Memorial Day Get-Away

Every Memorial Day we go up to my families

rockin cabin in Pinetop!

Country Roads... take me home, to the place I belong...

Gone here my whole life, LOVE IT!!! Rec Center, long walks, eating at the Club, crowded tiny cabin, THE best!

This year my rockin dad brought his jeep and kayaks and took us to Showlow Lake so everyone could Kayak! Who thinks pregnant me capsized?

Here is my dad shoving off...

... and there they go!

Bruce gets the "Buff and Brave" Award for taking the most kids at a time!

My sister Chrissy

Oh and look who went kayaking even though she was 8 months pregnant....

Logan said afterwards that it was funner going with mom than dad... and Bruce said, "why, was mom faster". and Logan said, "No, dad was faster, but with mom the boat was wobblier!"

Ha ha... cracked me up, I did feel a little unstable out there... but we did NOT tip over, yeah!

Lily and Bruce

Logan and his cousin buddy Calvin

Ashlin

Dallin

And even EMMA on her own!

Don't think that this mountain water was warm just because it looks like a nice day... it was COLD... I paid each of these guys $2 to jump in!!

All the grandkids with Grandpa... notice Lexi is running away... ha ha, caught this "drama" moment on film... she did NOT want to be in the picture!

Ok, so the below picture is this awesome shot I stole from my brother in laws facebook wall... At the lake Ashlin had Geoffs camara and I walked over and made this retarded face (obviously) and she snapped it. I never even saw the picture until it was on Geoff's facebook wall with 5 comments under it... cracked me up!

When Bruce saw it he said, "wow, I don't think I could get a picture that retarded if I tried all day!" oh no, not me, 1 shot is all it took! Ha Ha!

We also took our kids to a Fish Hatchery:

Walking the nature trail there

Notice Ashlin making Logan smile here... and obviously Emma had something really interesting on her nose...

And back at the cabin for some relaxation...

Seriously Bruce has dorky habits, EVERY time he reads he puts the bookmark in his mouth, the whole time he reads... I have even found him asleep with the bookmark still in his mouth.

Love the hammock, LOVE my grandparents who bought a cabin to make so many wonderful memories...

LOVE GOING TO THE CABIN!!!!!!

School's OUT!

We are so happy the school year is OVER and so is ALL the end of school year performances/graduations!!!

Even Lily had her own end of year performance... not in preschool yet, but in the cutest little Kids Chorale singing group all spring. Oh how she loved going weekly to singing class with her little friends, BUT........

BIG PROBLEM...... THE T-SHIRT!

The only day I came to get her from class and she was crying, was the day the t-shirts came in and the teacher put one on each child over their clothes, cute right? WRONG. Lily was crying and told me in the car she did NOT like the shirt. (Is it pink, are there princesses or anything "girly" on it?)

I forgot about this, and then weeks later, the day of the performance, Lily was all excited UNTIL... I dressed her. Wowzer, did she really cry for 45 minutes before we left for singing chorale and the whole way there? YEP! Even with cute red bows.... did she ever cheer up? Nope!

Here she is, her grumpy self on stage while performing:

I was cracking up this whole performance at my grumpy little Lily on stage. And here she is after the performance saying "Cheese" for the camara... pretty cheery eh?

After we got in the car I told her we were going to the store and she asked if we could go home first so she could "get dressed".

(I DID NOT go home first)

But here is someone who WAS happy:

Logan graduated from Kindergarten and had a whole evening ceremony! He was so cute!

I was complaining to him that he was growing up too fast. I told him not to go to first grade but to stay my snuggle buddy forever... and he told me that he would still be my snuggle buddy even when he was in TENTH grade! So sweet!

And below is a farewell to the percussion bells for Dallin. He had his LAST band concert, yeah! He has been taking private guitar lessons for over a year, and loves it, but wanted to do band also. TOO MUCH! We are very strict about his guitar practicing daily... but percussion... well, lets just say around March I told him to go practice percussion, and he said, "my kit is at school". And I said, "why?". And he said, "I haven't brought it home since Christmas"... OOPS! So, we decided to just stick with guitar for his 6th grade year!

And more goodbye's below... Ashlin finished 8th grade, and ALSO decided after 4 years of flute, NOT to take it in highschool. So, 2 kids down and Emma not old enough for band yet, means NO BAND FOR US NEXT YEAR!!

(Don't you worry, Ashlin and Emma are still in piano, I am not THAT nice!!)
These pictures are after Ashlin's LAST band concert!

And then... her promotion ceremony from 8th grade...

WOW, Highschool next year!!!

And, SCHOOL IS OUT, yeah!

Bear-y Cute Day

STORYTIME TRIVIA:

Look at the picture below and see if you can tell what childrens story my kids helped me set up the Living Room for Lily's playgroup to act out?

3 bowls, 3 chairs and 3 beds... YEP, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears!

The girls were SO cute and first we used the flannel board (you can see in the above picture, but close up below) to tell the story and THEN, we acted it out.... over and over and over and over again...

I have these cute little felt character masks the girls wore, and they each got to be every character. It was the CUTEST day ever, I love our playgroup!


(Lily as Baby Bear)
I was bummed I didn't take a picture of all the girls in character! But look how cute they are below:

They all brought bears for our bear day... and ofcourse we had "porridge" for a snack (cream of wheat) ... and ofcourse it was served "too hot" so we had to take a walk outside "in the forest" while it cooled! :) When the moms came to pick up, they stayed and the girls performed their little play for them too!

When my older kids left for school, they made sure I was going to leave it all set up for THEM to come home and put on a play also!

*I have all these CUTE felt boards and stories, and character masks from a company that use to be called Storyteller... bought it all years ago, use to be a popular home party company... they have such cute stuff that we have gotten a lot of use out of over the years!

Their website is http://www.funfelt.com/
They have finger puppets, quiet books, felt stories... lots of cute imaginitive play stuff. One year I went crazy and bought too much stuff from them.... :)

Vernons on Parade

So, as I looked back at pictures from this month, I realized that my kids were busy with lots of activities and performances!! Here are just a few:

Cute Lily has been increasing her talents all month of April/May in SWIM LESSONS!! Ms. Lorie has taught the youngest 4 of my kids to swim! She is WONDERFUL and Lily is officially a mermaid now! She can't get enough of diving off the side and swimming across the pool to you.... she feels SO grown up to be swimming like the BIG kids!! YEAH LILY!

And how lucky is this, she's in class with her little friends!!

The performing DUO Dallin and Emma were in TWO TALENT SHOWS this spring!
In April we had our cute Primary Talent Show and they performed "Burnin Up" by the Jonas Brothers... Dallin on guitar, Emma on vocals, ofcourse! I didn't get any pictures, but here is the video:

(I wish I had not done background music on this, as it is hard to tell what Dallin is playing, oh well, they do it with out background music cute)

Then in May they did a different song, "Wonderwall" by Oasis, for their school talent show!

You've got to read the above sign that hung up behind them on stage: "Mesquites Gots Talent".... HA HA, cracked me up... clearly grammar is not ONE of the talents "Mesquite's gots"... ha ha

Here's the video for that one:

(no background music on this one, just them)

Then Ashlin was in the Stake Roadshow this month... and SEWED HER OWN poodle skirt for the costume (Bruce sewed on the poodle... go Dr. Vernon). The ward learned multiple dance numbers and performed a little 50's Highschool Dance show... the kids had SO much fun!!

Then for the "Mother's Tea" in Logan's kindergarten class, Logan and I were asked to read a cute book... "How much do you love me?" because he is such a good little reader! And aren't I a good "little" mother.... ha ha, that is a joke, I realize "little" is not the word that comes to mind when you see this lovely picture of me 7 months pregnant below.... ha ha!

This was in front of all 27 kids and their moms... I read the mom parts and he read the child parts (some were a whole page long) GO LOGAN!! And go me for only getting a little teary eyed on some parts, and not full crying!
(I warned the teacher that I was the WRONG mom to ask, as I'm a dork and cry easy)

So, this isn't a performance, but I walked in to this and had to go take a picture of cute daddy/daughter bedtime stories!
(after baths clearly, thus the wet pillow)
Good Night!