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Monday, June 24, 2013

Class of 2013

Tanner graduated this June. He comes from such a great family.  His grandparents, 2 aunts and three cousins came all the way down here to support him. It was a great week.  Our company showed up Tuesday, June 4th.  The kids were still in school, so we didn't do much Wednesday.  Thursday however, we went down on the strip.  Trampis hadn't been here for awhile and so we went to the Bellagio and Ceasars palace.  It was hot, but we enjoyed the free sights.  I made a lot of dinners this week too.  We ate good:  lettuce wraps one night, Enchiladas; some meatless, some cheeseless, some with red sauce, some with green sauce, some with flour and some with corn tortillas. Pork loin one night and a bbq with hamburgers, hotdogs and grilled pesto chicken.  Let's just say no one was ever hungry!!  Graduation was very good actually.  We knew three of the 4 valedictorian speakers and Tanner was on the front row and got a lot of camera time on the overhead screens.  It was cool in the Thomas and Mack center and we had good seats.  The graduation itself is actually very organized and goes quickly and smoothly.  Now if it was that easy getting out of the parking lot, it would have been nice.  I was driving dad's car with mom, dad and Tanner in it.  Garry was driving the suburban with everyone else.  They got out of the parking lot quickly as they were on the other side.  However, it took us a half an hour to get out!!  We were going to the multi-gen center to see Cynjyn in a teen harmony performance that started at 6.  We walked in the doors right at 6.  It was nice that the two coincided so that family could support both, but it sure made for a hectic afternoon.  Luckily, we had the delicious pork loin in the crockpot waiting for us! 
We made our traditional t-shirts for Tanner.  They turned out cute with raccoons on them and Goon pride/team Tanner.  Trampis had just graduated the Sunday before and it was so nice to have him come down.  We don't get to see him much and it was a fun time!!
The Oregonians and Idahoans took full advantage of our pool and we swam in it for the first time It's not as cute as our old pool, but it seems bigger and it still cooled us off!


Love you Tanner!  You have a bright future ahead of you! Take advantage of every opportunity!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

"May the Fourth" be with you...

May found Talon and I at the end of our weekly lunch dates at Tanner's school. We went on our last Thursday to the cinco de mayo celebration.  It was a yummy three enchilada meal.
Our primary had a pirate activity and Garry, Cynjyn and I helped out at it.  We all dressed up and only in LV do pirates all wear black shorts!!
My brother Randy who lives in Oregon had a birthday May 4th.  I told him that we were celebrating by going to Iron Man 3 as a family!  He said to order some popcorn for him.  Luckily, we had a ticket for a free medium popcorn, otherwise we couldn't have celebrated so deliciously.  All of us but Talon were there, we all loved it.
We have discovered a grilled chicken pesto that we love.  Garry likes to make it because he can use his meat mallot that mom gave him one year.  We've had this chicken several times since grilling season began!
The Shafers invited a few families to their May the Fourth be with you party.  They set up the Hill's projector in their backyard and we all brought lawn chairs to sit on.  I tried Princess Leia braids, but they were tiny with my thin hair, so I ended up not wearing them.
This was as close as Cynjyn got to Star Wars hair.
We brought our popcorn machine.
We enjoyed visiting and playing with Madeline while waiting for it to get dark enough to start the movie.
Other families brought snacks and Andrea had some themed snacks too.
Cynjyn hung with Grady most of the night.
Tanner is the Shafer's regular babysitter, so Madeline hung out on his nap most of the night and almost fell asleep!
I got a Pampered Chef food chopper and made my big batch of delicious spaghetti sauce.  I chopped all my peppers, onion, olives and mushrooms with it.  Then to top it off I got fresh basil out of the garden and added that too.  It makes three meals and we all love it.
Taz's volleyball team made  the playoffs, but were eliminated early on.  Still it was fun to go watch and cheer them on knowing the end was close.

 Cynjyn had a year end dance recital.  Her teacher is Miss Megan who happens to be her YW President too.  Cynjyn had a great year as she was in a class with all girls from our ward that she knew and especially happy to be with her best friend Bethany.







 She is a beautiful young woman and a beautiful dancer and we were so proud of her at the recital.  We couldn't take our eyes off her. 

Tanner had an end of year Senior party.  We set up the camera with a photo booth and had a box of costumes for them to play in.  Here are Cody, Krista and Tanner making sure it works.

I had my year end recital early this year to avoid conflicts with school concerts and events, May 13.  I wrapped some rolos and tagged the gifts for my students: " You did a bang up job tonight, hope you have a great summer!"  I got a couple of gifts, this sign a gift card and a bundt cake.
 Tyler made me this sweet card!
 I had a blank wall in my living room, that I have been just waiting to decorate.  So I finally decided what I wanted to do and had a creating day!  I love how my canvases turned out.
 Our tomatoes are thriving and we picked our first batch of grape tomatoes, Tanner's favorite.
 For some reason we have an infestation of roly poly's in our garden.  We thought putting straw down might prevent them from eating our strawberries and squash.  We will see.


 Cynjyn's year end concert.
 The weekend before Memorial Day, my brother texted me that he and his wife were going to be sealed the next Saturday in the Logan temple and we were all welcome to come, but he knew it was far away and wasn't expecting us to come.  Well, Tanner, Cynjyn and I decided to go on a road trip to Logan over the long weekend.  The kids had the Friday before Memorial day off, so we thought that was perfect.  Unfortunately, Garry and Taz stayed behind to go to the father and sons outing.  Garry was in charge and Taz had invited some nonmember friends to go with him already.  We arrived in Logan on Friday and went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  The next day, we drove around a little waiting for mom, dad, Ky and Kris to show up.  They got there around noon and changed in our room.  Dad met Randy and Traci at the distribution center to get garments and then we went and got mom, Ky and Kris some lunch.  We showed up at the temple and got into the sealing room. It was the 5 of us and a married couple that were Traci's friends from Utah.  Tandy didn't know I was coming and so it was a surprise when they walked into the sealing room.  The ceremony was short and sweet and then they let us congratulate the couple.  I was the last one and Traci had been crying the whole ceremony.  She hugged me and thanked me for coming and said what a nice surprise it was to see me.  Then I got to Randy and hugged him.  He said I didn't have to come and then let out a big sob and was crying.  Mom, Dad, Ky and Krissy heard him from the hall.  Of course I was crying by then and was so glad that I'd made the effort to go down there.  Plus I was the only one my brother cried for!  The happy couple:
 The couple with mom and dad.  Mom had just had catarak surgery and was supposed to wear these weird glasses while outside.  I wanted one picture without the glasses, so I got the camera ready and said one two three ready and she quickly took them off for the picture.  But then they remained on the rest of the pictures.
 The Goon's and Waite's
 Spectators.
 Me and my mom and dad!  Love this picture.
 The Waite's (Mom and dad, me and my sisters and my brother and sister in law)
 Randy and his sisters and wife.
 The girls.
 Texas Roadhouse
 Dad took us to a local place Saturday after the ceremony for dinner it was called Annies.  They had a "kitchen sink" that was a giant banana split and if you ate it all you got a bumper sticker and your picture on the wall.  Cynjyn wanted to go for it.  So Grandpa bought it for her.  At last, she didn't make it all the way through, but she could have help.  So between us all we finished it off and she got her bumper sticker.

 After dinner, we went to some graveyards around the area where our ancestors were buried.  Tanner was the ghost whisperer and found most of the gravesites.  Here is dad by one of his ancestors.
 After it got dark Tanner still found graves and when we took pictures there was a bunch of ora's around him, so he really was the ghost whisperer.
 Cynjyn too, or maybe it was my camera?
 This is the very first one he found.

 Tanner had a Sr. awards night before graduation.  They gave out all the awards and scholarships and honors chords. 
 Tanner received a lot and we are proud of him and how hard he's studied and got good grades all through high school. 
 I finished up preschool and had a little ending party.  I loved my group this year and was very sad to see them all go!
 Talon ended up babysitting his girlfriends dog one weekend and brought him here to meet us.  Cynjyn and Bentley got a long great. 
 Talon is really good with dogs and they usually love him.
 And Cynjyn participated in the schools last spirit week of the year.  Tutu and tie Tuesday
 Workout Wednesday
 TyeDye Thursday
 Flashback Friday.  We got her tye dye and flashback dress at Goodwill.  The dress was only $.99!
Everyone is always surprised that she's not on student council because they think she has so much spirit and always participates in spirit weeks...she just loves to dress up!!