Fourth, Family, & Fun

I have to start this post by thanking

my Mom & Dad

for making this trip possible.

It had been three years since my family had all been together

and had gotten a family picture.

After my sweet sister-in-law, Kara,

said she could take my family picture,

my Mom & Missy got on the computer

to find our family tickets to come.

( I was in the car, traveling to Florida at the time.)

I threw out the the idea of flying into Las Vegas

to have my kids & me, spend a few days with Missy and her fam,

then drive up to Utah for the fourth & family pic's.

And what do you know,

Missy found the tickets and made it happen.

THANK YOU!

We flew out the 29th of June to Las Vegas,

And spent two days swimming & playing with cousins.

Then we piled our eight kids into Missy's two cars

and took a road trip up to Utah, to see the rest of the family.

We spent two full days eating, playing,

& enjoying the company of each other.

Oh, and we got that family picture....

with 18 grandkids and 12 adults,

Kara had her job cut out for her.

Can't wait to see the results.

Can I tell how great it is to have both

Spencer & my parents in the same town!

Since my parents house was pretty full,

we enjoyed sleeping at

Grandma & Grandpa Elmore's house.

Though the time was short

they spoiled my kids with ice cream sundaes

& BIG yummy breakfasts.

We were happy to also sneak in a visit to

Grandma Mitton,

who lives only two houses down.

Oh, how we love to see FAMILY!!!

We then took another road trip back to Vegas,

and enjoyed a few more days before we flew back to Ohio.

Spence flew out for only the weekend,

making the flying back & forth a little painful for me.

It was well worth it.

the BIG trip!

Sunday night, the 13th of June,

we gave the news to our kids that

the following morning we

were heading to Florida

to meet up with the Morrill family

&

spend a week in Disney World.

The anticipation had been killing

me & Spence!

The first stop was Savannah, Georgia.

Where we spent the evening walking the riverwalk

& enjoying all the candy shops along the way.

Savannah Georgia

Here is a picture of the kids, moments after the Morrill's

arrived at the condo we stayed in.

What can I say... we love these guys!

The Caribe Royal Resort

The most Magical place on earth!

Disney World

Animal Kingdom

Hollywood Studio

Cocoa Beach

The original Ron Jon Surf Shop.

Well that's our trip in a nutshell.

One of the best weeks of our lives!

Almost the big day

Last night was Kayla & Avery's

dress rehearsal for their

big recital.

Next Saturday is the actual recital,

no pictures are allowed to be taken

that night.

I hear it will be three hours long!

Ouch! That is a long time to entertain Evan during the performances.

But the girls have loved taking dance

and it is fun to see them up on stage.

Preschool Graduation

Today Avery graduated from preschool.

She got to walk down

the aisle by herself

& receive her diploma.

Spencer even got to come

& witness this special day.

(And help keep Evan quiet.)

All of Avery's classmates could have gone to

kindergarten last year,

but decided to be the oldest

rather than the youngest.

I was very hesitant on doing this

but can now say I am glad we did.

Avery will miss her teachers

& classmates,

but can't wait to go to

the same school as Kayla next year.

Yay Avery!!!

Guess Who?

We went for ice cream at

Culver's on Wednesday night,

trying to see Sarah as much as possible

before her & her family move in two weeks.

Then we came to my house to watch:

Modern Family,

the best show on T.V. right now.

Sarah was showing us her new house on the computer

when I turned on the camera

and we got carried away the

taking pictures.

Our version of "girls gone wild"

We are going to miss you Sarah!

Here are a few other

fun things

we did recently...

The day before Mother's Day

shopping trip to the outlet mall

& dinner at Olive Garden.

Family night at Sports Ohio

with the Walton family.

Walton family, thanks for some great memories!

Dan you will be a fantastic

Orthodontist in Reno.

We will miss you all!

The story of how we came to be...

The year was 1999

and I was a Cosmetology Student

at Fran Brown College of Beauty,

working nights for gas money, at the front desk

of Gold's Gym in Layton, Utah.

One night I got chatting with a gal named Angie,

who would come in regularly with her husband to work-out

but since she had hurt her ankle,

she was relaxing on the couch near the the front desk.

As we talked she went on to tell me about

a really cute return missionary,

her husband worked with,

she felt she needed to set me up with.

Since he was a member of Gold's Gym

I decided to look up his picture on the computer.

I thought he looked pretty cute

from what I could see of the tiny picture.

And went on with my night without a second thought.

Little did I know the next time I worked:

May 12th, 1999

I would meet my future husband.

He happened to come in

(though later I found out he came just to check me out)

while I was working and scanned his card.

I of coarse recognized his picture.

He came in regular clothing, which I thought was odd,

and said he was "looking for someone."

After he had walked around for a few minutes

I asked him if he was looking for Angie's husband, Tim.

He got a little smirk on his face

and asked how I knew that.

From there we talked for over an hour,

I know this because I looked at

what time he scanned his card when he left.

I gave him my number...

I know that sounds so tacky, huh.

But I guess it was meant to be.

That night when Spencer went home

he told his parents he had met the girl

he was going to marry.

We got married one year later to the date.

Here is a look back.

I chose one picture for every year

and learned that the more kids we have,

the less pictures

we have of us together.

{1999}

Las Vegas

He agreed to drive to Vegas with my Mom to see me, even though we had only been dating a few months.

(Please excuse the tooooo short of shorts)

{2000}

February 2000

Just Engaged

{2001}

Moab, Utah

biking slick rock trail

{2002}

Lake Powell

{2003}

Bolivia

{2004}

4th of July in Bountiful, Utah

(pregnant with Avery)

{2005}

Snowbasin Resort

Christmas break

{2006}

Tooth Ball

third year of dental school

{2007}

Trunk Bay

cruise with dental friends

{2008}

Colorado Springs, CO

Airforce vs BYU

{2009}

Mexico

An early celebration of ten years.

{2010}

Happy ten year Anniversary

Spencer!

Sadly I don't really have any pictures of just us,

for this year yet. I will have to take one this weekend when we

will go out to celebrate.

Thanks for ten great years!

I love you!

Happy May 3rd!

Well it is May 3rd again!

My favorite day of the year,

okay not really.

But today is a day I have to celebrate.

(Even if it is some weird day I decided to love as a child.)

I love May & started it off great this year!

I got to mark another thing

off my Bucket list.

I ran my 1st half marathon!

A long with 10,ooo people

at The Capital City

Half Marathon in Columbus, Ohio .

My official time was:

1:51:55.

And I didn't die.

A thing I was really worried about the whole week before!

My kids were troopers getting

up at 6:30am

to come support me.

(That is early for us on Saturdays)

I was surprised how much

fun it was and look forward to do it again...

But next time I am

making Spence do it too!