Random pictures from our trip to Washington

My sisters were making skirts for their girls so I got in on the action and made one for McKena.

Fun with cousins on the Slip N' Slide.

Nice view from my parents' yard.

Haven't tried on these babies for awhile (16 years for me!) Other than Brooke's smelling like fish we thought they were in pretty good shape.

All the cousins

More slip and slide

We enjoyed a week in Washington this last month. My sister and her family were visiting from Florida so we took the chance to play while they were a little closer. Add in my other sister and sister-in-law and we had a big crowd and a lot of fun. We managed a day at the movies, a day at the Moses Lake aquatic center, a little bit of time crafting, a Moms' only shopping day, a few cook-outs, and just good ole' cousin time. John wasn't able to come with me so I drove up by myself. I put Zack as the co-pilot but he managed to sleep over half the trip. That wasn't very much help but it helped to have him not in the back harassing the other kids. My Dad was kind enough to help me drive home. Thanks to my parents for hosting and can't wait to do it again next year!

Crazy storm--June 24th

Poor, poor flowers

Front step

So yesterday we were having a beautiful day until this rolled in... all I can say is that my flowers and garden are shredded. I hope they can recover sometime this summer.

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!