Our Family Vacation to Sly Park, part 1

Last Thanksgiving, my Aunt Lol invited us to join her family at Sly Park this summer.  She has a gift of being able to get anyone excited about anything, and much to my great happiness, she talked our family into camping!  This trip was to Sly Park, just over the mountain from Lake Tahoe, CA.  We would stay on the beach of Jenkinson Lake.  She would make all the arrangements, and all we would need to do is get our family there.  Good deal, right?!?

I was thrilled!  I love to camp, but the fam has never been interested.  At long last, we had an opportunity to convince them that camping is actually fun.  The kids LOVE my cousins and their kids, and my dad and my sister's family would be coming, too.  Lol always throws a good party, and I knew we were in for a good time.

The kids and Mike committed, Lol made the reservations (she goes every year with her family and friends, but this year, she was kind enough to schedule it around our family's crazy calendar), and we've spent the last couple of months preparing.  We even bought a rockin'-cool tent!  (This also helped the kids' excitement level.)

We left for California last Sunday morning, stopping in Carson City, NV, where we met up with Care's family and my dad.  In spite of the 9-hour drive, we actually arrived at our hotel within 3 minutes of their arrival!  We spent the evening having dinner together (at Round Table Pizza, a restaurant where our family used to eat when we were kids!) and checking out some cool historical sites.  We even caught a fun concert in the city center park.

Here we are at the historic Carson City Capitol building:

We had a little fun messing around on the grounds.  There was a beautiful park out front, with trees from every county in the state of Nevada.  It was a perfect place to stretch and play after a loooong drive.

The kids finished the evening with a swim, then we got a good night's rest in side-by-side suites.  So fun!

Jen's Got Braces!

Football/Firemen's Workout!

This last Saturday, a group of my friends got together to work out with a crew of PG firemen, a U of U football player, a BYU football player, and the PGHS football coach. Whew!  What a workout!  We did it, though, and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!

We raced to pull a huge weight across the field...

 We played Sharks & Minnows...

 There was a fun "reward" for those who were "caught"...   :0)

We carried a fire hose up...

...and down the bleachers...

 We tackled the "sled" as a team...

...and individually...

We ran a relay around the track in a fireman's coat (those things are HEAVYYY!)...

And when we were done, we felt victorious!!!

Canesa, thanks for organizing this!!!

We rock!

Jer's Masterpiece

I came home from a meeting today and found Jer painting this in my front hall:

Here are a couple of details:

Pretty awesome, huh?  He's so talented!  (But it's funny how the rules seem different with him.  Somehow, since he's the only kid I know who would even think to paint on a 24 inch by 24 inch spare board with house paints leftover from his room, I don't yell at him for doing it in my entry way.  I just have to breath deeply for a second and then say, "Thanks for painting over paper towels...")

Last Day of School!

Today was it--the last day of school!  (It was also, significantly, Jen's last day of elementary school!!)  The kids all celebrated.  It was so fun:  school let out and ALL the kids headed off different directions to celebrate.

Jonathan planned to go out to Macey's for ice cream and then to Discovery Park with all his friends.  They decided to meet up after school, and everyone was going to walk together.  (It's a little weird for me to just let him go...I'll have to get used to this!  I just said, "Ok.  Go where you want, but stay with your friends and let me know if you go anywhere else than those two places," and then he left.)  Mr. Independent!  (I later heard from him, "We've been all over PG.  Now we're in Megyn's backyard.  We might go swimming when the pool opens at 4."  :-)

The girls went to the neighbor's house.  Their 3 girls had a water party for all their friends--40 in all!--and had a pool to splash in, a "carwash" for them to run through, super-wet sponges to throw, and TONS of food!  So fun!

Jeremy planned, created invitations, gave me a specific shopping list, and executed a totally awesome movie party for his friends.  They had s'mores, chips, candy...all manner of treats...and watched Alvin & the Chipmunks--Chipwrecked.  He did a fabulous job hosting and entertaining.  It was very grown up of him!

What a fun kickoff to a...HAPPY SUMMER!!!

8th Grade Graduation!

Tonight, Jonathan had his 8th Grade Completion and Awards Ceremony.  We went to the high school, where each of the students marched and received their respective honors.  Jonathan rocked the house, earning all kinds of awards for academics and citizenship.  He received:

--Viking Gold Scholar Award (3.95 GPA or higher all year)
--Viking Club Attendance Award (no unexcused absences)
--Viking Citizen Award (outstanding citizenship)
--Excellence in Spanish, Excellence in Drawing, and Excellence in Science awards
--Viking On Board Award (for getting all 3 academics, citizenship, and attendance awards)
--We the People Award (for participation in the state-winning constitution competition team!)
--Completion Award (for reading 25 books this semester)
oh, yes, and the --8th Grade Completion Certificate

After the Ceremony, all the kids headed over to the junior high for a dance and party.  They had a blast!  It's so fun to see Jonathan growing up and doing well...and having such a great group of friends with whom to do it!

Dance Festival 2012

It was Dance Festival day at the elementary school!  It was such a fun program, and it was so fun to have 3 kids in it!  (This is the one and only time that will ever happen!)

Here they are:

Here are all 3 after the program:

When we were finished, we picked up Jonathan at his school and headed to the store for a nice, cold ice cream (thanks Jen and Jonny!)  We even saw several friends there who had the same idea!

Jess & Evie

Da Boyz

The Girlies