Vegas

From Disneyland we got back in the car and headed back to Vegas. I know, lots of driving! It wasn't too bad with Claire not with us! haha James took the boys to a fun chocolate factory and cactus garden while Stacey and I got to go see the Lion King! It was amazing! The costumes, set and acting was phenomenal. I enjoyed it so much.

Before and after the play we walked the strip and looked at all the crazy street performers. The boys drove by to see these transformers. They thought they were awesome.
We saw this Michael Jackson impersonator before and after the play and he was dancing and singing too. He must have been exhausted!
Hello Kitty wouldn't let us get a good picture of her because we wouldn't give her a tip. Lame.
After the chocolate and cactus fun, the boys went back over to my Aunt Jean and Uncle Kerry's house to swim in their beautiful pool! It was pretty freezing at 68 degrees but they stayed in as long as possible!
These pictures were taken by James' helmet GoPro cam. He also made some fun videos that I have no idea how to upload. Oh well.
Stacey and I met up with my good friend Layne who loves in Vegas going to nursing school. He was so fun to hang out with and we went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory after looking for the Hardrock Hotel for about 2 hours and finally realizing its about 6 miles from the strip. Pink Taco will have to wait I guess! :) We then went to the Bellagio to see the fountain show and got to see Your Song by Elton John and also Time to Say goodbye by Sarah Brightman. Two of my favorites!! To round out the night we rode the big shot at the Stratosphere. I have ridden it a couple of times before but it was still just as great as the first time. What an adrenaline rush! It was a fun, fast paced weekend. My feet killed from walking so much! Back to Utah for more fun...

Disneyland

Right after Carter's graduation, we packed up the car and headed to Disneyland! (Well, slept in Vegas that night then headed there the next morning at 5:30 am) James' cousin Stacey was here for another visit from England for 10 days and had never been to Disneyland or Las Vegas. She is a big Disney fan so we decided to take her for a quick weekend trip. We left Claire with my mom and had a great time just enjoying Disneyland with the boys. They were so much fun and loved it.

SO happy to be here! There was a cool marching band playing behind them.

Eating lunch and enjoying the people watching

First ride-Pirates of the Caribbean. Can you tell they were excited?Jungle Cruise! Preston and Stacey had a little bond while she was here. He loved her!

Buzz Lightyear- Presto's favorite!

Disneyland isn't complete without some mickey ice cream!

Splash Mountain-Preston's face is classic!

We then headed over to California Adventure. Stacey and James went on California Screamin' and I took the boys to Bugs Land.
We went over to Toy Story Mania which Stacey had never been on before. The line was really long...

...so we had to get creative

The tablet is always helpful too!

3d baby!

We then rode Soarin over California and then headed back over to Disneyland to watch the fireworks. When we were there in January we were never able to watch them because we had Claire with us and she went to bed way before they started. It was fun to see them! It got really cold that night and of course we forgot the boys jackets in the car at our hotel. We bought them cute Disneyland sweatshirts that they will be wearing for a long time!! They were so expensive! We barely made it back to the hotel with Carter awake. We were all wiped out! One day at both parks is hard! You can't pack it all in! But we did get to ride most of the rides we wanted. The new Ariel ride started that day but didn't even start running until 3:30 and by the time we got over there the line was over 2 hours. So was Star Tours. Bummer. Carter was still too short for Indiana Jones too. Lame. Lots to look forward to next time we go! We love Disneyland!

James' 30th Birthday

James is always so great to be so creative for my birthdays so I knew I needed to do something great for his 30th. I planned a weekend getaway with just me and him up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to go river rafting. Sounds great right? Well, like I mentioned before, May had the most rain on record and so there has been flooding everywhere. There was a huge mudslide on the road up to the river. It was shut down the weekend we were going, so we had to cancel our hotel and reschedule our rafting trip for July. Bummer. So with no ideas, he had a boring birthday to say the least. We did take him to breakfast at IHOP and then I got reservations at Communal in Provo for dinner. It was delicious and we had a good time reminiscing about old times. He got to exercise, play basketball with the boys, and take a nap. So I guess it wasn't all bad. Just not what you would picture for your 30th birthday. Carter had this idea for his birthday cake. I thought it was brilliant!

Happy 30th James! Now you are as old as me, for atleast 6 months. :)

End of school activities and other random photos

Preston's last day of preschool they had a pajama party and got to bring their pillows and some treats to watch a movie. He wore his favorite skeleton jammies and posed with his two carpool friends Hank Vernon and Saige Smith. I miss driving these little cuties to school.
Carter's last homework assignment for kindergarten was doing a research paper. He had to choose an animal and do a report and a diorama of it. He chose a horse and he and James worked hard on it. The fence was made of matchsticks, cotton ball clouds, and a cute little red barn cut by James. Parents got to come to his class and then they told Mrs. Belnap 5 facts about their animal. He did great! Did you know that China has the biggest population of horses? I didn't either!
We had one nice day (the weather in May was horrible) so I put Claire in the swing in the backyard. She was smiling the whole time and then started saying "weeee" in the cutest, tiniest, little voice.
For the last week of school the kindergarteners had "fun days". They did different things every day. This day was cowboy day. They made these stick horses and had races. They also had bubble day, watermelon day,cookie day, and space days. They made little space helmets and learned about planets.
He also was wearing his lovely firefighter rain boots to complete the "cowboy" look.
This picture makes me laugh every time I see it! She loves markers!
I gave Preston a tiny piece of chocolate and then saw him watching tv looking like this! Not sure how it got everywhere, but I had to snap a picture and send it to James!

Kindergarten and Preschool Graduations

This picture sums up pretty much the whole program of Preston's preschool graduation. The little stinker! He first of all wouldn't sit up with his classmates. I think he was embarrassed. I finally got him to sit up there. He sang the first song great! Then his face changed and he wouldn't sing any of the rest of the songs or do any of the actions.
I was getting a little nervous because he had a little speaking part that he was supposed to say. With this attitude, he would definitely not be saying it!
He was also puffing his cheeks out and pressing the air out the whole time too. So funny. Almost the moment of truth... (notice the girl on the left is his 2nd girlfriend Evelyn, Saige is his number 1 girlfriend).
"And the alphabet song kept us on the run" said perfectly! I was pretty proud of him! He told me later that he had decided that he was only going to sing ONE song and say his part, that was it. He is so stubborn sometimes! I caught him a few times singing along with the class and then he would remember that he was only going to sing ONE song so he would stop and put on his sad face. Little stinker. Later she read the answers to questions she had asked the students. Preston's favorites were red, chicken nuggets, and he wanted to be a firefighter when he grows up. That was a new one! We loved Mrs. Marie and will miss her class next year.

Carter walking into the gym with his class to pomp and circumstance.

He cheesed it for me for a good 2 minutes to make sure I got a picture of him smiling. He's so hilarious and adorable.

He was so proud of himself. I loved seeing him so confident.

They sang a few songs and said a little poem "We've been sitting still a long, long time and we've about gone our limit, but if you would like to take some pictures we will sit still for one more minute." Carter just recited it for me.
They then announced every child's name and you could get a quick picture with their teacher. Carter was the 3rd kid to be announced and I was not ready! Oh well, we did cheer really loud!
After being in the gym we separated into classes and Mrs. Belnap talked about how much she has enjoyed his class this year. She got teary eyed about how proud she was of them and how much she was going to miss them! It was really sweet. She then presented them with a little diploma and sent them to get their books with all of their schoolwork bound together. Carter looked at it our whole drive to Disneyland.
Poor Mrs. Belnap is due with her baby girl in a few weeks! She was probably exhausted! Carter had a great year and a great teacher. Now he goes to school ALL DAY for first grade! We are both so excited! He is most excited to eat lunch in the lunchroom. So proud of him!

Claire is 1!

My baby is 1! This year has flown by. She got some fun cards from England to open. I love her face in this picture. It looks like she is thinking "hmmm wonder who this is from?"

The night before her birthday we had Megan, Mike, and Peter over for dinner. I bought her a little piece of red velvet cake and we sang to her. She devoured it! Finally a baby that will eat some birthday cake! My other two weren't into it.
I saw this "I'm the birthday girl" shirt and had to get it. C'mon, it had a pink cupcake! haha
Her actual birthday was pretty low key. Our neighborhood was having a garage sale so of course we had to get rid of stuff too. So we spent the morning/afternoon sitting outside selling stuff. The boys got lots of their toys together that they didn't play with and I let them keep the money they made. They made enough to buy Lego Indiana Jones on the wii. They were so excited! Carter wanted Claire to go to Texas Roadhouse for her birthday so she could ride the saddle. It wasn't too busy, so we decided, why not?
How cute is her little pink skirt too? She was having fun dancing with Carter to us singing to her.

I felt a little stupid asking the waiter to bring the saddle over for a one year old, but he did! We didn't have them sing to her, I just wanted a picture of her on it. She was a little scared! She loved her mac and cheese and the rolls. She ate double what the boys ate! We had a great day with her and love her to the moon and back.