May

May May What Happened to May?

May was full of all kinds of fun things. First and foremost was our 20th Anniversary!! Wow. 20 years. That's a great milestone. Here's to another 50!! This just doesn't seem like that long ago.

Behold our engagement photo!! Oh yes...double denim and all. I was even wearing one of Tyler's shirts because it was the 90's and baggy clothes were in and none of my shirts were baggy enough to be cool for this momentous picture. Hilarious.

We had a fun night on the town as we reveled in being married for 20 years. We bought plane tickets for a little getaway vacation after school gets out since things in May are always too busy to head out of town.

We had a fun night! We love our town too. I am so glad that we made the decision to get out of Utah and to raise our family here.

You know... to gross out the kids!! It's hard to kiss when you are laughing and taking a selfie!!

The next day we took the two little girls to hike Tubbs Hill that over looks Lake Coeur d' Alene. This is such a great family hike. Reilly and Kameron were both busy earning money that day so they weren't able to join us. I love this hike. I remember doing it with my grandparents when we would spend the summers up here. I even remember doing it once with my other set of grandparents who came up to visit my mom's parents. Lots of good memories and it was gorgeous!!

Seriously, it doesn't get much prettier than that!

I love hike where you can get in the water when you are done!!

After that some ice cream was in order. I was THRILLED to see that DQ finally brought back our family's very favorite blizzard...COTTON CANDY... it was so good! It has been about 10 years since we last had one. Delicious.

This was the sight when we were barely out of the parking lot! Ha Ha!!

Then Tyler got to accompany Ailey and the 5th graders on a field trip downtown. Ailey absolutely loved it!!

Ailey and her BFFs and her (and our family's) very favorite teacher...the beloved Mrs. Antonio. She is the greatest!! She has taught all of our kids at one time or another...except Bryn...who can't wait to get her too. Mrs. Antonio has promised that she will not retire until she teaches Bryn. We are holding her to that!! She is the best!

I got to go to Bryn's Kindergarten Mother's Day Party. Kindergarten is the best. I am going to miss having a Kindergartner. It is such a cute age!  Bryn has had such a fantastic year and a wonderful teacher too.

It has been so fun to have these two in the same class this year. They were so excited to have us as their special guests and to give us our awesome t-shirts that they made for us.

I am now the proud owner of 4 of these lovely t-shirts!!

One day during the week I let Reilly skip school and we drove up to Sandpoint to hang out with my Mom. We had a fun day and a gorgeous lunch over looking Lake Pend Oreille.

Then it was the Jr. Lilac Parade...

For this parade the kids representing the different schools wear funny outfits and Kameron's school dressed up as minions.

Kameron is in the middle on the trumpet.

Second from the left

Video:




I remember talking to my Uncle Mike on the phone around this time last year when Kameron was in the Lilac Parade. He was telling me all about when he and my Mom and their brothers would march in the band, in the same parade, down the same streets, when they were kids and he had me laughing my head off at all the crazy things those siblings would do. Such a great memory and I love that my kids are carrying on the family tradition. :)

Kameron was NOT A FAN of their minion costumes this year.

But Bryn sure was!! It was quickly given to her and she LOVES it!! So much so that she smuggled it in her backpack at school and then put it on and was caught out at recess in it by her big sister. Busted!!

Ailey's activity day girls had a Mother/Daughter Day where we played Minute to Win It. It was pretty hilarious!! Ailey did great and volunteered to do many of the challenges. 

We got to exchange special letters that we had written to each other. It was a fun and crazy night!

Then it was Mother's Day!! One of my very favorite days of the year...

I am blessed!!

It was a wonderful Mother's Day with breakfast in bed, the kids and youth singing in church, a special luncheon and program at church, presents, and a special dinner and fun activities from my cute family!! I loved it!!

Delicious crepes!!

Attempting to make Mother's Day videos for the grandmas. Believe me, it took MANY attempts!!

Next up was the Kindergarten music program:

Video:



Very cute!! I love that Bryn is a seasoned performer. Yes, that's right!! Look right at Daddy who is filming you. Nicely done. Elle is on the front row.

Then Ailey was Glinda the Good Witch in their 5th grade musical:

She did a great job belting out her song. They had some mic problems and the wicked witch's mic wasn't working. The main voice that you hear is Ailey. It just astounds me that she will sing a solo. You couldn't pay me enough money to do that!! These songs are very catchy...they are still stuck in our heads around here and we are in mid-June.

Video:

Then it was cheerleading camp at the high school:

This was especially fun for Bryn because several of her big buddies from preschool last year were the cheerleaders putting on this day camp. Very cute.

I spent most of this month preparing for Farm Chicks,,,no surprise there. I had so much inventory that I actually needed to rent one of these. It was the best decision ever!!

Memorial Day Weekend:

We spent part of it in Sandpoint at my mom's house 3D rendering our booth. This makes all the difference!! We lay out our booth spaces and place all our furniture virtually before hand. I love it and I love the guy that does it for us!!

We took flowers to the cemetery to put on my great-grandparents and my grandpa's grave for my mom. Then we went to the lake briefly to dig some raspberry starts. The water was like glass. Deep in the brambly jungle of the raspberry patch we found a bunch of yellow roses and floated them on the lake in memory of my Uncle Mike. I think he would appreciate that those lone yellow roses were right next to the old outhouse and I had to crawl under the raspberry and cat infested jungle to get those little beauties!! :)

Then it was back to DQ for more Cotton Candy Blizzards

We set up the old slip and slide... it seems very small...the next time we do it the red neck way. Our side yard is on a slope so it should work like a charm.

It was a pretty month with lots of flowers blooming in my yard...

I love Hawthorne bushes!!

My little baby snowball bush is going great!!

Kameron's band won a bunch of awards at a big band competition and they got to party it up at Silverwood Amusement Park.

I know that I have forgotten a ton of things but that the gist of it for now!!

Onto June!!

April

Remember April?

I barely do. I am so far behind on blogging. April seems so long ago...especially now that it is June. Pretty much the biggest thing that happened in April was Prom...after Easter and Bryn's birthday of course. Oh and Kam started track. Here are some pictures from long ago April.

Prom Prep...

Reilly and I went Prom dress shopping and somehow wrangled Tyler into coming with us. (Believe me I needed the back up support! Teenage girls and their mothers don't often see eye to eye on dresses.) Luckily we found a cute dress that all three of us really liked pretty quickly and the whole process was fairly painless. It was a little prom miracle. Then we ended up having a fun night hanging out just the three of us. That isn't something that happens very often these days. So we reveled in it.

See everyone was smiling!! Well, it kind of looks like Tyler is grimacing but we will take what we can get!! (He grimaced a lot this month it appears.)

One of the rejects...but one that she knew Ailey and Bryn would love!! Princess dress!!

Finally the perfect dress in the perfect color. It is kind of hard to tell from the pictures but it is an almost neon coral color. Perfect for Reilly. It was super cute and the minute she tried it on we all knew that it was the perfect dress.

Then it was onto mall chair massages...well earned and Dole Whips...also well earned.

Those massage chairs are more painful than relaxing. We were all yelping in pain most of the time.

Who needs to go to Hawaii or Disneyland when you can get a Dole whip right at the mall here in Spokane. For years I have heard about how amazing these are...the hype was well deserved. Delish. I will try the Dole whip float next time. Yay Spokane. Finally getting with the program.

The big day arrived. Reilly was busy all day getting fancy. There were hair appointments, spray tan appointments, and nail appointments. It was pretty exciting,

Her up-do...done by our friend and hair dresser to Tyler, Reilly, and Kam...Stephanie.

Her fancy nails...

The tickets

These girls were very excited for their big sister!!

They went to eat at Olive Garden downtown and then went to the dance...and Reilly went to a prom party after that. So crazy that Senior Prom is over and done.

The official photo

And then it was onto things like this...

Creating the Senior Tribute for the yearbook, ordering her cap and gown, designing graduation announcements, paying off her school debts (how one girl can lose and destroy more books I have no idea?!), remind her to finish her senior project, and schedule all of those end of the year Senior activities.

 Official Announcements

Then it was Western Day at the elementary school and a Western Dance that night. Daddy took Ailey and Bryn and they had a fabulous time!! Kameron and I had another awesome Mother/ Son night. We again watched movies and ate junk. It was great!! I love that he still wants to do stuff like that with me. I fear this may be fleeting once girls come on the scene although my brother Kirk and my mom had their CSI and Parmesan Popcorn nights until he was in his 20's so maybe there is hope or Kirk is just weird. Ha ha! Kidding Kirky. :)

Mother/Son Night O' Fun!!

We also had a fun girls day too during the month of April!!

Then track season started...

Yes, I am aware that this picture is slightly blurry. That is some stellar sports photography right there...and I think I paid $20 for it too. Oh well. Squint your eyes...Kam is really cute.

During track season while waiting for Kameron's events...which were always at the end of the meet... I forced Tyler to take a million selfies out of boredom. Hence his grimace. Although it looks like the dude behind us was into it!

Hey, I get my kicks where I can and I find hideous selfies très amusant. Tyler, not so much.

We also attended a Pre-Farm Chicks Party downtown. Here we are with my friend Michelle. It was fun to see many of our friends and to get excited for Farm Chicks. On that note, my Mom and Stacey headed to Omak to participate in the Vintage Faire Show there. I didn't go this year as it was the same weekend as Prom. I spent most of April working my butt off preparing for Farm Chicks.

And that's about all I can remember about April...

Random thoughts... Blogger should get emoticons. I barely know how to express my feelings without those weird symbols anymore and while we are at it how about a "like" button. Sometimes comments feel too taxing. (That is the level of laziness I have succumbed too.)

From The Duff (one of the movies I watched with Kameron and yes, we were both mortified at times) but I loved this scene.