Too good to miss

5-4-12
So Saydi got a call last night after I had gone to bed from a neighbor wondering if she wanted to go do "Baptisms" at the temple in the morning, 5:30 to be exact. I can't believe she got up all by herself found everything she needed and left, I didn't even need to get out of bed. I am so proud of this child. She is my kid that really likes to sleep in, so for her to do this without any help or persuasion from mom and dad is really something. And after she got back she rushed in changed her clothes and headed off to a math lab to prepare for her test today. I wish I had been that on the ball in 6th grade!!!!

Bree's May performances

 Bree played the Bach Double at her school's Honor night.

 Her Lady Madrigals did a medley from Mary Poppins

and she sang Queen's "Somebody to Love" for her musical theater's GLEE night. Smashing!

4th grade program in Spanish

It was a fun twist to hear the same old 4th grade program in Spanish.

Star Wars at the Symphony!

Truly moving to hear John Williams music live!

Spring Break 2012

 The traditional hike!

 The teens by the pool

So thrilled to have their picture taken!!

 Dave loves RED ROCK

 The cool new community center.

Since Grandma and Grandpa just bought a house in St George, we  plan on getting down more often.



Cinderella

Saydi and Abby were in the school's production of Cinderella. Saydi was a Narrator and Abby was a..... yup you guessed it MOUSE.

Bree Violin Stuff

  Last Spring Bree Played at Abravanal Hall

 She recorded a program on Classical 98 at BYU

 She also played with the famous  Leon Fleisher who was the subject of an Oscar nominated documentary "Two Hands".

She toured some Salt Lake area schools for an out reach program, both public and private.

 (Wish we could afford private school:)

  She ended the season with first place at ASTA's String fest. She played Carmen by Sarasate. It is ranked one of the top ten hardest violin pieces.

Saydi Ballroom

Last February Saydi took part in a School Ballroom competition

 Her and her partner won........

Dancing with Dad!

Organization

This is what my laundry room has looked like for the last 5 years. I call it a "laundry closet". I've hated the chore of laundry ever since we moved into this house. Our bedroom has served as the laundry room and I hate it!!!!Our last house was half the size of this one but the laundry room was twice as big...go figure?

 So we thought we would blow out the wall and sacrific some of the garage for a bigger laundry room. We priced it out  and had everthing all ready to go only to have a finacial set back and had to put the project on hold. (happens alot around here). But I decided I had to do something to make it more functional, so using the little space and budget this is what I came up with.

Sorting baskets on top of the washer and dryer! (Darks, Colors & Whites) And after looking at every shelving unit on the internet, I finally found one that fit my small space. Then filled it with baskets with each kid's name and ........wah la....my laundry room WORKS! It is so nice to have a place to put clothes right out of the dryer.

I also found some hanging racks, that work well in small spaces. Hey those tight spaced New Yorkers got nothin on me!

I also added some organization to the mudroom because organization makes me HAPPY!

Our Cruise

Last November we went with some friends on a Caribbean Cruise, it was a BLAST!

Our ship was Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas. It was a very nice ship with a wonderful staff who took such good care of us. Lots of fun was to be had on the FlowRider surf simulator, rock climbing wall, ice-skating rink, 3D dreamworks theater, Royal Promenade shopping, cantilevered whirlpools, mini golf course, and  the H2O Zone water park, not to mention the fabulous eating options.

The weather was not the best and we had to forgo our first stop, which was Cococay Bahamas, but there was so much to do on the ship that we didn't mind one bit.
So, our next stop was St. Thomas, the weather was kind of cloudy but we hit the beach anyway and did some snorkeling.

Just had to tryout the macro function on the new pocket camera:)

Because of the cool weather we discovered something new "sand fleas" and yes, they bite. So, about 3 days later we were covered with little red itchy dots.

Our last and favorite stop was St Maarten, which we thought we might have to stay and take up residence on a count of we cut it really close getting back on the ship. They have some traffic issues, and island time is different than ship time.

Julie and I went on an amazing private horseback ride that ended up in the ocean. It was soooo fun!

Then we took some rhino boats and drove along the coast. This is a must do if you ever go to St Maarten. It was soo cool, we drove through a ship graveyard, and stopped for some snorkeling along the way, I drove the boat on the way back and missed the clothing optional beach, but I'm told there were some interesting sites I missed:) They recommended not taking our cameras for this, but I really wished I had!

Oh, and this ship was our neighbor the "Dream"

The lovely Promenade

This was formal night, which I have to admit was more fun than I thought, I don't like to dress up:)

The guy on the left had a tie on but it came off quick after we left the dining room- pilots are such rebels!

After eating a fabulous dinner in the dining room, we would then change our clothes and hit Johnny Rockets for fries, Sundaes and shakes....because we could. I don't think I ever had a chance to get hungry, we just ate and ate and ate!

The upper deck activities were fun, we felt like we had to try everything at least once!

Dave let me win at mini golf!

Our room attendant would tidy our room twice a day, and at night he would make a different animal out of the towels,

Ice skating in the Caribbean!

Our farewell meal, they sang to us:)

This is all of the groups luggage, but this being our first cruise, most of it's ours, ya know... cause we had to bring everything.

This was one of my favorite parts. I have never been away from these guys for very long and I was soooo excited to see them!!!!!!

Now this was by far the funnest vacation we have ever taken, but there is a dark side, I happen to be one of those extremely rare cases where my land legs never returned. It has been two months and I still constantly rock like I'm on a ship. Mal de debarquement is the name of the "condition" and I'm not gonna lie, It has been pretty miserable and life changing. If I had known that this would have happened I definitely would have passed on the cruise but part of me is glad I didn't know because I will always have the fun memories with my dear friends.