Zion Free Day!

This last week was free National Parks week. So, on Friday the 23rd, the day after Joel's 40th b-day, we excused the kids from school and went to Zion National Park for the day. For Joel's birthday we went to Sophie's play, HSM jr. with both sets of grandparents. Josh couldn't come because he had his play. So we decided to take the kids and sluff school for a family fun day. It was a nice day except for the wind was really cold. Here's a picture of us on the tram. David thought it was the best part of the trip.





This picture is at weeping rock with the Great White Throne in the background.
The waterfall was at the beginning of the Narrows and on that hike there is this huge rock that we've named sliding rock because you cane climb around the back of it and slide down it. The kids love it but it wears out the seat of there pants.



We had a lot of fun. You'd think we'd go all of the time since it's basically in our backyard but this was the first time in 4 years that we've been. I also ran into an old friend in the ladies bathroom at the Zion Visitor Center. Small beautiful world.

My Flowers

Here are my Spring flowers. The iris's where so tall this year. That is my 6 year old in his pj's standing by one. They are all starting to wilt now. It's too bad that we don't have a longer spring here. My Honeysuckle bushes are next to bloom. The smell of them fills my entire house for a month!

Sr. Ball

Sr. ball snuck up on us. Shayne and I went to look for dresses just for fun before she was even asked and found this dress on sale. So we figured we'd buy it and if Austin, for some strange reason, didn't ask her then she could use it some other year since she's only a Sophomore. Well, he did ask and then we forgot all about it. W e figured that since we had the dress we were doing pretty good. The night before the dance we realized that we forgot to get a boutonniere, that she didn't have any jewelry and that she couldn't go do anything because she was going to Sophie's play with 5 other people and she had to drive. So I took the three little boys and ran to the mall to find jewelry and called the florist to see what time they opened in the morning. The next morning Shayne had to babysit for her swim coach and we had Sophie's soccer game. At noon Austin picked up Shayne for their day date and we took Ben to a birthday party. Then Josh had a soccer game at 2 and after that we had to go pick Ben back up. We got back to the house at 4:30 and Shayne showed up 15 minutes later. We had exactly 1 hour to get her completely ready including hair. We put in the last bobby pin with 2 minutes to spare. We ran in my bed room, got her dressed, took some pictures and Austin knocked on the door. It was very stressful but she looked gorgeous! Here is Shayne's Up Do for Sr. ball:

And here's what Austin picked her up in this time. WOW! We thought the last car was amazing. This one matched there outfits completely and it came with a chauffeur (Austin's Dad, Dale). This was Austin's last High School dance and he went all out. They had a great time.

Shayne's Teeth take 3

Oh Brother! Here we go for round 3! Shayne has to go in next week for another entire set of braces. Here is a picture of her teeth before braces:

 

Here is a picture of the gorgeous teeth after braces but before whitening:

 

Since then her jaw has grown a half an inch and has thrown off her bite completely. Her front teeth hit each other and the backs don't touch at all. It's mostly my fault because she and I have been watching so carefully that her teeth don't go crooked again that we didn't even notice her bite. Dr. Christian said that if she leaves it like it is then her 2 front teeth with wear down to nubs. Shayne really doesn't want braces but she doesn't want nubs even worse. So, next week, after Sr. Ball, she goes in for a full set of clear braces so hopefully they won't look so bad. Then she will have a ton of elastics to try to fix the problem. YIKES! Supposedly that kind of growth is hereditary. The another bad part is that Sophie was told yesterday at her appointment that she can get her braces off next month. Well, now they've moved it back another 6 month so they can make her bite be a big over bite to compensate for the growth that she will have. She doesn't know that yet. I'll have to break the bad news to her today after school. We'll keep you updated on how everything goes.

Easter Weekend

Every year we go to Lehi for Easter and my Dad does a BIG Easter Egg Hunt for the grandkids. But we couldn't make it this year so Paula and her family came down and brought Grandpa Shelton's Easter Egg Hunt with them. We had a big lunch in between conference sessions and then put a quilt on and tied it while we listened to the 2nd session. This is becoming a tradition with me and JoEllen. This year it was a cute Levi quilt. Then after Conference the Dad's took Grandpa's treats and went down the street to Cox park and got the hunt ready. The kids had a great time. Kyle was having such a great time that he did his Easter jig for us. By the end we were all so tired. The wind was perfect so Brad got his kites out and George went and got his and those who weren't flying were lying on the ground. It was a wonderful weekend.

Easter Fun

So here are our Easter do's. They where lots of fun. If you can't tell, those are eggs in the girls hair.