Two birthday girls!!

We had a really fun few days for Kimee and Audrey's birthday. Each girl had three days in a row of festivities. It started Wednesday with Audrey's school friends party.
Beaux, Aspen, Kyser, Nan, and Jensyn were able to come. We drove around doing Random Acts of Kindness for strangers. Their favorite one was the Ding Dong doorbell ditching.

Then Thursday, the 21st, Dad took the day off work so that he could spend the day with the girls on their birthday. We started the day off early making breakfast bake and singing Happy Birthday to Kimee at 6:41am. Dave took Audrey and Maddi to their last day of volleyball camp. Then we all went to Kimee's (and Stephanie's) summer orchestra concert at PGJH. The Henrie's came too.
After the concert, we all went out to lunch at Costa Vida. It was a blast. Then we came home for a little rest.

Thursday night, we went to Pizza Pie cafe for dinner and then came back in time to get ready for the party.

Thursday night we hosted a really fun combined neighborhood friend backyard party. We did smore's, watched a movie in the backyard,  and swam in the swim spa. There was: Sean, David (and Sarah for a little while), Isaac and Eliza, Isabelle and Landon came to hang out with Maddi, Michael, Axel, Stephanie, Caroline (Anna was sick and couldn't come). We had sodas and I made popcorn outside. At the end, we sang Happy Birthday and had a big Costco chocolate cake.

Everyone asks me if I am OK with having a teenager. But the fact is, Kimee has acted like a teenager for a few years, so it just seems like I have been waiting for the formality of her actually turning 13.

We discovered that Kimee and Audrey are the SAME HEIGHT!! No more "big" sister for Audrey.

On Friday morning, Hadley and Emma came and picked up Kimee and Audrey for their annual birthday shopping spree. They were SOOO excited for this adventure with their cousins. They shopped at the mall and went to lunch at Applebee's.

Friday afternoon, we went to the Manila pond with the Henrie's. It was lots of fun. We got out the new inner tubes we got at Costco. Friday night we took a break and ate leftovers and watched a movie while mom and dad read their books:)

Saturday was Kimee's final celebration with her school friend's party. We did the Random Act's theme and it was lots of fun! For Kimee's dinner choice, she wanted Big Island Sam's for her birthday. So we went there after her party. YUM!!

Next year we will be taking the year off of birthday parties (hooray) except for Dad's big decade celebration.

Summer To Do List- June

One of my biggest worries about summer, or any break from school, is that I won't get everything done on my To Do list.
This summer, my goal was to keep it simple and really focus on what I really wanted to get done.
June was amazing! I got so much done. Even in just one day, I was able to check so much off my list.

JUNE
Fun Stuff:
Huck Finn day
camping
Lagoon x2
cousin sleepover
lots of swimming
girls camp
dentist- no cavities for anyone, yeah!!!

My Projects:
camp prep
make cards
flex spending solved
classroom painted
Kimee's sax

House Projects:
pocket doors painted & fixed
trim on mirrors
finish painting trim
paint bathroom ceiling
carpet repair done
kitchen decorations

CHOIR Concert

This year has been a new adventure for Maddi, Audrey and Mom:) For some crazy reason, I decided to help out by conducting the struggling school choir. It added a lot of stress into my life, and "choir" became an overused word in our house. However, the girls loved it and so did their friends at school. I loved it too, during choir time when I was singing fun songs with the kids (just not all the prep or the concert stress).

After our spring concert, we went to Smoking Apple for a yummy, relaxing dinner.

Audrey

Audrey is so excited that she gets to be a lunch lady at school this week. Today she got to serve out mini corn dogs. She couldn't believe how quick you have to work. Three of her best friends got assigned to do it with her. How lucky is that! She is excited because on Friday she gets to serve the Valentine's Day cookies. How fun and yummmm!

Amazing Day

We had such an amazing day today. Actually, it started last night. We had our good friends, the Seamons, over for swimming and s'mores. At the end, their mom cam to pick the kids up and we sat around the fire visiting for a little while. She mentioned that she was going to take Caroline in to do baptisms at the temple in the morning. Kimee said how bad she wanted to go and how we hadn't been able to go yet. Mary said she would be happy to take her. It was Caroline's first time going. So this morning Kimee and I went with them to the Timpanogos Temple at 6am. It was perfect. Kimee and Caroline were baptized together when they turned 8, and now they got to be together for another special first. It really was so perfect for so many reasons.

The beginning of this story is that a few weeks ago, I was really stressed out. When school started, I was so on top of everything. I actually thought for a few days that I wouldn't get my normal totally and completely overwhelmed feeling that I get every year when school starts and I think I cannot survive as a working mom. And then everything started going south- Audrey crying every night about not wanting to go to her new school and Maddi was having major clothing issues. Every day, by 8am, I was already completely emotionally drained. I was almost in a daze for a few days. Luckily, I already had the first week of school planned. But with teaching, you can never stay on top of things unless you spend 24 hours a day at the school. So within a few days, I already had a huge pile of stuff to do. We had to go in for 2 movie nights at school the next week, one on Monday and one on Friday to try and catch up!

Anyway, that first week that I was so overwhelmed, I really wanted to escape. I kept trolling Worldmark Reservations looking and hoping for something. Actually, I had been doing that for a couple of weeks, ever since I got back from girls camp. As soon as girls camp was over, I was so relieved. All those months of preparation and thinking about nothing but camp were finally over. And I was ready for my summer vacation to start. I wanted desperately to go somewhere to escape my stress and the chaos at home. On Friday night, I went to lay down for just a minute, and I had the thought to go check for bonus time. Miraculously, there was a Friday/Sat open at Wolf Creek. I quickly reserved it and even found a sub for my class so we could leave around noon to do some fun stuff on the way up and beat the Labor Day weekend traffic. It cheered me up a lot to know I just needed to get through two weeks of school and I could be up in one of my favorite places in the whole world. Unfortunately, Dave couldn't get work off and Kimee did not want to get check out of school. I didn't want to fight through traffic and get up there late. It was a painful decision, but I went ahead and cancelled the reservation this Monday. I was sad about it, but was glad it would save us money and committed to myself that we would have just as much fun, if not more, staying home.

We have had "Hiking the G" on our Fun List for months and months. So when I cancelled Wolf Creek, I decided we were going to fit in some things that we never have time to do. Saturday morning was "Hiking the G". When Kimee and I got back from the temple, we got everyone up, packed up our water and snacks, and left around 8am. We had a great time hiking up to the G. The weather was cool and breezy and we were in the shade or cloud cover the whole time. There were no injuries or complaining. We were worried about Maddi being able to do it, but she did awesome in her too big dress shoes and she was at the front of the pack for almost the whole time. Not to be forgotten was when we went through the forrest of bugs. Even though we stopped a lot to rest and marvel at the view, we made it up there and back in pretty good time. Enough that we were able to come back, eat breakfast, and still make it to a baptism for a cute girl in our ward.

After the baptism we started getting ready for our amazing BYU football game spread. We had planned to have snacky foods for lunch, yummy treats, and watch the BYU game as a family. Audrey and I went and picked up buffalo chicken wings and Cravings cupcakes. It was so fun to watch the game together. I don't remember the last time I have watched that much of a game and really been aware of the score and what was going on most of the time. The team did really well in the first half and then struggled in the 2nd half. Several players got injured. It looked like we were going to lose. Kimee and Audrey weren't watching the game anymore. But with just a few minutes left I called everyone back and said we have to watch the end of this game. They missed a field goal and other chances for a first down. The announcers kept talking about how Nebraska hadn't lost their opening game in over 50 years. With 1 second to go in the game, BYU's freshman second string quarterback throws a 50ish yard hail mary pass, and the receiver barely gets in the endzone to win the game. IT WAS AMAZING!!! It was one of the coolest endings to a football game you could ever imagine and we were watching it together as a family.

Today was such a special day, I don't want to forget about it:)

Summer Fun List

Every year as the school year comes to an end, I actually start to dread the last day because once summer is here, I know it will disappear so quickly. It's almost more fun to think about all that you will do then to be disappointed in all the you didn't accomplish.
To help me feel better, I like to focus on what I DID get done


Summer Fun!
Weekend Trips to: Vernal, Wolf Creek
Day Trips to: HeeHaw farms
Summer library & movie days in the classroom
violin lessons, voice camp, summer band & orchestra
Huck Finn Days, rodeo, parade
pool, Manila Pond
Manti pageant
cousin sleepover
friend play dates
Lagoon
zoo

Summer Projects
school binders (2 years worth)
garage door fixed
camp, camp, more camp

Wolf Creek

We had such a great time on our weekend at Wolf Creek this summer (July 10-12)! We picked up Dave from work at noon, stopped to get Hadley and Zach, and got up there on Friday at 2. We were splitting the condo with the Sinemas so we got to have some time with them before they left.
The Foxes were in another condo just two stairwells away. We got to celebrate Brandon and Katelyn's birthday with a marshmallow war, pasta bar, and yummy, adorable dragon cakes. Easton and Skyler even stopped in on their way down from Logan. After dinner everyone went for a swim. It was so much fun to have time with our cousins and friends.
On the way up to Wolf Creek, we asked Maddi if she was going to go down the slide. Every year she says she will do it, but when we get there, she gets too scared. I think she has even gone up to the top of the slide, but then come back down the stairs. So this year in the car, she said, basically, "No. I am not going down the slide, and you can't make me". Right then, I reminded her, "Maddi, you rode on the Jet Star at Lagoon over and over. You can go down a tiny little slide." And she immediately agreed. When we got to the pool, she didn't need any encouraging. She went down it lots and lots of times and loved it.
After the swim, Kimee and Audrey talked Easton and Skyler into staying for a game of mafia before they had to leave. They played 3 rounds, with Kimee, Audrey and Easton each taking a turn as narrator. It was so much fun! Hadley and Zach stayed for breakfast Saturday and then had to get back home to work. We were so glad they were able to come.
Saturday, we did more swimming, playing volleyball, bug catching, and games with the Foxes. Maddi and Katilyn were inseparable. Kimee, Audrey, Blake, and Derek played a few more rounds of mafia and Apples to Apples. We even squeezed in a few games of Rummikub.
Sunday we packed up, went to the Eden ward, and headed home in time for my camp meeting:) Wishing we could stay up there forever.

the Farm

Dave's friend Cheryl from work has an awesome farm with all sorts of animals at it. We usually go visit once or twice a year. It's been on our summer list, and we finally made it out there on Thursday, July 9 The baby goats are so fun!

This time we brought Sarah with us and also met up with Maddi's teacher and her family.
It had been a stormy week, so we were hoping the rain held out. Luckily for us, it did. Right when we were getting ready to go, the rain came and the wind started blowing like crazy.  We jumped in the car to come home. There was a giant double rainbow that we could see the whole way home. It was so amazing!

4th of July!

Once again, we had a fun and family filled 4th of July! We started the day with the America's Freedom Festival parade. Jill and Duane and their three boys were able to come with us this year. The girls loved the ribbons Jill put in their hair.

After the parade, we went to Brick Oven for a really yummy lunch.

After resting for a movie and for some of us a nap, we went over to Hadley's apartment for a swim in her pool. It was so fun to have time time with our favorite grown-up cousins.

For dinner, we went to the Foxes and grilled up some yummy steaks. Maddi got her very first wasp sting. Then we watched the amazing Sinema and Fox firework show for our first time ever.

Lagoon!

Last year when we went to Lagoon, they asked us if we wanted to do the bounce back- which is come back within 10 days for only $15, a huge discount off regular price. At the time, we had no plans to come back and had a pretty full summer schedule. But Dave and I agreed that next year, we ought to try and plan in the bounce back day.

So this year as we were trying to plan our Lagoon day, we were also trying to figure in the 2nd visit within 10 days. Since they have had so many layoffs, Dave's department at work is down to the barebones. He really can't take time off when someone else has the day off. It turned out that he could only take time off during the first week of July. So we ended up planning our big Lagoon trip for two days in a row. We got a little nervous that the forecast was for 100 degree heat all week, so we packed lots of refillable water bottles and brought our garden cart so we could carry our stuff and a couple of tired kids.

Day 1

We decided that everyone should try one ride they haven't been on before. Mom and dad both finally got to go on Cliffhanger and get soaked. For some reason it seems like that ride always has a huge line or it's out of order, so we have just never gone on it.

Maddi tried Jet Star2 for the first time and loved it! 

Kimee did Colossus for the first time and Audrey did the Rocket (both blast off and re-entry). That girl is crazy and totally has her dad's genes. Kimee and Maddi and I had to be patient while they went on Wicked a few times too. 

We packed a lunch from home and planned to take an afternoon break to check in at the hotel and cool off for a bit. That planned worked perfectly.  Around 3:30 we had gone through all 7 of our water bottles twice and all the ice was gone. So we left the park, stopped at 7-11 for slurpees, checked in (cookies and apples at the front desk was a nice touch), and we were so thrilled to be in some air conditioning and a nice, clean, freshly scented room. The little girls and Dave went for a swim in the pool (they wee so thrilled the water was clear). Boy, is this hotel getting a good review from me! I was pretty seriously regretting paying as much as we did to stay two nights, but I think we ended up getting our money's worth out of it. We will most likely be back on another one of our annual trips to Lagoon.
After our little rest, we went to Chick Fil-A for dinner and went back for a 2nd round of rides:) We stayed until about 8:30 and stopped at DQ for a cool treat on the way back to the hotel.

View of the Bountiful Temple from our hotel window

Day 2- Bounce Back:

We didn't think we would be able to find enough rides to have everyone get another first, but we ended up going on the Terror Ride and the Rock-o-Twirl. Audrey and Dave when on the Air Race. We were planning to not stay as long today, but the kids were so good and loving the rides so much. We ended up doing the same thing we did yesterday. We took an afternoon break and went back to the hotel for a swim and to fill up all the water bottles with ice. Just a side note, the hotel pool was accidentally overfilled today, so it was kinda funny to swim. The 3ft was almost over Maddi's head (about a foot too high). Every move they made, tons of water sloshed out. Kinda a fun memory. Then we went to Costa Vida for dinner and headed back to the park for a few more rides.

Mostly there was Jet Star, Jet Star, & more Jet Star. I think they really liked that you got to sit in the same seat with someone to keep you safe.

We got to see Cannibal, the newest wildly crazy roller coaster, being tested, but it wasn't open yet. We were glad for that because we figured the park will be much more busy once it opens. We had so many short lines both days it was incredible. We would go on the same ride multiple times just because there was such a short wait. We love not having to go on Saturday- which is the way it was for like 20 years with Dave's work party.