Last Week of Kindergarten AND A Weekend Summer Vacation

 LAST WEEK OF KINDERGARTEN
Crystal had her last week of Kindergarten this week! Jay and Lily will miss waiting to greet her when she gets off the bus every day! Next year she'll have to get to school the old fashioned way! No more bus! The morning of her last day we got a picture in the same place we took it on her first day of school! She came home on her last day with a Perfect Attendance Award, a Super Reader Award and a great report card! So proud of her!

BRYCE CANYON AND TUACAHN THEATER

My parents took the entire family on a weekend vacation through Bryce Canyon and the Tuacahn Theater in St George! We had the car packed and everyone buckled in while we waited for Crystal to get home from school. As soon as she got off the bus (and the awesome bus driver gave her enough suckers for all of us for her last day), she piled in the car with us and we were on our way! 

Jay refused to nap the entire day! We stopped in Layton to meet up with my brother and SIL at a McDonalds for lunch and then we all made the rest of the journey to Bryce Canyon. Jay FINALLY fell asleep around 6 pm. We pulled into the hotel in Bryce Canyon at 7:15. Seriously... lets just say it was a long trip! Haha. We ate dinner and headed to the pool for about 45 minutes before it closed at 10 pm (the kids would die if we didn't get in some pool time. lol. Mom has those pics. I may never get them. lol). 

The next morning we were up bright and early and ready to hit the road again! We drove to Sunrise point... walked from there to Sunset point and back again. Then we got in the car and followed my dad to the next stop. We got out and my little brother says, "Isn't this the place we just saw?" Parents insisted "No its different" So we walk to the viewpoint at which point we decide my little brother was right. It was Sunset Point... again. We all had a good laugh (because my little brother had pushed a double stroller all the way there and back and we could have just driven. It was kinda funny...). Anyway, we then headed to Inspiration Point... Jay walked the entire thing and it was pretty steep! Go Jay! After that we went to Bryce Point where Jay tried to kill himself, refusing to hold a hand and trying to run off with scary drop offs nearby. A naptime meltdown ensued (as well as with his cousin... everyone was staring at us and our screaming boys... lol). We then found a picnic area to eat lunch at (I had my meltdown in between when we ended up ahead of the group, and they decided to go to a different place than previously discussed... and I was SO close to making it without any emotional breakdowns! Someday I'll have control of my emotions and these things won't happen anymore... until then I'm thankful for a husband who has learned to be okay with them. lol). Then we made our way to St George! The kids slept the ENTIRE way! 

When we got to St George, we immediately hit the pool for an hour (seriously, tantrums would occur if we didn't find time for the pool. lol). Then we got ready for our night at Tuacahn! We ate dinner there and watched the pre-show. The kids all loved it! Jay and Kensie were dancing around to the music! Then just before the play was going to start we dropped the three 2 year olds off at the Showcare room. They all willingly let us go and did really well considering it was almost 9 pm! We watched "When You Wish." It was a compilation of Disney performances. It was amazing! And since it was all music the girls were mesmerized the entire show! The main character was only 12 years old! She did a fabulous job! 

The drive home on Sunday was awful. lol. Jay cried for no reason for at least 2 hrs of the 3.5 hour drive to Provo where we stopped to eat. He was exceptionally good while we ate, so we had high hopes for the rest of the ride. Provo to home wasn't nearly as bad. The DVD player had finally started working (wasn't working the entire trip for some reason until then) which probably helped a lot. lol. We had to stop at the rest area between Blackfoot and IF, and Ty got Jay out too. We walked to the top of the building and the kids ran around and around and around the circular top (there's a sidewalk that goes around it) until they couldn't run anymore and we got back in to finish the trip. Jay pretty much cried the rest of the way home, but at least we were almost there. lol. When we got home the kids needed a release before bed, so Ty practiced throwing a baseball with the girls (their first game is Monday), and Jay and I practiced hitting with his Tball set that his Aunt Brooke and Uncle Todd got him! THEN we all went to bed exhausted!!!!! ;-)

Friendly chipmunk the kids were chasing.

For at least 2 hours! Gah!

RANDOM PICTURES

Warm enough for the pool!

I canned me some strawberry jam (Got a few flats from Eagle Farms' Strawberry Truck).

Bought these for the trip but I bought them too soon and they were opened long before vacation day...

Cousin Millie had a bday party. I felt so bad because Lily's eye gooped up 5 minutes before we left to go to the party. They had been wearing their costumes for the party all day long! I couldn't let her give everyone pink eye, so she had to stay home with Daddy. We brought her lots of goodies and she had a good time at home so it was okay, but at first she was completely devastated and I wanted to cry too!

Sometimes Lily just needs forward motion. So during one particularly insane temper tantrum I suggested she race to the gate and back. Crystal encouraged her by doing it with her. The dog and jay joined in too!

Jay is getting pretty good with his lawn mower. Too bad it doesn't actually cut the grass. lol. 

He likes to follow Daddy around helping him mow the lawn.

Memorial Day: Craters of the Moon

MEMORIAL DAY- CRATERS OF THE MOON

We took the kids to Craters of the Moon on Monday. They really enjoyed the lava rock and climbing through the caves. Crystal loves learning about rocks and volcanoes (she takes after her parents)! Ty told Lily before we left that we were going to go climb on rocks (trying to convince her to put on tennis shoes), so all the way there she kept informing everyone that "Me and Daddy are going to go rock climbing!" She was full of funnies all day. At one point in a cave, everyone was walking on a clear path of sorts, and Lily starts climbing on the fallen rock in the middle and yells, "Daddy! Come with me! This is the easy way!" lol. Ty looked at the clear path and looked at her rocky path and said, "I think I'll stick with this one." lol.  When we reached the end of the last cave we went through, we came out to find no paved path, just lava rock everywhere. We quickly found a sign that said to follow the wooden posts back to the path. Lily was forced to hold a hand while we walked back over the cave since there were two very large drop offs where the cave had collapsed. It had me a little nervous but we all survived. Before heading out we hiked a cone... it was steeper and longer than it looked but we made it! 

Crystal was SO excited to go inside the caves that she couldn't stand the wait for us to get to them! But as soon as we got there she became very reserved and cautious. She wasn't so sure going in a dark cave was a good idea! We had to take her moping and dragging her feet into a couple of them. She's too much like her Momma: afraid of the dark and heights ... neither of which were helpful on this trip. Haha. 

Lily was very insistent on doing everything on her own all day. She only took my hand willingly once because the cave became moderately dark, and she couldn't see well. It was nice to have her hand for a second at least! 

Jay did just about as well as she did! He held onto a hand through the caves when his footing was not great, but he ran down the paved paths the entire day! 

The second we got in the car after our last stop to hike the cone, it started pouring outside! Talk about good timing! Jay was so exhausted, he was asleep before we were out of the park! Crystal and Lily weren't far behind! They slept all they way home which proved to be a mistake when the girls refused to go to bed that night! And it was a school night so they were both tired and grumpy the next day! 

 SCHOOL CARNIVAL
Ty's mom's school had a carnival so we went to check it out! Bell's had a photo booth set up in one of the rooms! Got ourselves a family picture. ;-)

LAST DAY OF PRESCHOOL

Three of the four girls have June birthdays, and I never got around to doing a happy birthday pillowcase for Lily's birthday in October, so I thought it would be fun to have a birthday celebration with them on the last day of school! Jay helped me with the cookies the night before. He turned the Kitchenaid on too high and flour flew everywhere! lol! He then tried eating the flour off the counter. Yum! lol.  

Later that night we had a Preschool Program. The girls sang Letter Factory's ABC song which they did fabulous with! They sang it better at the program than they had all year! It was great! Then we watched a slideshow of pictures and videos from the school year! The girls each got an award and a book and we had refreshments! I had my SIL take pictures of the girls, but I keep forgetting to ask about them. Might add them later!

SUNDAY SHENANIGANS

The girls just walked into the living room all dressed up, lined up, and started singing (baby princess had "Let it go" playing on her mom's phone)

RANDOM PICTURES

Lily's nail came off... gross I know. lol. She kept mentioning the nail fairy, so I was really worried we were going to have to put the nail under her pillow (she has felt pretty left out with Crystal losing all these teeth and not her. lol), but she seemed to forget about it before the night was out. Whew! The tooth fairy is already going to be in the poor house before their done losing teeth... don't need to start with nails too! lol.

He didn't seem to mind the soup between his eyes. lol.

Hail. LOUD Thunder. More Hail. I was on the phone with Ty and he said it was really loud at work but not hailing or even raining. Really? Work is only 10 minutes away... if even that! I sent him a picture to prove it. lol.

First Tball practice! More tball pictures to come!

Grandma spoiling them again!

Jay was being hilarious with the balloon. The picture just doesn't do it justice.

Time for a shave Roscoe!

He looks much better! And yes Ty and I braved it ourselves. I have to say I think we did a pretty good job! ;-)