Kennadee-It's great to be eight!

Kenna turned 8 this May and we celebrated for a week.  It started with all Mike's family coming up for dinner on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  These are the treats Marianne made for her.

 Her birthday was on Memorial Day.  At breakfast, she opened presents.  She got new scriptures, a scripture case and ...... a certificate to get her ears pierced.  She has been looking forward to this for months.

 We went to a movie as a family and then went to the ear piercing store.  This is how she looked and felt at first.

 This is how she looked when she saw the guns.  After 10 minutes of discussing how much it would hurt, and telling the girls she was ready three or four times, then doing the shoulder thing, she actually decided that she wasn't going to do it, and got down out of the chair.  Then Mike told her if she didn't do it now, she had to wait until she was 12.  That was it, she got back up and went through with it.

 Here's the fab cake.

 On the Friday after her b-day, she got to have a friend party.  They played in the pool for 2 hours.  Simple and fun, my favorite, low effort kind of party.  We did have some water balloons too.

Then Saturday was the baptism.  Yay!  It's not fun being mom and Primary President, let me tell you.

Aaron and Amy Jo came, It was so great to have them here.

 Connor was able to baptize Kenna, which was so cool.  We loved it.

                                                           The Dress.  Doesn't it look like Kenna?

                                               This picture of the shoes is my very favorite.

 After the family dinner, all of us Wallaces and Vadens headed to Angies' to clean some sinks.  This is what they look like, literally a sink filled with ice cream.

 This was really Marianne's idea.  She wanted the bumper sticker.  It was a fun dessert.  It is Great to Be 8!

That night, our family started a new adventure.  Stay tuned for picts.

Kate

Kate studied Utah history this year.  She got to make this cool map.  She also earned a "Great Utah Award" This involved ALOT of our of school work on her part.  She is very motivated though.  Utah has 29 counties, so to get this award over the year she had to run 29 miles, memorize the counties and label a map with them, memorize 29 rocks and mineral, answer 29 questions about Utah and read 29 books.  Whew

 Kate likes to put a towel on her thick hair to help it dry before bed, she fell asleep with it on.

 Kate's cousin Maddie and Kenna's friend Gracie got to come spend some time with us for Spring Break

 Kate has been offering to help me cook quite often lately.  I love it.  We made this awesome fruit pizza.

Chase

Most of Chase's big news happened awhile ago.  He received a bunch of merit badges and is getting ready to start his eagle project.  He has a few more badges to get, but we are going to try and get his project started this summer.

 In February, Chase turned 13.  Mike's parents came to take us to dinner and Chase choose his favorite dive, Burger Express her in Smithfield.

                                                              Opened some presents.

 We only have birthday parties for ages 5,8,12, and 16.  Chase argued that since he chose not to have a party last year, he could have one this year.  Sounds reasonable.  Here's the neighborhood gang.

 We recycled our Minute to Win it from New Year's for Chase and his buddies.  They had fun.

 Here's the cake.  Pretty nice, huh

 This is what it looked like the next day.  For some reason, it collapsed overnight, adding one more disaster to my history of cake awesomeness.

 I already posted some of this, but Chase did run for Student Government.  He didn't make it, but it was a good experience and he wants to try again next year.

Connor

In my pathetic attempt to catch up, I decided I might cover more ground with an overview of each child.  In Feb and March, Connor had long hair.  He was busy with school, of course and had an awesome swim season.

 For a service auction in our ward, he sold private swim lessons.  This led to him also teaching some private lessons that he got paid for.  He really enjoyed that.

 He turned 16!  For almost a year I've been teasing Connor about all the things I would do to celebrate his 16th birthday.  This kid hates to be the center of attention.  I told him I would put signs in our yard, saying things like "Connor is 16!  He needs a date"  or picking him up at school with my car all decorated.

 Maybe this is why he wouldn't actually let me do anything for his birthday.  Do you want to have a party with your friends?  NO  With your friends and some girls?  NO NO  Do you want to go bowling or to a movie with friends?   No.  How about a surprise party?  I will kill you.  Ha.  It didn't stop me.

 We went to Pizza Pie Cafe as a family.  All you can eat pizza and pasta with teenage boys is a bargain.

 I made him an awesome cheesecake.  He thought he was safe because his birthday was over spring break, but honestly, I couldn't let his 16th birthday go by without something more.  I talked to some girls I know, and gave them each a bag of kisses.  They gave kisses to all there friends and the first day of school after spring break, Connor had girls coming up to him all day long, saying here's a kiss for your 16th birthday.  Ha.

                                   
 The end of May, Connor ran his first triathalon.  It was a Skyview tri, so most of the kids were in high school.  He came across the finish line with one of his swim buddies.  He placed 4th.  Yay.  He also got his hair cut somewhere in there.  I think it made him look older.

anniversay

Nineteen years ago, Mike and I went skiing at Grand Targhee on our honeymoon.  This year we (ok me) decided it would be fun to go back again for our anniversary.  We took a three day ski trip.

Here I am in our room, all ready to go.  This is the first time we have ever stayed slopeside and I loved it.  It was so nice to ski to your door.

Targhee has changed a bit in 19 years.  Here is Mike when we went for a short walk exploring the resort.

This is the lodge we stayed in.

                                                            Tourist shot

                            It was fun to see the Tetons again.  It's been a long time.  We drove into Driggs and Jackson for dinner.

                                                            Here we are on the hill.

This is one thing about Targhee that hasn't changed for a long time.  This lift is scary.  I remember it from when I was a kid.  Not sure I would even want my kids on it.  Seems like it would be easy to fall off.  Three days skiing with my fabulous husband-awesome.