Happy Birthday Aiden

Aiden lost a tooth just for his birthday



Can you believe he's EIGHT!

Families are Forever

And so, apparently, is the amount of time it takes me to post something new. I know it's been a while so let's do a picture review.

Ashton got on the honor roll

We went to Salt Lake to visit Chris's grandparents and mom and brother and the only picture we took was of a duck with a fancy hair do.

We visited BYU campus and the kids needed a picture with a cougar.


We had a family "retreat." We couldn't really call it a reunion since everyone who was there gets together every Sunday. Hopefully next time we can all be together.


While on our retreat we played at this super cute park with enough of a pool for the kids to have fu-un.

The next weekend my brother and his wife and daughter were sealed in the Las Vegas temple. It was a beautiful session, and I am soo happy for them

School started and Kaylee lived through her first day of middle school. Don't expect much of an answer if you ask her how she likes it, so far "meh" seems to be her standard response for that question. Ashton started fourth grade and Aiden is in second. The way the school is set up means I have three kids in three different schools. Luckily they're all next to each other.

Ashton got glasses. Being the stellar mother I am, it only took her eight months to convince me she didn't just want them because her cousin's have them. (No awards for me this year)

The Award Winning Kaylee Edwards

Today was Kaylee's Fifth Grade Promotion ceremony, just another event to remind me that she won't stop growing up. We are always proud of Kaylee but today she gave even more reason to beam with the several awards she received at the ceremony. She got the three-peat (all three trimesters) A honor roll certificate, Great American Challenge award (she was one of only about ten in the whole school who completed that one) and the Presidential Academic award (signed by the president himself) for receiving straight A's for the entire three years she was at Treem. We're both a little nervous for what middle school will bring but I know she will do brilliantly, and I will try to get by:)

I love that my kids are such great friends with their cousins. Emily and Abby came to the ceremony.

Awards! Awards! Awards! Our favorite fifth grade teacher Mrs. Smead. We sure are going to miss her!

Principal Esplin

The students were allowed to go home after the ceremony if they chose. Of course Kaylee wanted to go back to school, so rather than giver her flowers or balloons to carry around all day I made a cookie message to greet her when she came home.

Where have all the Edwards gone?

That's where.

We decided to take a trip to Arkansas to visit Chris's parents. Originally it was just going to be Chris, but we decided to make it a family affair. We went to help his parents put in laminate flooring (with a partial bathroom remodel thrown in for kicks and giggles). The drive wasn't bad and the kids were fantastically behaved. Chris's Sister and brother were there for a couple of days while we were and it was nice to visit with them as well. After the flooring was done we got to have some fun.

The almost finished product

This is the road Chris's parents live on, and the reason he thought we should spell Dalin's name with only one "L".

Old Mill park.

My sweet sister in law was going to take some family pictures for us with this beautiful park as the background. Unfortunately it was so hot and humid that within a minute of stepping outside we were sweating so much that I was sure our facial features were going to start sliding around our faces. I wasn't looking to have a Picasso family portrait, so we decided to do it another time.

The kids were so patient and helpful while we were putting the flooring in that grandma and grandpa gave them some money. Dalin used his cute face and his own money to get this package of strawberries for only $1 at the farmers market. We told him since he used bought it himself he didn't have to share if he didn't want to. He didn't, and he had eaten the whole box by the time we got back home.

Gettin' Piggy

They were supposed to pretend to eat the carrot, I don't think Dalin heard the pretend part.


Making smoke signals and petting lizards at the childrens museum.

Lawnmower rides were the hit of the trip

Oklahoma

Besides Arkansas, we made a few other stops along the way. (I know how wimpy are we that we couldn't just drive the entire 23 hours straight:) Most of these pictures are from our trip home, we didn't stop to smell to many roses on the way there.

When we stopped in Oklahoma City walked through the Brick District, where our kids favorite part was getting some old fashioned glass bottles of soda. (Too bad I didn't take any pictures)

There was a Celebration Station (think Chuck E. Cheese meets Scandia) down the street from our hotel so we bought a pass for the go carts and bumper boats. The boats had sprayers on them and we all ganged up on Chris so he was drenched when our time was up, unfortunately (or maybe not) Dalin had decided to team up with his dad so he was a casualty of the battle.

Texas

(We're making "T" for Texas)

In Amarillo we stopped at Cadillac Ranch. Aiden desperately wanted to add his mark to the cars but unfortunately for him all of the discarded spray paint cans were empty.

We passed a water park right off the highway that we decided would be fun so we stopped there on the way back. It had slides, a lazy river, a wave pool and a half pipe type ride that scared the muckus right out of me. Kaylee was a little nervous to go down by herself so I went with her. I could not even open my eyes! I seriously thought we were going to go over the edge. Needless to say that was a one time trick for me.

Chris and Ashton on the "Sidewinder"

We also visited the "Big Texan". There were billboards advertising a free 72 oz steak (if you finished it in an hour) about 500 miles before we even got to Texas. Chris thought he would like to give it a go, but I don't even like seeing that much meat the first time around, and I knew we would be seeing it again if he tried so we just looked around and took pictures.

New Mexico

In Albuquerque we found a quirky little museum called Tinker Town. Then we had dinner at the Chili's next door to the hotel because my kids had been asking for it the whole trip (Chili's,really?)

The guy who built the museum suffered from Alzheimer's and he would insist on driving. To keep him safe his family had him turn his car into an art project. He turned the Jeep into a "Lincoln" by covering it in pennies.

Arizona

We didn't do anything in AZ but here's a picture to prove we were there.

When we finally got home, Dalin walked through the door and said, "That's it! We are not going any where else! No more hotels and no more driving! We are staying home!" I had to agree and the next morning when I realized that I needed to get milk, the very thought of getting back in the car made me cringe.