Aubrie is found

We lost Aubrie today. Or I thought we had. I already know this sounds silly and overprotective, but I wanted to remember today. Having a teenage girl is hard because they are so much darn smarter than their parents, who just don't know because they were in jr high 20+ years ago. She didn't show up at her usual time after school. When she was almost 1/2 hour late, I went looking for her. I drove to each bus stop I could think of that she might have gotten off. I went to some of her friends' houses, wanting to know that she had even made it to school that morning. I called her school. Still nothing. Having that feeling that you have lost your child or that she is in danger is one of the worst feelings ever. I started trying to remember what my last words were to her. I remembered asking her to be safe and that I loved her. I just wanted her back so badly. I said a prayer or two, to guide me to her. I called the house, but Dave still had not seen her. I didn't want to go home and just wait, I wanted to get to her if she needed me somewhere. She walks in the door at the same time almost everyday. I thought, even if she comes home and fights with her sisters, I don't care, I just miss her already. I knew if she had missed her bus, she would have called me. She wouldn't just take off. She had mentioned some crazy boys on her old bus, so I was worrying about that too. Finally while on the phone with Dave, while deciding who would go to her school and look, she walked in the door. Her three sisters ran up to her, of course embarrassing her with their affection. Dad wanted to ground her. I was just glad she was home. She had walked home a different route, lingering with some friends, and lost track of time. Kids just don't realize how much we love them and how often we are thinking of them. Even though my little girl has grown taller than me, taller than some men even, she is still my baby. And I can still pick her up! Aubrie I love you, but don't be late afterschool again!

HeeHaw farm

Bethany just recently auditioned for her class play of Charlotte's Web and got the part of Charlotte. So she was super excited to get this cute shot of her with "Wilbur the pig."

This was one of our funnest nights this autumn, I took my two little girls to the farm and we had a blast together! They did not want to leave, even when it got dark and the scary stuff was supposed to start. So much fun, we have been coming to this farm many years and always have fun. The cutest part is that they let you in the pen with all the baby animals to run around with and pet. The girls favorite part. Oh and the hayride at dusk. Also really fun. I love my Bethy and Mayzie :)

Trip to Wyoming

David and I have been called as Martin's Cove trek leaders for next summer. So we had my parents come stay with our girls and headed out to Wyoming to attend training. Definitely felt apprehensive about the whole thing, mostly being in charge, but actually had a really fun time. We like road trips anyway, but it was fun to get away for a couple of days and gain a more personal testimony of the LDS pioneers that came across the plains. The first night we stayed in a little motel in Rawlins. Then we went to Martin's Cove for training. We did an 8 mile trek, and pulled the handcarts, crossed the Sweetwater River, and did the women's pull. That was really neat for me. We slept in our van on on-site that night, on an air mattress, which worked out great. The next day we hiked over to Devil's gate, a really quiet spot. Then drove over to the Willie Handcart Company campsite, which had a strong feeling as soon as you drove in there for us. Decided to move our campsite to there. Then we headed out to Rock Creek Hollow, which is a hallowed spot dedicated by Pres. Hinckley. It holds a mass grave marker where a large group of saints were buried after crossing Rocky Ridge. Such a peaceful place. It is a 1/2 hour bumpy drive to get in there, we were driving it at dusk, and had been warned to not go over 25mph or we'd pop a tire. So we were tempted to turn out a few times. Such a deserted road, a few shacks a long the way. But we are glad we made it all the way in while there was still day light. Since it was dark as we were coming out, we stopped another lady heading in with no cell phone, and we traveled home together. Glad we caught her.

Running Club

Alyssa and Bethany are in an awesome running club and have worked so hard and run so many miles! They are doing great. We had dual meets with another local school and won both. Then they had a 10 school meet and they both took 6th place in their division, Alyssa running a sub 8 min mile and Beth ran a sub six minute 3/4 mile for her 3rd grade division.

Homestead 2012

We always have a fun time heading up to my parents' condo in Midway. It is such a pretty place. The girls love swimming there, and visiting the Homestead. They have a fun gift shop and scarecrow contest and wildlife and cute restaurants. And spending time with Grandma and Grandpa! We were glad to be able to go have fun with them before they leave for their mission.

Silly girls got ahold of my phone and put a bunch of scarecrow pictures on themselves.

Day Family Reunion

Soccer time

When you sign up for soccer, you know your are going to live soccer for a couple of months. Dave agreed to coach Mayzie's team, and Beth and Aubrie were each on their own team as well, so we really lived soccer. But it turned out to be fun! We had practices during the week and 3 games each Saturday, that luckily were spaced enough that we could see them each play. It was fun to watch them improve and gain esteem in the game. Mayzie had some intensely trained little guys on her team, so Dave was awesome about teaching them teamwork "ie sharing the ball and passing instead of scoring all the goals". She finally got in there and kicked in a goal on her last game. The kids were really cute.

Endless summer

We wish summer was endless, well at least longer! It seems we always need a little more time to do all the things we had planned. But we did squeeze a lot into August. We took the girls on the boat a lot this summer, so we had to squeeze in a few more boat trips. We also had to do a bounce-back at Lagoon with cousins! And of course the splash pad. They also have loved going up for sleepovers and swim parties with their grandparents and cousins this summer!!
One of our favorite nights this summer, I didn't get a picture of. But we went night swimming at the American Fork pool. We were there all evening, and after the sun went down it was so fun and relaxing. The kids were in heaven. It is a really fun pool. Mayzie and Bethany dared to go off the diving board and loved it! Thanks Seven Peaks for being closed that night. Prince David and Prince John making potions in the swimming pool for the girls.

Camp Jeremiah Johnson

I got to chaperone the Activity days girls up to day camp this summer. I really enjoyed the pretty drive. The camp was so freakin' hot! But still fun and I got to be with my girls and their cute friends. They really liked it.

Neptune Park

This is the girls' new favorite park. They love climbing to the top of the giant rope tower. Lots of new stuff to try!

At the farm...with her BFF

A last summer fling as kindergarten is about to start. A hot day at the farm :) But they had to wait it out to ride the ponies!

Thanksgiving Marathon

So we decided to hit up $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point before the girls all headed back to school. We ended up being there for about 9 hours! We went through the beautiful gardens first, and had a picnic there. Then after splashing through the Noah's Ark at the children's garden, we got ice cream and decided to hit up the Dinosaur Museum. My girls are troopers! And we had so much fun together. I love hanging out with my girls ;)

13 and loving it

We officially have a teenager in our house. Wish Dave luck over the next few years!
Aubrie got to turn 13 while riding a fun wave behind our boat! She had a great party with nice friends and lots of swimming time, pizza, 2 cakes...what more could a teen girl ask for? :)
She is a good helper at our house, and has been staying busy with YW activities and babysitting and earning money! And visiting the snow cone shack. She'll be doing soccer, and maybe volleyball soon, and working hard as an 8th grader now! Love you Abbs!

Golden Girls

Well my kids now have that golden glow of summer. I guess that means we have been having lots of fun. I really do apply sunblock to them! This summer has been so fun. We have visited Trafalga and the Seven Peaks resorts quite a few times :)



We just got back from Lagoon last night. Boy did they have a blast. Stayed from opening to closing again! They love it. I guess Dave and I do too, especially when we have fun people to go with!


July has been really hot and really full of fun stuff to do...
Parade, Family, BBQ, swimming and fireworks. Great holiday :)


East Canyon: Boating, sleeping in the cabin, s'mores and cousins!


The kids love the Blair Family Reunion at the Caley's home! (Thank you Regi & Doug) So much fun swimming and playing games, eating churros, cotton candy, and just being spoiled by their grandmas!

June was busy with dance recitals, dressing up, learning tricks on the tramp, visiting grandmas and grandpas, splash pad with cousins, snow cones, and just watching some netflix and relaxing :)


We have also really enjoyed having our boat this summer. Dave has used it with the scouts at Flaming Gorge and the YW at Utah Lake. And we have had fun just taking friends out with our family on Utah Lake, and using the new raft Grandma and Grandpa B. got for it. Lots of fun!
We also squoze in trips to the park, picnics at the splashpad, and survived our fire on the mountain this summer!

Birthday girl

Our baby girl is 5! She has been so excited, waiting for this birthday to come! She is so much fun to have in our family. She loves to cuddle with mom, but is less likely to let her sisters kiss and hug her. So when she falls asleep, they sneak up for a hug or kiss, because she's just too darn adorable when she's asleep. It's pretty funny.
Thanks to Netflix, she has watched probably every episode of Dora and Blues Clues now. She decided she wanted a Blues Clues party with the Blair side; we did that on Memorial Day.



On her real birthday, her sweet Aunt Crystal came down to host as "Cinderella" for her princess party to her little friends. We had a great turnout, so many kids! They had fun being treated royally, climbing the tower to Rapunzel, getting pedicures, dance freeze tag, making crowns and yummy pink cupcakes and lemonade. They had great manners, and were fun to have over!


For her family birthday dinner, we met up with our friends the Struhs' at Chuck E. Cheese. Mayzie loved it there, they earned plenty of tickets to pick out lots of awesome prizes ;) And we got really cute pictures of all of us in their sketch photo booth. I'm thinking of hanging them on the living room wall; but not really.



For her Johnstun party, we had to wait for them to get back in town from Hawai'i, so they got to come to Pony Express Days. The parade is just around the corner from our house, so we just walk out and lay our blanket down that morning. Pretty fun, and the kids got lots of fun stuff, candy, t-shirts, frisbees, etc. The girls also performed at the carnival, so after lunch we went and watched and shopped and then played water games later. A 9 hour party for some guests! It was pretty cool! Then we had some cousins sleep over. My kids sure love their cousins!

Out for Summer!

Wow, we survived the last 2 weeks of May, which were chuck full of ceremonies, graduations, parties, and had us running here and there, but they were worth it. Aubrie finished up her track season making it to district level in high jump and shot put.
Alyssa went to the Provo track meet with her running club and did well too, she got an award for the 100 meter dash. She was proud of herself for running faster than all the boys in her 4th grade class :) She and Beth both got the Presidential Fitness Award as well.





Bethany had her gymnastics expo, and got to feel what it's like to perform and be critiqued and scored at a meet. She did great.



They had lots of fun easy days for the last week of school. The elementary school's CRT scores were so high, beating past records, that the principal threw the kids a party and rented bounce houses and slides at a local park to reward them. They also got Field Day with dunk tank and store, splash pad day, kickball vs. teachers; Lyssa got to go bowling and the dinosaur museum too; lots of fun.





Aubrie's school gave them a fiesta, and movies, and Hawai'ian dancers, and she took lots of pictures at her yearbook day. Not to mention a carnival always comes to our neighborhood on the last week of school. Pretty spoiled!

The kids were all diligent and worked hard and got all A's, and so we get to spoil them this summer doing lots of fun stuff now. Way to go girls!

Little Graduate

Miss Mayzie has officially graduated from her Little Star Academy preschool. She had an awesome graduation ceremony, with songs and a microphone, cute homemade guitars, and cute interviews. She had been talking about it for weeks, and it was fun to see her so happy to perform and proud of herself. Daddy got to come and we even spoiled Alyssa, and checked her out of school to come watch. When all the other little girls were answering "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with "princess", they got to Mayzie, and she announced she would be "a police officer and a firefighter" :) They sang "Mr. Golden Sun", and "Zippidy Doo Da", and "Twinkle Star", and a cute pig/wolf song.

She had a great time with her sweet teacher Miss Mallory. She loved making nice new friends, and she has been reading her big "Dick and Jane" book, and is all set for kindergarten. I guess now that she turned five, I have to face that she is growing up and headed to school in the fall! I will just have to enjoy summer with my "baby girl" for now. We are so proud of you and love you, miss "Maymay!"






With her teacher


Celebrating with ice cream, with her preschool buddy :)

These kind of saturdays...

Today was one of those Saturdays, that started early with fun plans and never stopped. It's the kind of fun Saturdays I hope my kids will have fun memories of when they are older :) It definitely felt like summer today, but the kids have 2 more weeks of school!
The abbreviated version:
5k this morning for Alyssa and I!


Mayzie learned to ride her 2 wheeler!


Street art party




The long version, mostly for me to remember details later :)

Our Saturday :
*Lyssa and I reached our goal to do a 5k together this morning! She did so amazing 32.5 min, I was really proud of her! (I came in right behind her, 33 min)
*Then she had track practice, so she also did a 100 meter race, a 200 meter race and some relay races, and still had the energy to win most of them.
*We also hit a neighborhood yard sale and bake sale, then
*Dad set up the trampoline walls so they had fun with "swimming noodle wars" on the tramp.
*Then we all went to our neighborhood snow cone shack, my kids are in love with this place. We all try eachother's, I think Alyssa and Bethany's flavors won today, BlueRaspberry cheesecake, and TigersbloodCoconut :)
*Next on the agenda: Mayzie learned to ride a 2 wheeler this afternoon! I had been practicing with her for a couple days, but Dave helped her for a few minutes today and really got her going, and now she's already a pro. Using her brakes and turning corners and everything! So adorable! And still 4 (barely.)She was really proud of herself!
*Homemade soup and Lion House Rolls (thanks to Anna's blackbook recipe)
*Homemade rootbeer from our backyard neighbors (We like to share treats over the fence)
*Dave went with the Priests to the Salt Lake football game
*Lyssa got to babysit her cute little buddy (2 yr old boy "L")
*Impromptu chalk art street party in our circle
*Movie night with the girls
Now, I'm exhausted. I've been running on 2 hrs sleep all day. But it was still a fun day :)

Speaking of school ending:
My kids always cry on the last day of school as it hits them that they will not be seeing their teacher and friends for a while, or never in some cases. I remember just holding 5 yr old Aubrie in my lap and letting her cry the day she came home from her last day of kindergarten. She had really loved Mrs. Wessell.
We'll see how they do this year, but I would put money on Bethany bawling this year. She has a very special 2nd grade teacher, and last week we gave teacher gifts for "teacher week" and Bethy wrote a personal note for "Mrs. M." I read it and started to cry, then took a picture so we wouldn't forget it. Bethy came home from school and said, teacher really liked my note, I saw her start to cry and she asked me for a hug, and then another one afterschool too. I have been so grateful for the awesome teachers my kids have had over the years, that helped my daughters succeed and feel special and loved.
The end

Funnest Place on Earth ;)

Warning: a boatload of pictures in this post
Yes, our family snuck off to California, and yes we had a great time. So much fun that the kids absolutely did not want the trip to end; even our dear old dad said he liked it so much we might head back again fairly soon. We had planned to go in May, but decided we had too much going on then, so we finally decided to go Monday Apr 9th, bought tickets and packed all day Tuesday (and did our taxes), and Wednesday morning we were off! Kind of crazy and spontaneous, but it worked and I actually packed really well, right down to the minnie mouse and disney princess pajamas. The kids endured the traveling really well, so I was grateful.

Up early and ready to head out!

We spent the first few days visiting Sea World, Universal Studios, the beach, and Calif. Adventure, so we saved Disneyland for our last days, which worked out great as all the spring break crowds were gone that way, plus 70-80 degrees days. Perfect.

Planning out their day :)

My kids are troopers! We'd ride in on the morning shuttle and stay till closing. Mayzie used her stroller to nap in as needed, and we hit about 25 rides a day; in fact I think we hit nearly every ride in the park. The kids were feeling adventurous, so we could all go on most the rides together.
Dave's Fave: Tower of Terror
Aubrie's, mom's and Bethany's faves: California Screamin' and Space Mountain
Alyssa's faves: Soarin' over California and Star Tours
Mayzie's faves: Splash Mountain and Ariel's Underwater Adventure
They all liked the night shows and the parade and the ice cream shop.

All tuckered out!

I think we took a bazillion pictures and they got to meet lots of new friends. Mayzie was especially spoiled as she got to meet Ariel and Flynn Rider while wearing her new Rapunzel dress. A 4 yr old's dream come true! :)

We really loved our hotel. It had a nice pool area, right outside our front room door. The kids loved the swimming time we could sneak in! The hotel fed us well each morning, which Dave especially appreciated. And the staff was nice and accommodating. We even found a church really close by, which we were grateful for.

Outside our room.

It turned out to be a really fun trip; too bad they end so fast. But now we have summer to look forward to.
Day 1 Calif Adventure


Day 2 Universal Studios


Day 3 Sea World, San Diego


Day 4 Malibu beach

Day 5 Disneyland

Day6 Disneyland

Day 7 Swimming

-The End