Temples, baptisms, and Father's Day

My neice Emma, was getting baptized on Saturday of Father's Day weekend. So the whole family was traveling down to Salt Lake City. Mom and I decided to go a few days early and visit some temples and Rachel's family.
On our 1st day, we did a session in the  Salt Lake Temple. Then we went across the street and checked out the new City Creek shopping center. It was awesome!  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, but we still had fun.

That night Rachel brought her kids to the hotel to go swimming. While the older kids were swimming, Logan stayed in the hotel room. He managed to find my stash of yogurt pretzels.

The next morning, Mom and I went to Lizzie's music class! It was the last one before summer vacation!

Here is Lizzie playing the piano while Grandma watches!

Everyone put their hands in the air!

That afternoon, Mom, Rachel, and I did a session in the Draper Temple. It is a very beautiful temple.

Saturdy morning Emma got baptized. Again, I forgot to take my camera!  (I  must be getting old!)

That afternoon, Mike, Greg, Megan, and I went to Temple Square to hang around.
Here we are at the Conference Center.

We saw the Joseph Smith movie, and hung out in the Family History Library.
This is one of the few times that Mike is actually getting help on the computer!

Mike and Colleen on Temple Square.

The next day was Father's Day. After we got home, it was present time!
Meg made Mike a pillow out of Univ of Utah colors!

Mike also got a "zero gravity" chair. He loves it!

And the two combine quite nicely!

He also got tickets to a Hawks Baseball Game. We will go later this summer.

We ended up skyping with Drew that night. It was so good to talk with him!

Happy Father's Day!



School's Out!!!

School is finally out for summer! The last week was very busy. Megan was studying for finals, and I was closing up my office for the summer. During the last week of school, there was the 9th grade awards assembly. Megan got 3 awards! One academic award, one honor roll, and the "sciencitific curiosity" award.

Here is Megan with her favorite teacher, Mrs. Smith. She taught Meg's accelerated biology class. She was a teacher who changed Meg's life. 

So, what do you do when school gets out?  You have a girl's weekend at the cabin! I took Megan and her friend Emelia Munson to the cabin for 3 days!  We played games, rode the 4-wheelers, and slept!

We went to McCall and had dinner and bought a carmel apple at the McCall Candy Co. 

YUM!!!!!!

The new Jeep made it's maiden voyage to the cabin. It did great!  It really looks good in the driveway at the cabin!

I'm so glad it is finally summer! It is going to be so fun!    





Memorial Day Weekend

We always wonder what to do for Memorial Day Weekend. With the long weekend, the draw is to head out of town. Usually we go to the cabin, but this year Abby graduated from Centennial High School Saturday afternoon. So we stayed in town for that. Rachel and Marty came into town with their kids, so a good time was had by all!

While we waited for graduation to start, I got little Logan to finally warm up to me!

Megan with Lizzie!

Abby with her siblings and cousins! 

That night we had a family dinner to celebrate Abby's graduation and Mikaela's b-day!

Logan after eating red velvet birthday cake!

So, what do you do with an empty bedroom, and a child who is out of the house?

You turn it into a sewing/craft room!

Mike and Greg painted Drew's old bedroom 2 of the "Top Ten Empty Nester's Colors."

Another good use for the long weekend!

I will show pictures when the room is done!

What a great way to spend a long weekend in town!

It's Spring Again!!

It has been an interesting weather year so far this year. Snow was very late in coming to the area. But once it came, we had a lot of it, especially in the mountains!  When it came time for spring, we would have days is the 80s, but the next day, rainy and in the 30s.
Spring is my favorite time of year, because I love to see the flowers starting to come up after the gray drab winter.  This is what we have been seeing in the neighborhood lately.

Another sign of spring around here is what we call "The Rooster Tail."  In the spring, the Boise river get lots of run off from the mountains. There are 3 reservoirs above Boise that the water people (whoever they are!) use to manage the run off. From the base of Lucky Peak damn, which is the lowest reservoir, there is a special valve that they only turn on in the spring. It releases ALOT of water at one time, and shoots it into the air, hence the rooster tail. This year we Mike, Meg, and I decided to go up and see it. Mike had never seen it. We invited Grandpa and Grandma to go with and off we went! Here is the rooster tail:

On the way back, we stopped at a restaurant called The Brick Oven Beanery and had dinner. I had the vegetable cheese soup. And yes, that is a scoop of  mashed potatoes right in the middle!  Yum.....

I  LOVE  SPRING!!!



My Birthday! 29 again.....

On April 23, I celebrated my birthday. Even though, I tell my kids that I am 29 again. I am (gasp!) 49! I can hardly believe it!  I don't feel a day over 29!
For my birthday this year, I wanted to go for a bike ride. So Mike, Megan, and I took a bike ride on the Green Belt! Our first of the year!

During the bike ride, a small thunderstorm rolled thru the valley. So we rode thru the rain and the wind. But it wasn't too bad. We ended the ride at Joe's Crab Shack where we met Mom, Dad, and Julie! (I do look a little windblown!)

After dinner, we went back to our house for presents and birthday rhubarb pie!

My favorite present was from Megan. She took my IPod that I got for Christmas, that I haven't set up yet. She set it up for me, and is going to help me down load more songs!

Next year, is a big birthday for me. I have already decided that I am not turning 50 in Boise!  So, after much consideration, I have decided to go on a cruise! I figure it will be easier to turn 50 lounging in a deck chair with Coco the Cabana boy bringing me Diet Coke!  It will be so fun!



Spring Break

One nice thing about working for the school district is, I always get spring break off! This year, we took a girls trip to Disney Land!  Abby was competing in a dance competition at the Anaheim Convention Center, so Mom, Julie, Diane, Rachel, and myself went down there to support her. We also played alot in  Disney Land! Julie hadn't been to Disney Land in about 35 years, so it really was a first visit for her.
The first morning, we rode Splash Mountain 3 times straight. Of course, we got soaked!

Splash Mountain was Julie's favorite ride!  We rode it lots. We finally learned to at least keep our hoods on!

One night we did the World of Color/dinner combo. We ate dinner at Ariel's Grotto, and had an awesome meal! This was the appetizer!

And this was the dessert!  Everything on the plate was edible!  YUM........

The World of Color show is shown on a huge water screen. It also has fountains, and sometimes fire! Here is just some of the scenes.

After dark, the ferris wheel lights up!  It shines over the midway in California Adventures!

Julie, after her first day in the parks! 

On the last day, we got Mom to ride California Screaming!! She loved it!

Here is some various pictures. We had such a great time!  I love sister trips!

I can't wait until the next girl's trip!!!