Jacob's Preschool Graduation

 

Jacob has graduated preschool! Here are some pictures (and videos) of him and his class from his cute graduation ceremony!

They sang a graduation song and then did the presentation of names. Here's Jacob's name being read (in the video below) but then I had to switch to picture mode. He looked very cute in his graduation cap and gown.

It was a short but sweet ceremony, then after they took the gowns back from all the kids, they let them each keep their tassel.

There was a really cute girl named Lily in Jacob's class that kept wanting to get a picture with Jacob. She really adored Jacob towards the end of the school year and would always get excited every time Jacob would actually hug her back, they were pretty cute together. And I just think this picture is cute the way she holds his and snuggles all close, and Jacob's just trying not to laugh, ha.

Even though Jacob's class already did their graduation ceremony they still had a week and a half more of class, but they were able to do lots of fun things. On their last day of class they did a picnic at the park and played games. I showed up near the end to watch them play duck duck goose.

 Here was Jacob on his turn. Everyone got a turn. It took forever, ha.

Teachers said goodbye, the kids sang goodbye. Aw, last day of preschool. But on Friday all the preschool kids in the program were invited to a carnival so he was able to see friends and teachers one last time. He got to wear his tye-dye shirt again that they all made, which I think turned out awesome! 

At the carnival- Jacob's head wouldn't fit in the first picture, so naturally he tried the other one, haha.

They had free cotton candy- yay!

They also had lots of fun games for the kids and they could earn little prizes at each station. It was cute and the boys both had fun with it and did each several times.

They both even got tatoos at the end. It was a fun way for Jacob to end his school year, and next year Blake will be going to preschool here! Not sure how he (or I!) feel about that yet- they're growing up quick! 

But we are proud of Jacob doing so well in preschool, I know he's learned a lot! Next up- kindergarten!! I hope we're ready!

Our First Disneyland Adventure!

I have way too many pictures to post from our Disneyland trip so I figure it's best to just do a slideshow so you get a feel for our trip- enjoy!

   We arrived in LA on a Saturday, and after hours of a car rental mix up we were finally on our way to Anaheim where we stayed at the Mariott across from Disneyland with Luke's family. We mostly just swam and were able to visit together that first night.

   On Sunday our family went to church, then we went drove towards the beach, took a little ferry, walked around, then later sat around Newport Beach while the kids played in the sand.

   Finally on Monday we went to Disneyland. One thing I learned: Do not lose your child's pass. That made the day much more stressful, but luckily we got it worked out. Oh and another thing I learned: bring good walking shoes. It was a lot to take in the first day but still a lot of fun.

   Tuesday was a really good day. It was our first day at California Adventure and we met Buzz, Lightening, and Mater that day and it was fun to experience all the fun rides and shows. That night we went to a Anaheim Angels game with the whole family.

   Wednesday morning I woke up feeling sick for a few hours but we finally made it back and spent most of the day at California Adventure and saw the Pixar Parade and then the Disney Parade, and the Light Show that night. It was a long day!

   So Thursday we finally took a day of rest at Huntington Beach. It was a nice hot day, and we all got slightly burned. The water was way to cold to go in (though Luke, Kenny, and John went in) but luckily the kids loved playing and relaxing in the sand. That night Jane and Kenny had their new baby Nora blessed so it was nice to get together and do that too.

   Friday was our last day at Disneyland. First we had a character breakfast so we got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Pluto, and Stitch. The kids absolutely loved it! We tried to do everything we hadn't gotten to do yet, along with repeating a few of the kid's favorites until we got too hot and went back to the hotel to swim. We went back that evening for a few extra rides, and I even got talked into doing the Tower of Doom, and even though the ride oddly stopped halfway through and then started over again, it was still fun. And what better way to end our week at Disney then with a fireworks show!

   Overall, the trip was really fun, and yes even magical! It was especially fun to see our kids reactions to everything.

   Jacob's favorite was the Star Tours ride and the Star Wars show. My biggest regret was that we were late (twice!) to get him to participate in the Jedi Training show and fight with Darth Vader but he said he was just glad to watch the show. I felt so bad he missed the opportunity, but I'm glad he was a good sport and was just happy to see all the Star Wars characters.

   Blake's favorite rides were the Toy Story rides where you could ride through and shoot things with the little laser guns. He also really liked the little Tow-Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. I was glad that he was still able to participate in a lot of the rides.

   I enjoyed almost everything, but my favorites were the Soaring California, and the Cars ride was fun too, and Luke liked Splash and Space Mountain.

   We were lucky to be able to go on this trip with Luke's family and that the boys could experience a lot of this with their cousins, and though we were hesitant about taking our kids at this age, we all had a great time! We felt like it wasn't too crowded considering it was the end of April, though it was very hot, but was overall such a fun and magical experience for us all! I'm sure we'll have to go back again someday soon!

Easter

 We started our Easter weekend off with the ward Easter Egg Hunt. The boys had a fun time, meanwhile Luke did the bbq and fries for the ward, so that was fun too. We came home and the boys got to dye some eggs, and were very excited!

On Easter the boys found their baskets when they woke up, and then I took some pictures of them before heading to church.

Ah, both of them looked so handsome! I also brought these yummy treats for the girls in my young women's class.

After church we did another little egg hunt in the yard. I love how sweet and cute the boys were that day. Our tradition on Easter is to also watch the movie The Testaments, which we all love. It was another great Easter day.

Back to Rexburg!

Flashback to 2004 (10 years ago!) when Luke and I were students at BYU-Idaho and just friends in the same FHE group.

We have fond memories of Rexburg and our time together out there, so we've been excited for my sister's graduation from BYU-Idaho this April as an excuse for us to go back to Idaho and see all the places we used to love to go.

One thing we used to love to do is drive through the canyon and go on hikes or just do dutch oven dinners. On our way into Rexburg on Wednesday we drove right by the canyon we used to always take, and were excited to drive through again but weren't too surprised to see it was still snow-packed and we would not be making it in. But we still took a picture to show we were there again.

But that was ok, we made it into Rexburg after a day's drive and were pleased to see the town itself hadn't changed much, though we loved seeing this new temple at the top of the hill! When we left Rexburg in 2007, the temple was nearly completed but we never had the chance to go in. It really is beautiful!

That first night in we met up with Julia and took her out for dinner, then let the boys play at the hotel pool. The next morning Luke showed up at his old campus job, at Stores and Receiving, wearing his old work shirt and surprised his old boss and coworkers. They were happy to see him and said he hadn't changed a bit!

 

Later we stopped by as a family so he could meet the kids. Luke really looks up to him so it was good for them to catch up :)

Then we spent a good amount of time walking around campus, checking out was was new and our old spots too. Here was me at the Hinckley building where I spent most of my education classes.

Jacob was getting a little tired of us talking about college so we stopped in the Benson for him to take a look at the little animal exhibit there. And even though he was getting a little tired walking around, I asked him if he would like to go to college here one day and he said yes- so I took this picture for him for future reference ;)

But we were most excited to see the new I-Center and were amazed at how big and beautiful it was.

Taking pictures didn't even give the room justice on how big it was, even with Luke's panoramic shot.

Mostly though, Luke was jealous he never got to play in one of the several basketball courts they have down there too, the place was huge! I took a ton more pictures of campus and we had a fun time walking around and checking it all out!

We got to stop by and see a few old friends, including Melanie, Stephanie, and Nicole Packer! They were in our old ward in Colorado but it was fun to see them up in Rexburg, all grown up :)

Luke and I were also amazed at the amount of new apartment complexes there are and compared to the places we used to live, these places are extremely nice! This is the complex my sister lives in.

So anyway, that Thursday night, my family got together and went to Julia's Interior Design Banquet.

Julia helped a lot to put that event together and she had her final project on display too. She and her group designed a hospital and it was aweome!

All the girls graduating received awards, but I think Julia's was the best.  

We were able to visit together as a family, and since they just served desserts we went out for a late dinner afterwards to a new BBQ place they had in town.

The next morning, we got up and went to the Rexburg temple while Julia and my grandma watched the kids. It was a beautiful temple and great to be able to go with my family.

 Later that day we went to the graduation dinner, and then headed over to the Commencement.

We couldn't find Julia in the sea of graduates earlier but we found her afterwards to get some pictures.

Julia with her BYU-Idaho graduated siblings and a family picture :)

I was in charge of getting a picture of Julia at her Convocation where she received her "diploma" but I somewhat failed and didn't get a good shot since it happened so quickly! But I did catch her with the rest of her Interior Design department afterwards.

Yay, we're proud of her and all her hard work and wish her luck with what's ahead!

Saturday was our last day and the weather was fairly nice so we went for a little hike along the Snake River. My parents let us borrow an old hiking backpack they had- Blake didn't like it at first but once he realized Jacob would get a ride he decided to try it again, and then he loved it. But poor Luke still ended up carrying both the boys most the hike anyway, haha.

We made it to the top and it was a pretty view! It was a beautiful day and fun to get out together as a family.

Unfortunately, the warm weather didn't stick around all day and it got pretty cool that night, but Luke had his heart set on making a dutch oven dinner for the family. Everyone was a good sport through the cold, and the dinner turned out great! Just like our good old dutch oven days. 

We came home, all went swimming at the hotel pool and hot tub, and then did a little birthday party for Tyler since his birthday was two days away. (We already ate a little bit of cake the night before to celebrate Julia's graduation, ha.)

I also tried getting a few shots of my new niece Audrey, exactly one month old, who was very patient while I practiced taking pictures on her, and I had to get one picture of her with her cousins.

It's always sad for us to say goodbye to family but we had a great weekend together and were glad we had the opportunity to all get together! Sunday morning we all left for home and while we planned to get home that night we got stuck in a light storm but the roads closed in Wyoming at noon. Luckily we had a friend who lives in Rock Springs, Wyoming and they were kind enough to have us over for dinner and to play games that night, and the boys had a lot of fun playing with their girls. 

When the highways opened the next morning we saw the crash that had closed the highway that still hadn't been fully cleaned up, and even though it was an inconvenience to have the roads closed we were grateful to have been safe and out of harms way. We made it home late Monday afternoon, the boys did awesome on the drive, and we enjoyed our trip back to Rexburg very much!