Yard Sale

I'm not so good at taking pictures so I don't have any of the big event...our yard sale.  We're trying to get ready to move so we spent a couple of days cleaning out the garage and going through things.  It was our most successful garage sale ever even though we still have a lot of things left.

After the long days work we went to Chipotle for dinner and then to the movie "How to Train your Dragon"  It was a fun movie.

If I was a good writer this would be far more detailed and interesting....to bad for no pictures.

The Scary ride home

Saturday Morning KayLee had her convocation where her name was actually read with the others in her college.  We attended that and then we needed to drive home.  We decided to go through Wyoming as opposed to driving through Denver as the weather report wasn't so good.  Well the trip started out O.K.  Then Nathan got hungry and was tired of sitting in the car and started to cry so we looked for a place to eat lunch.  We finally found a Golden Corral and had a nice buffet while Nathan stretched his legs.  We got back in the car and as we drove the weather started to get rainy and colder.

Then, traffic came to a complete standstill.  We don't know what was going on in front of us but we sat not moving on the freeway for 2 hours and it got darker and darker and snowier and snowier.  As we sat there it probably snowed 3 or 4 inches.  Finally at about 10:00 pm traffic started moving again but it was pitch black and the wind was blowing so hard that the big semi trucks were having a hard time staying on the road.  The wind was blowing the snow across the road so the road and the lines on the road were nearly invisible.  Not knowing whether to pull over and wait it out or to just keep moving, we just kept moving.  Thank goodness Joe was a calm and cautions driver because I was a mess.  He kept moving at between 10 - 25 mph.  It took us about 2 hours to go 20 miles and finally we had to leave the freeway at Laramie, Wyoming because the freeway was closed.  We had reservations for an room on and Airforce Base in Cheyenne so we called and cancelled those and then started calling motels to see if we could find one with openings.  We finally found a Howard Johnson's that would answer the phone so we slowly made our way there and because we were not dressed for snowy weather and we didn't want to spend the time unloading the car we just went in the motel room and went to sleep.

The next morning the freeway was still closed so after having not showered or even combed our hair we hung out at Wal-Mart with all of the other stranded travelers until the freeways opened up again at about 1:00 pm.  Then we had a 10 - 12 hour drive home.  We were very thankful to make it home.

I did take pictures of the snow and some other things...but they go lost.  Luckily one survived in an e-mail I sent to Ben.  This just shows how much it snowed in one night in April in Wyoming.

KayLee's Graduation

After having a nice visit with Grandma we drove to Provo for KayLee's graduation.  We also got to go to the tabernacle and see Joshua play the organ.  He had e-mailed Bro. Christiansen to see if he could and was told that he needed to memorize 12 hymns with pedals and then he would be allowed to.  He set it up so that we could be there.  That was fun.

KayLee's graduation was in the afternoon.  We sat in the Marriott center and even though we couldn't exactly see KayLee we were so proud of her.  What a great accomplishment.

Grandma's House

We had a lot of fun visiting Grandma.  Nathan and EmmaLee loved playing outside in the sand and with the animals.

Sadly my compter did something with all of the pictures I took so here are a few of the whole family when Sherece was also visiting.

We spent Sunday at Grandma's. Tom and Sherece's family came over and EmmaLee played with TaiLey so much and she cried and cried when they had to go home. Monday Joe, Melissa, DeeAnn, Darin and Jamie went to Cedar City. We walked around SUU a little so Melissa could see it then Darin surprised his girlfriend Melissa and they dropped Joe and Jamie off at Dutch and Christine Workman's then they went to Hurricane to go hiking. Then Melissa stayed in Hurricane and Darin came back and picked us up. Tuesday we just hung out at Grandma's.

Driving to Utah

On Friday we got up early and packed the car. It was raining.  And we drove to Colorado Springs.  We stayed on and Airforce Base.  The room we got was really a suite.  There were two bedrooms one with a queen bed and one with two twin beds.  A living room area with a pull out couch and a kitchenette. It was actually quite nice.  Since it  had a kitchenette we decided not to go out to eat.  We just went to the commissary and got Chicken for dinner and bacon and eggs for breakfast.  I think we got food for two meals for less than one at a restaurant.  Then Saturday we had a longer drive.  We drove through the bottom of Colorado through Page and then to Kanab.  It took about 12 hours with all the stopping we had to do for bathrooms and carsickness...yes Adam got car sick coming of a mountain.  It was a winding two lane road not a freeway.  At least he didn't barf in the car.

Swimming Lessons

Adam and EmmaLee are taking swimming lessons.  Adam needs to pass the BSA swimmers test and although he swims almost like a fish...he doesn't use correct strokes so he's learning them.

EmmaLee has always been almost terrified to be in the water.  She is starting at the beginning and doing great.

Although I didn't get any pictures of the actual lessons, here are some of us waiting outside the indoor pool for Adam to finish.

Nathan has to have a "leash" because he is a runner.  One day as I was helping EmmaLee change, (she was standing in the dressing room in a towel) Nathan ran out the door, down the hall, past the front desk and was almost out the front door before I caught up with him.

Darin's Birthday

Darin turned 19.  He celebrated by making the most yummy white chocolate raspberry cheese cake.

Yummy

He got a ipod nano and a cell phone.

Blowing Bubbles on Easter

Usually on Easter we have ham and funeral potatoes for a nice sit down dinner.  This year we turned most of our eggs into egg salad and had egg salad sandwiches.  After dinner, Nathan wanted to blow bubbles so we went out on the back deck to blow bubbles.  It turned into the whole family blowing bubbles off the deck and Nathan chasing them.  It was a very fun and memorable time.

Darin and Melissa

Adam and Melissa

EmmaLee

DeeAnn

Nathan

The Whole gang (except EmmaLee)

Easter Morning

The Easter Bunny Came

Nathan went straight for the whole bunch of peeps, ate them and called his Easter complete.

EmmaLee loved searching for all of the eggs, especially the "special" ones she dyed.

Adam checking out the goodies.

Dying Easter Eggs

We have a family tradition of boiling a lot of eggs....usually 1 doz per person...and then getting all the new gadgety egg dyes and coloring eggs the day before Easter.  We had painting on eggs and glittery eggs and foil eggs.   Then those are the eggs the Easter Bunny hides for us to find Easter morning.

Nathan had fun painting one egg and then he was done.

Melissa and EmmaLee doing a collaboration.

Adam showing off his handiwork.

DeeAnn concentrating on her creation.

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

Every year our neighborhood has an Easter Egg Hunt.  It is normally on a Sunday and right when we are in church but this year they held it on a Saturday so the kids got to go to it.  It was fun and nice to meet some neighbors.

Nathan had fun finding eggs, until he realized what was inside and then he just wanted to open them and get the candy.

EmmaLee found a lot of eggs but none with a "prize" number.  Lucky for her someone who had two numbers shared one with her.  She choose a blue stuffed rabbit and was totally thrilled.

Adam with his "haul"

Skunk

On a very cloudy, wet, rainy April morning, Adam and I went to the Commissary on Ft. Leavenworth to go shopping.  As we pulled into the parking lot we noticed an animal rooting around in the grass next to the store.  Luckily I had my camera in my purse and so I told Adam to jump out and take a picture of it.  He, thought it was a badger at first, but as he got closer, he saw that it was really a skunk.  He did get a picture of it but he didn't want to get too close.

Snow

Like the rest of the country we had an incredibly snowy winter.  We thought it would never get warm.  Here are some of our snow pictures.

Melissa playing in the snow Christmas Eve.  We had our first ever White Christmas.

Darin

KayLee, Joshua, DeeAnn

Nathan trying to like being cold.

One day after going back to school from Christmas break and it snowed again giving us 4 very cold snow days snow days.

Most of the snow this winter was too cold and dry to make a good snow man.  Finally in February, there was just the right kind of snow.  But it melted too quickly.  Melissa and EmmaLee made this snow man which is trying to lie down on the job.

EmmaLee; Snow on March 20.

Chinese Buffet

We cleaned house all day so a real estate agent could look at our house and let us know what we would need to do to sell it.  Everyone worked so hard that Dad took us to the Chinese buffet.

We love going to the Chinese buffet because everyone can choose what kind of food they want.  Plus, as a special treat the little kids got to get some toys out of the vending machines near the front of the store.  Can you guess what Adam got?

100 Days of School

Everyday at home school we check the calendar and keep track of how many days of school we have had. On the 100th day of school we celebrated by going to McDonalds for lunch.  We even ate inside and played on the toys there.  Checking the calendar teaches days of the week, months, numbering and place value.  We put a pixie stick in a jar for each day and then after 10 days we group them with a rubber band. We were going to eat all 100 pixie sticks but we didn't.  We're going to keep counting and eat them all on the last day of school.

DeeAnn at the Talent Show

DeeAnn played the piano in the school talent show.  She played "We're So Far Away" by Mae.  What a talented young lady!!! (the young man standing was her page turner.)

Story Time

EmmaLee and Nathan love story time at the Library.  We go most Friday mornings.  Here are some pictures of them with their "craft:' party hats for the library's birthday. We also had cake and ice cream.  Sometimes it pays to go to the library.

Scouts

Adam earned the wilderness survival merit badge and was advanced to the rank of Tenderfoot.  He also got some patches for camping and other activities he did.  He is really enjoying scouts and is learning lots of new things including how to be responsible.

EmmaLee's first loose Tooth

EmmaLee's two bottom teeth were loose but she didn't want anyone touching them and she wouldn't wiggle them.  Finally one of them was so loose it was barely hanging on.  We told her that if she didn't pull it or let someone pull it, it would fall out in her sleep and she would swallow it.  Well, one afternoon (in January) she was watching "Star Wars" and eating a peanut butter sandwich and she came running upstairs shouting..my tooth is gone.  And sure enough it was.  We don't know when it fell out.  She may have swallowed it with her peanut butter sandwich.  We told her she could write a note to the Tooth Fairy and maybe she would still get money but she did't seem to care if the tooth fairy came or not.