warm springs

We enjoyed a ward camp out at Warm Springs. Next time, I want to let the kids explore the streams. I noticed there were families exploring all over the place. I followed some voices and found a pocket where a stream widened into a little pool. What could be more fun for boys...and girls too? The warm water makes for great swimming!



This is the main spring. The whole place is owned by the church. The kids swam with fish, and they were entertained all afternoon swimming down to touch rocks and bringing them up to the surface. Back in the day when Kyle and I came with our own families, they had a rope swing and they allowed cliff jumping. I am so sad the rope swing is gone.



The kids enjoyed sleeping in a tent and playing with ward friends. We should buy a family tent and do more camping.

mini vacation...only in vegas

I have not been into taking pictures lately, but I thought it would be fun to do a post about our mini vacation to the Golden Nugget. The kids loved staying overnight in a hotel and swimming in this vegas style pool. The water slide goes through the shark tank. Only in Vegas! We have the biggest, brightest, tallest, shiniest, out of this world, unlike anything you can imagine. Once in a blue moon a creation will be classy. The Bellagio fountains are so beautiful, but most attention grabbers here make me laugh and think "only in Vegas". That being said, the boys LOVED the shark tank slide. We'll have to do another mini-vacation this summer.



I liked how we could swim right up to the tank and watch the sharks.

Jonah: big 6 year old

I made treats and took them into Jonah's kindergarten class to celebrate his birthday. Jonah held the globe and walked around the candle (the sun) 6 times to show his 6 years of growing. These kindergartners really understand what a year means!



They are giving Jonah a birthday wish. Violet is in the background in pink and she's not about to hold hands with these strangers.



Jonah had a big family/cousin birthday party at the park. We enjoyed games, water balloons and a Star Wars cake. Cody and Jana won the water balloon toss and Granny and Grandpa Lewis were the runners up! The kids had fun with their games too :). The highlight for Jonah was getting a 10 dollar bill from Grandma and Grandpa Nielson. We were all surprised with how excited he was. He did a dance (literally) and shouted for joy. The next day he told everyone in primary and the home teachers about his 10 dollars. He also told his school class (when I went in for his treat) about his AMAZING 10 dollars.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Nielsons

Kyle and my brother, Eric, had birthdays so my parents took us out to eat at Memphis Barbecue. Usually for b-days we have dinner at their place (which I love), but this time we found babysitters and enjoyed some adult conversation. We had some yummy ribs doused with BBQ sauce and the yams were something special. I recently found a really good (but young) babysitter and the kids love her. She lives in our neighborhood and she brings over crafts and a bag of fun things to do. She is MINE and no one else can have her. I could get used to going out on dates now and again!

I think it will be fun to have Eric and Melissa in Vegas now. He is going to UNLV and finishing up his degree in political science. I think he missed his calling...he should have been an actor in "New Moon".

helicopter date night

We had a date night with Cody and Jana! (Kyle's brother and wife) We enjoyed a helicopter ride over the strip and then dinner and a movie. It was so fun! Too bad the copter didn't keep flying all the way to Rome or Paris...but the whole night really was dreamy.



Here's Kyle right after we stepped off the helicopter. I loved feeling the power of the blades whip my hair around. Kyle and I laughed later because he remembers ducking under the blades. As if they are going to get us! It seemed natural to duck -just to be sure. Isn't that what you see in the movies? The weather was beautiful for flying, not a gush of wind or a rustle of leaves. A calm, calm night.





Here's Cody and Jana on the runway. We had great company! What a classy, classy couple. We're glad Jana made it through without any motion sickness. Just to be safe, we made sure they had front row seats far away from OUR LAPS :). This helicopter ride was a surprise for them - they didn't know what we were going to do until we pulled into the airport.











I had a blast getting glammed up for the date. Kyle took this picture of me outside of Cody and Jana's house before we took off.








My amazing friend, Sloan Hadfield helped me with EVERYTHING. She was Miss Nevada several years ago. She does make-up for weddings, she models, she's gorgeous. She knew what she was doing! Our kids played nicely together at her house while she helped me get dressed-up and did my make-up. I absolutely LOVED it!!!! It was fun to be brave and do something different.



It was a fabulous night OUT ON THE TOWN. Later we ate at Bahama Breeze and saw the movie New Moon.

blogging

I hope to print my blog to keep for family memories. Look at this one here. So sometimes posts are all about that record. Only Kyle is mandated to read this post and look at EVERY picture :). You have some cute kids Kyle, and when you're done looking at these we can go over how cute they are. I'm glad I'm their Mom.


They get $1.00 a bag.



I don't tell them Kyle owns a leaf blower.



Jonah's school Christmas party.



When Jonha's teacher started reading a story, Jonah zipped off to get a good seat. The rest of us found a seat where we could. But then when we sang Christmas songs together, Jonah looked around the room, found us and came and sat on my lap. I loved it.



Play the drum, drum, play the drum



The kids got Tinker Toys for Christmas. It makes me smile to see them play with building toys. Building toys are so expensive! I think for Jonah's birthday we'll add on to the tinker toys. They also like train sets, legos, and...



dominos



lincoln logs



lincoln logs



Michael, Seth and Jonah sledding at the cabin.



Kyle and Jonah sledding at the cabin.



Violet is geared up at the cabin.



Christmas morning



Christmas morning.

the Christmas hat

The kids made gifts for each other (colored pictures and wrapped them). I was surprised when Jonah opened this hat from Seth and it fit!



Jonah's Santa gift was a batman pinata. He has been pining for a pinata ever since my roommate reunion a month ago (see post).



Everyone gets a swing.



Santa brought Seth a transformer.



Violet loves her princess scooter from Santa Claus.



Josh and Maya gave Violet a tu, tu, head band and shoes. And Maya made me the most adorable little book with Violet pictures. I was blown away with the detail and skill. Amazing! I love it!

macaroni and cheese

I came home to find Kyle and the kids marching around the island, banging "instruments" and chanting "Macaroni and Cheese, Macaroni and Cheese." They were waiting for the water to boil. I can't decide if our kids will turn out totally weird because of him or TOTALLY AWESOME.

Christmas Chimes

We had a special FHE with the Lewis family. Kyle's parents gave every family their own set of chimes. We enjoyed a nice dinner and then playing carols with our new chimes.



Violet, myself, and Grandpa. I live for great family get-togethers like this!

BYU roommate reunion

We started up in the dorms freshman year and then moved to the Elms Apartments. We were the the fabulous #W36 also known as "Entropy". These girls were so much fun to live with! Here we are ten years later.
Pictured: Melissa Redding, Emily Dunford, Tiffany Lewis, Lindsay Lewis, Christy Jacobs.



We had a program the first night. It included photos, poetry reading, memories, burning a pinata, and even some video footage. Tiffany is a great writer (all credit to her for the program). Read her take on the weekend here.



We had a pajama exchange for old times sake. Melissa and I ended up with the same pants this time! One year in "Entropy" Emily was given a fabulous red onesie with a trap door in the rear. She danced around and sang silly songs for us in that great get-up.

We attended church at Brianhead and enjoyed the fast and testimony meeting. Fun to go to church together again!



We had the tradition of destroying a pinata when someone broke up with a boyfriend.



Lewis cabin.



Beautiful Sunsets.



Melissa throwing snow up into the wind. How fast the years have floated away. But so many good ones are still in the air. A big thank you to my in-laws for letting us use the cabin. And a big fat thank you to Kyle for helping with the cabin, watching the kids, making his homemade chicken noodle soup, and for giving me the best years since I left that apartment 10 years ago.