Goodbye Jermaine!

At the beginning of June, we decided it was time to say goodbye to Jermaine. Last fall, Chad was about to take it to go pickup the trailer we needed to move all of the band equipment to the stadium for our first field show! But, the van wouldn't shift into reverse to back out of the driveway, which prompted a scramble to find a truck to pickup the trailer. Anyway, it hasn't really moved since then. Chad eventually drove it around the house to the back driveway just to get it out of sight(ish). So, after 6 1/2 years with Chad, we cleaned him out, took some pictures and said goodbye. We had a fun time with the van, and it came in extremely handy when I became a band director. We liked it because it was big and boxy with tons of room. We were sad to see it go, but we knew this day was coming. (We bought the Forester last January because we knew our cars (the van and the old Subaru Legacy) wouldn't last very much longer.) 

Mom's Birthday

Right after school got out, mom had a birthday! She was in Utah to help with Hazel, so we decided to surprise her and bring the party to her! We got to Provo around 10 or 11, watched a "parade", had yummy catered barbecue lunch, helped with the kids while mom went shopping, had dinner, and opened presents!

They had a funeral procession for a soldier who was killed in Iraq/Afghanistan. Here are the cousins waiting for the hearse to come by. 

Lookin' good!! 

Obligatory birthday dinner at Chuck-A-Rama/Golden Corral/Stuff-your-face-land. 

Um. No comment. Love you, Will!  

Opening Presents!

Will and mom reading "60 for your Sixtieth" - 10 thank you notes from each of her children. 

Mom with her Nexus. 

Flowers from dad. 

Self-portrait by Sawyer. 

Wanting to go outside. 

And... Charlie would not let go of this ladybug cart the whole time we were there. 

Not quite the mother/daughter picture I was going for but hey! 3 generations!! 

Chad's Birthday

For Chad's 33rd Birthday, we went to dinner at Dickey's barbecue, and then came home to have cake and open presents. The cake was acting up, which I assume was because I tried to bake it the day before, which happened to be Mother's Day. Everyone knows the mom's not supposed to do anything on Mother's Day. The cake wouldn't release from the pan, didn't rise very much, burnt a little bit on the bottom, and the frosting didn't thicken up. Buuuuuutttttt it still tasted really good. Yum! 

Blowing out the candles! 

Cake

Ove' Glove from Chad's parents

CD of music from the Ken Burns' National Parks documentary. (I bought it in Yellowstone the week before)


Chad's big gift was concert tickets to go see the Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20 in concert in New Hampshire on June 25th when we visited Connecticut. Updates about that will be in the CT post(s). 

School is almost over!

Summer is just around the corner. I am preparing finals and wrapping up classes. And this is how I feel:

Yellowstone 2013

At the beginning of May, mom came out to help with Erin's baby. She got here early so she could come up and visit before the baby was born. Hazel made an early arrival, but we still managed to skip church and get in a visit to Yellowstone. We love visiting Yellowstone since we are so (relatively) close! That is something we will definitely miss if when we move. (I figured out the "strikethrough" feature, can you tell?)

Sunday, May 5th, 2013

Not zoomed in! 

All tuckered out... awww

The dinosaur poop thing. 

Old Faithful

Artist's Paint Pots