13th Anniversary

How has it already been 13 years?! 

Celebrated by taking the family to Zinburger for dinner! We love that place. 

I married my best friend and my love for him continues to grow. Life hasn't turned out like we thought but we have a great relationship and our kids are incredible. I love my family and that's what is most important. 

Father's Day- celebrated early

We were going to in St David on Father's Day so we decided to celebrate the Sunday before.

Derek is always entertaining.

Derek is the best dad around. He is constantly making us all laugh. The kids say he's the craziest. He's a hard worker and loves to have projects to work on. He is always helping in the kitchen. Or really I'm helping him. Seriously, he's a great cook. We are so lucky. We love you!  

Memorial Day weekend

The Friday before Memorial Day was the kids last day of school. The kids had after school swim parties with friends then we went bowling with Derek's side of the family. Kim and Colin were in town. The kids and I got summer bowling passes. 

Saturday morning we got up and went hiking along with Kim, Colin and Blaine. 

Maeley was cold! We started early and it was a bit on the cold side but warmed up fast! 

Memorial Day we started off at my parents house for brunch and the kids helped Grandpa raise the flag. 

What a great weekend to kickoff summer break! 

Maeley's field trip to BizTown

BizTown is a small little town where the students are assigned jobs. They do so much preparation at school before arriving. I think they started preparing about 6 weeks before including an interview process. As a volunteer I had to come 1.5 hours early to be trained. Not your typical field trip.

The kids had to do their work, make deposits at the bank, shop and pay bills. I overheard a lot of kids say they don't want to grow up after this because it was "stressful". Hahaha

Maeley was the CFO of Cox

Here she is at her desk.

Parents aren't allowed to be in the same group as their child so I was assigned to help at Wells Fargo. The busiest business in town. There were about 7 students that worked at Wells Fargo. I wish I had taken a picture of the group. I meet a great girl and Maeley and her have since become good friends.

Here is Maeley and a few of her friends. 

I really didn't want to go on this field trip but I'm so glad I did. Maybe I will be doing it again next year with Chase.  

Father and Sons campout May 2017

So often Derek comes home from the Father and Sons camp out with only a couple pictures. This year her took lots of pictures! Chase looks forward to this every year. I wish they still did Father/ Daughter camp outs like they did when I was little. 

Trying to do a selfie with a DSLR camera isn't as easy. 

Chase looks up to his dad so much and is sometimes eerily so similar in personalty too. 

Derek is an amazing dad and I'm so grateful for all he does for our family. 

Mother's Day 2017

This was all the pictures I got of that day. I'm so sad we didn't get the traditional family picture. Derek got me this awesome Disney Dooney and Bourke handbag. My love for Disney runs deep and I think the older I get the more I love it. Or maybe its that I love it the same its just now I don't care if people think I'm a kid. 

Now I'm ready for our next Disney trip! 

(whenever that may be)

Maeley can do hard things!

I'm constantly telling the kids that they can do hard things. Maeley definitely proved to me in May that she really can when she puts her mind into something.

Maeley wanted to run for student council vice president. After searching pinterest with Aunt Laurel they came up with this. They thought this was the best idea ever!

Fun posters weren't enough so she passed out mini buttons to the 5th grade.

Here she is after she gave her speech. She did a great job and you couldn't tell she was nervous at all. She said she was shaking the whole time! There were 4 girls running for VP, one from each class. Voting took place that day and she was tied with a girl from another class who she is friends with. They did another vote as the tie breaker and Maeley won! 

Maeley also wanted to do the talent show. 

She and her friend Cami tried out and made it!

They danced to Brooklyn and Bailey's "Dance Like Me" 

Cami's older sisters Kasi and Chloe did their hair and makeup for the show.

They did a great job! 

Cami's awesome parents gave them a candy bar and flowers afterwards. 

I love watching Maeley grow and mature and try things that seem hard or scary to her.