Science Camp 2013

Now that Ethan is at a new school, he has the opportunity to do an overnighter field trip with his class each year. This year the class went for a 3 nighter to Westminster Woods. I love that he gets to do these things that he would not have been able to do at his old school. Sure, I am paying a lot more money for these field trips, but the hands on experience is priceless! He had a blast...that is, until the last day when he got punched in the face multiple times by a boy in his class. This particular kid has always been a trouble maker and even I have had a few difficult challenges with him while working in his class. So the story goes like this.

This boy and another girl were playing in a tree. Ethan wanted to play too. The boy said that he couldn't. Ethan supposedly stepped on this kids hand. Now, if he did, I am convinced he did not know that he did it. I had multiple conversations with Ethan to find out if that part actually happened and again, I am convinced it did not. So this kid just halls off and punches Ethan a few times in the face. Ethan runs to an adult crying who then tried to figure out what happened. Once Ethan was able to tell the parent what had happened, the bully kid was approached by the adult and brought to the teacher where he whole heartily denied having done anything to Ethan. So, the teacher did some investigating and found out that there was a witness to this altercation in which the other child playing with them confirms Ethan's story that this kid punched him and did so more than once. Now, on any other day, this kid would have been sent home immediately from camp, however, since they were leaving to come home a few short hours later, he was sentenced to the remainder of the day with the teacher, not able to participate in the last days activities.

The teacher arrived at the school well before Ethan did who told me this story. When Ethan got out of the car, he shoved his face into my gut holding back tears. He was so sad the rest of the day. My heart ached for him. It just makes me want to put my kid in a protective shell for the remainder of his childhood. Despite this incident, he had a blast! They went on multiple hikes, played in tide pools, climbed on a big cargo net, and he became a part of the Banana Slug Club which consists of kissing a banana slug! Gross! Out of the 700 or so pictures that were uploaded to the class website for the Westminster Woods field trip, there was only one picture of a kid kissing a slug...and that was my kid! He's so awesome!

Ethan's Baptism

I couldn't let anymore time pass without a post that focuses on my son, Ethan. He was baptized over a month ago as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a very special day, filled with many friends and family. We were able to celebrate him at a luncheon afterwards that filled our house to the brim with people. A sweet spirit was felt throughout the day as I watched, if only for a minute, my perfect son. Clean of all sins and full of the Spirit. He is an amazing boy who is going to do wonders in this world!

Bobcat!

We have a Bobcat ranked Cub Scout! We are starting the ride of Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts...oh boy!

Snow!

When I was growing up, we got one Monday off of school to celebrate President Lincoln and George Washington's birthdays. Nowadays, the kids get a whole week off. So we decided to head to the snow for one of those days. We headed up to our normal spot at Cisco Grove. We got a great deal at the sled park that usually costs $20/person. The reason is, because the snow was melting and they weren't renting tubes or running their escalator thing so we ended up paying like $5 for the whole family, but then we had to purchase our own sleds which were $20 a piece...we got two of them. It was a lot of fun and I am so glad I brought my camera. I got some amazing shots!

$100 Richer

I won a $100 from one of the local radio stations. I entered the contest online and was supposed to listen at the top of every hour for my name for like 6 different hours a day until the contest ended. If my name was called, I had 5 minutes to call them back to win the moola. I am not 100% for sure but I think the contest went on for like a month. After the first week or so, I stopped listening. Every so often, if I was in the car, I would tune to that radio station around the top of the hour "just to see" if I would actually be called. One particular morning, Raya and I were on our way to the high school track to do some running. I just pulled out of my driveway and happened to have the radio on when my name was called. I looked at Raya and was like "Ummm, did you just hear that? They did call my name right?" and she was like "yep", and I was like "seriously...they said Rachael Durling, right?"...So, I called them right back and I won $100. I was told I had to go down to the station to fill out some paper work. I brought all my kids, but Raya was probably the most excited to see an actual radio station. Her and Malia were sure that someone famous would just happen to be there. No one famous walked by, BUT there were several guitars hanging on the wall in the entrance. One particular one was signed by none other than JUSTIN BEIBER. Now, I am not a fan of the kid, but Raya sure is and so, we snapped a picture of her standing under the guitar. "Mom, that is his REAL autograph...not a copy...whoa..." I guess she will take what she can get!

It's Derby Time!

Ethan joined Cub Scouts a few months ago and we were welcomed into the pack with a block of wood and a deadline one month away to turn that block of wood into a racing machine for the annual Pinewood Derby! It ended up being a joint effort on not only Patrick, Ethan, and I but our neighbor Steve too. Ethan drew his car, Steve cut it out, Ethan sanded and sanded and sanded that sucker and then painted it, Patrick and Ethan worked on smoothing out the axles and wheels, Patrick attached the wheels, I fixed a broken wheel, and lifted the kitchen table up on one side to use it as a track and Ethan and I rolled the car down probably 100 times, adjusting the wheels so it ran straight. All that work paid off because Ethan's car got 3rd in his pack and 4th place overall (26 cars total)...not too shabby for his first derby! Here is Ethan's derby experience in all of its glory!

Blah

I sit here on my computer, checking my email over and over and over again. I then go and check Facebook to see if anyone else has posted something interesting in the last 2 minutes. If that doesn't pan out, I head over to Pinterest and pin cool things that I will forget about in an hour. While doing all these things, I keep telling myself that I need to blog about a bunch of different things, yet, I just.do.no.want.to *sigh*