5 years this week

Five years ago this week, my sweet mom passed away.  This year I decided I wanted to have all my grandkids for a sleepover.  Mom loved spending time with her grandkids just like I do.   We had dinner at our house Sunday night and then had the Big Girls for a sleepover.  Monday morning we went to a neighbors house and picked a bunch of cherries.  They have SEVEN cherry trees, and couldn't eat all the cherries.

After the cherry picking, we went to Kangaroo Zoo, a fun bounce house.

Then we went to a fun place called Allegiant Nonstop, it was notstop fun.  They had bumper cars, laser tag, race cars and virtual shooting games.

  We finished our day with bowling.  By the time we got home, it was late enough that we kept them for another sleepover.  These are such cute girls.

Tuesday morning we picked up the Boys for some fun.  I love that they bring their matching suitcases

Our first stop was their favorite library.  They always have something fun going on there.  They each chose a book and a movie.  It was a nice warm day, so we filled our pool and played with water balloons. They all brought their bikes so we rode bikes to the park.  They always like to feed the horses on the way.

Mike met us there with pizza for dinner.

  

Wednesday morning we went to a bounce house in Lehi where we met their parents and got the little girls to come for a sleepover.

We took the girls to Classic Fun Center and then to see Dumbo.

They rode their scooters to Leatherbys for some yummy raspberry and hot fudge sundaes.

The next day we went to a fun splash pad to play for a while.

About noon, we traded these three for the Middles and were off to Provo Beach

We did Laser Tag

Ropes course

and bowling

What a busy and fun week it's been!  I'm so glad we gave them all the Get Out Passes for Christmas.  It has been great fun!

St George Vacation

A few months ago, we were together and our kids starting talking about a family vacation.  They were thinking about Mexico, but decided that St. George would be a little closer and easier to do with such short notice.  Jamie and Emily had some fun ideas of things to do there, and  Merijane got online and found us some more fun places to go.

 

We arrived Thurs. afternoon, and the big and middle girls went with Krista, Merijane, Josh and Mike to a fun Escape Room.  Lani and I took the little kids to the Children's Museum.

It's Matt's busiest time at work so he wasn't able to come.  :(

Jamie and Jordan were in Disneyland with her family, so they didn't get to come.  We sure missed them, but knew they were having fun celebrating her mom's 60th birthday!

Molly was at girls camp, (we brought Kelsi and Abi with us, but the rest of their family came Friday.)

Thursday night we went out to dinner and then to the pool for a swim. 

Friday morning we headed to Snow Canyon, such a beautiful place.  We did a couple of short hikes and enjoyed hanging out in the slot canyons that were nice and cool!

 

Friday afternoon, Jamie's family arrived and it was off to the pool again

The kids would have spent every spare minute there if they could have.

Saturday morning, a few of us got up early and went to the beautiful St. George Temple.

Jamie performed the baptisms and confirmations (and took our pictures)

After we got home, we went to Gunlock Falls.  It was incredible!

We had a little hike to get there, but WOW, so worth it!

We stayed at a beautiful VRBO in Coral Ridge. 

 The kids loved playing games and watching movies when they weren't swimming or eating.

Sunday morning we went to church, then went to visit Brigham Young's winter home.

We learned lots of interesting things about him.

We took Lani to her shuttle so she could head home and be ready for work Monday morning.          She is so fun to have along on vacations.

Monday morning we took off for Sand Hollow State Park.  We spent the day there, it was awesome.  Josh's family have 5 Kayaks, 5 huge tubes and the kids had a blast on them.  

Jamie and Josh's families packed up when we got home from the lake and headed for home.  They both needed to be to work on Tues.  Krista's family and Mike and I watched movies that night and got a good night sleep before leaving Tues morning.  It was a wonderful trip and so fun to discover such beautiful places that we had never seen in St. George before!