Pinewood Derby, Wisconsin Trip, Goodbye Van, Hello Highlander, and School's Out for the Summer!

I am so behind I feel like! I need to write about a lot!

The scouts had their Pinewood Derby at the very end of April! Gabe took second place overall. Caleb took second place among all of the "unofficial" racers (siblings of cub scouts). What's funny is, Caleb would've won but there was this other little boy who is Caleb's age (he will be in scouts very soon) and he had brought this store-bought car that didn't even make it all the way down the track in the test run. He felt pretty sad about it, so Josh quick drove home and got him Gabe's car from last year to just use. That car ended up being the fastest among the non-Cubs! lol

Avery raced her little ice cream car, which was definitely the cutest car but not the fastest… haha
They all had lots of fun though so that's what really matters!

We took a little day trip to Yellowstone park one Sunday in the beginning of May. We saw bison, ducks, a moose, and even a mama grizzly bear and her three cubs! That was the highlight of all my trips to Yellowstone. It was pretty awesome. There was a ranger there making sure no one did anything stupid. So that was good!

In May, the kids had lots of end of the school year fun and field trips. Avery went on her first school bus ride when her class went to visit a farm. I went along as a chaperone. She saw lots of animals, including horses, chickens, dogs, and goats. Caleb went on a field trip to the museum in Idaho Falls, Reed's Dairy, and a park. (I didn't go along on those) Gabe had a fun little "wax museum" day where he had to dress up like a gold miner in early Idaho. I was actually in Wisconsin during that so I just had to see pictures! :( I had originally planned to go visit Wisconsin alone for my sister's wedding shower… but that didn't pan out. So I just got a little fun getaway instead!

We also had a CRAZY hail storm on Mother's Day that damaged a lot of people's siding, trees, and cars. Luckily we had recently SOLD out VAN! So all we had was the old 4 Runner in the garage. There were a couple spots on our siding that got hit but we could replace those few pieces of siding pretty easy if we want to.

On Tuesday, May 17, I went down to Utah with my friend, Sam, who was also flying home to visit family. I spent Wednesday in SLC area with my friend, Stacey, and then flew out on Thursday. I didn't get home to Wisconsin until about midnight on Thursday, then we spent all day Friday at rummage sales and shopping. Saturday we went to more rummage sales in the morning, then out to lunch with Gini, Mandy, and Heidi Schmidt at Backyard Bar and Grill. We got to chat about Mandy's upcoming wedding this Summer and what Gini and Drake's plans are. He may go back to play one more season in Italy, or he may stay and try to find a coaching job in the states. It just depends what offers he gets! It was so good to see her though and see her three kids! She is in the trenches of motherhood right now with her kids Lou (4), June (2), and Grace (2 months). lol

On Sunday we had a BBQ after church at my mom's house and then went to eat Chinese buffet with my grandpa. He had just told us all about how his basement was leaking sub water and he was leaving it until tomorrow to fix, but then he got a fortune cookie that read: "You laugh now… wait till you get home." We all thought that was pretty hilarious. I wonder what he did find when he got home… lol

I left bright and early Monday morning (it actually wasn't bright, it was dark still… like 3am dark) and flew out of Milwaukee, to Chicago, to SLC, where Josh and the kids were waiting to pick me up. We had a mission to buy a new car while we were in Utah so we immediately left the airport and started to go look at vehicles.

The highlight of that day (for me) was when we happened to drive by a school and realized it was the famous East High, the site that the High School Musical movies were all filmed at! lol I had to strike a jumping pose in the air in front of the school and pretend I was friends with Troy. (see picture below)

We then looked the rest of the afternoon and then also on the next day (Tuesday) until about 3pm. Time had run out and we had to make a decision, so we decided to buy this Toyota Highlander we had driven at a family's house Monday night in Spanish Fork. I still am not completely sold that we DON'T need the space of a van, but I guess time will tell! I am giving it a shot! It IS fun to drive and "cooler" than a van I guess. But hopefully I don't regret this decision!

So this past week I have just been getting my Etsy shop back open and working on orders and the kids finished up their last week of school! Today was their last day! Caleb found out he has Mrs. Burt for third grade next year, who Gabe had and she is seriously the world's best teacher. Gabe's teacher this year, Mrs. West, was pretty awesome too. She isn't going to be teaching next year though because she took a job at the school district office. She was crying after school today! :( She was so sad.

Such great teachers my kids have had. They have sure been lucky! I hope middle school for Gabe next year goes just as well! He has requested Lauritsen for a home room teacher, who we heard was good.

That's all for now! I will find some picture! Oh! We attempted to get family pictures taken and then our photographer flaked out literally at the last minute (I was pretty annoyed) so my friend attempted to take pictures for us with her phone since we were all dressed. We got some pretty funny ones! haha But we are going to have some actual real professional photos taken by a legit photographer soon!

Pinewood Derby!

Gabe got some new glasses! But he really only wears them at school...

April and May Showers… (Avery and Harper)

Family pictures… with the iPhone...

Me and Caleb's "Date night" at the Soda vine:

This is what happens after we take family pictures...

Yellowstone day trip! We saws bears!!

My kids are crazy...

Braden...

BFFs...

Gramps and me...

Grams and me...

Mom's lilac bushes were perfect!

Goodbye old van...

Hello new Highlander...

"We're all in this together!"

Gabe's "wax museum" Idaho History display. He is a gold miner….

 Last Day of school! (Last day of Burton elementary/4th grade for Gabe and last day of 2nd grade for Caleb)

Avery's first field trip! To the farm!

Avery's teacher, Miss Sarah Harrison...

Spring has Sprung!

We had some great weather this month! We did have some rainy days - but that's pretty good for Idaho actually! We are just glad it wasn't snow! Usually there is snow through April, so it was pretty fantastic to have temperatures in the 70s a few days already!

On Avery's last day of BYUI preschool (which was at the end of April) Josh went in with Piper and did a demonstration. Avery was very proud of it being her dad and kept telling everyone "that's my dad." ;)

Josh took the boys on a campout the first weekend in April. They went with his dad, his brother (Brian) and Brian's son, Brennan, then also Jake (Jenni's husband) and Asher. They went up near Salmon and just stayed over Friday night and came home Saturday night. While they were there, they went on a long bike ride up the mountain and then back down. I will post a funny picture that shows Caleb's face on each end of the bike ride. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. ;)

Josh turned 36 on April 18th. We had cake and a little celebration at home, but that was about it. He said his already bought himself a present (his fishing license) so don't buy him anything else. (I did also buy him a pair of shorts and some Red Vines…) He worked on his birthday, so that wasn't very fun for him I guess. But when you're that old, I guess birthdays aren't too exciting anymore! lol

Gabe participated in a "basketball day camp" at the high school. It was basically a fundraiser for the high school boy's basketball team. Their team went all the way to the state championship game this year, but then lost. :{ But still, they are some amazing players. I think Gabe had fun. He likes basketball, but I am trying to tell him to keep playing other sports (he really likes soccer the best even though Josh hates that…) because basketball is soooo competitive here. Only eight boys were even on the varsity basketball team. So like 8 out of hundreds actually got to play basketball in high school. So I think he better not set his heart on it! 

This week is going to be the Pinewood derby, so I will have to post pictures of that and tell about how they did on my next post. They have been working on their cars and even used some glow in the dark paint. I have been working on a car for Avery to use as well. ;) Let's just say, it's going to be very "sweet."

Me and Avery have been enjoying some fun in the sun with the neighborhood friends while the boys are in school. We also got a brand new trampoline (our old one was pretty trashed) so our backyard is usually the hangout spot for the mounds of kids in our neighborhood. Avery also gave her VERY FIRST CHURCH TALK in primary this month! She did so good. The topic was "all mankind may be saved through the atonement of Christ."

Oh and we also had a meeting with Troy Kartchner as a neighborhood to discuss future ideas for the clubhouse that they are building. I am including a picture of the white board with all of our notes from the meeting. It will be funny to look back and see if these things actually happen. lol

Also, if you are wondering, Gabe and Caleb got their spring school portraits back and they looked like floating heads in the jungle. lol WORST. PHOTOS. EVER. But so very funny. I think it's because the photographers used a green screen, thinking then they could digitally swap out the backgrounds for any one that the parents chose. However, they failed to take into account that it was St. Patrick's day when they took the pictures, therefore when they "took out" the green background, the green shirts and bodies of the kids also disappeared with it. hahaha

Here are some pictures!

 Caleb's future wife, the girl-next-door, Salem

 Making derby cars…

 A typical day in my backyard…

 Avery's first talk!