Summer Recap PART 1 - Viva Las Vegas!

Isabelle had a National's dance competition at Loew's Lake Las Vegas in June, so I took the older kiddos on a quick road trip. We swam and ate and relaxed for three days. Isabelle's team, as always, rocked it at the competition. Great way to end the season.
These pictures are in a completely random order and I have no energy or brain capacity at 10:00pm to try to sort them out.


Isabelle and her best friend, Whitney before the Gala. Extra fancy and no parents allowed. They had so much fun dancing on stage and staying out late...BY THEMSELVES!

Isabelle didn't have much free time, but what she did have was mostly spent splashing around in the pool with all the cute girls.

Zak and Caleb are dorks and invented ways to entertain themselves in the evenings. They would go down from 9-11:00ish every night and take pictures with strangers in the elevators, or test-drive luggage carriers :) Some of the following pictures totally amuse me. And trust me, these are only a few of MANY photos taken!

Zak making friends with the ladies. He was quite popular.

Zak with the Bellman :)

Caleb "falling" down the stairs. hahaha. makes me laugh

Zak and more of his "lady friends"

Jonah chilling out at the pool. He was an awesome travelling companion. He's invited back anytime!

Random elevator pictures

The girlies before competition time!

Holy Hot Mama's!!! Yes, we just might be dorks, too.

Isabelle and her cute friend, Kamri, at dinner

The boys at dinner

There was a beach at the hotel. The boys were the only ones brave enough to actually get IN the water. It was a little "murky" for me.

Isabelle in her cute dress before the Gala.

Most of her team. Awesome end to an awesome dance year!!! "Big and Bad" #1!

School Time, Baby!

The first day of school...always an important fashion day. Well, at least for two of my children. The rest, not so much.
Either way, they all looked fabulous and had a great day...


Eli, so unbelievably excited to start 1st grade, mainly to start having lunch at school. Whatever it takes!

Jonah, entering 3rd grade

Isabelle is so much fun right now because she's loving clothes that make her stand out a bit. Certainly NOT one to try to stay under the radar. Love that about her!! 5th grade

Caleb, whining and complaining all the while about summer coming to an end. Zak and I strongly encouraged him to wear some "cooler" things this year (and by encouraged, I mean throwing all of his ugly and stained and too short athletic clothing in a pile in the corner of his room and forbidding him to ever wear any of it in public again. Harsh? Maybe). 8th Grade

Zak, my king of accessories. I, too, appreciate a fantastic accessory, so I can't blame the kid. Armed and ready for high school!! 10th grade

Happy Birthday Clara

Happy Birthday to my Sweetest Clara.
Her hearts desire: "My Daddy is going to give me a pink Barbie!" I'm pretty sure you can count on that :)
Practicing holding three fingers up (harder than you might think!)
Wearing new princess panties and doing awesome going in the potty
Brothers and sisters up early to make birthday cards with princesses and flowers
Nothing but love for our baby girl!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Footzoned!

Graduation in Montana was a little slice of Heaven. Look around...it was gorgeous!!!


First thing we saw when we pulled up were all these massive teepees. Yes, we knew we were in the right spot :) Happy and bright...just my style!

The river runs along the back side of this land. So peaceful and relaxing and quiet!

And this is the "treehouse" where Joy and I slept (the other 12 ladies slept indoors...boring). Don't let the sunshine deceive you, it was FREEZING at night. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was raining the first night. However, I never pulled my head outside of my sleeping back to confirm my suspicions. That being said, I LOVED sleeping in the treehouse. The sound of the river rushing and waking up to birds and sunshine made the cold all worth it.

The river

Day 1 & 2 were mainly spent in lecture and studying - preparing all of us for the big test.
Day 3 was test/grauation day!!! We also enjoyed a fantastic essential oils class.

Katri (our instructor) had us all dress up fancy for graduation day. We danced and took pictures and made it a fun celebration. It was soooo much work to make it to this point, that we all welcomed some laughter and party - vegan style.


Joy and Me before our test. Can you believe I wasn't nervous even one bit?

I just passed!!! Hollaaaa!

A midday basking...my favorite memory of the trip. I couldn't be bothered to change out of my dress.

Britt and Joy (gigantic head shot)

Graduation Night...so much fun!

We ate a strictly vegan, raw diet this entire trip, which I was pretty leary of, but surprisingly the food was delicious. There were some seriously rumbly tummies, though. Not because we were hungry, but because all the veggies were doing a number on our digestive system. Holy healthy overload. My body didn't know what to do with itself.

Graduation is just the beginning with footzoning. All of the in-depth "good-stuff" is taught at the advanced classes. Too bad most of them are taught in Montana (so far to drive!).
But for now, I am licensed and so happy to have this skill!!!
Hooray for me!!!

Zak

Zak with his best friend, James

So Zak has decided to stay living with us through highschool!! We all couldn't be happier. He has made some great friends, is getting 4.0 grades, and is just doing awesome all the way around. I honestly think this was the best decision for him at this time in his life.
So...Woods Cross, here we come! Zak is enrolled in some hard classes. He is on the path to having his Associates Degree by the time he graduates. He's wanting to go into the medical field, and I guess WX has some great internship opportunities. He's taking three summer classes right now to help clear up some scheduling space for college credits. Wow, ambitious!!!! And, sheesh! How odd that we officially have a high-schooler in our home! That must mean we are old.

Spring Break in ST. GEORGE with the Bouck's!

DAY ONE
Exploring Snow Canyon
What an awesome way to kick-start a St. George trip! We started with a hike up an extinct volcano. It was an enjoyable little uphill jaunt and I tell you what...there's nothing like sore butt muscles. From there, we headed to some beautiful red rock to have lunch. We climbed around and explored for a bit and I honestly could have stayed right there all day. The rocks were kid friendly for all ages. Loved it. And from there, we headed to the sand dunes. I have never felt such fine sand. The kids were completely entertained for several hours, burying eachother in sand and running up and down and up and down the sand hills. Hooray, we mistakenly thought...we are surely wearing the children out and they will obviously want to just relax and watch a movie tonight...but, no. Somehow on a vacation kids have this endless supply of energy and there was no chance of perhaps sneaking them to bed a few minutes early and enjoying an adult evening :) Hey, but that's okay, because this trip was absolutely for the kiddos and they had a great time. And we are all about good memories!

Beginning the volcano hike

The kiddos about 1/2 way up

A family shot whilst catching our breath

The top!!!

Clara clearly was not enjoying herself. She was scared to death of the massive hole in the ground.

The fam at the top of the volcano

Awesome moves on the red rock

Caleb

Eli, Clara, Abram

The girlies

DAY TWO
Chillin' at the Pool...for HOURS...good times
We had a nice, relaxing day at the pool. The weather was perfect. The kids were happy. It was a great day. We got several good hours in, went out to dinner at a fun pizza place, then went back to the condo for ice cream cones and tag outside in our jammies. Does it get any better than that? This day was everything a summer afternoon should be (except technically it was a Spring afternoon).


Clara looking stinking cute in her swim gear

Yes, a swim picture of me with the kiddos. Well, it's no Sport's Illustrated photo, but we're all friends here on this blog and let's be real. This is the sorry reality of me at a pool :) But, dangit, I had a great time...who needs implants, a bikini, or a tan, right?

Baylee and Isabelle

Abram and Lucy

Clara before dinner...SUCH a Clara look if you know her at all :)

DAY THREE
Hike into Zions
Oh, how we Call's love Zions. Dangit, I even enjoy the tram ride! We did a small hike up to "Weeping Rock" first, which I have to say is gorgeous and totally worth the time to see. Then, we kept on to where the narrows are. Of course, we couldn't go up the narrows this time of year, but we enjoyed playing along the water. Across the river were these two huge wild turkeys that were pretty impressive :) The kids were entertained by the wildlife: lots of mangy, rabid-looking deer, squirrels that had zero fear of humans, a massive, creepy centipede, and the turkeys! It was a fun afternoon and we were sad to leave.


Daddy and Clara

Weeping Rock

Playing at the water, gawking at the turkeys (are we easily impressed?)

Clara and Kate (Clara wanted NOTHING to do with the water. She stayed put on this log the ENTIRE time)

The tram back to our car. This signified the end of our fun Spring Break. Sadness.

RANDOMNESS


These were the sleeping arrangements, which the kids honestly loved. We crammed just about as many little people as we could into this one little room. There was lots of giggling.

Clara LOVES Lucy and was her little shadow the entire trip. Bedtime was no different.

This was us at dinner one night.

Thanks, Bouck's, for a fantastic trip!

Love

A conversation Chris had with my sweetest little Clara a few nights ago:

Clara: I love you.
Chris: I love you, too.
Clara: I love you four.
Chris: I love you five.
Clara: I love you six.
Chris: I love you seven.
Clara: I love you "W".
Chris: I love you "N"
Clara: I love you Christmas :)






Love, love, love this girl. Christmas :) Where did she come up with that?!