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.