Sunday, June 26, 2011

Part II

Drummond, MT: My favorite place on earth.


Lindsey-Me-Lauren-Grandpa-Kenzi-Kamery
All the grand-daughters!




I know I always say this but it's true. I sometimes worry that there will be a time in my life when I will never go back... I won't have a reason too. It literally makes my heart hurt. One of these times, I am going to photograph everything though. I don't want to ever forget things... Like the barn or the streams or the house on the hill or the dark cool basement. :-)
It seemed weird to be there this time without my grandma. She was the reason we went. She loved when we came to visit. We loved to visit. It was hard explained to B and H about where she was and answering the 1,000 questions that followed. They knew she was in heaven but wondered why her body was in the ground.... I know for sure she chuckled at the many death comments that Hiley has made along the way!
Anyway, we had a great visit. We went over Memorial weekend so that we could be together to remember her, my grandma. She spent so much time preparing for this day. She would tidy up and put flowers on the graves of loved ones. Her headstone looked lovely. It is perfect for her and there is a nice spot for my grandpa when it's time to place him beside her.


Can I just say though... it is was c.o.l.d! Like, November cold. We didn't get to play outside much but we did venture down to the barn a few times to feed to horses. We also hit up the local high school rodeo and parade. The kids loved that! We also went to Kung Fu Panda 2 and of course Hoagieville! Mmmmmm. Delish!


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To wrap up spring, we had a fun dance recital with Hiley. She cracks me up. She actually seemed do better this time around. She loves the idea of getting dressed up but then gets a little distracted when it comes to the "dancing" part! Anyway, she did jazz, tap and ballet. I think I'll do one more year of dancing and then see if she'd like to venture out and try something a little more "fast/ competitive"!
Benson did his first year of baseball and loved it. Ben got him a glove and some new cleats. All the boys on the team were from the neighborhood so he had a blast! It was soooo much fun to watch them learn to play and figure things out.
We'll for sure be playing baseball again.

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CARTER GRADUATED!!!!


Holy smokes! We are so proud of him. It was so awesome to see him do this. We had a very nice day with a yummy BBQ and lots of family time!
It sure aged me quite a bit though. Yikes! I graduated 10 years ago...


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Vegas Baby!



How about another sweet Vegas trip with the girls?
As always, we had so much fun...
Lots of eating (The Wynn Buffet) and shopping (The DI) and driving! ;-)

The highlight? Seeing The Lion King at Mandalay Bay! Ohmigosh. It was a-ma-zing. I want to take my kids back! Thanks to a little birdie, (Spencer!) we found out that with a student ID, you can get killer prices on seats soooo with the help of Suz and Brooke, we were able to get FRONT ROW seats for like... next to nothing!
**The top picture is us with the two little kids who played Nala and Simba at the very beginning of the show. Talk about talented!**
So if you ever get a chance to see this show, go! You will not be disappointed!

Thanks again ladies for another fun get-away! As always, I had a blast!! And thanks to my husband who... wait a minute! Ben totally lucked out and didn't have to watch the kids this trip!
They were up north with my mom soooo...

A HUGE "shout out" to her for watching my kids for the ENTIRE week!! You are always so thoughtful and never think twice about helping us out. These two just love you so much and could not ask for a better grandma! Thank You, Thank You for all your help!!!!
I love you, mom!!



Oh and I almost forgot...
While we dined at The Wynn Buffet,
we ran into this "movie star"...

Ham from The Sandlot!

Haha. Brooke was the only one brave enough to ask for a picture.
It was so funny to see him all grown up though! :-)

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Lately....

So I happened to glance at the date of my last post and could not believe it was in March. I am such a slacker!! We've been pretty busy though lately so I guess I have a little bit of an excuse...


Here's what we've been up too: (Beware picture and info overload!)
We're going to call this Part I...


First we have Easter! We were able to spend it up in Salt Lake and the kids had a blast hunting for eggs in "Black" grandma's backyard! We also got to spend this weekend with "White" Grandma and Grandpa down from Idaho! For some awesome reason I'm sure, I didn't get any pictures of the kids baskets or egg hunting. :-/






Next we have Hiley's 4th birthday! I cannot believe how big she is getting. She cracks us up daily and can go from zero to sixty in no time at all! This girl is a total bag lady and loves, loves her treats! We had a pretty low key day. We met up with some friends at McDonald's for lunch and then she headed over to her BFF Londyn's house for the afternoon! As always, she got spoiled rotten with Rapunzel dress-ups, an alphabet book, new glitter shoes and lots of goodies from the grandma's! We sure love this sassy little thing!







Nothing kicks off summer quite like the Cotton Days here in Washington. We went to a movie in the park, the "carnival" and watched the awesome fireworks. The kids love it and so do we! The movie would have been a little better if it wasn't for the dang wind that kept blowing the screen over... Yikes! Anyway, it was fun none the less. They showed Tangled that night so the above three little princesses were in heaven!







I can't not mention my dear friend Suzanne's surprise 30th birthday party! Her husband and I were quite the schemers in planning this little shin-dig! We had so much fun and I hope she did too! There were lots of friends and family there. (She is quite popular actually!) Anyway, she is such a great friend and I'm so glad we were able to celebrate this BIG day with her! ;-)








I'm a preschool smartie!
Benson and Hiley wrapped up another year of preschool with Miss Katie, who both of my kids adore! She has been such a great teacher! Benson was sad to learn that he won't be back in the fall! They each had their own little ceremony with the class that they've been in where they sang songs and showed all the parents their progress from the year. Hiley has come so far. She can identify every letter in the alphabet and knows all their sounds. Benson has always been a good learner and loves to show us his skills as well. He can write his full name and Hiley's. He also loves to draw and socialize!