The Boys Trip to The Sand Dunes

Allen and Porter headed south to the Sand Dunes to help one of the Young Men in our ward with his Eagle Scout Project. They camped over night and had a great time. They worked on the campground, trails, and fencing.

They made sure to get some good play time in also!

Soooo cute! The girls and I felt very loved!

They came home with sand EVERYWHERE! I can't image how that happened. I am glad they had so much fun.

The Mountain Man, better known as Allen

While the kids and I were in Utah Allen decided to hike Mt. of the Holy Cross. It is quite a drive and I think he started at about 2 am! He was also hiking by himself which is generally not a good idea, but don't worry......Luckily Allen is very friendly and met up with a scout troop and hung out with them. The weather was cold, raining, and snowing. Good times!

Awesome pictures! Good job, Al. We are so proud of you.

Sidney is 6!!

It's true! Our sweet girl is 6. Man, time flies. Sidney was very excited for her birthday! She started off with some bday pancakes.

She had quite the fan club for her birthday. Porter and Rylee were very nice to Sidney and made her day extra special. Rylee kept singing "Happy Birthday to You".....all day long!

Sidney had been asking to get her ears pierced for about 3 months. We told her maybe for her birthday. I thought she would change her mind, but she just got

more and more excited as her birthday got closer. So we decided she was ready.

She could hardly wait, she asked about every 5 minutes if it was time to go yet. She picked her earrings, you'll never guess.......yes the pink ones! She only got nervous when the girl was marking the spot. I told her she didn't have to do it if she didn't want to, but she was brave and squeezed her bunny and my hands and it was over! She opened her eyes wide, smiled and said, "I can't believe I have pierced ears!!" So funny. She was excited to check them out in the mirror.

Checking them out again at home. She has been very careful and we are cleaning them really well, so far so good.

Opening presents. Thank you to Grandma's and Grandpa's, Great Grandma's and Great Grandpa's, family, and friends for all of the presents and phone calls. This girl felt very loved.

Fun Strawberry Shortcake cake. Sidney is all girl and with that comes a lot of emotion. I love it when that emotion is SO excited. She made me feel very good about the very homemade cake!

Grandma and Grandpa came over on Saturday to celebrate. Grandma's cake really put mine to shame! Our good friend Shelly that works with my Mom made this awesome cake. Sidney loved it!

More presents, and lots more emotion!

Porter and Rylee got in on the fun with special "Thanks for being a good brother and sister all year" presents!

Sidney is such a sweetheart. She brings joy, laughter, emotion, and pink to our family. She loves her little sister and totally looks up to her big brother. She is our girly girl, but loves Star Wars and anything Porter is doing. She is loving Kindergarden and making lots of friends. She seems to have grown up so much this last year. She says she had the "best Birthday ever because I got to get my ears pierced!" Six years ago I was so excited to meet our first little girl, we have been best friends ever since.

Happy Birthday sweet Sidney girl! We love you!

Lake Powell

We have been so excited about this Lake Powell trip for a long time! It was finally here. We had a GREAT time. The weather was beautiful, and the company was even better. We were able to go with my Mom and Dad, my brother Stuart, my sister Rachel and her husband Paul, Paul's Mom Jean, Allen's sister Keri and her husband Kevin, and our nephew Tyler. What a fun bunch. Get ready, there are a lot of pictures! We ended up with about 450 so I really did narrow it down :)

We played games and ate good food......lots of good food!

One of the highlights was Porter learned to.........

wakeboard! He popped right up and all of a sudden he was a pro! He was pretty proud of him self. After that first time he was hooked, and the little guy could go forever. He is still talking about it all the time and planning what specifics he is going to work on next time.

We went cliff jumping. Lots of fun and adrenaline.

Lots of soaking up the beautiful sunshine!

We slept good and had some crazy bed head!

There were fish caught. Big......and little!

Lots of rides on the molecule.............lots of CRAZY rides on the molecule, man that is fun!

Lots of this

and that.

We had such a great time. Poor Allen got sick, never fun on a houseboat, but recovered quickly and joined back in the fun. It seems like we planned for this trip and packed and packed and packed and the actual trip always goes by so quickly. It was great to get to spend time with everyone away from all the distractions in such a beautiful place. We really enjoyed everyone's company and are so grateful for all of the fun memories.