3K, Culinary Fest, Firepit and Swim weekend!

My little plant helper

If you're not living in St. George, and more precisely, our school district, then you've been unaware of the hardships going on!

In the last year the high school has had two strange deaths; a boy who drowned and later in the year a girl who was crushed when a sand hole collapsed in on her.

In the last two months at the intermediate school there have been two 12 year old girl suicides.

And in the last several weeks, at the elementary level a teacher lost her husband to a blood clot following a surgery and at another school a 10 year old boy died after a severe peanut allergy reaction.

Friday, the little boys and I did a memorial 3k at Nathans school for the teacher who lost her husband.  We raced (walked with vigor) around the track 10 times to qualify for the 3k distance, and then did one more 'victory lap' This was so that Nathan could complete his 'mileage club' punch card and collect his '25' laps charm for his charm necklace.  I'm proud of the little squirt for participating in this program.  And I was proud of his attitude about "helping someone who needs some help."  Sweet little Ashton slept for almost the entire event, which was surprising to me.  I thought he'd want to run with all the kids, but he wisely chose to close his eyes and let me stroll him in the comfort of the stroller.

A Thank you note for Summer Shepherd

After our 3K event we went to the Culinary Festival at the Vernon Worthern Park.  There were about 30 booths offering tasty shares of their wares.  The boys bounced in the bounce houses (Ashton was awake by then) for about 45 minutes before relenting to taste Shakes from The Iceberg and cinnamon rolls from Toblers bakery.  Tickets were a dollar a piece, and each food item was a certain number of tickets.  For $10 we had quite a variety and amount of food.  Worth a repeat sometime! We had some pizza and ravioli and made it home right behind Shane.

Hop like a frog and measure the distance using spoons for a homework assignment

Saturday, with the weather calm, I thought it might be fun to roast hotdogs for lunch.  So we prepped the fire pit and had a little outside picnic!  We added oranges, chips and capri sun to our meal.  We do some big-boy pants training in the mornings - so in the fire pit pictures you'll see Ashton stripped down to his big-boy underwear.

After the picnic, we though it might be nice to go for a swim.  Ashton was determined and insisted on going down large indoor water slide.  I had my doubts, considering how much he dislikes carnival rides and swings at the park.  I walked him to the very top of the stairs, anticipating he'd change his mind.  He surprised me, he still wanted to go and even gladly put on a life vest in order to stay within the rules!  He rode with me and loved it!  And wanted to go again and again and again!  And he would've have continued to go down, I'm SURE, except that by then the sunburn on his back was stinging him and the little nerve endings were driving him crazy. I imagine it had to do with being in the chlorinated water.  I held him and rocked him and sang to him while Nathan did a few more activities, then we showered up and made it home in time for a lengthy nap.

Next day at church, Shane was called as 2nd councilor in the Elder's Quorum.  I was a very strange visitor to the Priesthood meeting as he was sustained and set apart. 

That's the news from Petty's Place as of late!