Thursday, May 28, 2009

Memorial Weekend
I kept forgetting my camera but I did manage to get one picture of what my kids were up to this weekend. Kaylee and Brianne decided to start a new business. Roly Polys love our rocks and they found a bunch of them. Then Kaylee had the idea to sell them so she made a sign and Brianne prepared plastic bags by punching holes in them so people could take them home and they could still breath. Unfortunately no one was in the market for roly polys this weekend. So Kaylee finally gave up and decided that maybe she would try selling lemonade next time.

This was the sign posted on my door. We still have several roly polys left if anyone would like to buy one. We ship.

Here is the make shift roly poly home. As you can see there are several good ones left.

As for the rest of our weekend we had lots of fun, just no pictures. On Friday night we went swimming with our friends the Moultons. Sydnie was a little nervous of the water at first. I think she was having ocean flashbacks. But she soon settled in and had allot of fun. On Saturday we went with our friends the Brays to Liberty Land, it is a small amusement park, that has a few small amusement rides, a roller coaster, bumper boats, and go karts. It was fun, but some of the rides were broken. I was going to complain, but they seem to be struggling to stay in business and I would really like them to make it, because its a much cheaper alternative to Lagoon and they have rides that suit my kids age. Monday we hosted a barbecue for a few of our good friends. Shaun made his now famous ribs, and the kids had lots of fun playing with friends and roasting marshmallows and making smores. Usually we travel over memorial weekend, it was nice just to stay home for this one.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Preschool Graduation

This last Wednesday was Brianne's preschool graduation. They had cap and gowns and the whole bit. They each had a speaking line, a song, and a book they read for the parents. I was so proud of Brianne she actually did all three of them! Anyone who knows Brianne, knows this was quite an accomplishment. We have really liked this preschool, a bit pricey but most of the kids come out knowing how to read.
Brianne is a smart little girl, her teacher filled out a little paper entitled, "My Favorites". Here are some of the cuter answers:

Animal: Fishy

Vacation: Florida (Our family vaction must have been a hit!)

Movie: Sleeping Beauty (has she even seen this show??? Not at our house, she must have just borrowed an answer from one of the other little girls)

Food: Yams (Way to go Brianne! I love that she picked something healthy it makes me look like a good mom. Actually she is a candy monster and could eat a whole bag if I would let her.)

When I grow up I want to be: A cooker

Dessert: Cake (I had to scratch my head at this one, I think she means she likes to make cake, I let her and Kaylee make it by themselves sometimes. But she never wants to eat the finished product.

Something special about me: I am a good reader, and one of the only ones in my class to learn all 50 of the preschool sight words!

Brianne saying her line: "Could every one stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?"

Brianne singing her song. She even sang loud enough so everyone could hear her.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Recital 2009!
I can't tell you how excited I was to get my dance recital over with. This was the last on a long list of big events I have had in the last month and I can finally have a little free time to catch up on my to do list for my house and yard. Things went fairly smoothly, and my both of my classes did great on their dances. I was so proud of all of them. It has been so fun teaching them this year.

Me and my two favorite dancers in my classes, after the recital.

Kaylee and Brianne posing in their costumes before the recital

My 7-9 year old class, what a cute group of girls especially the one on the end.
Kaylee did a tap number to Cotton Eyed Joe, a jazz number to S.O.S and a ballet number to Let Them be Little.


My 4-6 year old class, they looked so sweet in their polka dot costumes.
Brianne did a tap number to Gummi Bear, a jazz number to Crazy Frog's Axel F, and a ballet number to Let Them be little.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary!!!

We had fun celebrating my Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. We had a dinner and a short program for them, it turned out nice. All my brothers and sisters were there with their families. Except my oldest brother Mike, he and his wife along with most of their kids are serving missions. It was fun to see everyone. I forgot my camera, fortunately my assignment for the program was to put together a slide show. So, luckily for this post, I had hundreds of pictures, that I had scanned in, to choose from. Here are some of my favorites.


Mom and Dad cutting their cake

Me and my sister Nancy in our Christmas pajamas. My parents always made Christmas special.

Nancy and I at the swimming pool by Granite campground in Wyoming. When all my brothers and sisters and I shared memories for the program. One memory was common between us all, we all loved going to Granite. It just goes to show you don't have to spend allot of money and go to far away places to make memories with you kids. Some of the simplest family traditions may be what they remember most.

I just had to throw this one in because it pretty much sums my dad up. He is a kid at heart. All the Grand kids love their Grandpa Thornton, he never seems to tire of playing with them. And thinking of new toys to make for them. Thanks Dad for being such a fun Grandpa.

This is a picture of my mom with our very first microwave! I chose this picture because it is of my mom in the kitchen. She was such a great homemaker and made our home a great place to be. One of my favorite memories is of my mom making bread, she would always let my little sister and me make a little loaf of our own. Because my mom was always at home for us she was able to teach us even in the simple things. Thank you mom.

Congratulations Mom and Dad!!!! Thanks for making it through 50 years of marriage and giving our family such great memories!!!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Our Florida Vacation

We finally made it to Florida! We had a great time there. Although, getting there and getting home were a little more complicated than I anticipated. Because of the way the frequent flier miles worked out, Shaun flew on one plane and I took our three girls on the other. On the way there we were all worried because we thought Shaun was going to miss his flight. He went to park the car and got pulled over by the police for speeding and then couldn't find a parking spot. I checked his bags and got his tickets and he just made it. I thought all the drama was over until I went to check in and found out my plane had already left! Apparently they changed my flight time to an hour earlier and failed to notify me. I had to fly standby the whole way there. The way home was even worse. This time I made sure to check my flight times. But Miami international requires you to check in 45 min before your flight not the usual 30min of most airports, I was late by 5 min and they wouldn't let me on my plane, so once again I had to fly standby. This time, however, the planes were much more crowded, and we had mechanical issues on both flights, turning an already long trip into 2 hours longer. Needless to say we were glad to make it home.
Other than the plane rides we had a fabulous trip. I had trouble narrowing down the pictures, so I decided to break it up into days. Sorry this post is so long.

Day one flight out and Miami beach!
The girls were so excited to ride in an airplane for the first time. On our first take off Brianne got so excited she kind of forgot there were other people on the plane and practically shouted with excitement, "we are up in the air Mom!" Everyone in the airplane was laughing.

We finally made it to out hotel on Miami beach. Our original hotel had overbooked and so they payed for us to stay at a 5 star hotel just down the road. It was really nice, our room was huge with a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. We had a beautiful view of the beach and the Miami lights at night time. The minute we got to our hotel, we threw our swimming suits on and headed out to the beach the girls had lots of fun, but they both wished the ocean wasn't salty, because it tasted bad when it got in their mouths.


Here is Sydnie having fun in the water the first day was about the only day she enjoyed the water she got knocked over by a wave shortly after this picture and it ruined her for the rest of the trip. She wouldn't even get her feet wet in the tidal pools of water that were completely still.


Day two more Miami beach and alligators.
We spent the morning again on the beach, then cleaned up and headed for a place called Holiday park just outside of Ft. Lauderdale. They have air boat rides on the everglades. The girls had fun on the boat and we saw quite a few alligators and other wild life. After the boat ride, they do an alligator show and then let the kids hold a baby alligator if they want to. My girls were not scared at all to hold it. Later that day we drove over to the Gulf of Mexico and stayed on Sanibel Island, a little island just of the shore by Ft. Meyers. It is know for its sea shells and the girls had allot of fun looking for them.

Kaylee and Brianne holding the baby alligator at Holiday Park.


Day 3 Playing on the Beach at Sanibel.
We spent the whole day on the beach. The girls had fun playing in the water, either in the ocean or in the swimming pool just of the beach by our hotel.


Kaylee and Shaun body surfing. This is one of the few times she got it to work. The waves were not huge on this part of the ocean.


Brianne and I made a sea shell sand castle. It managed to last the whole day.


This is not sand we are sitting in it is seashells. The shells are piled up into big mounds all down the whole beach. The shells are as plentiful as the sand. So the trick is not finding shells, its finding the good ones.

Sydnie thought it was great fun to sit in a pile of seashells and throw them. She looked so cute in her little sun dress throwing the shells, that everyone who walked by was commenting on the cute little sea shell princess.

That evening the tide went way out and we were finding all kinds of fun things. We made a tidal pool and filled it up with all kinds of live shells. We found small conch shells and hermit crabs, sea urchins and some sort of clam thing. The girls especially like the clams they would stick their foot out, and try to jump out of the tidal pool. Kaylee would laugh and laugh, and Sydnie kept trying to grab them and almost got her finger stuck inside one of the clam shells.

I just had to add this picture of all of our feet in one of the piles of sea shells.

Saying goodbye to Sanibel. This Island is also known for its spectacular sunsets, and it did not disappoint us on our last night there.

Day Four Sea World.
The girls had had their fill of the beach so the last day we decided to make an unplanned stop to Sea World. We got up early Saturday morning and made the long drive to Orlando and spent the whole day at Sea World. It was allot of fun and the girls favorite part of the trip.


Kaylee and Brianne had allot of fun riding the kiddie rides at the end of the day. Here they are on the Shamu Express roller coaster.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Easter Fun!!!
OK, I know that most of you got your Easter posts done weeks ago and I was just going to give up and not even post on this but I am using these blogs to help out with my scrapbook journaling so I am going to post this anyway. We had lots of fun and celebrating Easter in Idaho. On Friday we had an Easter party and egg hunt at my moms house. The girls had fun on an Easter egg hunt and my mom as always had a scavenger hunt set up for all the grand kids and great grand kids and they followed the clues to the Easter surprise she had got them. On saturday we went to my niece Morgan's baptism, congratulations again to her for choosing to get baptized. And then we had family pictures taken with Shaun's side of the family. The girls had fun finding their baskets Easter morning, Brianne wanted the Easter bunny to leave her clues to help her find her basket and Kaylee decided she was old enough to find it herself with no clues. Although she did end up needing a few little hints from her mother before she finally found it.

Sydnie finding an egg on the Easter egg hunt at Grandma Thornton's.


Grandma Thornton passing out the Easter surprises from her scavenger hunt.


All the grand kids ready to go hunt for some Easter eggs.