Black Hole in the Galaxy

So, on Monday, Lindsay and I decided to combine our 4th and 5th Grade classes to have a Dodgeball tournament! We were so excited, the kids were all hyped up and ready to go. But, like most things in life, the door to the shed broke with all of the P.E. equipment. And when I say broke, I mean the entire lock came OUT of the handle. Our maintenance man told me it was like Fort Knox the next day trying to get it open. Crazy. Sooo, we had to find other ways to entertain the kiddos for 2 hours. We drew outlines of our shadows with sidewalk chalk... making cool shapes and building shapes with two people to draw. Then we played SPUD!! It was so fun! I had never played before but Linds is pro. Aaaanyway, after playing SPUD for a while, we thought we should have a back up so when kids started to say they were tired of this game we were be ready to fire back a new game. We're standing off to the side having "teacher talk" and Joe... one of the 5th Graders, walks up to us and says, "Uh ladies, now isn't the time for talking, we're playing SPUD!!!" It was SO stinkin' funny!!!! So, during teacher talk we decided we would play "Fire in the Jungle" next. Aaaaalways a hit with the kids. As we're walking in, Joe says, "Can we make this be like uuuh Intergallactic... like Fire in the Galax.... nooo, Space A..... nooo,.... BLACK HOLE IN THE GALAXY!!!!!" We agreed. As we're explaining the game, we told the kids to make their alien group names. Linds, being the genius that she is, says, "BUT, you have to have the sound "Za" three times in your alien name!" HAHA These names were HILARIOUS!!!

Galagzazazar

Zober Zegle Ze Zecond

Keyborpzazaza

Spud Zagaga Zuberwayza

So, we finish round 1 and are getting ready for round 2 of Black Hole in the Galaxy. So we tell the kids the second time they have to have the sounds, "smee", "oogle", and "orb" in the next name. These ones were my favorite!!

Smeeoogle the Second the Orb

The smeegoggle oggle orb

(I personally think they should've done smeegoggle obble orb.. but that's just me)

And the best one of the day...

Smeegabalabadoobadabagablaorboobalaba...doo

Little Theo is the "martian herder" in the middle and starts to call out the group, "smeegabalabadoobadabagablaorboobalaba...do"... *picture a cute little blonde, squinting walking towards the white board trying to read this name... meanwhile, all of the kids in the smeegabalabadoobadabagablaorboobalaba... doo group run across the gym, with out being tagged of course, and Theo turns out once he has spit out the whole name.... "Heeeey!!!" hahahahahaha I love my job.

Xtreme Adventures and Abstract Art

This week was the biggest hit EVER! We went to The Crater in Midway and went snorkeling... but forgot the camera, dang it, went to Lagoon and rode the rollercoasters, Indoor Skydiving, Paintballing, and White Water Rafting in the Weber River. It was TONS of fun and very exhausting!!! :)

Partner in Crime.

White Water Rafting Guide's license plate. It made us laugh.

Hardcore.

Bad A teachers.

FLYING!!!

Ready to fly! I'm not sure why I feel the need to cross my eyes for EVERY picture taken of me! hahaha Riiiidiculous!

Buuut, at least I have good company. Haha

Before riding "The Spider" at Lagoon.

Hiking/Backpacking and Art Inspired by Nature

This week was really fun. We had a really hard time getting kids to sign up for it, but Lindsay and I had a BLAST! We went to the Uintas and hiked Bald Mtn, hiked to Timpanogos Cave, had a relaxing day hiking to different lakes, went rock climbing in Big Cottonwood Canyon and brought our new school director Jamie along!, went rock climbing at The Fit Stop in Heber, and attempted (key word: attempted) to hike Twin Peaks... haha. Long story.

After the attempted hike of Twin Peaks.

Comtemplating the hike we just attempted... I may or may not have thought we were all going to die. haha

Our relaxing day hiking around to different lakes in the Uintas!

Hahaha!!! This picture is a "must-zoom". HAHA!! I thought I was going to DIE laughing after we took it. Take it all in though... the sign, the red line, the face... hahahaha Ooh, the Timpanogos Cave day was a reeeeal good one for Lindsay and I.

Inside the cave.. SO cool, right!?

Lindsay and I making facial representations of the "spikey" cave! hahaha We're so modern.

Rock Climbing at Big Cottonwood with all of us and Jamie!

Hard to see, but Gunner almost died... This was an icy cliff at Bald Mtn. He was at the top, I was at the "path" half way down the cliff that continued back down the mountain waaay past where this picture was taken. Aragorn was smart... he looked over the edge and changed his mind. But not my dog... stinkin' death wish. He looked over and skiied down the cliff and came to a screaming halt at the path. I was screaming! I really thought that was the end of Gunner. Haha Stupid dog.

Taking a break at The Fit Stop! Oh wait... we were playing "Monkeys on the Wall"... we were out.

Climbing in Heber.

Water Sports and Water Color

This week was also amazing! We went swimming at Jordanelle, Kayaking at Deer Creek, Boating at Utah Lake with Nari and JR who were SO incredibly kind and generous to take us, Rafting down the Provo River, and a day at Seven Peaks. I know, I got paid for this, right!?

Ride it like a bull!

Boating with Nari and JR.

Swimming at Deer Creek.

Kayaking at Deer Creek. Check out Timpanogos... sooo pretty!

Olivia, the cutest little muffin in the WORLD! Katie came to Deer Creek as our Kayaking expert. She gave lessons to the kiddos... it was great! She's such an amazing teacher!

Rock Climbing and Ceramic Art

This week was fantastic! We climbed indoors at The Fit Stop in Heber and at Rockreation in SLC. We climbed outdoors in Big Cottonwood Canyon and Echo Canyon.

My attempt at pottery. I was more disruptive than the kids! haha
Climbing in Big Cottonwood.

Climbing at The Fit Stop

Climbing in Echo... yeah, we were harnessed in... we're hardcore.

Olympic Sports and Action Art

The third week... meh. It was OK. Linds and I learned pretty dang quick to not do "Olympic Sports" in Park City. Here were some of the highlights though....

We found a fountain to play in at The U.

These kids are so cute!

Gorny is an Olympian, baby! haha

Watching the skiiers and their mad skills!

The most amazing summer camp week 2!!

The second week of Extreme Camp Colby, our theme was Creative Movement and Glass Art. The students had a blast! It was so interesting to see the different kids who signed up for this week as opposed to sports on wheels week! The week started out really strong! On Monday we went to the Rose Wagner Theater and got to watch the Ririe-Woodbury dancers have a dress rehearsal as they got ready for a Friday night show. It was amazing! The Dance Company only has 9 dancers, so the rehearsal was a very small setting as you could imagine. The students were all star struck and inspired for their dance performance at the end of the week! We watched the dancers, talked to them about our dance we would be performing for parents at the end of the week, and got autographs from the dancers! Haha - I'm telling you, the kids were tooooootally star struck!

Here we are with the Ririe-Woodbury dancers!

Very small setting! It was amazing!

The kids were so into it! It was very inspirational for their dance!

We also went to Sundance to watch the Glass blowing! It was SO cool! The employees were totally showing off for the kiddos! They ate it up! Bunch o' hams!!

Also, Anne, our Middle School teacher/used to be the 5th grade teacher/used to be the P.E. teacher before me, is amazing! On the side, she makes jewelry! It is really cool and I wish I owned most of the jewelry she makes, but she was willing to show the kids how to make glass beads! All of the kids got to make their own bead and put it on a necklace at the end of the week. It was really neat, and Anne is incredible!The last three days of this week, we made a dance with a "Colby Ghost" theme. There is a superstition that there is a Ghost that haunts The Colby School. The Middle School students will have sleepovers periodically throughout the school year and they always hunt for the ghost! As you can imagine, the kids make up all kinds of stories about who she is, why she haunts the school, etc. So, we made up a dance about it! It was really cool! We used the theme music from Halloween and The Exorcist. The younger campers came to watch it, and parents had an afternoon show. After the show, we all came to the Art Barn to have snacks and chat. It was cute and they did really well! I have to be honest though... I sure was glad when that week was over! :)

The most mind-blowing summer camp!!!

This summer, my friend Lindsay (Art teacher at Colby) and I decided that we were going to do the most amazing, super, incredible, fantastic, unbelievable, out of this world, extraordinary, mind-blowing summer camp EVER!!! So, we did! It was called Extreme Camp Colby... and extreme, it was! We did a P.E./Art Combo camp and had themes for seven weeks. The themes were: Sports on Wheels/Urban Art, Creative Movement/Glass Art, Olympic Sports/Action Art, Rock Climbing/Ceramic Art, Water Sports/Water Color, Hiking/Backpacking/Art Inspired by Nature, and Xtreme Adventures/Abstract & Pop Art. We did the most incredible things! Some days, I'll be honest, I was glad we all made it back in one piece! :) The kiddos LOVED it and I had a BLAST with Lindsay and the kids! It was definitely a job to jump out of bed in the morning to go to!!! Here are some pics from week 1: Sports on Wheels Week/Urban Art.

For three of the days, we went mountain biking around Park City. It was beautiful/reeeeeaallly muddy! We were all completely covered in mud, especially those of us who called ourselves "extreme" and went straight for the mud puddles! *cough Lindsay *cough Heather. It was wicked fun!... Minus the parts when the kids were complaining that they were tiiiiiiired, when are we tuuuuurrrnning arroooouuund?, I'm thiiiiiiiiirrrsssty. Here's to you kids... bring your own dang water bottle, you signed yourself up for this, you will get zero pity from us!... We look happy, don't we?

Muddy, muddy, muddy...

We went to see the coolest Urban Art. We went to downtown SLC. They had these garage doors that people had painted. The kids all sat and reflected. Lindsay talked to them about graffiti and the layering of colors, etc. The kids all chose their favorite garage door, drew it in their sketch books, and took a pictures with themselves in front of the door to glue into their sketch books. These two were mine and Lindsay's favorites!

We went to Boondocks and rode the Go-Karts, Bumper boats, etc. I drove one of the smaller campers in the big go-karts... she screamed the whole time that I was a crazy driver!! Whaaaat? Me? No way. I'm just EXTREME BABY!

Another day, we went to a students house that has a trampoline, basketball courts, horses... I know.. it wasn't exactly "sports on wheels" but we told all the kids we were going to put the horses on roller skates and call it good. :) It was really fun though! The kids really enjoyed the horses, and Jason really enjoyed teaching kids tricks on the trampoline!

The last day was probably the coolest of this week! We went to Solitude Ski resort and rode Mountain Scooters!!!! It was so much fun! We rode the ski lift up to the top and took a road back down the mountain! The first part of the road was dirt and sticks and SNOW (in June!!), and the last half was a gravel road. We had some wipe outs.. Only one person passed out.. no big deal. Eek! It was ok though. She's a tough mama and went over her handlebars because of pulling the front brake. (Sometimes, we all learn the lesson the hard way). She had ripped up her hands and skin on her hip, but got up and said she was ok. Later down the road, the two of us stopped to wait for the last rider. As we were standing there, she said to me (very slowly and starting to slur her words), "Heather... I'm feeling really light headee...." Aaaand she passed out! Luckily, I caught on to the slurred speech and dropped my scooter to catch her. When she came to, only like 30 seconds later, she looked at me and said, "hah! I've never passed out before!" It was crazy! So, I walked our scooter/bike down the mountain and had her wear my camelbak drinking water like it was her job. We got to the bottom and had the Solitude people come check her out. She was ok, we think she passed out from the pain. She never even cried!!! Unbelievable... THAT is extreme!!!
This picture is a duplicate and won't delete for some reason... so have a second look if you want!

I love summer camp!!!!

Happy Belated Birthday Jess Cutter!!!

This post is dedicated to my good friend Jess Cutter!!! :) She is incredible... and we all know it! It was her birthday way back in March and we decided to have a little party in honor of her here in Utah! We missed her at the party and wished she could have been there but we wanted to make sure that we celebrated it... Heber style!! We went bowling at the Hebah city bowlin' alley, went back to Katie's, ate birthday cake, had a dance party (of course!), and played some stupid video game. :) So, here's to you Ms. Jess!!! Love you!

*Disclaimer: These pictures are not in any order...

The Dance Party!

(Katie, me, and Mel- Trav's lady... she's also tons of fun!)

Make a wish J!!
"Haaaaappy Biiiirrrthdaaay toooo YOUUUUUUU!!!!"

I was so proud of that cake! It was cream cheese frosting... you would have loved it Jess!

The Hebah city bowlin' alley.... sideways.. oops

Katie and Liv rocked the house bowling! Liv is a natural!

Oh Trav... sweet, sweet Trav!

The hosts of the birthday party! We love you Jess!

We missed you! Wish you could have been there!

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY JESS CUTTER!!!!!!!