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!!!!!!!

"Excuse me."

Last Wednesday, after school, I went to Home Depot in Park City to ask if they would donate some supplies to The Colby School P.E. Program. I chatted with a nice young man who said he would talk to the Manager.
So, off I went to meet the manager at the back of the store by the scrap wood. When we finally talked, I'll be honest, he was a sassmaster and it irritated me, BUT they were willing to donate as long as I didn't have too much on my list. (Thank you Home Depot.) He asked me what specifically I needed and I said, probably a few pieces of wood and some cinderblocks. Then, gave me attitude and said he needed to know specifically what I needed so he could OK this with his supervisor. I told him I had the list in my car, to his surprise, and I asked, "where should I meet you?" His kind, costumer service reply was, "I'll be around". Ugh. So I went back out to the car to get my list of supplies I need.
When I came back in, no "M.O.D." to be found, but the same young gentleman who helped before was ready to help again. We walked around the store gathering warped wood and broken cinder blocks.
As we were standing in the 4" x 4" aisle, I saw an Orange Apron with two people following behind him. The woman and man each had their own cart full of things like brooms, trash cans, etc. and were headed down our aisle. I thought, hmm, that woman sure looks like Katherine Heigl. But, there's no way. So, they continued our way. As they came closer, I was nearly convinced this woman was Dr. Izzy Stephens, but couldn't be sure. The Orange Apron walked by with a queer little smile on his face and said, "Excuse me". Followed by.... drum roll please.......

KATHERINE HEIGL!

Oh, and it gets better... As she walked by, she too said, "Excuse me"... to ME!... looked right at me and everything! It really was her!!! I knew it! (They were headed towards the step ladders, in case you were wondering. She bought two.) I never thought I would be so star struck! I swear my jaw dropped and I stuttered over my words to accept her "excuse me". Haha. I'm such a loser.
As the nice young gentleman and myself headed out of the aisle to go cut wood, I had to call Katie!!! So, there I am, standing in the next aisle, peering over to make sure she had left and couldn't hear me, I whisper into the phone,
"Katie! Can you hear me??"
"What!? I can't hear anything you're saying!"
"Katie! Can you hear me?? I just saw Katherine Heigl at HOME DEPOT!!"
"Who?!"
"Um, hello!! Dr. Isabel Stephens from Grey's Anatomy!!!"
"Who?!"
"IZZY, KATIE!!! I JUST SAW IZZY FROM GREY'S ANATOMY!!!!!!"
"SHUT UP!"...

etc, etc. Anyone who knows the relationship between Katie and I can only imagine the hysterical conversation that continued.

For those of you who are now wondering where the picture is I took with her in the warped wood and step ladder aisle... get ready for disappointment. I am a wimp!! I didn't even sneak around the other aisle and snap one from my iPhone. Lame. BUT, to my argument, she seemed a bit stand off-ish. I could tell she felt a little uncomfortable... it's not like I was staring with a dropped jaw or anything, haha. Anyway, I didn't want to bother her. She just wanted her step ladders and trash cans and wanted to check out. (Which by the way, I was standing in the check out line behind her... it was fantastic. haha)
So now, I'm sure you want to know what kind of a cute outfit she had on. She was wearing red chucks, skinny jeans, and a white 3/4 sleeve hoodie with thin, horizontal black stripes. Her hair was down, and it's short like it is on Grey's right now. So, basically, she was adorable and I am a pansy.

Crazy Hair Day

I love teaching. I love children. I love my school. Let me tell you why. Today, April Fools Day, was also Crazy hair day. It's Wednesday, when we have morning meeting, so I have to wake up 15 minutes earlier than usual... and let's be honest. I'm lazy. I knew it was crazy hair day, but I didn't want to spend any extra time out of bed, in front of the mirror, with a can of hair spray and a brush. Sooo, after the morning meeting, I went into the Colby kitchen, grabbed a cup out of the cupboard, put it in my hair and pulled it up! Ta da!!! Soo easy, and the kids thought it was hilarious. From the front, it was hard to see so they, of course, would nag me, "Where's your crazy hair?" Then they would scream and laugh when they saw my cone head. Ashleigh, in Middle School, asked me who stretched my head.
Anyway, I wanted to share how much I love children. My hair was crazy, I had no make up, I was wearing jeans and a hoodie and as you can imagine, I wasn't exactly looking like I was up for a night on the town.
So, when preschool came in, I was honestly expecting the classic 'children with no filters' questions like, "Why are there so many red dots on your face?" or "why is your hair ugly and the other teachers hair is pretty?". But, they never cease to amaze me. My two favorite quotes from preschool today are,
1. "You look like a princess!"
2. "You have crazy hair...but it still looks cute!"
Like I said... I love children.

PAINTBALL!

Last Thursday and Friday a lot was going on. Thursday night, the kids at school had their winter music concert.. holy cute!! Seriously, I thought I was going to die watching those muffin faces sing and dance. There were definitely some that, if you asked them (or anyone in the audience), they were the only ones on that stage! Singing their hearts out, gettin' their groove on. It was HILARIOUS! So, afterwards, Lindsay and I were in charge of the Middle School sleepover at the school- a fun night of movies, food, and SCREAMING children looking for the "Colby ghost". They tried to rope me into it. I went into the room where the ghost "lives". They told me I had to walk through the room with them and we'll see the ghost. So we walked through, Lucy on my back screaming the whole time- I walked out, looked at Eric and said, "That's it?" He looked at me with the straightest face, "You ruined it." and walked away! Haha It was so funny. I love those kids. Anyway, so Friday was the big day... Paintball... with 14 Middle School students. I'm sure some could understand my anxiety. One of three teachers with 14 students... who would be your target if you were in Middle School? Turns out, it was one of the funnest things I've ever done! It hurt the first couple times getting shot, but after that it was just hilarious! Here are some pics:

Guess who the goober is in the white sweatshirt and wide eyes... haha

Preparing for battle....

The Bad A Colby teachers ready to rock those Middle School students...

Lindsay (on left), Me (classic... middle), and Lydia (on right)

I'm sure you wish you taught at Colby too... I would!