March

Jackson enjoying his sword we bought him in Mexico.

These girls love doing spas.

Mckinley working her way through braces. I love them and we have absolutely loved Thompson Orthodontics.

We had our first magical day where it was warm enough to go play on the neighbor's playgrounds. With coats still, but it always feels so good that first time you can play outside after a long winter. This happened on March 16th.

We took Ross and Karen to dinner at Chili's for Karen's birthday and of course Jackson fell asleep on the way. I had the hardest time waking him up! I was kissing his cheeks and we took a fun video of it. He's the cutest!

Mckinley had her National History Day (NHD) competition. We made an experience out of it and she and I slept over at my parents' house the night before. I took her up to this junior high school in Alpine or something and she was interviewed for her project and got to see all her friends projects and hang out for the whole day. They went to Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch. I went back in the evening for the awards ceremony.

Mckinley didn't move on to state but she got an honorable mention for her paper on the invention of the television. I had been so worried about this project ever since our first meeting about it in the summer but it turned out totally fine. Mckinley did all the work, we didn't hardly help her at all. And we decided we definitely want to stay in this program for next year! She is the best student ever and has learned and grown so much during 7th grade. She has absolutely loved it!

We got to the end of the alphabet with joy school. I had so much fun making these creative letters for the boys. Joy school is so stinking fun. I just love these cute boys so much! It has been so good for Jackson and he has learned so much. He can write his own name and spell it for you. It's so cute!

So before our cruise our neighbors gave us their beta fish. It wouldn't eat and looked like it was going to die. Apparently they are supposed to live in warm water but our house temperature is pretty cold. Anyway, we gave it back to the Eddy's to keep for us while we were on our cruise and after we got back, I accidentally killed it by putting it in warm water that was apparently too big of a shock. I felt so bad about it!

We told the kids we would get another fish. Well then on facebook someone was giving away these two GIANT goldfish and all the equipment for them. So we got these fish, but they were clearly too big for the tank. The lady bought them when they were like an inch big and they just grew and grew for almost 2 years with her. Anyway, we had them for about a week and then found a pet store that said they would take them. So for now we are back to no fish which has been nice because there were more trips coming up in our future.

So, March 16th had us playing outside on the playground and then we got another big snowstorm on the 24th. This has been a record year for snowfall in Utah. The winter just keeps on going! Ava is obsessed with shoveling snow though and I have been fully enjoying the beautiful snow. It didn't bother me at all to have a couple of late snowstorms.

I took the boys to play at the church and have an indoor picnic for joy school one day which was such a great idea. We had a blast!

Mckinley has read so many books this school year! A lot for English and a lot just for fun. She is such an amazing child. And of course, Jackson sleeping.

I know this will eventually end, but I just love it for now. I always have to take a picture of him when he crashes! We love Jackson so much!

Cruise - Headed Home

The morning we got off the boat we packed up our bags and went up to eat breakfast. We were so lucky to see dolphins again! There were a bunch of them out there in the bay at Long Beach. It was so fun to eat and just look out at them. They were quite active the whole time we were eating breakfast. It was the perfect end to such an amazing cruise!

We went up on the top deck to take a few last pics and then got off the boat and drove home.

All the kids were such great helpers with all our luggage.

We had to take a shuttle to where our van was parked off site.

The kids did so amazing the entire drive home and Brandon was nice enough to let me stop by the colored rocks that I've always wanted to see.

Ate lunch at Wendy's in Las Vegas and then drove all the way home, just stopping for gas, and had a late dinner at home. This trip was so incredible and made us so excited for some of the other trips we already have planned and is making us want to plan more and more trips with these wonderful kids of ours! First cruise is in the books and it definitely won't be our last!

Cruise - Day at Sea

The pool wasn't heated near as much the last day of the cruise. We were so lucky to have lots of time where we had the pool to ourselves.

Mckinley has been really into reading lately! She's the only one who read on this cruise. Ava did too a little. I went to the library before the cruise and got books for Tyler and Kallie and they didn't read one word. Even in all the 20 hours in the car.

Our housekeeper made the cutest animals for the last day. A turtle and a shark!

We got to go to a class on how to fold animals and we made a dog and a bear.

So so fun being out on the ocean!

We had strawberry ice cream two of the days and it was so yummy!

We watched an ice carving demonstration.

He made a swan.

We bought some bingo cards and played but didn't win anything.

Jackson fell asleep on my lap during Bingo. 

Beautiful sunset on the water!

We had dinner at the buffet again.

Cruise - Ensenada

Our Ensenada day was cold, just like all the rest. We knew we weren't going to go to the beach or anything so we just dressed warm that day and in comfy shoes for walking.

I'm always so intrigued by the big shipping containers on these massive boats. It's all so amazing to me.

After breakfast Ava and I explored and found the inside of the big red tail on the top of the boat.

I'm so glad we walked around because we got to see all these cute towel animals by the pool. We were able to show them to the rest of the family and good thing we did, because they didn't do this any other day.

I don't remember these fun letters any of the other times we were in Ensenada.

These letters too are so cool that your cruise ship is in the background.

We really had no idea where we were going and we definitely took a different path than what Brandon and I have taken in the past, but we eventually ended up at all the shops and had a good time looking around.

These little girls selling their bracelets were just so cute, of course we had to buy from them.

So many options!

We ended up with some bracelets, a necklace, a glass turtle, some key chains, a hammock, and Jackson wanted a toy sword. I wish I would have bought a shirt or hoodie, but it's okay, we'll just have to go back!

This guy was tying to get us to take a ride in a horse carriage so we ended up paying him $10 for a short ride back to the boat. It was a fun experience, driving right on the freeway. Cars had to just go around us.

Back on the boat and up to the hot tub and ice cream!

The kids never did go check out the kids center on the boat. We had a relaxing afternoon with some naps and hanging out in the rooms. Of course we've got sleeping pictures of Jackson.

That evening they finally heated the pools!

This one was legit the temperature of a hot tub. Steam was coming off of the water everywhere. It was so fun to swim in!

Jackson was obsessed with the pirate ships all around the buffet area. We opted to skip the restaurant and just find food at the buffet since Tyler didn't like any of the kids menu options at the restaurant. I'm so glad Tyler and Jackson both liked the thin crust pizza on the ship. Both of them pretty much lived off of ice cream cones and pizza.