Mallory's Kindergarten Graduation

And just like that Kindergarten was over.  My youngest girl is all graudated.  Of course Aly and Grandma came (and did double duty with the Red Riding Hood Play) and brought a candy lei!

Memorial Day

We love Memorial Day up at Bear Lake...except the weather's never warm...but at least there's the park and shakes at our favorite place!

Zoo Fieldtrip

The best thing about Kindergarten is the trip to the zoo. I was so lucky to be able to help and  hurry these cuties through all the exhibits!

Little Red

Tessa was super excited to get to be Little Red Riding Hood in her 2nd grade play.  It was a musical with lots of parts and songs. We immediately decided to not trim her hair and start growing it out so she could have braids...we focus on the most important things first ;)
She did a great job but skipped over one of the other students parts and made her cry. I could sympathize because I totally did that when I was Miss Louisa in our 5th grade production of Miss Louisa and the Outlaws.

Grandma LaDean and Aly even came down to watch.

We loved Tessa's teacher Mrs. Jackson.  She did so many amazing things with the kids during the year that took a lot of outside of class work for her. She even called me during lunch to tell me of an experience where Tessa stood up for someone else.

Fence and Fire Pit

 We finally got all the fence panels in and then started on the fire pit.

It took a lot of raking, compacting, and other steps but it will be fun addition to our backyard

Lava Hot Springs

The day after Christmas we headed up to Pocatello for a mini vacation.  Kody had some hotel points we needed to use and that was excuse enough for me.  We swam at the hotel the first night and then went to see Kody’s sister Karissa’s new house in Pocatello the next day.  It was fun to talk and have lunch with them.  We watched Penguins of Madagascar at the local theater before heading to Lava Hot Springs in the evening.  It was pretty cold outside and snowing but the water was warm.  The only hard thing was getting all our warm bodies back into the cold to go back to the hotel.  They upgraded our room so we had to separate rooms with King Beds and a kitchenette (they call these suites I think ;) ).  It was great to spend time together.

Sadly I didn't get any pictures...we were too busy having fun!

Sub for Santa

We always have a hard time knowing what gift giving we should do on my side with extended family.  Should we have the cousins give to each other?  Or the adults give to each other?  This year we thought we would find a family to give to.  My Dad, being the bishop, found the perfect family to give too.  The kids had fun gathering all the wrapped gifts and we actually got to go into their house while they were away and put them under the tree.  It was such a great experience that I’m sure will become a new Christmas Tradition.

We also enjoyed our annual trip down to see the lights at Christmas Village and opening grandma and grandpa’s gifts. They got everyone jackets with their last name on the outside.  Now when someone leaves it at their house they will know exactly whose it is ;)