St. George

Big sand bowl to play in

Did I mention that it was 105 degrees, and that may not be the best time to hike. Just saying....

Snow Canyon, near St. George

Sand bowl again

Me, post-swimming, excuse the hair-do and sweats.

Some fun climbs for the kids

Why would anyone get in a hot tub when it is 105 outside????

This is more like it...

Zack exploring

After a couple of days in Cedar City we went down to St. George just for 1 night. It was so fun to relax, swim, enjoy warm (well...hot) weather, and go to Snow Canyon. We had planned on going to Zions for a day, but in the end decided it would be too hot. We'll put that on the list to do some spring break. When we left St. George that day it was 98 degrees, and when we pulled into Cache Valley that night it was 45. You can see why we wanted to head south. Now, however, it has turned warm here and we are quite enjoying it so far. We started our yearly swimming lessons and those are keeping us busy. You wouldn't think a 40 min. swim lesson could do that but somehow I can't get anything else done. One more week until the 4th of July--that's like half-way through summer! Crazy!

Summer Games 2011

This year we were able to go down to Cedar City for Zack to play basketball at the summer games. Their team won 2 games then lost 2 games. It's ok, we mostly go there to socialize and have fun with the other families at the hotel and restaurants. We were not disappointed this year, it was as fun as ever! It's also nice to have a little vacation to look forward to right after school gets out. Maybe next year we will win the gold!

Kade turns 5!

Everybody knows that Kade loves Mac and Cheese--here's a "pie" of his favorite
from Grandma Morrison

A few presents he received--he loves them all!

Kade is growing up. We had a fun day playing with his gifts and eating treats. He got a "move" for our PlayStation which we have really enjoyed (I would recommend it to anyone who has a PS3). Not sure why he looks kinda sad in the above picture--he really was happy. He has always been, and still is, a joy to have in our family!

Preschool Graduation

Kade is in the top row, middle

We have officially graduated our last child from preschool. What an accomplishment! Mostly, I am happy that I will never have to pay for preschool again... Kade had a great year and learned a lot. The teacher held a program with singing and diplomas and then even a family barbeque. It was a fun night. Kindergarten here we come!

Moving on...

Because I have 4 kids that are growing up and getting busier I found it very hard this year to juggle teaching piano lessons with getting the kids where they needed to be and homework etc. As a result, I decided to stop teaching piano lessons next year. This was a really hard decision for me and was very bittersweet, but I'm hoping next fall I will really enjoy not having my afternoons tied up. So anyway, I had my recital at the end of May (and it went wonderful) but then I had to say goodbye to all those great kids! No picture, of course. I did get this flower arrangement from one of my students though, which I thought was very nice so we took a picture of it. It has been a good 12 years of piano lessons!

Other happenings in April

McKena and Adri after performing in Annie, put on by our drama club at school. They were orphans--really cute songs and dancing. Cousin Mia came to watch.

Piano students of Dianne Zaugg at the recital.

Colin and McKena had their piano recital a couple of weeks ago. They both had their songs memorized and performed them well. One by one we are finishing our school year activities. It is crazy to me that there is less than a month of school left. I won't complain though, I am ready for warm weather and more relaxed schedules. I am ready to plant flowers and work in the yard. I am ready to take the kids swimming. Just a few more weeks....yea!

Easter

We had a great Easter this year--finally the sun found us here in Cache Valley. I put all of these pictures up, not because they're good, but because it is funny to see the kids trying to keep their eyes open for the picture. John was the photographer and was very frustrated. I sympathize with the kids because I think they got that from me--sensitive eyes. Anyway, that's the best we could get. I also made this bunny cake for our dinner at Grandma's house. By now the Easter candy (and cake) is long gone but we did enjoy it!