Spring Break and Birthday Week In Destin!

This past week we had the pleasure of being invited by our friends the Larsen's to join them at their parents beach house in Destin, Florida. I was a little hesitant at first because of the amount of people and the chaos, but it really ended up being a wonderful week. We went with the Larsen, Wharton, Brown, and Hatch families. They are great families and they each have some of my kids best friends in them. 

The drive to Destin went pretty well. We left Saturday morning. We had some traffic but overall it went well. Ella even drove an hour and a half of the way there and back and did a really good job. 

We got there in time for a perfect sunset.

The house was right on the beach and was perfect. 

We did a nice sacrament meeting together on Sunday morning and then relaxed and played games. Monday was a nice beach day. The weather was still a little chilly, but sunny and beautiful.

Family beach photo!

Cavin found a way to still play soccer on the beach with his friend Audrey.

Ella and Katelyn were best buds all week!

The first few days Jennie's friend Helen joined us. It was nice to meet her and she was sweet. 

I love the boys relationship. They love to be together. 

The sound of the waves and the sunsets almost make it worth the sandy mess ;)

The kids played cross net and in the pool.

We built a lot of sandcastles.

Channing had a sweet set of girls to hang out with all week. 

I had some pretty awesome women as well!

This was Sharlene, Nikki, Jennie, me, and Rachael.

Deacon was so excited to find tickle crabs. 

The first day we made the bat mobile. 

The kids really enjoyed boogie boarding in the waves. 

Tuesday was raining so they played games and hung out all together. Wednesday was my 39th birthday!

Ragnar got 5 dozen donuts to celebrate. We went on an early morning run together. 

We spent the day at the beach and then the adults went to dinner. We tried in traffic to get to a restaurant and then it took an hour and the wait was 2 more so we ended up at a Greek restaurant but that was fine cause they had a nice burger!

We came back and my friends Jennie and Shane sang a cute song they made for me and then the kids all did karaoke. 

The last beach day on Thursday was perfect. It warmed up enough to really swim and it was a great day out. 

On the last beach day we spent hours making this Destin sign. So many people came to take pictures with it, so that was fun. 

The boys!

The girls!

Here were the couples, minus Jordan who couldn't come. 

Ella's friend Cayden made a "sandman" Olaf with her. 

Our whole group!

We went to Alvin's to get matching shirts/sweatshirts. 

They had smores and made sugar cookies. 

On the last day we got to go to the Rainforest black light mini golf place and meet up with my friend Candice Waters. 

It was so good to see her!

Tyler and Cavin used to be the best buddies!

They live in Florida now and I have missed her so much! She is the best. 

We drove home Saturday and made good time. It really was a great trip with so many fun memories. We had great company, food, weather, and fun games every day! We loved Destin and were so glad we got to go. 

School Activities

Spring is always filled with lots of fun things. Ella and Cavin have been doing a lot of UIL orchestra performances and I love watching them perform. 

Ella's Lyrica group got all 1's in the competition which is the highest. 

I liked her songs that were chosen a lot more than her past concert. 

Cavin also had his performance and his group also got 1's.

I am glad Ella and Cavin have their love of cello. I enjoy listening to them play. 

Channing had her 5th grade Manner's banquet. She was so excited to dress up and have a fun, special day. 

These are her close friends Maely and Meg.

This is her "partner" for the day, Keaton.

They got to eat fancy food and had a cute slideshow to finish off their years in Elementary School.

I got to set up and be a waitress for the event. It was fun to be with her. 

Finally, Cavin began Track season. He wasn't planning on doing Track, but his coach convinced him to do it as cross training for Soccer season and I am so glad. He is running the 2400m and has improved each meet. It is a race no one likes to do, cause it's a lot of laps and kinda boring, but it was always been my favorite. 

My budding runner and me! I just love Track meets and proud of him for trying new things and doing his best. 

I am glad my kids are involved in many things and are working hard and thriving. 

Spring Soccer Season 2022

Wahoo!! Spring Soccer has begun! Bring on the sunburns and Saturdays at the fields! We love soccer and I love watching my kids play! Cavin and Ragnar are reffing again which is great for Cavin to earn money. He is doing track season right now and then will start soccer in a month for the school. Ragnar is coaching Channing's U12-14 girls team again and 16 of the 18 players returned so that is fun. Deacon is also returning to his team where 10 of the 12 are returning. They have loved their teams. Deacon is the black bombs and Channing team is still undecided :) We are looking forward to a great season and personal progression!

" A Mid Summer Night's Dream" Performance

On February 18th &19th Ella and Cavin participated in a performance of Shakespeares "A Mid Summer Nights Dream." Ella had done a mini Shakespeare camp over the summer and they did a few mini plays, but this one was the full length play. They changed it to be set in the 1940's during the First World War. Ella was cast as Petra Quince the nurse and very bad director. Cavin was asked to be part of the stage crew behind the scenes and he enjoyed being a part of it all and was their best cheerleader and supporter. 

Three amazing women from our ward, Jeri Wyn Mumford, Sharlene Hatch, and Eva Armendariz put together the whole performance and the set and costumes were awesome! They did flyers and shirts and made it a real production. Both nights had a great showing and the second night was packed. 

Ella really has enjoyed having this outlet to do some acting as she doesn't have it in her schedule to do at school and here this is a safe, clean environment for them to do it in whereas the plays at school have gotten pretty racy with a lot of inappropriate dialogue and material.

Ella and Cavin ready for the second performance. 

Ella's part had a lot of death stares and eye roll, which she has down pat! :)

The big cast and crew!

Cavin's orchestra teacher from school came to support them!

The after performance hot tub pool party :) Such great kids! They did an awesome job! I am amazed by all their talent!

Curling Fun!

For my dad's birthday, each year I try and find an activity we can do together. I got him a "learn to curl" class in July and it took months for us to find one that worked for his temple schedule and was on a Saturday! We finally found one!

With the Olympics on there are more classes and it was fun to see how they do curling. It definitely takes more skill than it looks like. 

It was a little sketchy standing on the ice at first but then your feet got used to it. 

We had to first learn how to slide on the ice and the how to release the rock and then how hard to push it and finally how to sweep it!

I made the game shot to win for our team, right near the center... now only if it was on purpose ;)

I'm glad I got to spend the time with my dad. It was a nice outing and I wish it happened more often!

February Break to Great Wolf Lodge!

For Christmas we gave the kids a trip to Great Wolf Lodge near Dallas, Texas for a present. We booked a hotel for 3 days and two nights and went to see what all the hype was about. It wasn't too busy because our school district has so many random breaks, so it was nice to not have to deal with too many crowds! We drove up Monday and went shopping for a bit and then spent the next two days trying out all the slides at the indoor water park!

The kids are at great ages where they could do everything and stay in pairs and were off having fun. 

The hurricane was the scariest ride, but also the most fun. 

The boys enjoyed the basketball hoops. 

We watched the Olympics and a movie.

We played Bingo and most of us won. Ragnar got the very first two bingos!

They met Willey the wolf. 

We got ice cream and ate yummy food. 

Channing had on her wolf ears almost the whole time :)

We finished off the trip at Red Robin where we got together with Ragnar's cousin Stephanie Yost and Aunt Brigette and Uncle Kent. It was a nice, short getaway and I enjoy all the time we get to spend with our family!