St. George Trip - President's Day

The rest of the world, outside of accounting, gets President's Day off. I guess April 15th is just a little too close for comfort to take work off for a national holiday. But, I am not an accountant. So I took the day off and we went on a day trip to St. George to visit Becky's family and my cousin Justin and his family.

We went to Chick Fil A, of course, and then on a hike through the desert that I can only describe as climbing boulders rather than walking. I guess I have a city definition of hiking :) We had fun though - Claire and Miles got a little nervous on the rocks, and so did I, but we all made it. I was glad Penelope stayed home to take a nap while Matt took a quiz online. She would have been tough to carry, though Justin and Alicia brought their two year old Lyla along. I got some cute pictures which was my main goal when I suggested a hike anyway.

Justin took all 13 of us in his ATV thingy and we drove out into the desert right near their house. It is pretty cool that they are so close to undeveloped land like that. We passed people having archery practice, playing fetch with their dogs, and other hikers out exploring. 

The kids had so much fun digging in the dirt in the backyard - if there had been grass back there they would have played 10 minutes instead of hours. Makes me want a backyard all the more. 

Miles got up and said, "Do I have any dirt on my jeans?" Um. Yes. 

I hope the novelty of seeing each other  doesn't wear off for these kiddos as we get together more often. Claire and McKinley are so similar that they end up butting heads a bit, but then again, I fought with my cousin Shelai over the silliest things (who had bigger feet!!) and we are still good friends today. And Penelope is just happy to be along for the ride (above). Her new "smile" is displayed below. Why do they start doing that fake photo smile?? 

My Girls

I spend more time getting these two ready than myself these days (wet  hair to church!), but I love seeing them in their Sunday best.
 

Last Basketball Game w/Surprise Fans

Claire looked up halfway through the game and pointed excitedly across the gym at Aunt Jen and Noah. We weren't expecting them, and it was a nice surprise for the last game of the season. With the kids in sports now, it's hard to watch anyone else's games sometimes but Noah wanted to come after his baseball game.

Claire's Valentine's Day Party

Claire's class goes all out for the holidays - Valentine's Day is no exception. Their amazing class mom sent me pictures of their party - she is very thoughtful to include me since she knows I would love to be there if I could.

Happy Valentine's Day

We made some homemade Valentine's cards this year that were really cute - and even though Miles has both boys and girls in his preschool class, everyone likes Star Wars right? We debated between swedish fish and goldfish crackers for Claire's cards, but since we don't love the gummy fish, the pretzel goldfish won out.

MeMa  makes the cutest cards!

Penelope's card - she has a stuffed Woodstock that she LOVES!

Matt and Shannon's card

Miles' card - he added the thumbs up sticker

Claire's card

And Claire's Valentine's hair

First Grade Pictures

Claire - First Grade 

And here is Claire's Spring kindergarten and then Fall kindergarten pictures to compare.

Claire - Kindergarten (Spring)

Claire - Kindergarten (Fall)

Dinner with Cousins

These kiddos love each other so much -and act like siblings with their fights and hugs. We all went to Rubios for dinner after I had a late meeting. I love starting the day knowing I don't have to cook dinner!