Snow skiing

Rusty just returned today from a 'business' trip.  Ya, looks like he got a lot of work done.  :)  No, just teasing.  He did go on this trip strictly for fun!  Skiing in Vail, Colorado.  He said he loved it.  Besides being in beautiful country, he had so much fun.  In fact, he had forgotten how much he liked to ski.  It's been a while.  They stayed in a condo that got off right at the lift.  (I can't relate...I don't like to ski.)

He also got to have a little visit with his brother and their family.  Jim, Dill and Garrett live in Denver area. It isn't often enough that they get to hang out, so that was pretty great too.

And we love that he had fun, but are so glad he's home!  :)

Happy Birthday, Ellie!

My baby is 11. That is really hard to believe!  We went to Ruby's diner for her special day.  Here she is  digging in to her birthday sunday!

Ellie and Chloe

Chloe tries to get Porter in at least one photo.  He is a stinker.  Trying to steer clear of the camera!

MJ and Ren (They loved the paper cars that they got to make and the shakes, as evidenced by the shake still clinging to Ren's upper lip!)

Mmmm.

Ellie asked for one thing this year.  An itouch.  She got pretty lucky!  Chloe and Porter helped me get it all charged and put on a bunch of apps and games that they thought she'd like.  They were both excited to help out with that.  I thought it was really nice.  They spent quite a while deciding on the best ones for her.

Wow...it does that too?

She does love it, but not that much!  She is trying out the kissing app that Chloe put on for her!  :)  I know...why does she need to practice kissing?!  She's only 11!

Ok, easy there.  :)

The next day, I took her out to choose a cute cover.  Some facts about Ellie...

Fav color: green

Fav candy: peanut butter cups

Talents: singing, playing piano and cello, acting, generous, peacemaker, friendly

Fav book: "The Doll People" series, anything by Rick Riordan like "The Lightening Thief" or "The Red Pyramid" and the Harry Potter books  (she likes to read)

Fav movie: "Soul Surfer" or "Twilight"

TV shows:  "Lost" series, "Sweet Life on Deck", "Drake & Josh", "Full House" reruns and "Victorious"

Best Friends:  Marisa Quezada, Abby Sichley, Maddy Redemski, and Hanna Davis, Ruth Ostergar and of course, long distance best friend, Norah Harman

Amy + Chris

On Saturday night, Rusty and I went to the wedding dinner/party for our friends, Amy and Chris.  They finally tied the knot!  They've been dating for about 9 years!  :)  Everything was beautiful, especially Amy.  

This is Julia, Renee (mother of the bride) and Teri.

Do you ever feel a real closeness with certain people or families?  I really love this Hulse family.  They have 4 girls and 2 boys in their family.  Plus their Mom, who I love too.  I don't know the dad too well.  He lives in San Diego.  There is something about these sisters.  Maybe they remind me of my own sisters.  I just love each of them.  And the brothers are awesome as well.  And so are their wives.  Their whole family is wonderful!

Here are all the sisters (minus Amy, the bride) dancing.  They all have little kids too, as you can see.  :)  Alli, Xochi (I have no idea how to spell her name!), Laura, Emily and the girl up front is really nice and great but her name just won't come to me right now.  All birth sisters all look just alike right?

Chloe's acting career

Chloe's drama class presented their play "The Little Mermaid" last week.  It's been a hairy couple of weeks.  She's had multiple after school rehearsals.  Our schedule has been thrown of significantly!  :)  

After her 1st dress rehearsal, she came home looking like this!  Scaly eyes.  They actually look really cool, right.  And here is her cast shirt.  

Although I had spent some time going over lines with Chloe, I didn't realize that her part was actually really cute and not so small as she let me to believe.  She was basically 'Nemo', though she was named 'Finny'.  It was a part that someone put into the show to give more parts to students.  The characters Dory and Bruce were also in the play as another name.  Chloe did a really cute job as Finny.  She delivered some pretty funny lines.  She was one of Little Mermaids friends, kinda like Flounder and Scuttle.

After the show...

Chloe and a friend

Sock Hop

I am the Stake Primary Secretary right now.  I love my calling, though I'm trying to keep that hush-hush. It is probably the easiest calling I've ever had (except for primary pianist)!  Again, this is hush-hush, since I don't want to be given extra things, ya know?  Anyway, one thing that we do is put on an annual Daddy Daughter party (girls ages 8-11).  Last year it was a Hoe-Down, the year before a Luau.  Tonight was the Sock Hop.  I think it was our best ever!  The girls were sooo cute!  All decked out in their poodle skirts, or other 50ish garb.  

The evening went a little like this...Start by getting your photo taken.  (This was my area.  We took the photos and the cute duo could come back and pick them up a little later after we printed them.  I brought my little Canon Selphy printer and I used 2 other machines.  We just exchanging SD cards all night, to ensure we had time to get them all printed by evenings end.)

Ellie and her Dad, Rusty

Ellie and I wore matching scarves.

We borrowed this cute skirt from a friend.  Ellie had a lot of fun twirling.  It did spin just perfectly!  At the party, we had a young women and young man from our stake come and teach the girls/dads to do some moves.  They learned the hand jive, bunny hop, and some other really cute dances.  The music was so fun!  Perfect for dancing or just singing or bopping along!  

After getting a picture taken, the cute couples could make a necklace.  We had these engraved, too cute right.  Then the girls could decorate however they wanted to with the little jewels.  This was a huge hit.

Some examples, a flower or palm tree, a wave or a music note.

We had ice cream sundae's for dessert.  There were tons of toppings to choose from, like gummy bears, crushed oreos or butterfingers, sprinkles and even whip cream and cherries!  Delish.

Now for the funniest part of the night.  We always try to incorporate our Bishop's photos into our evening.  I took the photos ahead of time and we sent them to a guy and who put them in some iconic poses.  You may recognize some faces in these, and others, you can't quite remember.  Like above, James Stewart looks an aweful like my Bishop!  :)

And who doesn't recognize a "White Christmas" scene, just not sure about the guy on the far left.  ;)

I didn't post all of them, just a couple so you'd get the idea!  Aren't they so silly.  When I first saw them, I laughed so hard!  

This one has several 'new and improved' faces.  Our stake presidency is featured here along with our stake presidents wife as Dorothy.  (Oz is original though)  So fun!  (Ok, so Oz is from the 40s, woops.)

overnight getaway

Rusty and I spent a night at the Ritz, off Salt Creek Beach last Friday!  It was gorgeous.  Especially our view.  We were on the ground floor, with a little patio that walked out to a large grass area, that lead straight down to the beach.  And walking through the hotel, there were these beautiful yellow roses everywhere.  You could smell them everywhere too.  And in the lobby, this is what you saw on both sides of you.  It was very unique, the photo doesn't do it justice.  The room was little stark, all white everything...not that I'm complaining.  It was lovely.  I did wonder how they kept it so white though.  :)  Rus and I swimsuited up (for the first time since last September!) and spent some time in the hot tub.  It was fabulous.  It was a great get-a-way.  

I tired to get Rusty to pose for me by one of these many yellow rose arrangements, but he wouldn't do it. So, I did.  :)

So, you are thinking, what did you do with the kids?  We left them home!  By themselves.  And they survived without us.  Hmm.  Who would have thought?

This has been a crazy week.  Between sick kids, projects for church and family  and school, and just regular life.  I felt so exhausted when Friday came.  Falling asleep felt so good when I got in bad that night!    Here's the rundown...

Rusty and Porter went to Las Vegas and St. George for the weekend.  They were able to go to the BYU basketball games on Thursday and Saturday.  And they spent the rest of their time with Rusty's parents in St. George.  Rusty's dad is recovering from heart surgery and so I think it was good for them to go up to spend some time with them.  Porter said he learned a lot this weekend, including how to set a mouse trap.  It was probably good that I wasn't there, cause I don't think I'd trust him to set one.  To risky for his fingers.  I know, he is 14, but he is a lefty.  Need I say more?

Ellie had her science expo.  She and a friend, Maddy entered the expo (it's not a competition).  They did a great job.    I was impressed with how well they worked together and how organized they were.

Ren and his class had their Sea World field trip.  I have no photos of that!  Can you believe I forgot my camera?!  So unlike me.  Anyway, Ren woke up warm.  I knew he was getting what MJ had (a 5 day fever).  MJ was still in recovery mode, so missed school but went to Sea World with us.  So, though he woke up warm...it was like 4 am and he comes running in my room asking if it's time to get up and get ready for Sea World!  I say no, go back to sleep.  Then at 6:15 when I got up to take Porter to seminary, he woke and asked if it was time.  I said yes, you can get up now!  He was so happy.  But he was warm.  Since we would be outside and not come in much contact with other kids (and since he would have been the saddest little guy in the world), I decided we'd go despite the warmness.  We went to the Penguin display, the Shark tanks and tunnel and the Sea Lion show.  After that it was all downhill!  Poor baby.  He got in the stroller and just didn't move.  MJ was running all around excited to pick up the Star Fish and see the dolphins but Ren was just completely unmotivated by any of it.  So, we were on our way out of the park after 2 hours.  We saw a few of Chloe's friends (whose nice parents let them skip school to spend the day at Sea World) and MJ asked if she could go on the Atlantis ride with them.  They let her and they had so much fun, they went twice!  I was glad MJ got to enjoy it, though Ren really couldn't.

Chloe had her last doctor's apt for her broken foot, which is healed now!  Chloe did ask the doc to give her an excuse to stay out of PE for 2 more weeks.  And he gave it to her!  She is so funny.  So, she was in a wrap for a week, a cast for a week, then a boot for 4 weeks.  That boot was stinky, ugh (only when she took it off).  And I seriously think she wore it about 1/2 the time, like to school.  But at home, after the 1st week or so, she'd take it off around the house.  Anyway, glad that's done.