To be 17

This cake says it all. My boy is growing up so fast. I could not be a prouder mom. I watch Nathan in amazement every day. He never ceases to amaze me. Heavenly Father knew that I needed to be blessed with a son. I am forever grateful.

The big FOUR-O, OH MY

Oh happy day. I am forty years old. It's time to embark on a new decade. One of the reasons I look forward to this is that I feel it will be the decade of grandkids. No more kids for me. After two decades of giving birth, I will pass it on to the next generation. But, I digress. Let's talk about my birthday!!!
In January I heard that you could get into Disneyland FREE on your birthday. So, I decided that I was going to take myself to Disneyland, by myselft for my fortieth birthday. And that's just what I did.
However, I did take along a few buddies. My mom came as well as my sister Ally and my good friend Dixie Marshall. Ally, Dixie and I made the trek from AZ to my parents house on Sunday, May 31. We woke up bright and early Monday morning and made the 35 mile drive to the Happiest Place on Earth. Don't we look happy? The weather was great. It was overcast and cold enough to wear sweatshirts. It's what we Southern Californians call the June Gloom. I love it!
Dixie made us all lanyards to hold our water bottles and they were fantastic. We couldn't stop talking about them all day.
The other thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to eat at the Blue Bayou, which is the restaurant inside Pirates of the Carribean. I have never in all my years eaten there. It was absolutely delicious. I got a free dessert, but it wasn't as good as the one we paid for.

We pretty much closed out the park, leaving at 10:40 p.m. I had such a fun time and want to thank my birthday buddies for sharing this special day with me.

Encampment

This year our stake decided to do an encampment for the boys that would be more like girls camp. They left shortly after school got out and were gone for five days. They had a great time.

The baby

My baby sister, Ally is 27. How can that be? I'm pretty sure I just celebrated that birthday myself. Ally was 5 years old when I left home to go to college. She doesn't even remember me before Orson came into the picture. She was 7 when I got married. She and I look the most alike. (Yes, I used to look something like that!)In fact if you look at pictures of Ally and Rachael when they were 6, it's hard to tell them apart. When I was in the thick of having kids, she would often come out in the summer and help me. She drove with us as we moved from Utah to San Francisco. Our favorite story from that trip is when she got car sick (which happened quite often with us). She told us she was going to throw up and we told her to do it into a trash bag. After listening to her heave, she announces "The bag has a hole in it". We pulled over and threw the bag on the side of the road right next to a NO LITTERING sign. We were great examples from the start. Ally is a great athlete. She played college softball for four years. I was so excited when she and her husband, Waylaynd moved out here after graduation. It has been a blast getting to know her. Even though she lives all the way out in Queen Creek (which I call western New Mexico), we try to see each other often.
So on this special day, I got a Cold Stone butterfinger ice cream cake and she just had to come celebrate with us. I love you Al!

Memorial Day

We usually spend this week in California because of the cool weather. But, it didn't work out this year, so we decided to take the kids to a local resort for a mini vacation before Katie had to start summer school and Nathan had to leave for the stake encampment. We chose the Grand Resort which is just off I-10 and Baseline.


They have a great water park and we were able to go to the park for two days with just a one night stay. It was cheaper than going to sunsplash and sleeping at home. The water park had 3 slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, regular pool, volleyball and basketball sections of the pool and a wading pool. Not to mention having your food and drinks delivered to your chair. You just can't beat that.
Here are two of the three slides. The other one was a winding one and Anna was able to ride it.
Here are the kids waiting for tubes in the lazy river.





Here's where we went to dinner.
Here's who greeted us.
Here's how you get to your table.

Um, I took the stairs!
Two cute rustlers!

April Highlights

Happy Birthday Karry
Lunch with Liliana, Becky, Jamie and Karry

Easter PagaentAnna with cousin Leah


Diamondbacks game
Orlando Hudson now plays for the Dodgers
Baxter
Manny Ramirez
Nathan and Anna

Easter




Prom
Getting ready

Laura Hughs and Nathan

Last day of school

School is now out for the summer. We are so excited. It was a weird weather week again this year with lots of storms. Every year our neighbors throw a big bash and the kids have a blast. This year Anna and Megan enjoyed the festivities.



The big finish for the party is always a shaving cream fight. Anna was so excited to be a part of it.



Rachael went to a friends swim party and Katie had some girls over here.




Nathan did not get out of playing at graduation this year. They set up a tent for the orchestra to play under and he ended up sitting of the edge and getting dripped on all night.