Father and Son Camp out

This week end, Jon took the boys on a father and son camp out which was organized by our ward. The boys were so excited to go camping. It was their first camp out of the season. But lets be honest, this time around, they camped out in style because one of Jon's friends, Tyler Smith, invited Jon and the boys to camp with him and his son Wyatt in the trailer he had bought that very day.
The boys had a blast playing with the other kids, eating smores, and having a sleep over in the trailer.

Last day of 2nd grade for Julien!

Yesterday was Julien's final day in the 2nd grade. I think he was pretty excited to be done.

Good Job Julien, we love you and are so proud of you.

Love,
Maman & Jon

Julien is now a PURPLE BELT!

Julien has yet again earned another belt. He is now a purple belt! I was a little hesitant at first to let him test because he had missed so many classes due to illness and vacation. But his instructor reassured me that he was ready, so he tested.
We are so proud of Julien and how much he has improved with his Karate skills.

This is the Place

Sunday, for our family home evening, Jon did a wonderful lesson on the story of the pioneers and the "Miracle of the Seagulls." The next day, we decided to take the kids on a field trip to visit "This is the Place" in Salt Lake City, which is a restored and recreated living community memorializing Utah's pioneers.

This is the Place monument

Here is a map of the village, it was actually pretty big, and very very cool.
I loved it!

We were able to do and see lots of things in the village. On they day we went, they had baby animals out and about in a petting zoo where the kids could go in, pet, and hold different baby animals. They also got to go on a pony ride.

In the village, there were lots of activities for the kids to do to experience a glimpse of the pioneer life.

Julien worked at Deseret News and printed an article.

Logan helped carve the wheel of a hand cart.

We each made our own candle and candle holder.

Here is a final product of Julien and Logan's candle and candle holder.

Other activities included leather stamping, puppet making, and many many more.

One of the funnest shops we went to was the barber shop: Where Alex got shaved, Julien got a tooth pulled out, Logan got a leech put on him, and my dad got his blood drawn. Boy am I glad I live now versus then!

Alex and my dad pulling a hand cart.

We were able to visit several pioneer homes, one of which was Brigham Young's. Julien, Logan, and Alex got to shake Brigham Young's hand also, and hear him tell stories about his life.

"This is the Place" had also just opened an Indian village, and we were able to visit it. The kids even got to take home an arrow head.

Here is Julien relaxing his legs while getting a shoulder ride from Raphael after a long day of walking.

Going to "This is the Place" was a wonderful activity where we got to experience, and understand more of the pioneers life, and appreciate them more. It was a very beautiful day!

Our newest kindergarten graduate

Logan with Mrs. Stewart (his kindergarten teacher)

That's right! Logan graduated from kindergarten today and can now move on to the first grade in August. Logan's class did a end of the year presentation where they sang songs, and danced for us. They were quite cute.

Here is Logan dancing with his partner Jessica.

Logan

Today, Logan and I went on a walk to the Provo Temple. I got a couple of cute shots of him. I thought you would all like to see his cute little self.








































On our way back to the house, Logan wanted to show me some of his cool break dance moves. He could actually be pretty good I think. But who knows I am his mom, I will always vote in his favor.

Starr's Wedding

The Temple Ceremony

Starr and Sam

Starr with Christy Ann and David

Jon and Branon smothering Starr with there big brother kisses!
(Don't you love the cheese wedding poses?
But I actually thought this one was cute!)

The Reception

The reception was held at the Ward's house. They had set up their back yard nicely with tables and decorations.




The cake was so pretty.
It was made by one of the sisters from their ward.
The purple flowers were actually eatable.













Starr surprised Sam with a Groom's cake.
Apparently, they could not agree on the cake so she thought he would enjoy having his own.
It was a very cute cake.

The traditional cake eating or cake smearing! I think they both did a pretty good job...

The bride and groom resting after a long long day.

Jon and I

Here we are fighting over one of the purple flowers from the cake.

"Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me"

I am sure many of you know by now that Jon and I went on our first vacation ever (just the two of us.) We cruised to Baja Mexico.
It was actually kind of an impulse decision. For about a week or so, Jon and I were looking at vacation spots and cruises we could go on for cheap. During that week my good friend Rachel called to let me know that she had just booked a cruise. And believe it or not, it was the exact cruise Jon and I were considering. So without thinking more then twice, Jon booked the same cruise so we could go with them.
Jon and I had a blast, and are ready to go again....












Every night, our stateroom steward would "tuck us in" and leave animals made out of towels. I was excited to go into our room each evening wondering what new and exciting towel animal would be on the bed. Aren't they so cute?

Catalina Island

On our second day on the cruise, we ported at Catalina Island. The city of Avalon is a cute little town with shops and cafes; It is a very touristy place. While we were there, we decided to go on a bus tour to Catalina's airport. During the bus ride, we got to see what the island actually looks like, which is not much, hills, bushes, shrubbery...we did see some buffaloes, and I think I saw a fox.

Cute city of Avalon

The scenery

The buffaloes

Jon and I after some souvenir shopping.

The FOOD!!!

The food was definitely five star. The evening dinners were succulent; some of the best food I have ever tasted. During dinner, I would have 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and 2 deserts. No Joke! (The number on the scale testified of that when we got home.)

Jon posing with some of the chocolate buffet treats. They even had CHOCOLATE SUSHI!
Can you believe it?

Some of our appetizers, entrees, and deserts: Shrimp cocktail, minestrone soup, ribs, prime rib, salmon, lobster, vegetarian eggplant and zucchini (seen above), and check this out, our head chef was from India, so Jon and I were in heaven when he made West Indian grilled pumpkin soup, and Indian stuffed baked mushrooms with a white sauce (mouth watering right!). Our favorite desert was by far, the chocolate melting cake; Rachel, Rod, Jon, and I had it every night.

Our two waiters for the duration for the cruise during our evening dinning services were Mario, and Jenila. Mario was from India. He truly was a great person. He was so funny, nice, and considerate. He made our stay on the cruise ship memorable. Jon and I hope to stay in contact with him. Jenila was from Nepal. She too was very very nice, always smiling and talking to us.

Mario was always entertaining us by teaching us some of his dance moves, cracking jokes, making animals with napkins. He even made Rachel a bikini bottom out of a napkin. It was pretty hilarious.

Here is a picture of our table during our evening dinner. Gina, Grasshoppa, Cameron, Kristal, Rachel, me, Rod, Jon, Mario, Jenila (front to back, left to right). Our table was awesome! Everybody was so funny and nice. We all got along very well. Rachel, Rod, Jon, and I even went clubbing with Cameron and Kristal one night so they could teach us some sweet moves. It was so much fun. We hope to keep in touch with them too.

The remainder of our time on the cruise mostly consisted of laying out for hours since we were not able to port at Ensenada, Mexico because of the swine flu.

Jon and I soaking up the sun's rays.

We did play mini golf once. It was definitely harder then on land.

One of the evenings we were there, they had a hypnotist show. It was hilarious. We enjoyed it so much that we went to see it twice that night. The boys were hoping to get hypnotized the second time around. Jon actually fell asleep. During the first show, one of the persons getting hypnotized was Brad. Brad had gotten hypnotized with Jon and my brother Thiefaine at the Salt Lake county fair three years back. (What a small world!)

Captain's Cocktail Party

Jon and I, Rachel and Rod

I am so glad we were able to go with Rachel and Rod. We had so much fun hanging out with them. It was truly a vacation to remember. Thanks Rach for letting us tag along.

Jon and I

Rod and Rachel

Rachel and I

PS: Thanks to my mom for watching Julien and Logan while we were cruising. It was really nice to get a break.