a picture of us in our school swag and sent it to the principal for a chance at a prize.  On the last Friday, we jumped for joy because school was going to be done!  The trampoline was the best way to show us jumping for joy and showing our excitement. Everyone passed their school work and now they were ready to go and play around and get ready for summer time. 

Emily worked extra hard these last few months on her Great American challenge. She had to memorize the presidents, the states and capitals, the Gettysburg Address, Preamble to the Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the National Anthem. This was a big goal for her to accomplish and she worked so hard and got them all done. When we were memorizing the presidents, it was fun for all of us because we found a song to help Emily remember them. We all had the presidents memorized by the time Emily was ready to pass it off. Charlotte was the funniest to hear sing the presidents songs. She probably memorized 3/4 of them. 

All of the kids work was done over Zoom or Google Classroom.  Emily even had to give her state report presentation over Zoom.  We are definitely learning a lot about technology.  Emily did her state report on Oregon.  She chose this state because Russell went on his mission there and we have visited that state on a trip.  She did a great job.

Of course when they closed the schools, the kids still had all their stuff at school in the desks. They put together days to go and get their things and see their teachers one last time. Each of the kids were excited to go and see them. Of course there was a mask rule to go inside. 

When Emily went to her class, Mrs Lockhart had a store with a lot of cool prizes, toys and goodies to buy with the class cash. Throughout the year the kids earned money for how well they on their school work. Of course Emily had a lot of money and she made a killing in the store. 

I also think it gave the kids some closure for the end of the year to say goodbye to their teachers and see them one more time until next year.  Because it was such a crazy year, the teachers missed their students just as much.  Because of this, they put together a teacher parade and drove around all of the neighborhoods in the school boundaries. The kids loved it and it was a lot of fun for them. 

We followed the whole parade all over the neighborhood and then jumped into the van and went to different places to see the teachers. Many of the teachers were laughing at us because we were so fast to get to each spot and see them. At the end we met at the church parking lot and got to take pictures and talk to their teachers.  

  

This year Canyon Elementary lost one of the best teachers around. Mrs. Neilson retired this year and they did a cool retirement celebration for her at the end of the parade. They honored her and gave her some really cool gifts and wished her the best.

One day, Russell was in charge of "P.E." for the school.  This is what he had them do:

Sumo wrestling on the trampoline!  They loved it so much.  It was so funny to watch.

Emily's teacher, Mrs. Lockhart was awarded the "Hat's Off" award from the district for being an awesome teacher.  She has been a great teacher and totally deserved this.  When they presented her this award, all of the students in her class secretly gathered to celebrate with her.

It was so fun to cheer for our teacher.  Mrs. Lockhart was so surprised to see everyone and receive this award.  She had no idea she was getting it.

Of course we had to defy the social distancing rules and get a picture of everyone.  Mrs. Lockhart also gave everyone a hug.  We sure loved having her as a teacher.  She has been awesome and so encouraging to all of her students.

On the last day of school, Mrs. Lockhart and the principal, Mrs. Williamson, came to our house to present Emily with some awards.  Emily had no idea so she was really surprised to see them.

They awarded Emily her Great American Award and another prestigious award called the Hope of America award.  This award was from the Kiwanis Club and is only given to two students in the fifth grade.  She was awarded this for being an awesome student with good morals, hardworking skills, and problem solving skills.  This was really cool to receive.

Along with these two awards, Emily also received the Presidential Award for scoring high on all of her tests. This award was actually signed by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and it came with a letter from his office as well.  Way to Go Emily!

Logan's teacher also visited him and gave him the "Sunshine Award" because he always happy and excited for school.  He was the sunshine in the classroom.

The last day of school is always Super Kids Day where all of the kids in the school play water games and have water fights.  Since we were not in school, the kids decided to have their own Super Kids Day at home.

They got out all of the water squirters, and water guns.  Then they invited a few neighborhood kids over for a water fight.  They had a great time.

Finally, school was out for the Summer!!

As a Primary Presidency, we celebrated the end of school for our Primary kids by having a Ice Cream Party.  Since we could not meet, we did an ice cream truck instead and drove to the kids.

We decorated our van like an ice cream truck and had a big speaker blasting music.  As we drove by, the kids ran out to get their ice cream.  It was really fun to see all of the kids and it was a fun activity to get people out of their houses even for a couple minutes.  This might become a new tradition.  

We are so excited for summer!