May Pictures

Well, since I last blogged, we sold our house, packed it up, moved all our stuff into the garage of our new house 13 houses down the street, lived with Brandon's parents for three weeks, and then moved into our new house. I have a lot of catching up to do.

We had so much fun watching these baby robins grow in a nest in a tree. The birds built the nest super low so we could just tiptoe up and peek in. In 10 days the birds hatched, and flew away. Well, they did spend a few days living in our window wells and it was fun watching them there, and then they flew away. Anyway, it was awesome, and an experience we will probably never have in quite the same way again. So fun to have it before we moved from our house.

Tyler and Mckinley helping Brandon mow the lawn. :)

One day while my house was all boxed up I got to visit with two old friends from Australia. Lynda Innes and Courtney Turner. So fun. And Courtney brought all sorts of Australian treats for us to eat.

Mckinley finished up preschool at the end of May. Robin Scott was her teacher. The school was called Great Beginnings Preschool. It was in the basement of Robin's house, just next door. Super convenient! She learned so much and had so much fun. So sad it had to come to an end.

We had the rainiest May ever but finally got a sunny day and enjoyed it with cousins and popsicles!

And we had to take advantage and go to Nielsen's grove to see the baby ducks. My favorite park ever!

Mckinley and Tyler both took turns pushing Brandon on the swing.

Mckinley is 5

This sweet little thing is FIVE years old!

Mckinley loves birthdays more than anyone I know. It was so fun to look forward to it with her. She had her traditional mickey mouse pancake, and also she requested strawberry mini wheats so she got those.

We didn't get her much for her birthday since she was having a party, but she and Tyler and Kallie have been loving this doll house that was a hand-me-down from their cousins, Holly and Ella.

Mckinley was SO excited that her birthday fell on a school day. Her teacher does a great job of celebrating their birthdays at school. They also had a mother's day program at school that was fun to watch.

We had lunch at Wendy's after school.

Then that evening we took the kids swimming at the Orem Rec Center. They had a lot of fun!

The next day Mckinley got her kindergarten shots at her well check. She didn't cry at all during the shots, but made up for it later that day by crying for hours about how awful the doctor is and how she never wants to go back.

Later that night we went to the Payson Temple open house. Mckinley kept saying when do we get to go in the temple? I can't wait to explore!

Saturday was Mckinley's first official birthday party. We invited her school friends and church friends. I thought a lot of them wouldn't come so we invited 17 kids. Well, 15 of them came! So with our three, it was a full house of 18 kids. Kristen made her this adorable balloon cake.

The kids did really well and the party was a success! We had pizza and birthday cake, and then went on a treasure hunt and played pin the tail on the donkey. They all had a lot of fun.

Mckinley is the most amazing child. She definitely has her melt down moments (usually over really silly things) but for the most part, she is the best little helper any parent could ask for and she pretty much does a better job at life than I do. She is super smart and loves to color and draw and has a wonderful imagination. She is so kind and sweet. I just love her to death!!

Bermuda

We just had the most amazing trip to Bermuda. This was another MetLife Leadership Conference and it was awesome, as they always are. This is the fourth one we have been to. The other three were just me and Brandon, Jason and Shannon. But this time Blake and Kim came along and we had such a good time!

Travelling there on a red eye flight was miserable, but after that first day, things were great. This is the hotel we stayed in.

Swimming pool with a view of the ocean.

The hotel (Fairmont Southampton Inn) had a private beach with lawn chairs and towels all set out for you. It was really nice with very little waves, super clear water, and soft sand. It was heaven. We spent time every day at the beach and just loved it.

The weather wasn't super hot, a little too windy at times, but still just way nice.

We swam out to those rocks in the distance quite a few times and it was so fun to swim in the ocean, in such mild water. It was cold, but easy to get used to. And did I mention, so much fun?

The sand castle we built.

Once we started taking jumping pictures, we couldn't stop. Ha ha ha. So much fun.

MetLife always takes you out on the excursion of your choice. We chose the underwater scooter adventure, which was snorkeling holding on to little scooters that pull you around so you don't have to kick your feet. It was kind of windy that day, and there wasn't a whole lot of amazing fish to see, but it was still really fun. I went snorkeling on a private beach in Vanuatu when I was 13 and had the most incredible experience, and I'm not sure if that one will ever be topped.

We ate dinner at a fancy restaurant one night. The food wasn't that great. Well, I had fish and I really liked it, but Brandon's steak was pretty much raw. And I was almost sure the fruit juice they brought us was alcoholic, but it turned out it wasn't. An experience for sure!

View from the hotel grounds.

Saying goodbye. The trip ended too early for me. I could have used another couple of days. I am now experiencing what my neighbor calls "PVB" or post vacation blues. And just like she said, my kids seem to be punishing me for being gone with extra whininess. Sigh...

Birthdays

So, I had a birthday. I turned 33. I don't like getting older. I think I imagined by the time I was this old I would actually know how to do things, like decorate a house and cook good food. But I am still clueless. 

My birthday was nice. Kristen babysat so I could go to lunch with Brandon. Then my mom had us over for dinner and made me an ice cream cake. It was a good day.

Preschool

Mckinley has learned so much at preschool. Her teacher is the absolute best! She goes above and beyond pretty much every day. It's a bonus that she teaches in her basement next door too!

When they were learning about the letter O, her teacher went out and bought a bag of 20 frozen octopuses for them to explore and play with.

She brought the bucket of them over to our house after so the twins could play too.

This is as close as Kallie got. :)

It's crazy to think this is Mckinley's last month of preschool. She absolutely loves the days she has school and loves to learn new things and do her homework. She has learned way more than I ever imagined. I always tease her and tell her she needs to stay home from school because I miss her too much. I am dreading Kindergarten next year.

Bees Game

We always have such a fun time going to the Bees games. This was the first one we went to that wasn't rained out. I still didn't watch any baseball. I just go to hang out with family.

They had a fun little train you could ride on which or course the kids loved.

All the little cousins. We are so happy we live close to so much of our family and love hanging out with them.