A Sparkly Mother's Day

When Travis started asking me what I wanted for Mother's Day this year I suggested a Memory Foam bed topper or some new multi-sport shoes. He wasn't too excited about either of those ideas and suggested that we get diamonds for my engagement ring since the 2 smaller stones have been cubic zirconium these last 7 years. I jumped all over the idea especially since we'd be in Vegas the week before Mother's Day and had the time to leave my ring and get the new stones put in. We shopped around and finally met with a jeweler I felt good about. I even got to see the diamonds before he put them in. He polished my ring and fixed it where it was cracked and it came back looking AMAZING! Just like brand new, super sparkly! It was a wonderful Mother's Day gift.

We went to church on Sunday and Dallen decided to throw a tantrum for most of Nursery. Of all the Sundays for him to be a pest it had to be Mother's Day. psh...He usually LOVES nursery. So Travis took him home early so I could enjoy Relief Society. Then that afternoon we all got to video chat with Emily in Chile! We talked for over 2 hours and it was just a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, with my entire family. See seems so happy and has a great countenance about her. It was a great Mother's Day this year. :D

Vegas CME week

It was a fun filled week in Vegas during Travis' CME Conference. We decided to do an 8 day visit and it was great to be back with friends and family without being rushed. We stayed with Nick and Mindy on a weekend that they happened to be installing carpet in most of their house. It was interesting to watch and see how doing flooring is just about as bad as moving! Anyway, they did set aside Saturday afternoon to take us boating. It was Dallen's first time on a boat and he loved it! Sadly it was the windiest day ever so we just chilled in a cove while Nick and Travis spear fished. We dipped our feet in and later watched Travis attempt to water ski out on the choppy lake. We still had a great time despite the weather.

On Sunday we went to church at our old ward and said hi to a few old friends. It's crazy how much a ward changes in 2.5 years though. There really weren't that many people to talk to. Then we spent the evening with Travis' family and had a Cinco de Mayo dinner with them. Throughout the week while Travis was at his conference, Dallen and I hung out with Mindy and her kids until they left for Disneyland on Wednesday night. We spent a lot of play time at a few different parks. The park is finished in our old neighborhood is done and even has a splash pad.  Dallen loves going down the slides and climbing all over. The weather wasn't too hot yet so it was perfect park play time.

We filled the evenings with other eventful things, dividing our time equally between family and friends. We went to a pizza get together at the Pursers where Savanna showed Dallen how to scoot down a hill. Mindy babysat Dallen for me and I got the most amazing massage I've had in a really long time. (Thanks Linda for the bday gift!) We took the cousins to Bass Pro to see the fish and mounts. Linda and I went to Toys R Us and got Dallen's gifts all picked out. We tried Cook on Wok again and were actually pleasantly surprised this time. I met up with Brighton and practiced softball with her. We had the most delicious Sushi with the Draneys and had a nice time visiting with them as well.

The last night Travis really wanted to take Dallen to the strip to see all of the lights and water. We went with his family and we all thought Travis had gone crazy or something actually wanting to spend time on the strip. We went to the Cheesecake Factory in Ceasars for dinner and kept Dallen occupied with the ipad while we had a delicious dinner. As we were walking through Ceasars to head outside over to the Bellagio, Travis encountered a statue that he had to introduce Dallen to. :P Dallen enjoyed the water show but didn't like getting sprayed with the mist coming off of it. This water show was one of my favorites- Michael Jackson, Just Beat It. The water seriously looked like it was dancing doing Michael Jackson moves. It was too bad his parents couldn't make it over because of their bad ankles. On our way out of town on Saturday we met up with Travis' parents one last time for lunch at Ricardos. Dallen fell asleep in his stroller so we had a really nice long conversation with them. It was our Mother's Day lunch for Linda.

First Beaver Turkey Hunt

The winter was a little more bearable for Travis knowing he had a hunt to look forward to in April. Travis, Draney, and Travis' Dad all had turkey tags here this year. Dallen and I got to go scouting with Travis one evening before the hunt and actually got to hear a good amount of gobbling. It was pretty exciting. Travis didn't get to hunt opening weekend because he had to work, so his first day off after the opening of the hunt, he went out and shot a really good looking Tom. He called him in sacrificing a numb leg that fell asleep while he was being a statue waiting for the Tom to move to the perfect location for a perfect shot. He got him on the first shot. It's always exciting to have him come home with a kill and was so interesting to watch Dallen watch Travis with the dead turkey. :) He kept his distance most of time. Looks like we're going to be mounting the feathers.

The second weekend of the hunt the 3 guys took off to the hills. They had a great time together and harvested another Tom. It was David's first turkey as well and was excited to get one as well. Draney went until the last minute he could on Sunday trying to get one as well, but they're just more evasive than Travis made them out to be! ha! It was fun to have visitors for the weekend. I actually think I'd like to do the turkey hunt next year. :)

Easy Easter

Dallen was so cute this Easter. It started out with a little Easter Egg Hunt that our neighbors did for him in our backyard. He didn't get to go to the community Easter Egg Hunt because he was sick. Ashley noticed we weren't there and wanted to teach her boys about serving others and so they hid a few eggs for him. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it until he found treats inside the eggs. Then he just wanted to sit and eat the candy instead of hunt for the eggs. They also gave him a bag of goldfish and he was way excited about that. 

Easter morning I woke him up to get him ready for 9am church and then he found his basket from the Easter Bunny. His favorite treats were Doritos, the juice bottle, a hoping bunny and sixlets. In the first picture he's so excited about his basket that you can see him smiling through his binky. Then the other 2 pictures he's showing me all of the wonderful things he's found in his basket. So cute! He definitely woke up happy that morning. It was so fun to see his excitement this year and see him understand that these colorful things in his basket are so fun and yummy! For Easter dinner the Browns were heading home to Provo and stopped in for the evening. It was so nice catching up with them and sharing Easter dinner with close friends. Such a great day and lots of blessings to be thankful for.

Clockwork Angel, Prince, Princess

These books have changed my life! Ok, so maybe it's not that dramatic, but they are truly amazing! They are inspiring just as Harry Potter was, but with more drama and relationship development. Cassandra Clare is truly a genius making you believe that the Shadow world exists and even did in the 1800's where these books take place. They resonate so much good, joy, hope, and love amidst a breath-holding story that you live in with the rest of the characters as either a spectator in the Institute with them or imagining yourself in the place of one of them. Clockwork Princess is especially amazing with truths that we all should pattern our life after. I couldn't have asked for a better ending! Makes me even want to read the Mortal Instrument series again as well. A good read every couple years for sure!

Beaver Prom

I'd heard a lot about the Beaver Junior Prom and just had to go to it and find out myself. So apparently this is a tradition that goes WAY back. The community and families are invited and the entire junior class dresses in formal wear. The rest of the high school students can come but dress in semi-formal wear as did we. As you can see the gym is decorated more lavishly than any wedding I've been too- very different than my prom. The evening begins with an hour long program. First they announce the junior class and their dates and spotlight them so that we can see their dresses and tuxes. There are only about 100 students so it didn't take too long. Then there were a couple musical numbers- piano and guitar/vocal. They said a few thank yous and then proceeded with the 'Promenade'. The Promenade is a choreographed group dance that the junior class performs to the theme song which in this instance was 'A Thousand Years' which I swear was one of the main songs on the Twilight series movies. Anyways, the dance was super cheesy and you could tell the kids just didn't care about it at all. Then they announced the prom royalty which are also juniors. And lastly they finish with a daddy/daughter, mother/son dance. 

I have to say that the program wasn't all that bad, just cheesy at some points and really it seemed like it was something all for the parents. Like I could see how I'd love to see my kid at prom do something like this but would hate to do it as a teenager myself. It just seems like they need to have another formal dance without the parents involved because I guess this is the only one, not to mention most of the rest of the school doesn't come anyway. I went to 2 proms and homecomings and my parents weren't at any of them. Anyway, my favorite part of the program was definitely checking out all the dresses- so fancy and princess looking. The fashion now a-days is full dresses and super sparkly. Very pretty. But overall, my favorite part of the evening was slow dancing with my hubby. We finally made it to the floor, once most of the students were gone and most of the people dancing were adults. We danced to 2 slow songs and I felt all butterflies again like it was one of our first dances. It was the ultimate country/small town romantic moment; I think he liked it too. We had a wonderful date and enjoyed getting all dressed up too. (wish we had a picture!) So fun these small town traditions. :)