dance recital

The girls had their year end dance recital. It was fun to see them perform one last time, especially since some are changing teams, or have dear friends who are not going to be here next year. With the amount of hours each week they are at the studio, they become really close knit as teams, and it is always a little sad to see the year end, even though we are all beyond ready for a break!

EFY

Dancingqueen and J went to EFY this year. AMAZING! So many levels of amazing...first, that they are even old enough to go, second, that we are old enough to have kids who are old enough to go!
Amanda and I took the girls to lunch before check in on the first day. It was just too convenient that Su Casa was kinda sorta on the way if you took a left instead of going straight...!!!
It was incredible to see the difference in them by the end of the week. They had a great time, and came home raving about the classes, and how much they felt the spirit instead of focusing on the games and social aspect (although we DID find out that there were very cute boys there too!) We are so glad they got to go, and they are already looking forward to next summer.

Is it summer yet?

This is the time of year that I can't stand year round school. Dan texted me yesterday at work, asking about next weekend and 4th of July. What? I was standing in the school library, thinking that there was no way the 4th of July could be so soon. We are still in school! The girls get out on the 2nd. Girl's camp is right after 4th of July weekend, then summer might as well be over with how fast it goes after that. I miss the long 3 month summers we got as kids! Luckily, my last day of work is today, and I will hopefully get a few things done before they get off next week!

weekend getaway to Denver

We had a great weekend getaway with our friends. Amanda and I had planned this about 6 months ago as a surprise, and were able to keep it secret until about 3 weeks ago, but with crazy work and church schedules we finally had to break down and tell the guys. That worked to our advantage though, because they then had to pack their own suitcases! We flew to Denver for a triple header for the Rockies. We got great rooms at the downtown Marriott, and walked everywhere. I had no idea Denver was so nice. (truth be told, all I knew about Denver was that Mork and Mindy was based out of there.... how sad is that?)


Is that saying what we think it's saying on the jumboscreen? Oh yes, we got evacuated to under the concourse halfway through game three for about an hour. If only that was the most exciting thing that happened...but wait! I think getting beer dumped on us from the second level beats that!!!!









During Game 2, Amanda and I went to get mani-pedi's while the boys went to the game. We then hit Cheesecake Factory for dinner, and brought home cheesecake for the guys. There was some pretty fun shopping going on, and the guys were so happy from baseball overload that they not only hung out while we shopped, but HELPED PICK OUT THINGS...how perfect of a weekend is that?
Dan also entertained us by doing tricks on the train at the airport. Pole dancing 101 at it's finest. This is while the train is moving by the way! What a great weekend!!!!

youth temple celebration

May 30th was the Oquirrh Mountain Youth Temple Celebration. We have loved every moment of being a part of that celebration. It took me a few days to recover from it. It was so uplifting, spectacular, momentous, incredible, that it was actually quite draining! On Sunday alone I took 3 naps! The youth really stepped up, and had such an incredible spirit about them. I was so impressed by how well they did. President Monson spoke to them before it started. I think that when he walked into the room, it hit them that this was no practice! The spirit in the Conference Room was real. We all felt it. This is actually very hard for me to write about, becuase everything I say feels so trite in comparison to the event. I still can't believe we got to play a part in this. I am going to miss being with the entire stake of youth every week, but I am sure the leaders are not going to miss getting emails from me every other day with new updates and changes!!! The saddest part about it all? I have no pictures of the actual weekend of events... THAT is how crazy busy it was! We had youth in the choir, as well as our stake having the polynesian dance. The haka was a hit!!!

Lagoon Day for DARE graduates

A few Fridays ago was DARE day at Lagoon, the lone amusement park for the state of Utah. Crazygirl learned years ago, after watching her sister get to skip school to go to Lagoon day, that the DARE program is something worth graduating from. Don't get me wrong, they understand the importance of not doing drugs too, but that is something we teach at home, and aren't shy about talking to our kids about, so it wasn't a new concept to them. And with Uncle Scott who is a prison guard and Uncle Rob who is a cop, they are pretty aware of what happens to those who make really stupid choices in life! But I digress...
It so happens that two of my best friends also happen to have 6th graders, who have also watched older siblings go to DARE day, and this trip has been planned for a while now! They had a blast, we gave them free reign of the park, so they felt like little grown ups, but by afternoon they were hanging out with us BY CHOICE (I think that secretly they think we are way cool)
We actually got home much earlier than our husbands expected us to, (okay, we may be cool, but we are also old, and tired...) but we had a full day of fun!

The after, after party

Let me introduce you to Heather. Heather and I have been best friends since the 2nd grade. (she was the older wiser 3rd grader) We lived across the street from eachother and played daily. If I came over to play and left something of mine laying around, her mom would make me do chores to get that item back. That's how good of friends we were. Either that or her mom REALLY wanted someone to clean her bathroom floor. Now that I'm a mom, I'm kind of leaning toward the latter. Heather's daughter Jamela was my flower girl at the age of 3. She' now 19 and gorgeous. Heather and I haven't seen eachother in years, but it felt like yesterday. We had an after, after party at our hotel when the big graduation party was over. This picture was taken in the very early hours of the morning.
Man I miss her. She's the most sarcastic friend I own, and that's really saying something!!!!

Crazygirl spent the entire 10 days on my phone talking to her best friend Sidney. At one point in the drive, I think she was giving her a play by play on how many cows we were passing. I can't wait to see how many minutes were racked up on this trip. This is how she spent the party for Uncle Rob. I think Sid could tell you everything about that party!!!

This is my brother Dave and my cousin Scott. I'm so glad that married life has calmed Scott down. Bwahaha! Scott is probably one of crazygirl's favorite "uncles". He dishes it out to her, and she hands it right back, which makes for great entertainment for everyone else. man I can't wait til he has kids...

Heather's 2nd daughter Maddie was 2 days old when I came home from my mission. She and Crazygirl share the same birthday, just a few years apart. Jake and Dancingqueen are the same age. There was lots of screams and running for eachother when Dancingqueen and Maddie saw eachother. These 3 grew up together. I can't believe how old everyone is getting!

This picture is of some of the cousins. They spent the ENTIRE party marching around saluting. Bug was a ball of sweat and dirt after doing this for 4 hours. She slept so good that night though!!!

Dancingqueen's performance

This is REALLY bad video with my little camera, but I tried to email it to grandparents and a few friends and it's too big of a file to send, so I am putting it on here. She got to do a special performance at the end of their choir concert with a few of the girls and some teachers. It was so fun to watch. I wish you could see the facial expressions, they are hilarious! She is the 5th one to walk on the stage (in the white shirt). Yes, that's how fuzzy it is, you can't tell who is who!




This is dancingqueen with her incredible choir teacher (who was 4th from stage left in the video) and the pianist for the specialty number...yes, that incredible music came from a 7th grade boy!

How the CHP lets it's hair down

After the graduation, they bussed us to the practice track for demonstrations. It was 103 degrees out, but we wouldn't have missed this for anything! The whole time Top Gun, the CHiP's theme song and other loud music was blaring thru the loudspeakers. There was a ton of smoke, burning rubber and high speeds...awesome!!!

Officer Rob

This is it...the event that brought us on this fun journey. My baby bro Rob is now a California Highway Patrol Officer. This has been his dream since he was a little kid, in fact, my mom had this great picture of him blown up for the after party of him as a toddler, playing with a police car. He and his family have sacrificed so much to get to this point, and we are all so proud of him!!! It was the first time all of the siblings had been together in a couple of years, due to us living all over the western US, so that made it all the more fun!

The whole family, except Audra and the kids...we missed you!!

mom and dad with all six kids

the six of us...as you can tell, we are a pretty uptight family..haha!

Rob, Natalie and the kids

Look at Owen!

I still cry when I look at this picture


We ran into some of our best friends, Mark and Jessica out on the quad. We weren't able to see them the night before, so we were totally excited..what a great surprise!

Cutie pie...future Officer Owen

Sacramento

On Thursday night, we stayed at our favorite Mavy house...SUPER FUN! 9 girls. Our four and their five...needless to say, we left within 20 minutes of getting the girls all settled in with pizza and went out to Chevy's. Yumm! (pound and a pint anyone?!) we had a blast with Ed, Sheila, Ward and Debbie, two of the funniest couples ever.We weren't supposed to stay with them until Sat, and have a big get together with the rest of our friends, but the timing was crazy with family events, so we had to switch at the last minute. We missed seeing everyone else, but are hopefully coming down this summer to play for longer than a few hours!
The next morning, I got to see Rene for about 30 seconds, then we were off to my brother's graduation...but that's a whole other post...!