Lizard's Twelfth Birthday

My little girl is going into Young Women's and can babysit...yes!!! I can't believe were are already at this point. It's crazy and fun all at the same time. 

For her friend party this year she decided she wanted a pool party...at night...sorta. It started at 5:30pm and the last girl left at 8:30pm. She has cute friends and it was a lot of fun.

Relay races with the beach balls.

The girl at the bottom of the picture didn't weigh enough and had a hard time keeping her ball in the water. :)

Pool Party Twister...that's because I'm a cool mom. ;) 

They were doing okay in these pictures but there eventually was a winner. Lizard was knocked down early by one of her friends falling on her.

Our pool lights change colors. It got dark just in time for the girls to see them.

The pool party was before our Utah trip and we celebrated with family on her birthday after we got back. Lizard always requests a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting, but this year she went for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

Bummer that's she's blurry!

The day after her birthday she had her Junior High orientation. It was fun for her and expensive for me...they have you buy all kinds of stuff.

I wanted to get a picture of Lizard in front of all the hearts, but the Beehives from our church whisked her away before I could get one. They "attacked" her and took her to her very first Young Women's activity. Fun!

BYU + SLC + Pioneer Day + Family = Awesome Vacation

Our first family vacation since going to Missouri in May 2013 (I am not counting our move to Arizona from Omaha...not a vacation). We were so excited to be visiting family and to have a break altogether.

"In the olden days" when I was a kid you could bounce around in the car, sleep in the back of the station wagon, and be free. Now kids are strapped into a five point harnessed car seat and can't move at all. So, with the advent of those unbearable torture devices has come the invention of the movie screen. It allows those in the car seats to numb their minds to the agonies of being strapped in for eleven hours. It worked. Six movies later and we made it to our destination.

"Y" wouldn't you want a doughnut this awesome?

The Grizzly Bear at the front entrance of the Bean Life Science Museum scared Little Bird pretty bad (there is a recording of a growling bear playing behind it) and it took her most of the museum to recover.

The General liked the museum and was especially excited about the emerald green carpet.

Little Bird Recovered

Just your typical grizzly bear on moose attack.

Lizard requested her picture be taken in front of the moose statue.

Bet you didn't know BYU had one of these museums.

It was the first time the three littles had been to the Salt Lake Temple where hubby and I were married.

Lizard in I practicing our "bride" poses.

Some other popular picture spots.

Little Bird got a little tired at the end. We enjoyed our tour of the Conference Center. The plants on the roof have gotten so big!

Having fun at the Ogden Pioneer Day parade.

Cyndi and Trevor with their their kids Winston in front, Harrison and Madysen. The two ladies in the back are a bonus...they were super fans of all the pageant and rodeo queen ladies...whooping and hollering their hearts out.

Matthew's sister Melina and her son David (cute boy on the left with glasses).

We had great front row seats!

I think my niece helped paint the temple on this float.

Aunt Cyndi got one of my kiddos to fall asleep and Little Bird needs to go to sleep. She was wasted after a super fun week!

I saved a treat for the drive home just in case the natives got restless. They did and it worked...do you think he was excited with his surprise?!