Kylee's 18th Birthday!

Kylee was in St. George at school for her Birthday!!  I wanted to badly to go and be with her that day, but there was just no way to make it work.  We had just been there for 4 days the week before getting her settled in her apartment and ready to start school. 

 So be did the next best thing...we asked Dan and Jan to help her celebrate.  Dan had been here visiting so we sent a present for them to give to her on her birthday.  They were super nice and went the extra mile and made her dinner, went and picked her up at her apartment, brought her to their house and had a little party with her.  I was so grateful to them.  Her roomate Ali helped her have a good day and I think over all it turned out OK.  We got to wish her a Happy Birthday over the phone.  Wow, how life changes as they get older.  I'm not sure I like this so much.

And...I can't believe I have an adult child!!!  She should not be 18 already!

Happy Birthday Kylee!!  

Some things Kylee likes at the age of 18...

*PRINCESS EVERYTHING!!!  Don't know if she will ever outgrow Princesses!

* "Once Upon a Time" series on TV.

* Volleyball...she plays as much at College as she did in High School!

* "Bean Cookies" - she's even converted her roomates!

* texting - our phone records show she texts a LOT!

*Anything adventurous - she's taking a rock climbing class and loves to go "caving".

* Disneyland - she will have been 3 times within 13 months!!

We love you and are so grateful we have you in our family!!  

Taking Kylee to College!

On August 13th we took Kylee to St. George to College!!  Crazy!!  Since she had to be there a full week before classes started for her new job, we decided that me and the kids would stay most of the week there with her until her roomates came.  Chris came for the first night to help bring all of her stuff.  Then he and Emilee had to go back...Chris for work, and Em for Volleyball.  So me, Kade, Quincy and Brinley spent a few days there.  We rented a condo and stayed there until we were able to get her moved into her apartment.  

It was a very overwhelming time for Kylee.  She was learning how to do a new job, moving to a new town and a new home, trying to figure out where everything on campus was, and getting to know 4 new roomates.  I am so grateful we were able to be there for a few days with her to help as she made the transition. 

 It was sooo HOT...like 120 degrees hot.  So we spent a lot of time in stores school clothes shopping for the younger kids, and swimming in the pool at the condo while Kylee was at work during the day.

Before we left we got her all moved in and even got her room decorated!  She had no time.  She worked a ton that first week and she was going to be without a car once we left...so we went one day and found all of this cute stuff to go on her walls. She was surprised and grateful when she got off work that day to see what we had come up with.  It turned out much better than leaving her there with cold bare walls!!

I know this will be a great experience for her.  I am excited for her to have the opportunity to live on her own and learn all that comes with doing that.  But even though we know she is supposed to be away at school and it will be great for her...WE ARE GOING TO MISS HER!!!

Good Luck Kylee!  We love you!!

Congrats to Emilee!!

After 2 days of tiring Volleyball tryouts...Emilee got the text from the coach that she made the Freshman Volleyball Team!!!  Yahoo!!  She is pretty relieved and excited.  We are also excited to get to watch another season of Volleyball.  I love watching that game.

CONGRATULATIONS EMLEE!!

New York & Washington DC Family Trip

Wow!  This was an amazing trip.  I still cannot believe we were able to take our kids and see and do all of the great things that we were able to.  It was such an awesome experience.  I am not going to go into a lot of detail here because we always try to make a whole book about each of the vacations we go on.  I just want to include some of the highlights!

We were in 8 states! (New York State, New York City, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., Delaware and New Jersey!!)

We were gone a total of 16 days!

The first half of our trip we spent in New York State touring the Church History sites there.  Mike and Debbie joined us and our two families traveled together.  We stayed 5 nights in hotels at different locations along the way.  We saw and learned so much.  I love Rochester, NY.  Chris and I both decided if we ever had to move far away from home, we'd go there.  It was peaceful and beautiful...and I would take a stroll into the sacred grove daily!!

We were able to visit:

Liberty Island - Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island

The Palmyra Pageant (my favorite part of the whole trip)

The Smith Family farm in Palmyra

The Sacred Grove

The book of Mormon printing office

The Palmyra Temple

The kids and dads did baptisms for the dead in the Palmyra Temple

Hill Cumorah

Niagarra Falls (awesome)

Lake Erie

Kirtland Temple

 Newell K. Whitney store

 Newell K. Whitney house & sawmill

John Johnson Farm

The second half of our trip began the Southwick Family Reunion.  We were joined by Tracy, Bill, John and their families.  We all stayed at Mike and Debbies house for the next week.  Debbie had worked so hard to set up many tours and sight seeing opportunities for us.  It was amazing.  The weather was HOT and sooo humid, but overall we had such a great time.

We were able to visit:

A tour of the White House

Several Smithsonian Museums

A tour of the State Capitol

Federal Archives

Washington DC Temple & Visitors Center

A tour of the Pentagon

Arlington National Cemetary

Virginia Beach (the ocean was so fun)

The Glass House in Historic Jamestown

Chris had to fly home a couple days before the rest of us to get back to work.  So the last 2 days the kids and I spent in New York City with Bill and Marci and their family.  The only catch was that I had to drive myself and my children from Virginia...through the craziest traffic I have ever seen...into New Jersey to our Hotel.  But we made it!!  Once we got there Bill took us sightseeing.

We were able to see:

Time Square

World Trade Center Memorial

One of the best trips we have ever been on.  But I'm pretty sure we needed some rest and relaxation once we got home.  Every single day was so packed.  We really made the most of our time there and saw and experienced everything we possibly could!  Great experience we won't forget!!

We can't wait...

5 MORE DAYS...we have been looking forward to and waiting for the day to arrive when we will board the airplane and fly away to NEW YORK CITY!!  The kids are so excited, and so are Chris and I. 

 A few years ago Mike and Debbie warned us all that they would be having the reunion of 2012 in Virginia.  Chris and I started saving our points.  We knew it would take a lot of them and we wanted to be able to go.  It is nothing short of a miracle.  We were able to have enough points from a program at his work to be able to buy our airfare, rental car, 6 nights in hotels all over New York, Discovery passes into Niagarra Falls, airport parking...almost every detail was taken care of.  It will take some of our own money, but nothing comared to the cost it would be for such a great trip.

I don't know why we are so blessed, but I am sooo grateful that we had the opportunity to be in Nauvoo with our family last year, and that we will be able to tour the rest of the Church History Sites in New York this year.  That has been a dream of mine for many years and I almost can't believe it has all worked out!!

We will be gone for 16 days.  Mike and Debbie have planned an awesome reunion for us.  We are excited to see the sites as well as spend lots of time with family.  The kids are so excited to see their cousins.  Brinley keeps telling me that she is most excited for #1-to ride on an airplane because she has never done this before, and #2- to get to play with the Virginia Maddie. We have 2 Maddie cousins, so that is why she is known as the Virginia Maddie.

Lots to do before we leave...but we are so excited!!

Emilee's Girls Camp

This year Emilee got to go to girls camp at Heber Valley Girls Camp.  This opportunity only comes around about once every 5 years.  They stay in nice cabins and the camp is set up with so many activities and fun things to do.  She had a great time.  Em has so many great friends in our ward.  She is very lucky and loves to spend time with them.  Thanks to her great YW leaders for all the hard work put in to make camp great this year!

Curls!!!

 Brinley discovered if she gets in the tub in the morning, then wears her hair all that day and all night in two french braids, this is what she gets the next morning!!  We thought it turned out pretty darn cute.

I love her long blonde hair.  Her big sisters are also jealous of it.  It is thick, has natural highlights and she is young enough I can still make her let me fix it.  I'm afraid my years of this are limited, but I will take advantage of the few that I have left!!

Very Creative Girls!!

 This is what happens at our house when girls get bored!!  Kylee saw this idea on pinterest and talked Quincy and Brinley into being her willing participants.  They drew chalk pictures all over the driveway and then took pictures. 

I think Quincy and Brinley are really going to miss Kylee and her fun ideas when she goes to college!!  They love her dearly...good thing they still have Emilee as a great big sister!

4th of July

This year for the 4th of July we tried something a little different.  It was definitely an experience and a memory we will never forget...but not something we will probably ever try again!  We decided to be a food vendor at the Plain City 4th of July Celebration.  Only those who wanted to give up their usual 4th of July traditions participated and we were pretty sure we were set up to make a fortune!  Grandpa and Grandma, Alex and Kacey, Clint, Heidi and Maddie, and our family chose to participate.  We set up shop to sell cotton candy, popscicles, pulled pork sandwiches, hot dogs, drinks, chips and ice cream bars!  We were very brave for our first plunge into it.  It took a ton of work on everyone's part.  We spent months talking and planning and shopping...and the whole day before setting up. When our big day arrived we were very frustrated to find that there were tons of other food vendors.  We had been assured that we would be one of only a couple!  Needless to say...after a very long, hot but pretty fun day we were excited to be done.  The moment of truth awaited as we went back to Grandpa and Grandma's house to find out if we were in the hole, had broken even, or made the thousands we were hoping for.  We had big plans to take the money and rent a huge cabin at Island Park next summer.  Well......we made enough to give each of the kids that helped $15.00!!!  Not what we were hoping for, but we were so grateful that we had not gone in the hole!   

Even though it was not as successful as we had hoped, it was pretty great to see us all work together to accomplish something BIG!  It was a big undertaking and we did a good job even if we didn't make our millions!  We will just have to save our pennies and find a different way to get us that great cabin in Island Park!!