Lagoon Time

James and Josh had a marathon run of sorts at Lagoon the last week before school started. As usual, summer was just too full of golf, hockey and super hot weather to fit a lot of Lagoon time in. Lisa and I took the boys down a couple of nights, and then Shane was brave enough to take them to Lagoon-a-Beach on Friday that week. Lisa and I then tried again on the weekend, but the ridiculous Utah-styled-hot-humidity got the best of us and we went home after only being there for one hour. I would have more photos, but we were so wrapped up in having fun that I forgot to take more before it got too dark!

These two boys had their car spinning so much it was very difficult
to get a good photo of the both of them.

You should see how many other photos I attempted to take
that I simply deleted.

James is such a camera ham. Love that silly kid.

That seems to be about all there is to do when riding the sky ride,
look down. I was going to take a photo of the flower gardens while on the ride,
but for some reason they are still struggling this year, not so pretty.

When you go to Lagoon as much as these two do, you have to find new things
to keep you entertained.
They must have talked to this Emu for at least 10 minutes.
(I don't think the Emu talked back.)

James getting ready to take on the Double Thunder race track. What the photo doesn't show you is how James was trying to not let anyone pass him, and when I succeeded and Lisa tried to follow me, James made a sharp turn, caused Lisa to hit him, which in turn caused James to do a 180, thus facing the wrong way on the track. So, yes, we all had to sit and wait until the nice ride operators turned him back around. Lisa said it brought back memories of last year. Yes, last year it was Shane who got turned around.

Josh getting ready to take on the Double Thunder track. Josh didn't let anyone pass him. Oh, and I tried! That kid has mastered his "side view mirrors" and makes crazy zig zag movements to keep you in his dust!!

Back to School

James went back to school this week (5th grade!) and we are so grateful he once again has a fantastic teacher. Once you experience a not-so-good-teacher you're always nervous it might happen again. In addition to having a great teacher, we found out the new assistant principal is one of our neighbors (which also helps make for a good school experience!).

Before school started I shared some things with James that I remembered about the fifth grade. That was the year I was introduced to a personal computer, PC. My 5th grade teacher held a special class afterschool for those of us who wanted to learn more about how computers worked, including how to write code! James thought it was funny we didn't have computers before that, and he has no interest in learning about the "code" I learned how to write. That was also the year all of us girls were CRAZY about Michael Jackson. When I told James this he raised an eyebrow in a, "you're kidding, right?" response. I just laughed.

A couple of weeks ago I found all of my elementary school pictures while cleaning. For fun, I included my 5th grade class picture below. Check out our fantastic fashion sense! Can you figure out which one is me? Maybe some of you recognize other people too?

Where are all these people now? I wonder about that from time to time. Here's some fun info I do know:

*Two live less than 5 miles away.

*One has a boy who was in James' 4th grade class last year.

*One has a blog I visit frequently. =)

*One is on the Centerville City Council.

*One works at REI in Salt Lake City.

*One has an art gallery.

*One has lukemia. =( I hope she gets better soon!

*One student's mom works with me at the health department!

*One of these kids I beat up when we were in the first grade. Sorry!

*Two went to boot camp with James' dad.

*The other day I noticed one has a facebook account...hmm...need to make a new "friend"

Guitar Hero

Last February James decided to start taking guitar lessons. He learned about this great music school in South Ogden from Weston, one of his good hockey friends, so that's where he went. He has a wonderful instructor who gives him songs to learn by artists such as The Beatles, Deep Purple, Cream, Chuck Berry and more. He has a one hour lesson each week, half of it one-on-one time with the instructor, the other half studing music theory. For his first recital last June he played a duet with his instructor, "Dust in the Wind," by Kansas and did a fantastic job.

James playing "Let it Be" by the Beatles at his 4th grade talent show last May.

Posing with his end of level award medal after his recital in June.

James also has a hockey coach who plays the guitar and recently purchased the official Guitar Hero sheet music book. A couple of nights ago James sat with one of his coach's electric guitars and picked out a few lines of Iron Man by Black Sabbath. He memorized a line or so of the song and now picks it out on his acoustic guitar. Iron Man on an acoustic guitar...pretty good acutally =)

Got Hockey?

Yes. It's time for hockey season again. I registered James for the 2008-09 recreation team season yesterday, and he goes to conditioning camp next week. I'm looking forward to utilizing this blog for posting game results and showing off my excellent sports photograpy, ha ha.

People are always asking me, "isn't hockey expensive?" and I usually respond with, "oh, it's not that bad." Well, tonight I decided to do the math. Ice fees for the recreation season are $420. BUT, I did get a 10% discount for paying in full, so I ended up paying $378. Additionally, there is a $10 fee to the Utah Amateur Hockey Association, and a $30 fee to USA Hockey (this covers insurance costs, and provides James with a real cool monthly USA Hockey Magazine). So, add that back in and the grand total (so far) is $418. Undoubtedly this year we will need to purchase new elbow pads, and may have to get new skates, and of course we will be paying premium prices for gasoline, but I'm just going to focus on the ice fees for this oh-so-scientific calculation (yes, read on!).

Next, it's time to analyze how much time is spent on the ice for that $418. James' association practices/has games two times a week (on average) for 6-7 months of the year. Of course, we miss some days for holidays, figure skating events, and so forth, so I'm going to estimate he gets about 50 sessions on the ice in a season. If you take the $418 and divide it by 50 sessions, it averages out to $8.36 per session. Not too shabby.

Of course, that was just the expenses for the recreation team. James is once again planning to play competitvely, which is a bit more expensive, but I'd rather not think about that today. =)

Chicken Pox

James has chicken pox. We can't even begin to imagine where he got it from, we don't know anyone else who has it. Besides, normal "chicken pox season" is in the spring, and the last time I checked the calendar (and the temperature outside) it definately wasn't spring. The incubation period is 10-21 days, so he could have literally picked it up anywhere. And to top it all off, he received his chicken pox vaccine just 5 years ago (see, I knew that vaccine wasn't fool proof!).


The CDC website says about 15-20% of vaccinated people may still develop chicken pox (lucky us), however the disease won't be as severe, with fewer blisters and quicker recovery time. We noticed the first red spot on Sunday night. Today he has about 15 spots, and a couple of them are starting to blister. Fortunately he says they don't really itch too much. For unvaccinated kids, the disease usually lasts 5-10 days. So, if this is supposed to be quicker, maybe we'll get lucky and be all done in as little as 5 days? Let's hope so!

In the mean time, we'll live at home like a couple of hermits and practice overly-frequent handwashing, clothes washing, bedding washing...you get the picture. =/