Riley's 9th Birthday

Riley got to spend her birthday a little bit differently this year.  We were out of town in La Grande.  So she woke up on her birthday in a hotel room.  :) She was a good sport.  Especially since we were going to be driving 6 and a half hours to Portland and Vancouver Washington that day.

We had kinda celebrated her birthday with grandma the night before.  This is our post church picture.

Zac was still with his cousin Calvin and his family so he missed out on this birthday morning picture.

Pit Stop.

We went for a fun little walk in Portland with Luke and William when we got there.

We made it to Evan and Shanna's house that evening and aunt Shanna made a delicious cake for her birthday so she could blow out candles. 

Riley is such a fun girl.  She always want to play with whoever will play with her.  She attracts babies and little kids everywhere she goes.  She loves to stay up reading in bed.  We love her! 

 

Zac turned 13

Back in April, Zac turned 13.  He is such a good kid.  He is kind, playful, inclusive and he is learning all kinds of fun instruments.  He's in 8th grade now (at the time of me typing this) and he plays bass clarinet, trumpet and french horn.  He has 3 band classes every day!  

I must say that having teenagers has been really fun so far.  Zac and Sadie keep me laughing and they are mostly fun to have around.  I'm not saying that they are always happy and playful, they for sure have their moments, but don't we all!  I love seeing Zac growing into a wonderful young man.  I think growing up with all sisters has helped him be really good in social situations.  ha ha.  He has lots of friends.  Boys and Girls.  

On his birthday, the elementary school had their talent show and these girls performed I Lava You.  They sang and played the ukulele.  It was cute.

William got to visit near Zac's birthday also.  Zac absolutely loved having another boy around.

They played all day and enjoyed these yummy sodas on the back deck.

This is Zac's classic face.  It always makes me laugh.  

We love our Zac.  Happy birthday!

 

Trip to La Grande

We went to La Grande in July to visit Rob's family.  It was such a fun trip.  The kids are getting better and better at traveling.  The kids are growing bigger though, so the car seems to be getting smaller.  Ha ha.  Zac left a week early to hang out with his cousin and their family on their camping trip.  Since there was an empty seat in Zac's absence on the trip up, it was a really comfortable trip.  :)  We stopped by and visited Rob's dad in the rehab place he's been in.  It was really nice to see him and chat for a while.  

We got to go to church with grandma and spend some time at the hotel pool.  We also got to celebrate Riley's birthday a day early.  She turned 9.  

On Riley's actual birthday we traveled to Portland to be with Uncle Luke and then continued on to stay with my brother and his family and to reunite with Zac. 

These pictures are out of order.  But it takes too long to drag them into the right order.  So just read the caption underneath.

Riley woke up as a 9 year old in the hotel room!

We went to church with grandma and got to stay after for food.  

Sisters on Riley's birthday.  We were still without Zac.  He was having a blast with his cousin Calvin.

Bubble beards in the hot tub.

Here's Sadie trying to tackle Rob in the water.  She did not win.

Emery was an expert at gathering all the bubbles.

Finley also loved the hot tub.

We made everyone take a nap on Sunday because we left for La Grande around 2:30 pm so we didn't get there until 10 pm or so.  They all said they weren't tired....

But they all slept for a couple hours.  

That is, once we separated them.  They were trying to nap in the same bed and that was not working! Once we separated them, they fell right to sleep.

After church picture.  We do this every time we go to La Grande.

 Here are a couple pictures from Zac with his cousins.  Here they are skipping rocks.

Stacking water bottles.

They stopped at the beach on the way home and it was super foggy.  Typical Oregon coast. 

Rest stop in Idaho.

Visiting grandpa.

Start of our adventure!

Sadie got back from trek, came home and showered, then we left for La Grande.  Lucky her...she was so tired!

Sadie is 15!

Sadie had a birthday in February!  She's 15!  I have a 15 year old who has her permit and can drive us places.  It's really weird but also very fun.  I have loved having a teenager in the family.  Sadie is just the best big sister and daughter.  She's really pushed herself this year by trying new things and being brave.  She tried out for the volleyball team and the basketball team.  She made the middle school volley ball team, but didn't make the high school basketball team.  She is now doing lacrosse which is a brand new sport for all of us.  She's catching on really fast and figuring things out.  I love watching her learn and grow.  She's such a good example to me because she reads her scriptures every day.  She sometimes does it in the morning and at night.  We love our Sadie!

Finley and Sadie are 10 years apart in age, but they have a fun relationship.  

The sky was showing off on her birthday.  So we had to get a picture!

She requested an ice cream cake.  It was pretty delicious.

Happy birthday!

Making a wish.

 

Here she is with her permit!

It was so snowy the day we had to go take her test.  Fortunately, we made it there and back safely!

She loves it when I purposefully match her.  :)

Lacrosse.  She's number 50

Cutie

Rob and I are learning how to watch lacrosse in Utah.  Bundle up like you are going out in a blizzard.  Haha.  

Happy Birthday Sadie!

Easter

Easter this year was pretty low key.  I love that as the kids are getting older we can focus more and more on the true meaning of holidays.  We read and discussed in the old testament about the Holy Week.  The bishop in our ward sent out a text and a thought every day that week with a passage of scripture attached.  It was really nice reading and talking about it for the whole week.  I'm so grateful for my testimony of Christ and for His willingness to do what was necessary for us to have a way to return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father again.  

We did a little egg hunt in the backyard and it is so fun watching the younger ones run around collecting eggs.  :)  Then of course there was the trading of candy after the egg hunt.  We went to Crys and Alan's house for dinner and had yummy ham and potatoes and rolls and chocolate cake.  It was delightful!    

The kids are pretty good about sharing and making sure they don't hog all the goodies.  

Finley was running all over the place.  Fortunately, the snow melted before Easter.  Although I think it snowed again after this.  ha ha.

Showing off their loot.

We also got chalk and the girls laid it all out in rainbow order.  :)

 

Field trip with Emery

I got to go on the coolest field trip with Emery in December.  It was a field trip to see the Salt Lake City Stars play a basketball game. We brought our lunch and ate it during the game and they also gave all the kids some popcorn.  They threw out a bunch of shirts, balls, and noise makers.  The players showed off their dunks while they were warming up and interacted with the students a lot. 

We got to sit right down by the court.  I think we were only like 2 rows back.  They aren't NBA, but it was still fun to watch and cheer and dance and get on the jumbotron.  

Emery got to sit by her friend CJ.  

More friends.  This is Dallas.

It was fun riding on the bus with Emery.  The bus driver was awesome.  He had the kids stomping their feet to "help" him slow down the bus, and putting their arms up whenever they went under a bridge.  He was seriously the best bus driver I've ever met.  He also told the kids if they were good, he would do the splits for them.  And sure enough, when we got downtown he came into the aisle of the bus and did the splits.  It was crazy.  ha ha

I love going on field trips with my kids.  This was one of the most fun field trips i've even been on!