Goodbye Dirt Bike... HELLO MOTORCYCLE!

Matt just bought his first motorcycle! He is very excited and is riding it everywhere! He has inspired his other family members (Timmy) to buy bikes as well, and others are looking into it! I want our kids to know someday that we once were awesome!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Last weekend, Matt and I watched the McKinlay kids so Rod and Amy could go up to Deer Valley for their tenth anniversary! I have been stealing Myrna's Family Fun magazines lately and cutting out stuff I want to use at school, and this was one of those ideas. Not only was it fun, but it took like forever and the kids loved it! All you do is make a white cake mix and then split up the batter and dye it different colors! I didn't think it would turn out well, because those things never look as good as they do in the magazine, but it actually was darling! The kids thought they were the best cupcakes ever! (Even though we didn't add any flavor or anything...) Seriously, great idea for a random thing to do with kids. If I had done it differently, I would have put the batter into ziplocs and dyed it and then cut off the end and squirted each color into the cupcake things. That would have been much easier.

California

For my dad's honeymoon/family vacation, after a long wait and decision-making process, we drove down to California to spend some time in the sun! Since I have so many pictures, this is going to be a photo journal/story...

We stayed just down the road from Hermosa Beach. The night we got there, we took a little stroll down the beach and played some beach ultimate frisbee with everyone (yes, there were enough of us to form two complete teams)



Cassie learned how to boogie board on this trip! She braved the cold water and huge waves, I couldn't believe it! She was amazing!


Our hotel let us ride bikes everywhere (for free). It has been a long time since I have ridden a bike, and it was actually really fun! I did feel like the Von Trapp family when we were all riding together (we should have started singing while we were riding down the beach...)



Getting ready for dinner at Cheesecake Factory! Yummy...


Can you tell which guy is not related?


The whole crew... All fifteen of us...


This was so funny, I can't believe they had these signs telling how many calories are in each slice!! The cheesecake slice with the most calories had over 1500 calories! This was my cheesecake I ordered...


This was Matt's cheesecake...


On Saturday we went to Disneyland and California Adventure with everyone. In California Adventure, there is a super fun ride that is in 3D (hence the sweet glasses)! Definitely a favorite!




Thanks to Chelsie, we had guides take us around Disney and walk us through all the lines. I didn't think you would believe me, so I filmed us getting on the Indiana Jones ride (but I couldn't get the videos to load, sorry!). There was a 50 minute wait for everyone else. There are two videos because my camera stopped filming after three minutes, but it definitely is crazy to watch as we just walk past everyone in line...

And then they stopped the ride so we could take a picture!


After Splash Mountain! Alex and I got soaked! That's what we get for riding in the first and second seats...


Disneyland just started a new nighttime water/light show the day before we went! It was amazing! Think about Disney fireworks, but with fountains, water, music, videos, and DISNEY! LOVED IT! They even used the lights from the attractions behind the fountain as part of the show!


The first roller coaster in Disneyland, the Matterhorn


It's a small world after all...


Sorry for all the millions of pictures!

Jeff and Laurie Norton!

Also on June 5, we celebrated my dad and Laurie's wedding! They were married at their house in Draper just after a gorgeous dinner! We took about a million pictures, but now our family is huge! Laurie's six kids, plus three spouses, plus three grandkids... we add up to about 18 people! The night was beautiful, and it was so special to spend this special evening with them!

Matt was miffed he had to wear a suit, but I think he looked great...


Trevor almost made it through the night with his pants... Matt was a little jealous I think...


The groom and Alex


Sisters!


Our wedding outfits


My wedding gift to the happy couple... One of my favorites...

Zach and Natalie Neibaur

On June 5, Matt and I went to my cute roommate's wedding ceremony in the Bountiful Temple. It was so beautiful, and I was so excited to be there for something so special. After the temple, we took a few pictures with all the girls and some with Zach and Nat. Congratulations you guys!

Last Day of School!

On June 3, I officially completed my first year of teaching! I cannot believe how fast it went. Everyone always says you remember your first class forever, and I'm sure there will be a few kids who will stay with me. I can't believe they are going to move to sixth grade. Crazy. We had so much fun on the last day of school, we watched some movies, read some scary stories, and had a dance party! I played some of the music I listened to when I was in fifth grade, and my kids didn't even know it! I felt so old...

Memorial Weekend

It was so nice to have a day off near the end of the school year to hangout with family and friends over Memorial Day Weekend! On Friday night, Matt and I went up to Logan and hung out with Jenny and Randy and the kids while they were camping. It was beautiful, and so nice to be outside. That night, we had a fire and s'mores with them, and Diet, Myrna, Todd and Melissa (and Sammy of course) came up to visit!

Brad making his s'more... Claire had one too, but Sammy ate some of it






On Monday, Matt and I went golfing at West Ridge with Diet. We played okay, but we still had a lot of fun!


On Monday night, Matt and I went out to the Eagle Mountain Days Rodeo with my mom, Jeff, Alex, and Brett! It pretty much made me want to have a horse (so Timmy you better save me a place for my horse at your house)! We missed the mutton-bustin but it was way fun to watch the barrel racing and bull riding! Yee-haw!

Skills

On Thursday (the last day of school) we had our faculty vs. 6th grade softball game. Now, this game actually came up in my interview for this job. I mentioned that I played and coached softball and the administrators were way excited to have some skill on the faculty team. I don't think anyone was ready for what happened at the game. I was playing third base and probably got to field every 1 out of 3 hits, so I got to show off my skills. I pulled out all the stops, because I was having so much fun. Some of the sixth graders even said, "Stop showing off Mrs. Fischer!" HAHAHAHA! It was awesome. Needless to say, the teachers won. One of the other teachers was taking pictures and got this awesome picture...



My class was joking before the game about how they were going to beat the teachers next year, but after the game they didn't really say anything to me...

Check It Out!

Ordering books from the Scholastic book order every month for the past six months has been invigorating... for me. Now I wanted to share a little bit of my reading with you, since it is summer! Everyone needs a good read for summertime!

My first choice would be "The Red Pyramid," by Rick Riordan. This is from the same author who wrote "The Lightning Thief" series. Same idea. A couple kids, Sadie and Carter, learn about their ancestry with Egyptian gods and goddesses. I thought it would be too similar to the Percy Jackson series, but it's not. You'll love it.



My second favorite pick recently has been "The Girl Who Could Fly" by Victoria Forester. A cute farm girl realizes she can fly and is whisked off to a school for special kids. Tons of twists, you will never guess what is coming next!



My third pick for summer is called "Slathbog's Gold" by M.L. Forman. Feels a lot like some other adventure stories (Fablehaven...) but has creative new ideas that make the story like nothing you've read. This is the first in the "Adventurers Wanted" series.



This probably seems really silly to blog about books, but I read so much that it would be silly NOT to. Here is a quick list of other books I've read recently and liked: (some you may have heard of, others, maybe not)
*"Savvy" by Ingrid Law
*"When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead
*"The Mysterious Benedict Society" series (most recent- "Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma")
*"The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks
*"Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison" (Of course!)

Keep your eyes open for more... I have a stack of books waiting for me...