Two weeks in one

I will try to keep this as concise as possible!  We got home too late last week to blog.  We left the Wednesday before Memorial Day to head to Rexburg to see and spend time with family and to be there for Ellie's graduation.

The kids got right over to play with their cousins.  They couldn't resist a HUGE mud puddle - well, the boys were trying to resist until Isabelle and Ainsley started throwing mud balls at them!  All good things come to an end and they had to clean off with some really cold water:

Maddie and Isabelle also got together with several friends and luckily Isabelle had Shawn's phone when she went with Brinley because we found this cute selfie on it!:

Ellie was salutatorian and gave a great speech:

Eli found the whole graduation incredibly fascinating:

Our family with the graduate: we left the boys at grandmas:

We got to see lots of our friends there, too - here is Shaunae and Ellie.  We had such a good time talking with the Bresslers and Greens and Tietjens! As usual, we were last to leave the gym...

Then off to the Andersons for a little visit before Ellie headed to her grad night:

Pace LOVES his grandpa Gee and often talks about how much he misses him.  He spent every second possible right by his side:

Sunday dinner

One morning before most of us were even up, Jim poured the rest of some juice into his glass.  Pace said he wanted some of it too!  Jim got two straws and told him to "slurp for all he was worth".  It was pretty cute and then turned really funny when they finished and Pace said, "I didn't back wash very much!"

Such a great visit - we miss Rexburg!! What a perfect idealic place to live.

This week began with a school track meet for Nolan.  All the fifth graders from all three grade schools in the area attended. Nolan decided to long jump and run sprints at this one.  There was heat after heat of boys that ran the 50 M dash and this picture is when it was finally Nolan's heat:

They called back the 8 fastest runners for the 50 M dash and Nolan got 5th place! I was proud of him.

His 4X100 relay team also got fifth place and He got 3rd place in long jump with 11'8".

It's been a main goal of mine all year to get Abram to enjoy reading and I think we finally got there!  I found him reading this week without me even telling him to:

Nolan's birthday was coming up on Friday and Pace mentioned that he wanted to get him a pinata so we decided to make him one:

First layer complete:

I let Nolan skip school on Friday.  I let my kids do that from time-to-time; adults get to take days off from work once in awhile, and I believe that kids need breaks sometimes too.  Especially on birthdays that used to happen during summer vacation before we lived here!!

Nolan is SO into fitness and muscles, so we started the day exercising together:

Then he, Pace and I went swimming.  He finished the day by going on a hiking/backpacking trip with the scouts and Shawn.  He anticipated this event for WEEKS:

When they returned the next day we finished the birthday celebration with opening gifts:

The birthday person in our family always goes and hugs the person that gave them a gift.  Maddie wouldn't let go for a really long time.  It was pretty funny - look at Shawn laughing🤣:

Pace was really pleased with how his spider man pinata turned out even though we didn't put a hook in it and the kids had to beat it on the ground🤣

It was fun celebrating Nolan.  I sure love that kid and so do we all- the family wouldn't be the same without him!

Isabelle spent a considerable amount of time this weekend searching out pictures of her celebrity crush, Shawn Mendez:

She had a huge crush on him in sixth grade, but I thought it had died.  She says it has revived because he has a new album out...

She also really wanted to learn to make succulents from buttercream frosting, so she, Maddie and I started figuring it out:

We have a ways to go with our skill, but it was fun and we ended up making a whole bunch and bringing them for refreshments after the broadcast with President and Sister Nelsen:

This broadcast was so incredible and motivating!!  I am so glad that we got to go and so grateful that we have a prophet!  He is so inspired and inspiring.