Thanks Mom!

A huge thank you to my Mom!  She has picked up Logan from school and watched him everyday for the last two years.  Logan was so excited to surprise her with these roses to say thank you.  I don't know what I would have done without my mom's help.  I think I have the best mom in the world. She has always been there for me and most especially has helped me so much in getting through the last 3 years.  We have gone through some really hard and, what has seemed like, hopeless things.  I have leaned on her for support and comfort because she truly knows what I have felt.  I could not have gotten through without her.  It is easy to feel so alone when life gets hard.  Thank you mom for being a light to me in the darkness.  Maybe now you can get a nap!

Last day of school

Yes, I know, school got out a couple weeks ago.  The summer is already going too fast!

Cassidy with her 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Hatch.  Cassidy had a really good school year and made a lot of progress in reading.  I really like Mrs. Hatch.  She is so positive and has a lot of patience.  She dealt with a lot of difficult children in a very positive way.  She was always very sweet with Cassidy and we will miss being in her classroom. 

Logan with his Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Adams.  He repeated Kindergarten so had her as his teacher twice.  I love this lady!  She prays for each of her students and I know she has spent some sleepless nights thinking of how to help Logan to succeed.  She felt like Logan needed another year in Kindergarten.  It was a hard decision but we felt like she was inspired and knew what was best.  Logan is now the top of his class and aced all of the end of year testing.  She liked to call Logan "Mr. Brains" and "Mr. Muscles".  She even rejoiced when she had to tell Logan and Carson to be quiet one day.  Logan can be pretty shy at school.

Mrs. Adams has had all of my kids for Kindergarten and each one loved her.  She was the first teacher to have to deal with all the districts red tape with getting help for Cassidy.  She wasn't afraid to tell the sometimes, rude therapists what she thought and I really appreciated her for that.  She even had a prayer with Lorin and I before we headed into the always stressful 504 meeting.  She and her husband were some of the first to visit us when Cassidy was in the hospital last time.  Her husband is a member of our stake high counsel and he gave me a really wonderful blessing.  I have just really appreciated her support.  We shed some tears after this picture was taken because there is no more kids from our family to have her as a teacher.  I really hope that if there happens to be a little caboose in our family, one day, that Mrs. Adams will still be teaching

Summer here we come!

(Megan has already been really bored.  She doesn't seem to like any of my ideas of how to not be bored!)

Hope of America

On June 2nd Megan received the Hope of America Award.  It is an award given to one boy and one girl from each sixth grade class.  It is given to kids who demonstrate capacity for leadership, ethical and moral character and outstanding academic accomplishment. We are so proud of Megan!  She is such a good girl and has always done her best in everything!

Megan shaking the principal's hand.  

Megan with the three other kids who received the award.

We are proud to be Megan's parents.

Megan with her teacher, Miss Greaves, who she has had for 5th and 6th grade.

Megan and Tre-C who also received the award.

Way to go Megan!  You are going to do awesome in Jr. high! 

May

May is always one of the busiest months of the year filled with testing, programs etc. etc. etc.  Amidst it all Cassidy found time to, once again, be a rock star diva.  

She loves the camera and asks to have her picture taken!  She cracks me up!

Megan graduated from the N.O.V.A. program and received a special Constitution Award.

We also had our dance festival.  We don't always do a dance festival so I was really excited for it this year.  It was supposed to be out on the high school football field but, due to all the incessant rain, we had to have it in the field house.  It is a pretty big place so it worked out ok.  The poor kids had to walk there in the rain.  

I had a hard time getting good pictures of Logan.  My camera didn't want to focus.  He was cute and at least tried to do some of the actions.  (At the practice, the day before, he pretty much just stood there.  He does not like to dance or be in the spotlight!)

The 3rd graders did a square dance.  Cassidy did an awesome job and her dance partner was really kind to her.  I was afraid that she wouldn't be able to keep up and that she would just be dragged along but she practiced well and did great!

The 6th graders did the Electric Slide.  They were really together.  You can tell that they are so ready to be done and on to Jr. High.  Megan did a really good job!

The whole school did a dance together but I had to be in it so there aren't any pictures.  Wish I had some of the kids doing it, though.  I thought it was really cool and that it was a really great dance festival!  I loved being a part of it.  

While I was tracking down Megan and Logan Cassidy took the liberty of snapping some pictures.  Here is one of her dance partner, Dexter.

I love my kids and am so proud of them! Megan's last dance festival.  Sniff sniff!!  

Now on to the Kindergarten program.  Loved it!!!

Logan with his best friend Carson.  They are seriously two of the cutest boys.  They seem to have similar personalities and play well together.

The Mexican Hat dance is not one of the easiest.  The clapping in rhythm with skipping your feet out in front of you......not easy for 6 year olds.  It was very cute though and had me giggling.

Gotta love Y.M.C.A.  Did I mention that Logan does not like to sing and dance in front of people.  

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Logan and Carson doing their speaking part.  So Cute!!!

"Being worried at school gives us mushy brains!"

They did a skit of the Little Red Hen.  Logan was a goose.

A self portrait of Logan.  After the program he was so excited and asked me "So Mom, did I do better than last year!?"  Yes he did!!!

Megan and her friend Felicia had to make a castle for school.  They chose to make it out of marshmallows, graham crackers and candy.  Let's just say it was a miracle that it made it to school in one piece and, wow, the amount of frosting it took to keep it standing.  It seemed to be one of the favorites with the kids at school.

Cassidy had a recorders concert.  I really had no idea how well she would do because they practiced recorders when I wasn't at the school.  It was so fun to see her play and she actually kept up really well.  I guess she didn't quite learn the last  couple songs so she just faked it.

I had to share this picture of Cassidy doing one of her favorite things.....chasing the boys!

At the end of the school year the kids have many opportunities to play outside.  We have extra recesses and extended recesses.  So much fun!

One of Cassidy's favorite games to play at recess.  One person has to turn around and count to ten while the other kids pick a color on the map.  Then the person counting picks a color then turns around and whoever is on that color is it.  Just thought I would share.

And Logan got to celebrate his summer birthday at school!  He is hoping to be able to save this stylin' crown to wear for all his birthdays.  I don't know if that will happen since I saw him ripping a sticker off of it last night. It may make it to July.

Legoland

In April Church Specialties (aka my brother's in law) asked Lorin if he would drive some materials out to Santa Maria, CA for them.  He agreed.  Originally Lorin was just going to go by himself but we decided to all go and make a little trip out of it.  Give Kids the World gave Cassidy a passport to go to a bunch of amusement parks across the country for free.  Legoland in California was one on the list.  So we decided we would try to make it there since this would be the only opportunity we would have to go to California before it expires.

Road trip here we come!  We look so thrilled!  I didn't get a picture but we had to drive our truck pulling a 22' trailer.  Lorin does  a great job pulling a trailer even through big cities and construction.  We only had a couple of frustrations with the trailer.  One being that in CA you have to go 55 mph if your pulling a trailer and two, good luck finding a motel on the coast that has any parking for a truck and trailer.  The second night it took us until nearly 3 AM to find one where we could park.  We should have done a better job at planning ahead.  But we never know what we are doing.   

We made it to Santa Maria and dropped off all of the materials at the two churches.  The kids thought this palm tree was really cool and wanted a picture by it.  Logan calls them "fancy trees".  I remember when we went to Disneyland, nearly 2 years ago, one of the first things Logan said was "Wow!  They have fancy trees!"  We drove to Pismo Beach but it was so busy we couldn't even find a place to park.  It was windy and chilly so we turned around and went back to the church and helped for a little while.  It has been over 12 years since I have worked on church pews and it brought back a lot of memories for me.  I had a lot of good times working for my Dad refinishing and reupholstering church pews.  It was very hard work, and had it's frustrating moments, but I learned a lot too and enjoyed working hard and seeing new places. It made us close as a family to work together.  I even had really strong arm muscles back in the day.  I now get to enjoy what I call my "upholsterer arms".  My arms ache and go to sleep a lot at night especially if I have used them a lot.  They are worn out. My dad still plugs away at it, though, so who's complaining.  Oh the funny stories we all have to tell from our CFI days!  It's a good life!  Sorry I kind of went off on a tangent there.

Apparently our Bishop is from Santa Maria and this was his ward building.  The ward members helped build it.  So he was excited that we saw it.

That night we headed on down to Legoland in Carlsbad.  And that is when we had our adventure of trying to find a motel.  The original idea was to go maybe half way to Anaheim.  We made it there and drove around but it was packed and there was no parking anywhere so we continued on down stopping at what seemed like every exit to find a motel.  We were just soooooooo long that there was no parking.  So we kept going and going and finally found a Ramada Inn that happened to have one RV spot in their back corner.  Lorin had to back her in really easy and we barely fit.  I could tell the manager was so scared that Lorin was going to hit one of the other cars.  It was kind of funny and he had one of those middle eastern accents.  Whew!!! We made it and the next day hit Legoland!!!  

Logan refused to look at me and smile.

I think my kids had the most fun shooting these water guns at the people riding in these ships.  Of course, they can shoot back.

It was very intense!

Ok the next pictures are of this boat ride that seemed easy enough for kids to do themselves.  All you have to do is push a foot pedal and steer.  Off they go!

Logan left first.

Then Megan and Cassidy were to follow.

Oops what is going on here?  I thought Logan was first!

Hmmm!  How do I run this thing?  Why is that guy in front of me taking my picture?

I can see where I need to go.  How do I get there?  Maybe if I concentrate really hard!

I seem to be causing a big traffic jam!

Why won't this boat go!?!  I look like I am making it go!

We left Logan in our dust!

I just don't get it!

I give up!  Maybe I will eventually float where I need to go!

Not as easy as it looked.

Phew!!!  I made it!    

(He didn't cry but felt like it.  He wasn't pushing the foot pedal down the right way.)

Oh how we love to squirt people!

Lorin and Cassidy going down a miniature log ride.

Teacups, Lego style!

The sun came out and now we are getting cooked as we stand in line!

Cassidy was fascinated with this witch and wishing well.

All in all it was a fun day!  It was really busy so I didn't get any pictures in the mini land where they have all scenes built out of Legos.  The kids loved the Star Wars displays seeing as how they are into Star Wars.  Legoland is not as handicap friendly as Disneyland so that made it kind of hard.  But I think the kids had a lot of fun.  It was overcast and chilly for most of the time but the sun did come out and we got quite sunburned.  My fault, I left the sunscreen in the car...................it looked like it was going to rain!

A really nice guy asked if he could take our picture out front but what he really wanted was our ticket stubs so his brother could come back for half price the next week.  He begged and begged so I gave them to him but I was really annoyed!

We debated on whether to try to spend the night in San Diego and then go to the zoo the next day or to start heading home.  We decided that we should head home.  But first we stopped for some pictures by the San Diego Temple.  It is BEAUTIFUL!

A nice girl jumped out of her car quick to snap a picture for us. 

We then drove on back to Barstow to spend the night.  The next day we stopped at the outlet mall there in Barstow.  There was a bunch of Asian tour buses stopped there.  I so wish I would have had my camera handy.  We got a good chuckle out of this old Asian man who seemed to be so fascinated with this RV that was parked.  He was taking all sorts of pictures and then as we were pulling away he took a picture of us.  We laughed and laughed.  I guess they don't see many big vehicles in wherever they were from.  Oh and they all had lunch at the Panda Express!  

Our next stop was to say hi to Lorin's sister Julie and family who were camping at the Valley of Fire.  It is a really cool place!  They kids had so much fun climbing on the rocks.

Cassidy insisted on climbing to the top of this rock.  If dad wasn't going to help her she was going to go anyway!

We are so glad that we stopped in to visit Julie and that we took this trip together as a family!  We made it home safe even though the truck had a bad battery. Thanks for all the prayers, Julie!