Bodie's family gets together for a weekend every summer. This year we went to Kodachrome State Park. It was really fun...once we got there! We were supposed to leave on Thursday, but...no surprise....the mechanic called and said the truck was taking a little longer to fix than he had anticipated. We didn't get it back until 6 that night. Rather than drive and get there really late and still have to set up the trailer, we decided to get up early Friday morning and head down. We met the family at Calf Creek Falls. It was so pretty. It was a really hot 3 mile hike to the falls, but well worth it once we got there.
Bodie and McKenzie got in the water, but I was to much of a wuss. The water was FREEZING!!! We played around in the water for a while and then got on with the hike back. We went back to Kodachrome where the kids played Grandma's guessing game. Bodie's mom puts crackers, M&M's, and other treats in jars and the grandkids all take turns guessing how many is in each one. She always has enough so that everyone gets a treat. McKenzie got the M&M's this year...I was really excited about that, but next year, I am hoping she get's the money! Then everyone sang happy birthday to her (since it was the day after her birthday...and we were supposed to get there on her birthday and have a little party for her.) And, she got to open presents. She was in heaven!

Tom (Bodie's brother in law) is an amazing artist and sculpted this in the sand at the waterfall.

Saturday, we spent the whole day at Bryce Canyon. It is so beautiful there. We hiked, shopped, had pizza and ice cream. It was a perfect day. There were so many gnats at the campground, we made sure we didn't get back until bed time!

Sunday we all ended up at Bodie's parents house for church and dinner before we all had to go back home. We had a great time at the reunion this year. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family. It was so fun for McKenzie to play with all her many cousins and for the adults to get caught up on each others lives! We love our family and can't wait until next year!

McKenzie is 6!

The morning of her actual birthday. We made waffles with mangoes and whipped cream and put a candle in the middle for her to blow out.

Mckenzie is finally, in her opinion, 6. We spent a lot of time celebrating her birthday! We started with a backyard Luau party with some of her friends. We played pop the coconut, ring toss, and some other Hawaiian themed games. Then we got to the good stuff! Cupcakes, presents, sno cones, and squirt guns. My sister Amanda came out and helped me with the party. I thought at first that I could do it myself, no problem, but I was so glad that she was there! After that party, we got ready for the next one. My family came out later that day for another Luau party. We had dinner, played games, ate cupcakes, opened presents, and drank from coconut cups (McKenzie's favorite part!) I am so happy to be part of a family where we are so close. It made McKenzie feel so special with most of her aunts, uncles, and cousins there.
She is really excited that we are singing happy birthday to her!

That birthday party was a week before her actual birthday. We were supposed to leave on her birthday to meet Bodie's family for a family reunion. Well, the truck was in the shop a little longer than we had expected so we didn't leave until the next day. We were all a little disappointed and had spent most of the day waiting around for the truck, so we decided to go have a little fun. We took McKenzie to the Mayan restaurant for dinner. It was so fun to watch her when they did the diving shows. She kept thinking the divers were doing belly flops and would laugh when they hit the water. It was a fun night.

End of the school year.

McKenzie had such a fun year in Kindergarten. She did awesome. She made some great friends and so did I! I got to help every Tuesday morning. I loved it. It was a lot of fun to see her learn, and become less and less shy! All of her report cards were great. By the end of the year, she was above the expected level in just about every area. It has always been amazing to me to see kids learn to read...when it is my own kid, it is just that much more awesome! McKenzie loved her teacher and overall it was a great experience. She is so excited to go into first grade. She is especially looking forward to eating lunch at school. That will be interesting since she is the world's slowest eater!

The last month of school, McKenzie was nominated by her teacher for the Principle's Pride award. She was so stoked! This picture is her holding up her paper saying that she was getting the award. She got to go to a program in the library one morning where the Principle called each of the kids up separately and read what their teacher's wrote about them. Then they got a picture with the Principle that went up in the main hallway and a goodie bag. I wasn't able to get a great picture of her and the Principle, but luckily they sent the one home with us that they took! McKenzie is still somewhat shy, but she loves to have the spotlight on her...I mean she does want to be a rockstar when she grows up!






Okay, I know this isn't a great picture, but McKenzie had her gymnastics recital the week after school got out. She has done gymnastics for a year now and is loving it. She is a great little gymnast and is completely fearless in the gym....other places, not so much! My camera card got full and I couldn't get many pictures of her, but she did a bar, beam, and floor routine with her class and then got a trophy at the end. She was most excited about the trophy! After the recital, one of the coaches that runs the gym asked if I'd consider putting her in the class that is the next level up. McKenzie wanted to try it out, so we did. It is definitely more of a commitment, but she is loving it and is getting so good. Doing so well at gymnastics is giving her so much confidence in herself, I feel like it is well worth the money. They are great to her at that gym and I love her coaches for that.

Adoption

So this post is mostly for me...sorry if anyone gets bored reading it! You may or may not know that we have decided to adopt. It has been 4 years of waiting to see what happens, miscarraiges, medical procedures, and more miscarraiges. So, after the last one, we decided we REALLY needed to think hard about what our next step would be. Our options were in vitro fertilization or adoption. We prayed a lot about what to do and I made an appointment...in the same week with an infertility specialist and an adoption caseworker. I left the Dr. feeling really overwhelmed an stressed and not very happy. Bodie and I left the adoption orientation feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off our shoulders. We knew that was our answer. Now, anyone who has delt with infertility knows that it can be really stressful and emotional. After we made the decision to adopt, no kidding, all the stress was gone. We feel now, and have always felt that it doesn't matter if our child comes to us biologically with our own genes or if it comes to us from another set of parents..it can be our child and we will love it no matter what. So, I know we are starting a whole new emotional rollercoaster, but I also know that this is what we are supposed to be doing, we we will be able to handle it. We went to an adoption education class last weekend. It was amazing. So many good insights and new things to think about. It got us really motivated to get going with our approval process! We are so excited and can't wait until we have another child. McKenzie is great about it too. At this point, I think she would be somewhat disappointed if we got pregnant instead of adopted! Anyway, sorry for the boring post! Wish us luck!

Spring Break 2011

Okay, so the weather wasn't great during Spring Break, but man were we excited! It was so nice not to have to stick to a schedule. We could sleep in, eat breakfast late, and have sleepovers...which is just how we started our spring break! After a few days of lounging around, Bodie, Mckenzie and I met Bodie's parents in Capitol Reef National Park. We took the trailer....and found out that the truck gets WAY worse gas mileage when towing it. Gordon and Joann got there a couple hours before us and saved us a campsite. Then they found out that there are rules against that and the campground filled up. Luckily, we were able to squeeze the trailer into their campsite with them. The first night there, we had dinner and then went on a walk around the campground....until it was dark. Bodie got up bright and early friday morning and watched a guy across from us pack up his tent and leave, so Bodie jumped right on that. He parked the truck in that campsite. It was nice to have a little more room and a fire pit. Friday was such a beautiful day. We spent the day looking at the petroglyphs, hiking to Hickman's Bridge, and checking out the Fruita one room schoolhouse. McKenzie now has a new appreciation for her school! On the hike to Hickman's bridge McKenzie decided that she LOVED Capitol Reef because there were so many good places to take pictures of her. I love it!

McKenzie posing at Hickman's Bridge

Another place to take a picture!

You can't really see them, but those are petroglyphs behind her.

McKenzie and Grandma

We woke up Saturday to cold and rain...Boo! There was an Easter egg hunt at the picnic area, so Joann and I headed down there with McKenzie while the boys packed up the trailers. There were a ton of eggs and at first there were only a few kids there. By the time it started, the park was packed! McKenzie still got out with a lot of treats though. We all had a good time even though her fingers were freezing!

Waiting for the egg hunt to start

All the eggs. There were sooo many! Thanks to Grandma for going with us!

It was fun to be at Capitol Reef, but it was fun to be home on Easter as well. McKenzie got a cute Easter dress, so we had to go buy her some high heels to match. She loves those dang shoes! We had a quiet Easter at home enjoying Easter candy. We had somuch fun that we weren't even too sad that we weren't in warm, sunny St. George at my parent's new condo with them!

Dying Easter eggs.

Mckenzie in her Easter dress with her Easter basket behind her.

Bon Jovi Sistee Night!!!

Last night, Janece, Tami, Mere, Leslie and I all got to go to the Bon Jovi concert. Let me just tell you ....it was awesome. Funnest sistee night I have had in a long time and a MUCH needed girls night out! We started the night off with dinner at Applebees at the Gateway. We got there ...okay Janece got there 2 hrs before the concert started and it was already getting packed. No worries though, we didn't even know the band that was opening for Bon Jovi, so once we got seated, we took our time eating and talking, and laughing...a lot! Then we walked over to the concert. I sure do love those Bon Jovi concerts! It was awesome...we were dancing the whole night. I didn't get any pictures, but Janece got a great video of all of us on her phone! We decided that next time he tours, we will go see him in Vegas even if he comes to Salt Lake. We could all use another sistee weekend in Vegas! I love my sisters and love that we are so close! The only thing that could make the night better was if Amanda was there, but she was on her way to California to try to get back to Hawaii. Amanda...next time you will have to come for sure. Or maybe we could all come to Baltimore when he is there!

My sisters are some of my very best friends and I love them all so much! I am so blessed to have such an awesome family!

McKenzie was mad that I didn't buy a ticket for her, so I told her that I would take her to the Justin Bieber concert when he comes in town again. I hope taking her to the Justin Bieber movie will do instead of the concert, but we will just have to wait and see!

Her First Wiggly Tooth

McKenzie was a very late bloomer when it came to getting teeth. She was almost exactly 9 months old before the first ones came in. Imagine my surprise when she was the first of her friends to get a wiggly tooth. Now, I can handle a lot of things that come along with having kids... diapers, puke, potty training (though I got off real easy on that one!) and all the other messes they make. I cannot, however, handle loose teeth. I don't know why, but it has always bugged me. I have dreaded the day when she started loosing her teeth. McKy's tooth was getting looser and looser until one day, when I was at work and Bodie was in charge, I came home to this:

Bodie talked her into letting him tie a string around it and pull it out. She was really excited until it happened...and it hurt. Bodie felt bad that she was so sad that he told her that they could write a letter to the tooth fairy letting her know that it was her first tooth to come out and it hurt and when she got that letter, she would probably give McKenzie $10. Bodie is no longer allowed to be in charge of communicating with the tooth fairy!