Family vacation



Okay, Family vacation time is here again.  It came and went to soon.  We started out in the car once again, Amber and the boys in their regular positions, a full car and lots of food to snack on and make lunches.  We were a bit more loaded down than usual.  We had all of Amber's stuff for college tucked away in a car top carrier.  We were taking Amber to BYU and fitting in our family vacation at the same time.

As you can see, Ben is excited to get going. 

Our first stop was Denver, Colorado.  We had to stop at the home of the Denver Broncos!  I am a huge Payton Manning fan, and he has been traded to the Broncos.  So  I had to go and get a Broncos Payton Manning jersey.  Which they were sold out of.  I did get a shirt though.  Keaton is also a Broncos fan, and he got a few things as well.  It was fun!

We drove a bit farther out of Denver and stopped to have a picnic lunch.  Their was a trail to hike on through a small forest and a nice meadow.  We found lots of small wonders of nature.  We love hiking and discovering new things.

We found a trap door spider and his web.  Ben found a small grasshopper and put it in the web and we saw the spider come out and grab it!  It was cool.



Taking a rest on a nice bench.

We drove further across Colorado, and stopped in a little town called Rifle.  We stayed the night, and the next day we went up to Rifle falls.  They have a cool trail their for hiking, with cool caves and rock formations.  It was beautiful!

This is the bottom of the falls.

This was a cool cave.  It was huge!  The pictures don't do it justice.

Next stop Moab, Utah!

Graduation part 2

Here we are sitting and waiting for the soon to be graduates to file in.  We just got a new gym how's it look??

Amber sitting and waiting for her diploma. She graduated with honors!

Mom and Dad came to witness the event.  What a handsome crew.

 John and Marylin came as well, and we were so happy that Debbie could come visit as well. 

The proud parents.

The equally proud brothers. 

These are Amber's friends.  Hanna, Rachel, and Stephanie, the one in the white cap, had a lot of health issues the last two years, so she was home schooled.  So she couldn't fully participate.  Kinda sad. 

But all went well, I'm so happy, and excited for Amber to go off and start her life.  I'm very blessed to have such a wonderful daughter with a GREAT head on her shoulders, and a super strong testimony of the Gospel.  She's moving on to bigger and better things! 

It's all about Amber, part 1

My only daughter is growing up.  (sniff)   She has turned 8.  Or is that 18?  I'm a little confused, because her favorite present was a BYU cougar pillow pet.  :)

So I will start off with the crazy two weeks of prep work for the infamous graduation weekend!  As many of you know, Bret and I have slowly been working on lots of landscaping around our house.  Last fall we decided we might need a bit of help to get it all done before Amber's graduation party.  the quote we got back for the work on the walk out basement patio and retaining wall was a bit much for us to swallow.  Like $25,000 to much!  So, we thought we'd plug along with doing it ourselves. So two weeks before the party we went into super work mode.  We new the patio for the walk out basement wasn't going to be a possibility. But we did finish the retaining wall. Also I did all the work around the deck in back, and Bret, with a little help from Bruce, and his Bobcat, were able to finish the "great wall" off the west side of the house.  We were blessed with good weather, and were able to finish the front as well.  LOTS of buckets of rock being carried up by me, Jaime, and Amber, with Ben, Sam, and even Keaton filling those buckets.  We bought a lot of plants, and planted till our hands were blistered and bleeding.  But it was getting done.  We have some grass to plant and a few more little things to finish off, but the big stuff is done.  Let the party begin. 

I asked a friend of mine who did a graduation party last year, for some advise.  She said get a caterer!  So I hired a friend of mine from the wellness center who said she did catering on the side.  Best thing I ever did.  Amber wanted a chocolate fountain, lots of fruit to dip it in, lots of cookies, peanut butter balls, cake and punch.  Yummy stuff!

The weekend started off with my parents coming in on Thursday night, and with it came the lovely mid-west winds!  30 mph SE winds with 40+ wind gusts.  Well living out where we are, there isn't any wind breaks.  So all the plants and furniture and flower pots I had all over the front porch to make it pretty had to be moved inside or to the north side of the porch, where no one would see it.  All the balloons were either popped or torn off.  I had a lot of seating for people out on the back deck and the front porch that we couldn't use.   I was mad!  All that work we did outside wasn't even going to be seen!  My back deck and front porch couldn't even be used, because of the winds that blew for 3 days strait!!!  I really hate wind.  But After everything got set up inside, with the food, the sign-in table, all of Amber's child-hood pictures, and awards displayed all over the house, I was okay.  And at 2:00 our first guests started showing up, and they didn't stop till after 6.  It was a great party, lots of Amber's friends came, and teachers and our friends from town, and church, and family, it was just great!  Mel and Tina, kept the food table full and everyone was happy.  I'm glad it's over!

Keaton's first concert

 After many many years, of going to the High School Auditorium and watching Amber, Ben and Sam, standing up on the risers singing with their class, Keaton finally gets his turn in the spot light.

For about a month his kept reminding me of when his concert was, so we wouldn't forget. He was very excited.  He did an amazing job too.  Also notice the long hair.  Its not me, it's him.  That's the way he likes it.  Also I would like to say, that his front teeth are finally starting to come in.