FAMILY ANNIVERSARY #15 - TRIP TO PROVO, UT

I was so excited to celebrate our 15th year family anniversary with the family by going to Provo. The reason why we chose Provo was because the Provo City Center Temple had an open house going on right now. Perfect timing for us!!!

We left on Friday and headed down to Provo to our hotel. Our kids just LOVE staying in hotels. We don't get to do that very often, but we have been staying more often than in the past. We decided on Red Robin for dinner and met Laura and Jason, along with Sam!!!

Dinner was not great, but we did enjoy each other's company. After dinner, we took a dip in the pool and earned more points for our fitness challenge.

Saturday morning, we beat the morning rush to breakfast and headed to the temple. It was quite the rat race going back in forth in the lines in the underground parking lot. Luckily the standby line was quick.

After waiting for a little bit, we went into one of the theater rooms, put on the famous booties and watched a 10 minute video of why temples are so important to Mormons. It was beautiful.

It was beautiful. Kate was so touched at the baptismal font that she asked if she could be baptized for cousin Maze when she turned 8. I had to explain to her that girls are only baptized for girls. And then Robyn reminded me that children under 8 don't need any temple ordinances. He is perfect. It still gives me chills just thinking about that perfect nephew. I can't wait to meet him again.

Here are some pictures from online since photography is not allowed.

One of the entries

Baptism font

Staircases

Celestial Room

One of the sealing rooms

A beautiful picture of the temple and the sunset

The end of the tour ends with the Christus

Our pictures as we were leaving!!!

After the temple, we went to Spanish Fork to see Laura's apartment. We had a good laugh about how narrow her kitchen was. Dishwasher in the back, across from the fridge and then the stove. It's cozy!!!

The kids then played the wii and tried out several things. It was very fun!!! Here they are bowling!

the Peterson family!!!

 After the time in Spanish Fork, we went back to Provo to visit with the infamous Thomas family. We like to call them the Fa'aga'i's. Haha!!!

We had a wonderful time visiting at a lunch/dinner!

They brought up back to their cozy apartment. I had to take a picture of their picture frame!!! 

We all signed their frame while we visited even more.

After we were done visiting, we headed up to the Jolley's to visit with our cousins. We had dinner and then played card games while the kids played too. I love that they all get along and love each other.

Faith and Andrew

Dawson, Jony, and Kate

Too much fun!!! Sunday, we attending their full block of meetings at church. I really loved it so much!

The weekend was so much fun and worth every minute of it. I hope the other kids loved it as much as I did. Here's to another 15 years!!!

LET THE FOOTBALL GAMES BEGIN - HHS

I was a little giddy thinking about Highland Football this year! This year, Connor is a senior. Watching the games when you know the people is just so different and a lot more fun! Also, this is Faith's first year in high school, so I have wanted her to get involved and enjoy her high school experience for all its worth!

This first game was the Rocky Mountain Rumble, an invitational to other schools to come before the season actually starts. Highland played the Caveman - American Fork High School. It was a tight game!!!

Jordan and Kate showing me who they are cheering for! Connor is #6!!!

Kate and mom

They have matching shirts that we had made!!! Kate has sparkles. All of them have #6 on the back!!!
Jordan didn't want to smile, so we had a retake!

Half time was 14-14. A tie. It was so close the whole time, but the rams pulled out the win - 28-21! Go Highland!!! Can't wait for the next games and the opportunity that we have to support Connor and visit with family!

CELEBRATING AMERICA'S BIRTHDAY!

I love holidays, especially with parades! Unfortunately, part of the family isn't too into watching parades. But I have decided after sacrificing for so many years, that I will go, even if no one else wants to go. This time, Dawson and Kate decided to tag along! We were excited to get started! Imagine our surprise when we saw that they had fly overs arranged over the parade route too!!! So much fun! (Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures!!! Next year though!)

One of the first floats was ICCU - Idaho Central Credit Union - and our favorite member of the green team - Tracy!!!

We enjoyed the whole parade and had a fun time visiting!

At 4:00 pm, we also celebrated another tradition in our family! Going up to Grandma and Grandpa VanTassell's house. Jerry wasn't in town this year, but we had so much fun with Grandma Kathy!!!

Here are a couple of food highlights! Compliments of pinterest. Both were a hit!

Faith had a bunch of fun doing a couple of selfies!!! Here's one of my favorites!

The kids showing me what they have in the pool!

I don't really swim, and I really don't enjoy colder water. Here is the whole crew!

Brandon even posed for me!

After dinner and swimming, we gathered on the front lawn and took pictures. Picture time!

with Dawson

The girls!

Faith and Kate filled in the time giving Kathy her very own concert, including The Star Spangled Banner. It was so fun to hear them sing, laugh, and enjoy family time. Echo tried to join in the fun too and did well until the screamers from neighbors started to go off. We had a bit of a struggle, but will work with her next year and prep her in the coming weeks. 

The fireworks were really enjoyable! We loved it! 

Of course, we didn't want to forget our family that was out of town and our very dear friends that live across the United States of America. We hope that you enjoyed your 4th too!

QUICK ESCAPE TO BOISE

While Brandon had to stay in town on call, I took the kids on a quick escape to Boise. My cousin Shaun was going to get married and we thought we would spend a fun weekend (which also was the start of spring break). We left Friday afternoon as soon as the kids were out of school. We hit the freeway running, only have to turn around at Raft River exit for my temple recommend. Brandon met us off the West Pocatello exit and then we started again.

Of course the kids are comedians and had fun taking a selfie in the car.

We arrived around 7:30 and stayed up a bit visiting with the cousins. Braided Faith's hair and then she wanted to take a selfie. :)

Then next day, we got ready and headed to the temple for Shaun and Stacia's big day.

We headed to the reception and visited for about an hour. It was beautifully decorated and they were so cute!

Afterwards, Mom and Dad took us to the worst Wendy's restaurant ever. Everything about our order was messed up. We did have a good time visiting though. Thanks for spoiling us with dinner!

More selfies of the day!

Sunday, we went to Robyn's full block of church. It was a great couple of meetings. Imagine my shock, when I introduce myself in Relief Society and then the teacher gets up and says, "Are you related to Faith?" Uhhh, yeah. (What did she do???) The teacher was also the teacher in Sunday School and said that Faith is such a special girl and that I should be so proud. Ahhh!!! That was an awesome moment!

Then, the Jolleys were able to head over to the Zanellis to eat dinner (thank you Zs!) and to spend a bit visiting. I called Kenna "Bekah" because she had grown so much! I just couldn't believe it!!!

Bekah and Faith

Kate and Kenna

Caden and Dawson

Jenny and Zoey

And of course the cousins, minus Kaylor. She did not want to join the group Monday morning when we headed home.

Thank you Royce family for hosting our crowd and making us feel welcome! You are a fun crowd to hang out with! I think that Tag even liked the extra attention! Peace Boise! We shall come again!!!