Ivins

So after we left Kelly’s house we headed to Dad and Mom’s. It was about a 3-4 hour drive the rest of the way. The kids always get so excited when they start seeing the red rocks along the highway, because then they know we are almost there! This is a watercolor that Chris did of the red mountain that you can see from Dad and Mom’s yard. I just love it! If you would like to see more of Chris’s artwork, check out his website here. :)

 

 

 

Well, like always, it seems like we never take enough pictures of everyone while we’re there. So here are just some random pics of our stay in Ivins.

 

Kelsey and Emma on the trampoline.

Mitchell, Spencer and me having breakfast at Wendy’s house one morning.

Grandpa, Elise and Adam at breakfast.

Wendy and Jeff

Mitchell, Spencer, Kelsey and Ben cooling off in the water.

 

 

One morning Adam and Ben went to Dixie Rock (or Sugarloaf – depending on where you’re from). Ben absolutely loves being outdoors and hiking, so this was a fun adventure for the two of them. Ben had a great time!

 

Here are some pictures of the view from the top of the rocks.

Vacation Time

 

A couple days after school got out, we packed up and headed to my parents house in Ivins, UT for vacation. We stopped along the way at Temple Square. Mostly I just have a bunch of pictures to post.

Here we are at the Church History Museum. The kids (especially Spencer) were really into posing for some pictures. So here are just some cute pics of the family.

 

    

 

We also visited the Tabernacle while we were there.

 

And the Assembly Hall.

 

And we walked around a while, and wore everyone out.

 

And then we went to the Beehive House.

 

After that we had dinner with our friends Brian and Nicole. Unfortunately we failed to take any pictures while we were there. :( But Nicole made us an amazing dinner, and we had such a good time visiting with them. Nicole also makes and sells the cutest, best car seat blankets! Check out her etsy shop when you get a chance http://www.etsy.com/shop/thebutterflynet

That night we stayed with Kelly and Don and Dominic in Provo. And of course we forgot to take pictures there too! But it was so good to see them, and we’re so grateful they would let us stay with them! The next morning we went to Thanksgiving Point together. None of us had really been there before, and it probably would have been really fun, except that it was freezing cold! So we had lunch together and then our little family drove the rest of the way to Ivins.

School’s Out!

 

I know, I’m about a month late on this. But, oh well. Here are Emma and Ben on their last day of school. Emma just finished second grade and Ben finished Kindergarten!

 

Who’s silly kids are those?

 

And here are some pictures of Ben’s Kindergarten Graduation.

Here he is coming in with his class. What a good boy with his arms folded!

 

The three kindergarten classes sang a few songs together. It was SO cute! I cried through most of it. And then Ben with his graduation paper/poem thing that his teacher passed out.

 

And here he is with his teacher Mrs. Glindeman. Both Ben and Emma had a great year at school. It’s so fun to watch them growing up! (And it also goes by a little too fast at times).

Hmmmm... Candy.....

We’re having a…

GIRL!

We are all so excited! I think we mostly thought it was a girl, but it is just so much fun to really find out. I can hardly wait to get out all those cute girl clothes we’ve been storing for so long! Our two boys are very different from one another in their looks and personalities. So I am very interested to find out what similarities and differences Emma and this baby have.

So here’s the profile picture. I know, most of these look the same from one child to the next, but I still have to put them up!

Then the one on the left is her feet, and the other is her hands. It looks like she may have long skinny fingers like Emma.

   

It is of course always so reassuring also to find out that all is well with the baby. She looked good and measured correctly in all the right places. We are so grateful that she is healthy!

Shoshone Falls

About a month ago we went and visited Shoshone Falls. It is just outside of Twin Falls (which is a 2 hour drive for us). We were planning on taking a long weekend and camping with Adam’s parents in their fifth wheel. The camping part didn’t work out, but we did end up going just for the day.

Here are some pictures of the falls themselves:

 

It was really so beautiful! But of course pictures can never do it justice. The water flow wasn’t as high as it would be a little later in spring, but we still enjoyed it. And here is a panorama that Adam put together. I was impressed.

 

And here is my cute family! They each picked out their own clothes this morning. That’s not too unusual, but what is funny is that each of their shirts represents their different personalities perfectly! Emma is a very smart girl and loves to read, so she picked her Berkeley tee-shirt. Ben picked a shirt with mountains on it, and his hiking boots, because he knew we would be outside and he really wanted to do some hiking. Spencer picked his red shirt because he thinks it is his football shirt, and he is definitely a kid who likes sports. That might only be interesting to a parent, but I just thought they were so cute with their different clothes – that they each picked! And it’s amazing to see how different kids come. Each with their own personalities right from the beginning.

 

Here’s all of us. And if you look closely you can see the beginning of my little belly bump. I think I’m about 3 1/2 months along in this picture. I had wanted to do a separate post on being pregnant, but it hasn’t happened, so this is what you get! :) But we have our ultrasound on June 2nd! I can hardly wait. I feel like it’s a girl, but we’ll see…

 

 

If you don’t know, I am painfully afraid of heights. So it was all I could do to not cling desperately to the railing! I made a conscious effort to not look like a white knuckled freak in this picture. But I was dying inside to get away from the edge!

 

And here’s Pa and Grandma Martineau. And Spencer was trying hard to pose for this picture. He was quite pleased with himself.