Sad Goodbyes to Dear Friends & Lagoon!

 Awe! My friend Amy (middle) moved up north. Shelley and I were so sad to see her go. We loved our girls craft and movie nights. I guess me and Shelley will have to do it ourselves. Shelley and I were roommates in college and have been good friends ever since. We currently live 3 blocks away from each other. Still not in the same ward or school, but I still love it. And we serve in the same calling in our wards (2nd Counselor in the RS so we help each other). I met Amy when both our kids were going to Coral Cliffs Preschool. She had no choice but to be my friend whether she wanted to or not. Her and her husband moved here about the same time we did and bought Candy Blitz. Loved the "owning your own business" stress we got to share. I will miss you Amy!

 And even sadder... Steve and Nicole are getting a divorce. I'm devastated. We were together almost every day for the past month. She came down here and left her whole life and belongings behind. No friends, family, just her little girls. We became close friends and shared a quick bond. I will love that girl forever. (Technically in the eternity scale, we are still sealed together as a family!) I don't know why, but Steve just decided he'd made a mistake after he married her. Sheesh. What's super crazy about the whole thing is that they went on their first date after Mike left to work for 6 months in Casper. They dated, were engaged, and married before he was even officially back home. Crazy. 

So Mike's first weekend living back home from Casper, we helped Nicole load up all her stuff in the truck and trailer and moved her home to West Point. I had a hard time driving up and not crying every time I thought about it. It was especially hard and embarrassing dropping off her stuff to her parents and family. I couldn't stop the tears. I love that girl so much and hope she will be so happy soon. She deserves the best. 

~Saying Goodbye

My kids grew very close to her darling kids.

Brooklyn and Taylee

 ~While Nicole lived down here, we played Canasta as sisters once a week. It was a special time we had chatting, bonding and telling all kinds of fun stories with each other. This was our last night together as sisters. They came over and we ate yummy food, chatted and played, oh and cried. Lots and lots of crying.

On our way to drop off the trailer with Nicole's stuff.

We got to spend some fun days with my family while we were up there! The kids LOVE to go to Grandma's house. We got to see Anna's cute belly with Hallee inside, play with Hazel, Max, Charlee and Koban, and have fun chatting. We even took the time and went to visit Max and Lawauna Rhead. They my next door neighbors growing up and like grandparents to me. I also received my patriarchal blessing from him. He is 96. When we showed up, of course he was out in the backyard with a hoe weeding the garden. That's how he's made it this long! I was so happy to get some hugs from them and have my kids meet them. Mike came with us, he's the one who took the picture:)

 

 

Face Time with Kiki:)

My mother is wonderful. She watched the kids for TWO nights while Mike and I went on an extended date. We didn't go far. We stayed at the Ben Lomond Hotel downtown, we even stayed in the "haunted" top floor suites. We didn't read about them till we left, I'm sure I would have been paranoid the whole time! I had been wanting to go to Lagoon for YEARS! So Mike took me there on our date. It was so much fun, just the two of us. Nobody to wait for, no "I have to go potty!" a ton of times, just me and my sweetheart. I loved it! The next day we walked in the rain to go see Tomorrowland and eat some delicious sushi. We stopped and got some Kneaders breakfast before going home to pick up the kids and go home. It was the perfect date for two days.

 And now random pictures back home...

School Programs

~I can't believe it's already the end of the school year! Lincoln was fantastic in 1st grade. He actually came home one day and said, "Oh I'm the smartest kid in the class." I said, "Um, what where did you get that from? That doesn't sound very nice." He said, "Well that's what everybody in my class always says." Haha, he's funny too! ;)  I got to help out doing centers in his English class every other week and I enjoyed seeing him in action and working. He's a good kid. 

~Sequoia is will be done with Kindergarten! And she wasn't even the smallest kid in the class, surprisingly. It was fun to see her in action as well. I helped out doing sight words with the kids about every other week, that one I could bring Aurora so I didn't mind it as much. Sequoia doesn't play or talk to the girls in her class much. She really just like the boys. She still wears her boy clothes. And when I did encourage her to wear something cute/girly, she would just wear her hoodie (with the hood on) all day. Sheesh. She knows what she likes and it very comfortable in her preferred setting. She's also doing well with reading and math. I'm excited for her to start the Chinese program next year. (Lincoln's class was the first and last class to do Kindergarten Chinese, the teacher ended up moving back to China and they didn't continue it at their school.)

~I got some cute/blurry pictures of the kids in their programs. And a cute one of Shelly's kid Jeff. And Sequoia had fun taking pictures of us leaving the school and in the car. Oh my.

The Joys of Children!

~My friend needed help letting her dogs out to potty during the day while she was at work, so once a week me and the kids went over there and played with the Luna and Ginny, aka "Lula" and "Gin Gin" Seriously Sequoia had so much fun taking care of them. She is going to be great with a puppy one day. (That "one day" will be when Lincoln turns 10 years old, a promise made to a 3 year old that he's never forgotten.)

~Poor Lincoln was throwing a bouncy ball and chasing it all through the house one day. He went to pick it up from under the table and WHACK! Hit his head on the edge of the table. It was bleeding and he was down, but luckily not bad enough for stitches, just a yucky headache and cut. 

~She is very creative in her outfit choosing. These days her favorite is the Minnie bathing suit, everywhere. I especially love the pink snow boots to go with it!

~Aurora doing what she does best... She decided to help wash the mirror with lotion. Thank you sweetheart. Thank you. When I asked her what happened she said, "Nothing." I asked her if she made a big mess and she said, "No, Daddy did." Daddy did? He's in Wyoming at work.  "Um, Lincoln?" Little stinker!

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Mike was in Casper on Mother's Day, so the kids took good care of me. They informed me to stay in bed and not come out. So I tried to soak up every awesome moment I could in bed. (And did my best to not jump out of bed and coming running to see what they were doing with Auri in the kitchen as well, but I restrained myself.) They brought me breakfast in bed. Love these kids! Almost cooked oatmeal, loaded with brown sugar, milk with ice (my favorite!) on a beautiful cutting board. Yum. 

Then they informed me they made there own frosting for the cake they were going to bake later. They got the cook book out and followed the directions all by themselves. We must be doing something right (even though it's still kind of hard to turn control over to them in the kitchen). 

We invited Nicole and her daughters over for a Mother's Day dinner. Linguini and Shrimp Scampi. It was delicious and I was so happy to spend the day with Nicole! I just love her and I'm so happy she my sister-in-law. We chatted and chatted all night.

I helped the kids finish the cake and Lincoln poured out the frosting on the hot cake so it was just like a Molten Chocolate Cake. My favorite! He also put on his robot costume for us. The kid is so creative and always "inventing" something.