La Beu's

With girl's camp quickly approaching we went on a scouting trip to check out our camp site and the hiking trail. We all met at Young Women's President's house and caravanned up to Bear Lake. The ride wasn't too bad, even though we got the kids up really early, they were pretty good. 

When we got up to Bear Lake we tried to find where our camp site was. We couldn't find exactly were to go, but we kept trying. We ended up passing it by a long shot. We found a nice officer who directed us were to go. A long shot was about 15 miles. But at least it was a nice drive.

The camp site looked pretty nice. It had a big open area for our tents, table large enough to fit us all, and even a fire pit with benches around it. The youth leader were all pretty excited but what they saw. Afterwards we headed up the road to see if we could find where the trail head was. We kept hearing that it was somewhere near our campsite. We drove up and down and weren't sure were it was. Then we finally found a trail-head. We hope its the right one, but it looked good to us. 

After all of our scouting, we had to make a stop a La Beu's. You can't leave Bear Lake without getting a shake and that's exactly what we did.

The kids loved the shakes and the company of all the youth leaders. Surprisingly enough they weren't to upset about having to get back in the car either. They all slept the whole way home.

Swinging

William had his first go at the swing in the backyard. He had a blast. Smiles left and right. Even when the swing stopped he still had a blast just sitting there.

Go Fish

For Family Home Evening it was game night. We decided to teach the kids how to play Go Fish. Gabbi had a blast with game and actually understood how to play.

Owen not so much, he just wanted to play with the card doing whatever. He and I were on a team. Despite him not really caring to play the right way, he and I won. Gabbi was pretty bummed by that, so we played again.

Even though William couldn't play, he still had fun sitting on Ben lap trying to get at the card that he was holding.

Shed remodel

Memorial day didn't bring much for us. Just cleaning around the house. We even got into deep construction.

Ben has been talking about making shelves in our shed for some time now. Memorial day, with nothing to do, brought the perfect opportunity. 

We had an old pool table that was warped due to water damage so we took it apart a while ago and Ben saved the wood. He turned them into the perfect set of shelves.

While Ben and I were working on the shelves the kids had a lot of fun playing in the yard.

Even William was enjoying his time outside.

Now for the unveiling....

The finished project. Looks even better with all the stuff in it. Everything has a place and fits nicely in its place. Ben did a great job. Now on to the next project.

Kayla's b-day

Family Sunday dinner was a celebration of Kayla's birthday. I can't believe how grown up my nieces and nephews are getting. Next thing I know, they'll all be grown up and gone, living their own lives.

She choose Turkey stake sandwiches. I love turkey stakes and am surprised to say that we've never eaten them as a sandwich before. I was surprised, it was really good.  She also asked for German Chocolate Cake. That one surprised me too. Normally only the adults request that cake, but we were all excited for it.

When it came time for her to open her gifts, she did so with much excitement. We gave her some books, a new series. We got half of it and Jenny and Brian got the other. I  hope she was as excited for them as she seemed when she opened it. She does love to read, so hopefully this is a series that she turns out to love.

When the gifts were done, we had our cake and then we all went our different ways.

We hung around and played for a while. The kids played in the backyard on their new doom which they both loved and us adults played some card games.

Sagez get together

The following night was the Sagez get together. We met at Karen and Brian's place and they put together a great dinner. Everything was yummy and we all had a blast.

When we got there we sat down to eat and visit together. Afterwards the girls went outside to play and Owen went to play with car, of course. he ended up bring them all out into the front room to play with. 

While the kids were playing, we adult had some fun to. We sat down and we played Catch phrase. If you've never played before its a guessing game. There are two teams and you are trying to get your team to guess the word without saying the word. 

We played about 3 rounds and we laughed like crazy. There were moments that we were laughing so much that we couldn't even play the game anymore. We had a blast.

Before we were about to leave, Ben's grandma gave Gabbi her birthday gift that she missed out the previous month and also gave Ben his. Gabbi was so excited to see a cute new shirt and a new stuffed animal Tiger with the cutest eyes.

Ben received a book. His grandma has talked about for a while now and Ben said that he looked forward to reading it.

After a great night it was time to head home.

Drive-In

A new movie release brought on an adventure to the drive-in. We were hoping that they weather would be better then the last time, but had plans on going whatever the weather. Ironically enough, it did rain for the first 30 to 45 minutes when we got there, but stopped and we had clear skies.

This visit to the drive-in was our first with the van. We loved the set up despite us having to move car seats around and what not.

The best seat being the one in the back. The last row of the van turns to open up to a bench to see out the back. It was comfortable and it also worked out nice to keep the kids corralled in. They were still able to watch their show while we watched ours.

We went to watch the new X Men movie along with the new Amazing Spiderman. But while waiting for ours to start we all enjoyed watching The Nut Job, a movie that we had rented for the kids. 

Ben and I both enjoyed watching both movies and the kids were great. William fell asleep and slept the whole time, however we ended up having to take turns holding him while he slept. Gabbi fell asleep about 10 minutes into the second show we put on for the kids and Owen finally fell asleep during the 3rd. My that kids can fight sleep.

This was one of the better visits to the drive-in.

Picture Me

Because I had taken so many pictures of Gabbi Owen came of and begged me to take a picture of him. I asked him why and all he said was "picture me too!"

Of course he also wanted to show off the toys he was playing with at the time.

Graduation packet

The last day of school also brought the graduation packet. The kids had made a cute face of themselves and her teacher put together their graduation envelopes. Gabbi couldn't wait to open it when we got home. 

Inside the packet were many different things.

Her Kindergarten Diploma

Journals that they have worked on all year

Her school supplies and name tag that were used during the school year

And last but not least, her yearbook.

Inside the packet was also some left over school work, a few food certificates for school work, and even her info for next year. Gabbi is so excited for the first grade and is excited to meet her next teacher.

Last day of School

I can't believe it, school has come and gone. Gabbi's last day of school didn't bring any tears as the first day did, but it was sad to see her have to say goodbye to her teacher. 

As a big thank you to her teacher we brought her a flower and a pin wheel to go with it. Gabbi picked a purple flower and a purple pin wheel because it is her favorite color and she thought it was her teachers too. She was really excited to be able to give it to her teacher.

I walked in with her so we could get one last picture of her with her teacher. 

It was a great year and Gabbi had a blast with her. I'm grateful that she had such a great teacher as well. I have a hard enough time with Gabbi, I can't imagine how her teacher did it with 20 students in her class.

Field Day

Another activity they had during the last week of school was a field day.

She had to be to school early that day, 8:30. That was almost too hard. Next year might be a nightmare to get her ready for school. At least I have 3 months to get her used to it.

When we drove by the school we noticed a lot of fun stuff being laid out in the field behind the school. They had 3 different jump type houses, giant blue balls that I am assuming was for some kind of race, little orange cones all of the place, etc. It looked like they were going to be a lot of fun. When I dropped her off, she quickly ran inside, so excited for the day's event.

When I picked her up, I notice that the bow I had in her hair wasn't there anymore so we drove over to the other parking lot and got out to look for it. I'm glad we did, (not that I'm glad she lost her bow) but when we got out to look for it she actually told me what they did.

The first thing she told me about was drawing on the sidewalk. Each of them were given a half a section of side walk to color on.

Here's is what she drew. She was very proud of it although I couldn't tell what it was and she had a hard time remembering what it was as well.

We continued to look around for her bow and she showed me the jump houses, the race course, and the field that they played assorted games in. She said her favorite activity was the jump house, that didn't surprise me at all.

No luck with the bow, so we started to head back to the van then she told me to look some where else because she remembered playing a game over by the sand box. I'm not sure what game it was, it just included blue rubber hoses and the sand.

After going all over the field with no luck, she finally ran out of things to tell me about her field day. It sounded like she had a blast. From what was out there, it looked like it would have been.

Teddy Bear Picnic

Gabbi's class had a lot of things planned for the last week of school. All of which she was very excited for and constantly reminded me of them each day.

Wednesday brought their activity of a Teddy Bear Picnic. They were asked to bring a lunch or snack and their favorite Teddy Bear to school with them that day. I'm assuming that is exactly what they did. 

When I came to pick up Gabbi that day, I saw the picnic blankets hanging from the fence. I couldn't wait to see what Gabbi would say about her picnic. That was the one and only activity that I really remember from when I was in Kindergarten.

Sadly Gabbi didn't say much about it. When I picked her up she excitedly showed me her lunch bag to prove to me that she eaten all of her lunch that I had packed. I laughed and asked her how every thing else went. All she said was that it was fun and that her teacher liked her Teddy Bear, Sparkly Purple Panda.

(I know what your thinking...her hair is short. I forgot to take her picture the day of the picnic and by the time I remembered, we had already gotten her hair cut.)

Van

Totally spaced it, but we bought a Van. We traded our Impala in for a Dodge Grand Caravan. We bought it the day of Gabbi's Kindergarten program. 

I was one of those people who swears that they would never get a van and look what happened. Kids happened. 

We were both sick of the kids pestering each other, yelling at each other, touching each other, and worse bugging William or even waking him up. 

We have been talking about a van for a while now and since our registration was up in the next few months we decided that we would go take a look. Some may say its bad not to look at a bunch of places and different types, but the first one we saw worked for us.

We took it on a test drive and fell in love. Even the kids really liked it. We decided to fill out an application and see what we could do.

At first they told us that it wasn't possible, we owed too much on the Impala. Then they asked us what payments we could afford and what type of down payment we were willing to pay. We gave them our answer and they went to see what we could do. This happened 3 times till they came back with a deal that fit our needs. We decided to go with it. Our payment only went up 5 dollars, but our insurance went down so they off set each other. It worked out perfectly and we were both very happy with our decision.

One the way home, it was the best ride ever. It was so quiet and peaceful, best decision ever.

Tree book

Gabbi came home from school the other day with this. She wouldn't tell me what it was, but that it was a surprise. It was title the Tree Book.

It only had 4 pages. They must have worked on it throughout the year because each page had a tree on it from the seasons and on the back, the dates they did them on. Each picture was finger painted and Gabbi told me how much fun she had finger painting her trees.

Cars

Owen's stuffed Lighting McQueen pillow got a new friend. Owen calls him "Honk Honk." He called him that because that's the sound he made when pushing on the 4 white lights on the top of its head.

Lunch date with Dad

We had an appointment to go to and Ben took some time off to go with us. He had enough time off we were able to go grab a bite to eat afterwards. The kids asked for McDonald's. Ben and I didn't see a problem with it, at least the kids could play for a little bit. They had a lot of fun playing or should I say showing off.

Sleeping

Bedtime was a little later then normal a few nights ago. We had been out in the yard working and the time got away from us. Baths were definitely needed so one by one they took a shower and one by one they waited for the other. As the time passed, they sleep started to set in.

Ben was the first to fall asleep and the others slowly feel in line.

Side note: you can totally tell that Owen wasn't really asleep, but he wanted badly to be in the sleeping picture. He did fall asleep shortly thereafter.

Sleepy

We let him sleep without his bundle. It turns out that he sleeps like his parents. On his side and one knee up. It was to cute to let the picture moment pass.

Light

At the butterfly party we went to a while ago, the kids each got a butterfly that lit up. It changed colors as it went. They ripped the butterfly off and it was just a light. We placed that light on the tray in Williams toy and he tried to grab the light with all his might. He tried for the longest while and then finally gave up.

Zoe

While at the derby Jenny sent me this picture. It's too cute for words.

When we picked him up she said that she had gone in the laundry room to change a load of laundry and when she came out all she could see was Zoe's head just above the bouncer. Then she walked around and shot this picture. Zoe continued to sit with William for a little bit longer and then ran off.

Isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Demolition Derby

After our trip to the Zoo, we went home for an hour or so to cool off and then headed out again. We had tickets to go to the Demolition derby. 

After we were rested we got back in the van, dropped off William at my sisters, grabbed some pizza for dinner, and headed to the Golden Spike Arena. We dropped Ben off at the gate so he could go in and save us some seats while the kids and I sat outside to eat some pizza. When we were done, we traded places, Ben went out to eat while we saved our seats. We were joined by my Dad, Jeff, J.D., and Ben Dad, Nelson and Deann. 

Ben got us some killer seats. They weren't the best for the sun while waiting for the show, but they were best for the show. We were in the front seat on the East side. We saw all the action and felt most of it when the dirt came flying our way.

After the hour and a half of waiting, they finally started the show.

They first started of with a kids derby. It was the cutest thing. They brought out Tonka motorized cars and what not and kids to drive them. They were given 10 minutes to have a derby of their own. Some of the kids just drove around, others actually banged into each other. One kid actually got tipped over. It was pretty funny. Then they were given a small race, from one end of the track to the other to see who came in first. Gabbi said that she wanted to do that one day. That's the first time we've ever seen that, but if she really wants to, Ben said he didn't have a problem with it.

Then it was time for the real show. Almost every heat had one car that was either knocked over or it had so much damage that it hadn't to literally be pulled out of the wreckage to get it out of the rink.

The kids had so much fun. They both love the demo derby. We were even lucky enough to get some free items. They both got tooth pick holder/dispensers and then Owen caught a shirt. It totally wasn't his size, but that didn't stop him from wanting to wear it for a little bit.

Gabbi of course had to fashion it off too and if I remember correctly, she ended up wearing it the rest of the night.

One of my favorite heats besides the trucks are what they call the minis. In other-words, smaller cars that pack just as hard as hits as the big ones. The best part about this heat was this old fashioned car. I love old cars and it was pretty cool to see this old one in with all the others.

Sadly it didn't last long, but it was fun to watch while it lasted.

In between each heat, they kept throwing out items to keep the crowd entertained and we were lucky again. Nelson caught a hat and both of the kids traded their toothpick holders for it.

It doesn't fit either one of them, but they both loved that they actually won something this time.

Last but not least, the trucks, my absolute favorite. It was such a good heat. They had 2 cars tip over and 1 flipped over completely. The one that flipped over completely was just down from us. So close it was almost scary. The driver walked out of there like there was nothing wrong and they gave the okay to keep on crashing.

Such a good heat and the person that won was a friend of Nelson and Deann's. The same one that one that last time we went to the derby.

The last heat of the night had a crap load of cars in it and it brought plenty of excitement as well.

We had an insanely busy day, but all of it was a blast.