Water Fights and Phone Hacks

My sister-in-law posted this picture on Facebook and I was so excited to see it. When we were younger my Dad would have us wash his car which would inevitably turn into a massive water fight usually always started by my Dad. In this picture we just had one of those great water fights!

Rylee's primary teacher sent me this picture she found on her phone after church one Sunday. 

Dairy Days Parade

We would have tried to stay a little bit longer in Utah but one of the reasons we needed to get home was so we could watch Kenedy in the Dairy Days Parade. The Meridian Cheerleaders had a float in the parade and we were excited to see her on it. 

We packed up a picnic dinner and headed over about an hour before start time so we could find some fairly decent seats. Avy and Rylee brought their neighbor friend Sydney and the girls and Ryker managed to fill up their waiting time messing around and goofing off.

Once the parade started the kids collected a decent amount of candy and we were excited to see Lauryn Warner dancing with the Meridian Dance Team.

Finally the cheerleaders came by on their float and of course right when they got to us was the moment they were done with their song and were listening to their coach talking about something. so the video I got was just us yelling Kenedy's name and her waving to us.  At least we got pictures and video of her waving to us.

I was able to get these pictures of Kenedy with her fellow cheerleaders before the parade started off the Meridian Cheer Facebook page. 

The next week the weather hit 100 degrees and we decided to go and use Mikells pool for some cooling off time. Like always I swam for a little bit and then got out and took pictures. 

Kefford was trying to tell me something when I took his picture on the side of the pool and then when Avy saw what I was doing needed to come over and have her picture taken.

The girls were playing with Sydney when I suggested going to the pool so they invited her to come along.

It sure is fun in hot weather to have family with awesome pool connections!

Swimming in Utah

After our fun time at Lagoon Kenedy headed back to Meridian with her Grandparents while I took the rest of the kids to visit Emily. Kenedy got a job at Arctic Circle and needed to go back home because she had training that week. Later on Monday when I asked her how things went on her first day she said she went in and they told her they did not put her on the schedule. So she went home for nothing. 

Emily was not going to be back from a Youth camping trip until later that afternoon so we stopped at Ikea to do some browsing and then we went to visit Dustin and Sara and their new baby. I was pretty excited to see baby Evelyn but she was having a bad day and would not stop crying so it was not the best of visits. After spending about an hour with Dustins family we left to go see Emily. 

Most of the pictures I have from this trip are from when we were down at the pool. Emily was in a cast because she had foot surgery and was not able to be in the pool but she was a good sport to sit down there with us. 

I love these pictures of my girls. Everything about Avynlea in this shot reminds me of my sister-in-law Whitney when she was little. Whitney was about 8 when Kefford and I got married and while we were living in Nyssa she very quickly became my little friend. I loved being around her and was always grateful for her willingness to be my buddy, it made missing my siblings a little easier. Anyway, so much of this reminds me of Whitney at that time, the facial expression, her shoulders and even the way she is holding her hands out.  I think it is fun to see Keffords family in my kids. 

I will never get tired of watching Rylee's relaxed face. She is so pretty and always has the sweetest little smile on her face when she is just being chill.

We went to the movies to watch "Finding Dory" while we were in Utah and we all loved the movie, it was so cute! Emily and I took the kids to Win-Co beforehand to pick out some treats to take into the theater and Avynlea got some candy legos. The next day she came to show me what eating a lego did to her tooth, it broke it. I was pretty concerned and took a picture to send to Kefford to see if it was a problem but his response was "cool". I figured it was not that big of a deal since it was a baby tooth and decided not to worry about it.

Wednesday night we had a barbecue swim party at the pool. Andrew invited some of his friends and we all had so much fun. Emily and Isabelle had to check out a little early to go to mutual but the rest of us enjoyed our time eating and swimming.

The guys decided to try stacking on shoulders and they impressively  managed to get up to 4 people sitting on top of each other.

top to bottom

Ben, Dee and Andrew                                                                Ben, Ryker and Dee

Ben, Ryker, Dee and Wheeler

Ben, Ryker, Maddie and Dee

Avynlea loved showing off her diving skills, Ryker had fun being tossed around and Rylee liked playing human ring toss with Matt.

Ben became a human torpedo and we were all excited when they managed to make him go through the ring.

And of course my girls loved showing me their fun tricks

Before I left on Thursday I went to help Emily in her classroom for a bit. Everything had to be stacked up along the walls at the end of the year so the janitors could clean the rooms and so I helped her pull desks and other things out to arrange them back around the classroom. She tore down the tree I did at the end of the year because it was falling off the wall and she wanted to relocate a new one so I helped make a new tree and we got that put up with the tissue paper puff balls and it looked so cute. We were both so excited with how even more cute it looked once we put up some of the Dr Seuss characters she inherited from a friend. Seriously, so fun!

We had such a great time visiting our family and did not want to go even though we needed to get home. Leaving is always bittersweet but I am glad we live close enough to make these trips happen!

Lagoon Trip 2016!

A month or so ago Alison asked Kefford if we were going to go with them to Lagoon again this year. Kefford initially said not this year because he had to work and things were looking kind of busy. After telling Kefford that I was planning on making a trip to Utah this summer to visit my sister he told me that I should take the kids and go to Lagoon with his parents and then go to Emily's place after like I did last year. After looking at the dates I realized that if we went we would be gone on Fathers Day again and I mentioned that to Kefford and said that it wouldn't work out. He told me it was not a big deal and that I should go and after the fifth grade assembly on Thursday that is just what we did. 

Avy and Rylee were being cute and cuddly in the backseat and Kenedy told me I had to take a picture.

Kenedy wanted to drive to Utah and I was more then OK with that. I do not like driving and would much rather be the passenger. After missing the ramp to get on,  taking the wrong freeway and having to drive through Boise to get back on the right freeway I was second guessing my decision of letting her drive. But once we figured out the right way to go Kenedy did a really good job with driving. I took a picture of all of us and sent it to my family and they were laughing at Kenedy's expression because she looked so scared. She was smiling for the picture but I must have taken too long and caught her nervously looking back at the road. 

She had me take another picture to show her looking more confidant while driving. 

The trip down to Utah was not too bad. We had plenty of snacks and activities to occupy ourselves. There was some grumpiness going on in the back seat but it is to be expected when three kids are crammed back there for 5 hours. 

Avy and I enjoyed some selfie taking and Rylee was pretty excited about filling up her boogie board with a solid color!

Once we got to the Hotel we found our rooms and settled in for a bit. I am pretty sure I had the best roommates on this trip. I had Rylee, Brielle and Qiana. Those three loved every bit of the Hotel life and spent a lot of time roaming the hallways and unlocking our door. They loved the door key and might have had some teeny tiffs over who was going to carry it at any given time. At one point I had to put Qiana and Rylee in a brief timeout in Grandma and Grandpas room because while I was in there hanging out we were told that those two were knocking on random doors and running away. I put them in a two hour time out on the couch ;) but Grandpa let them go after a couple of minutes with a promise from them that they would not do that again.

We went to eat at Golden Corral and then when we got back I took the girls swimming at the Hotel pool. I love that these three are the best of friends and they have so much fun hanging out together. We spent about two hours down there before I finally made them get out and we went back to our room so they could shower and go to bed.

Brielle, Rylee and Qiana

Avynlea, Ally, Mikayla and Kenedy

Our Hotel room had double beds and so I expected that we would have two in each bed. But these girls had other ideas and wanted to all three be in the same bed. I was more then fine with having my own bed and did not complain one bit about that situation! Kenedy and Avynlea shared a room with Ally, Mikayla, Sara and Trista, while Ryker was in with Austin, Bailey and Levi. Gwen and Jeremy got their own room as did Bob and Alison.

The next  morning it was time for Lagoon! A couple of days ago Avy texted Sara telling her to wear her Captain America shirt so that they could match. 

With Kefford not being there with me I was a little concerned about who I was going to pal around with. Kenedy already told me she and Mikayla were going to do their own thing and Sara had some friends she was meeting at the park so I totally expected to be left with the kids. Luckily Gwen and Jeremy were there so I could hang out with them and since Dustin was with us as well I didn't have to be the awkward third wheel. Because some kids wanted to go on crazy rides and some kids did not this is how the groupings went: 

Thrillseekers: Elizabeth, Dustin, Jeremy, Gwen, Rylee, Qiana, Ally and a reluctant Avynlea

Tame riders: Grandma, Grandpa, Mikayla, Brielle, Isabelle and Audrey

Teen Thrill seekers: Kenedy, Ryker, Bailey and Levi (Baileys friend)

Sara was with her friends and Trista and Austin were a boring engaged couple on their own.

Kenedy started off with Mikayla but they both soon realized this pairing was not going to work out as much as they wanted it to since Mikayla was not OK with the wild rides that Kenedy wanted to go on. Luckily they found the groups that they were more suited to and everyone went happily on their way. 

The first ride our group wanted to go on was Cannibal. I was not really wanting to go on this but I figured I should give it a go at least once and went along with everyone else. Avy was absolutely not going on this ride and I had her wait in line with us and as we were getting in the coaster she crossed over and went down the exit to wait for us. I got in and had Qiana sitting by me with Rylee on the other side of her. I was pretty nervous the entire time waiting in line but as I sat down and got locked into place those nerves turned into full-blown panic and I was screaming in my head that I wanted to get out. It was too late and I looked over at Rylee and Qiana's calm and excited faces and thought if they can do it I better be a grownup and suck it up. So I closed my eyes and took some deep breaths and kept them shut through the entire ride. It was a lot easier to get through it with my eyes closed and, ok, maybe having them shut took away a lot of the thrill but it was the only way for me to get through this without looking and acting like a big baby.  When we got done my arms and hands were tingling and I could not move my hands at all. My fingers were locked and it looked like I had a stroke. It freaked me out but after about 5 minutes they were fine. 

The girls wanted to go on Paratroopers where Rylee had a minor freakout when her hat flew off but I was able to find it and recover it for her :)

Rylee and Qiana were the only ones to brave Samurai, being tossed around and around was not appealing to us adults. barf

The kids also went on and loved the roller coaster Jetstar

At this point we stopped for lunch and we saw the teenagers also eating lunch. I had to give Kenedy a hard time about once again being the only girl with a group of boys. Hahaha

Bailey, Levi, Kenedy and Ryker

To give our lunches a chance to settle we took the sky ride to the other side of the park.

Elizabeth and Gwen                               Qiana and Rylee

Ally, Avynlea, Qiana and Rylee about to go through The Haunted House

As we were walking by Cliffhanger Gwen and I thought it looked like a fun one for the kids to go on. They got soaked on this ride and everyone really enjoyed it except for Rylee, she was not thrilled with this one. I really enjoyed watching them on this one!

The girls riding Musik Express

After a lot of park fun we took the girls back to the Hotel to go swimming. Once we all changed Mikayla said she wanted to go swimming at Lagoon instead of the Hotal and so Gwen and Jeremy took Mikayla, Avy and Ally to the park and I stayed at the Hotel with Brielle, Isabelle, Rylee, Qiana and Audrey while they swam. 

I was texting my family about my experience on the Cannibal ride and Heather wanted to know if pictures were taken on the ride so they could see my face. I told them no and then Mom said I needed to recreate how I looked and send it to them. The first picture I took was pretty accurate but Mom said I did not enough terror in my face so I sent the second picture.

I had a lot of fun with the Peterson's at Lagoon and really always love anytime we can be with family! 

Last Day of School part 2

June 16th was the last day of school for Avynlea and Rylee. Instead of carpooling this day I drove them to school so that I could get pictures of them with their teachers and also to save seats for me and Kenedy for the 5th grade celebration. Avynlea had Mr Ceniga who was also Kenedy's fifth grade teacher. Avy thought he was great and had a really enjoyable fifth grade year. Rylee got to have Miss Hixon for the second time. She was her first grade teacher and we were excited when she moved up to third grade and became her third grade teacher. I am so happy my kids had teachers who were loving and kind but also pushed them to be their best. This has been a really wonderful year. 

We found Maryn as we were going in and so I took a picture of Rylee with her best friend and then one with the two of them and a third wheel :)

The fifth grade celebration was not until 10:30 so like I said I went in and saved two chairs with my sweatshirt and then went to Wal-Mart to get some supplies for our Utah trip we were going to go on that afternoon. When I was done I went home and picked up Kenedy and then headed over to the school. Ryker was working at our neighbors helping lay out fishing blades for painting so he could not go with us. 

Kenedy took pictures while I took video. Once all the parents were seated they brought in all the kids K-4 and had them sit down and then the fifth graders came in. It was pretty surreal seeing Avynlea participating in this years celebration, my kids are growing up so fast! 

The first awards they handed out were to the entire school and it was faithful attendance, meaning you missed one day of school and maybe one tardy. Rylee was awarded a certificate for that and it was fun watching her go up and receive her award. I was trying to figure out why Avynlea would not have gotten one and after the ceremony she reminded me of when she had the hives and had to leave school early and miss some days. 

After going through the kids with perfect attendance they honored the fifth graders who were on student council which was student nominated and voted on at the start of the school year. Two kids from each class were chosen and they did the announcements in the morning and had other little jobs they were supposed to do. Avynlea was one voted in from her class and she had an enjoyable year doing that. She also applied to do Safety patrol at the end of her fourth grade year and was selected for this year to be a part of that. The safety patrol kids were in charge of opening doors at parent pickup, they were Kindergarten buddies, and they collected recycling among other things. 

The next award was the presidential award. I don't remember what it was for exactly but I know some of it was for academics excellence. Avynlea got called for this one and she was one of only 8 fifth graders to get this award. I was pretty proud of her.

Then finally they did the fifth grade advancement certificates. Avynlea got a little confused on what her teacher was doing and thought he was handing her the certificate before he shook her hand and held out her left hand and then quickly switched when she realized he was trying to shake her hand. It was pretty cute watching them laugh at her mistake. 

I never got a picture of Ryker with his Certificate of Excellence award. He was awarded this for having a grade point average between 3.5 and 4.0

Pretty proud of all my kids and their accomplishments in school!