Memorial Day Weekend

We headed off to our first camping trip of the year like we always do over Memorial Day weekend. We headed out to the West Desert, same place as always on this weekend. We had awesome weather, which was a new thing this year. We usually go about every other year, sun and rain. We had a few light showers, but nothing big. We headed out on Friday, mostly just set up camp and went to bed. We were beat!! We woke up Saturday morning and first thing the kids wanted to go on the 4 wheelers. So I took them on a small ride. 

Later on after we got back every one jumped on the bikes and we went on a longer ride. Macie talked Colton and Haley into letting her ride with them. 

Emery always gets to ride with Papa, but Harley jumped on for a quick picture. Other than that he was always riding with Jake and I. 

Emery loves picking flowers. Every time we are in the mountains she picks me all kinds of wildflowers. She did an awesome job on this one. It was gorgeous! It even included my very favorite wild flower, Indian Paintbrush (the red one)

Harley bring a ham, like usual. 

A few days before we left we went to the Zoo and Macie got a new umbrella. So of course every time it sprinkled she had to try it out. 

These girls are in love with umbrellas. 

It was just sprinkling rain, but there was a lot of thunder. Every time Harley would cover his ears like this and say "loud". He does that every time there is anything even remotely loud. 

This boy and his tractors...he is mildly obsessed with anything that has 4 wheels. 

Love this little mommas boy. 

Uncle Colton and Aunt Haley brought sparklers for all the kiddos. They loved it! These girls love when Colton and Haley are around, which lucky for them is a lot. 

After got home my mom and dad needed to get their garden in so we headed up to help with that. 

The girls planted peas and potatoes. 

Harley dug with his shovel. 

It was a great weekend!!

Emery's JoySchool Graduation

Emery has had so much fun with her JoySchool class. One of the moms made a video with a bunch of pictures from throughout the year and watching it not only made me tear up with how big my baby is getting, but with overwhelming gratitude for each of these moms that spent so much time and energy organizing and planning these lessons. They are amazing. I am so happy with our decision to do JoySchool this year. It was an amazing thing to experience with her. She has learned so much I can hardly believe it. She is reading so well, she reads Macie a story pretty much every day. We need to buy her more learning reading books, she has started to memorize the ones that she has...haha. Kind of defeating the purpose!

All the cute little graduates with their caps on. 

Lucy, Emery, Lydia, Chanson, Mason, Gavin, and Webster. 

We had little certificates for them where each teacher wrote something about them on the back. 

This is what her teachers said about her:

We read what all the teachers said, gave them a class ring (a ring pop), and a diploma (a poem with a fruit roll up inside). 

She was obviously pretty excited about her graduating...hahaha!

Macie had to get off the swings for a picture, and she was obviously not happy about it. This is Harley's cheese face, it's probably the cutest thing in the whole world. 

Sweet little graduate. 

We're still trying to decide what to do for school next year. She is actually ready for Kindergarten, most the kids in her class are going to Kindergarten this year. But she still has another year. I would like to do JoySchool again, but I don't want to repeat the curriculum because she doesn't need it. I don't really want to put her in a traditional preschool because I think she would get bored. We'll keep thinking about it and hopefully make a decision by fall. 

Congratulations my sweet girl! We are over the moon proud of you and your hard work. But even more than your hard work to learn, we are proud of your big heart. Your ability to be friends with everyone, and to be kind to everyone. We love you so much!! 

Dance Competitions

Emery has had 2 dance competitions in the past few weeks. And they have done so well at both of them! The first one was the Utah State Championships in Midway in April. 

Emery did her freestyle and rocked. She took first place. 

Her cute little team. These girls are too much cuteness to even handle. 

Taking first place at the Idaho National Championships and at the Utah National Championships qualified her for Nationals. This was after her freestyle at Nationals. We decided to wear last years dance costume for her freestyle to get a little more use out of it. 

It was FREEZING. It was raining so hard. Thunder and lightening. So these little girls bundled up and cuddled up together. Singing songs and playing. Passing the time waiting for their time to dance. They are so cute. 

I can't believe that Emery's first year of clogging is coming to an end!! She has absolutely loved it. I love that she loves it. 2 more weeks of class, and then her last recital (she missed the winter one because we were in Disneyland), and then she is done. We resigned her up for summer tumbling though so she will continue that. She also has a few dance camps throughout the summer she will be going to also. Love this girlie so much!

JoySchool Fieldtrips

Emery has had 2 field trips for school this week. We've been busy! First off on Monday we went to the Dinosaur Park. We met with a Paleontologist that talked to them about fossils and dinosaurs. Then he gave them a plate Stegosaurus that they got to color and make.  

After this we went and walked around the whole park, saw the fossils inside, and then played on the playground for a while. The kids were beat by the time we got in the care to head home. 

Macie showing us what a dinosaur does, Harley worried about eating, and Emery just sweet as can be. 

Macie was getting SO tired! It was so funny, she randomly just went and laid down in the grass. 

Then on Thursday we went to a Farm here in town. This picture really cracks me up. Macie kills me. Love that girl. 

They had baby chicks, turkeys, cows, sheep, and goats. 

They even had bottles of milk that they got to feed the baby lambs. This was the girls favorite part. They were in heaven. 

Then it just so happened that it ended up being shearing day. So they got to sit and watch all the sheep get sheared. 

There was a big pile of dirt with Tonka trucks in them that was all Harley cared about the whole day. haha. He is so obsessed with all things "tuck" (truck) and "tracker" (tractor). I wish so bad I could find some of these metal trucks! We have 2 but they are both plastic, I wish so badly I could find some of these original metal trucks. 

It's been a super fun week of play times with the preschoolers. We have loved doing the JoySchool. Can't believe that Emery's first year of preschool is over! So crazy.