Lake Las Vegas Day 3

Monday was Memorial Day and we did the same morning routine. We got up at 8 am, went to the pool, put towels out to save chairs and them I sent a text to everyone telling them we had chairs saved. We were given vouchers for the breakfast buffet so we went to breakfast. The kids loves the food!

Then we went back to the pool and went swimming. But after a while Courtney wanted to go on the paddle boats. Bryan went with the boys the day before so I volunteered to go with Courtney. It was hard work!! When we got back, Bryan went out on a kayak. 

We had requested a late check out so we showered, packed and were on our way home. We stopped by our old apartment and our old house to see how it had changed. Then we drove around the temple grounds before driving home.

Ethan slept most of the way home but courtney was wide awake. It was a great trip!

Lake Las Vegas Day 1

(These are a little out of order because I am still figuring out how to blog using my phone but you will still get the info.)

i have had complaints that I don't update my blog often enough so I got an app to blog with. I may have to tweak some things later but at least it is blogged.

We are on a trip with friends at Lake Las Vegas. Our friends were here in April and were given a promotional code for another stay at a much cheaper rate. They all hurried and booked rooms for Memorial Day weekend. They called us but by the time I called the rooms were all taken. 

I figured we were out of luck until one of our friends said they didn't need their second room. So that's how we found ourselves in Lake Las Vegas.

We called some friends from college and stopped by their house on the way. It was fun to see them and their kids. We stayed at their house for a few hours, catching up with life.

We then drove out to Lake Las Vegas to the resort. Our kids were so excited! We immediately went down to the beach and they all played in the water with their tubes and had a blast. The weather was perfect.

When they were all starving we got cleaned up and drove to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. There were 18 of us so we figured it would be a long wait but we were seated right away. It was amazing. Our waiter g our food to us really fast and explained that they were really slow. Lucky for us.

 

Here are he kids eating dinner.

There was a dive-in movie at the pool but our kids were worn out so we just went to bed. It was such a fun day!!

Lake Las Vegas

I have had complaints that I don't update my blog often enough so I got an app to blog with. I may have to tweak some things later but at least it is blogged.

We are on a trip with friends at Lake Las Vegas. Our friends were here in April and were given a promotional code for another stay at a much cheaper rate. They all hurried and booked rooms for Memorial Day weekend. They called us but by the time I called the rooms were all taken. 

I figured we were out of luck until one of our friends said they didn't need their second room. So that's how we found ourselves in Lake Las Vegas.

We called some friends from college and stopped by their house on the way. It was fun to see them and their kids. We stayed at their house for a few hours, catching up with life.

We then drove out to Lake Las Vegas to the resort. Our kids were so excited! We immediately went down to the beach and they all played in the water with their tubes and had a blast. The weather was perfect.

When they were all starving we got cleaned up and drove to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. There were 18 of us so we figured it would be a long wait but we were seated right away. It was amazing. Our waiter g our food to us really fast and explained that they were really slow. Lucky for us.

 

Here are he kids eating dinner.

There was a dive-in movie at the pool but our kids were worn out so we just went to bed. It was such a fun day!!

Lake Las Vegas Day 2

It was a beautiful day with great weather. The kids were so excited that they woke up at 4 am (Nevada time). Bryan turned the alarm clock so they could see t and told them to go back to sleep.

At about 7:45 they were up and ready to go. The pool opened at 8 am and we wanted shaded chairs. Courtney and I ran down to he pool area, got towels and spread them over about 8 chairs in the shade. I texted the other families to let them know I had seats and they came down to get the extras and claim some more. In all, we had about 18 seats!

We had brought breakfast stuff so we ate pop tarts, cereal, yogurt and fruit. We spent the day at the pool and beach! It was a lot of fun!

The kids went on the paddle boats, swam and played around.

At about 2 pm, Ethan was exhausted after 6 hours in the pool/sun, so I took him to our room to shower and relax. He was so tired.

The adults decided to go out to eat. The kids all wanted pizza and to relax so Bryan went out and got pizza and the older kids babysat our kids while to adults went to dinner. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it!

Courtney thinks she and Lauren are the same age. Courtney loves Lauren and follows her everywhere. They laid out together. It's cute.

When we got back from dinner we made s'mores at the outdoor fireplaces, ate ice cream and pie. Then we left to go to bed.

The kids had a little bit of a hard time sleeping, they were too tired. But it was a fun day!

Pizazz End of the Year Review

The last thing we had to do on Saturday, after the Colorpalooza, Courtney's dance practice, Ethan's birthday party, and a birthday party for one of Ethan's friends, was Courtney's end of the year review for Pizazz.

We got her there in plenty of time to line up with the other dancers to be escorted out by her dad.  All the girls had a single, long stemmed rose that would match their dress to carry and Courtney insisted that we also get Bryan a boutineer.  It was fun!

After all the girls has been introduced with their dads, the daddy-daughter dance began.  This is a fun part and I love watching them dance.  Courtney usually has Bryan twirl her a few times and it's fun to watch.

Here is a video from the dance.  Blogger is being dumb so it won't let me attach it directly into the blog so you'll have to watch it on youtube here:

http://youtu.be/6apHgDVGvbg

After the dance, I went to the dressing room to help Courtney get ready for her first dance.  It was a hip hop dance to "Ice Ice Baby" and it was great!  She thought she was really rough stuff.

Here is the video:

http://youtu.be/mNkCb_lBMbc

Then they had the dance they have been doing all year long at the basketball games.  I didn't take too many photos of it because we already have a ton!

The girls then changed into their lyrical costumes and performed their next dance.  It was very pretty and was only the 3rd time I had seen the dance.

Here is the video of the dance:
http://youtu.be/S2WydcHqAwI

All the other girls in Courtney's class were finished, but she had a solo to perform.  In April, there was Evening of the Arts at the elementary school.  Courtney had wanted to dance to it so we asked an All-Star who was in our ward to choreograph a dance for her.  It turned out really cute and Courtney wanted to do it for the review.  I didn't think her coach would let her so I didn't think it would hurt to ask.  Her coach was thrilled that Courtney would want to do a solo.  I found her a dress at DI that we thought would work and she did an awesome job.  She dedicated the dance to Ethan for his birthday and the MC read out her dedication while she got in position.  It was sweet and Ethan was really touched.  Courtney certainly loves her big brother!

Here is the video:
http://youtu.be/hgGDBNyGXkk

Then we were finished!  It was a CRAZY BUSY day but we had a lot of fun!!

Birthday Breakfast!

So this is all out of order, but I just remembered that I didn't put Ethan's birthday breakfast on here yet.

Since he was camping with the 11 year old scouts when it was his birthday morning, we decided to have his birthday breakfast on Sunday, the day after his birthday.  He was SOOO tired after his crazy birthday that he slept in for quite a while.  Since we have 1 p.m. Church, we let him sleep in.  But then he got eggs, bacon and oj for breakfast in bed.  He was pretty happy!

Arrow of Light

Ethan had earned his Arrow of Light with Cub Scouts but then the leaders kept having to change the time/date for the Arrow of Light Ceremony.  It was supposed to be in January, then in March, then in April and finally they decided to do it in May.  But May is VERY BUSY and they had a hard time narrowing down a time/date when everyone was available.  They finally found a date...May 21st.

I had been nagging Ethan to get his arrow made for months but he kept putting me off.  Then on the night of the 20th, there was no more putting it off and I recruited Bryan to help him get it done.  I think they did a great job!

Here are their "I am so happy I am making this arrow" faces:

 Concentration!

 The finished arrow!

 At the ceremony, they had the moms go up front and we got to paint lines on their faces to represent different aspects of scouting.  It was fun!  Then the moms were given the pin and the boys were given their patch and certificate. 

 Here is Ethan with the other boys who earned their Arrows of Light and their leaders.  They have had amazing leaders this year who have done a great job!  We will miss them!

11 Year Old Campout

I forgot to mention that Friday night, the night before Ethan's 11th birthday, there was a campout for the 11 year old scouts.  Since it was so close to Ethan's birthday, they invited him to go up.  He was a bit nervous and wasn't too excited to go.  I had been gone Wednesday night through Friday night at a PTA conference at BYU and was getting back too late to see them before Ethan and Bryan went to the campout.  So Ethan was bummed.  But once he got into things he had a blast.  Because of the Colorpalooza, they weren't able to stay very long on Saturday but Ethan was there long enough to enjoy himself.  They stayed up until about 11:30 p.m. and he though that was the BOMB!

Ethan's Friend Birthday Party

After we got all cleaned up from the Colorpalooza and I had picked Courtney up from her dance practice, it was time for Ethan's friend birthday party!  In April he had told me he didn't want a friend party.  But as it got closer to his birthday it came out that he really did want a party but didn't think we had time to plan it.  Usually, we do big home-made birthday parties that take a few months to get all the supplies for.  But I assured him that we could easily put together a fun party.  He just had to decide what he wanted to do.

After careful consideration, he decided he wanted a swimming birthday party.  We had a bunch of free passes to Sand Hollow Aquatics Center and we had a free voucher for Little Caesars, so we figured we could have a fun party with those two things alone!  I made up invitations and then found out that Ethan had been invited to an 11 year old campout on Friday night, so we changed the party to Saturday afternoon.  We got all the invites out the week before and things were set.

The boys met at our house and, after getting them double buckled in our van, we took off for the SHAC.  They got to swim for about 1 1/2 hours and had a blast.  Ethan even did a front flip off the diving board!  I went to get the pizza and realized that it was really windy and so we decided to get them out of the pool and take them back to our house for pizza and cake/ice cream.

Here's Ethan and his friends:

 Here is Ethan's beach cake:

 Blowing out the candles:

 Waiting to open presents:

 Opening his cool watergun that has a scope on it: