SUMMER HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED!

Claire's Dance Recital!

I am so lucky to have a niece! I love going to her dance recitals and bringing her flowers and seeing her all dressed up like a princess! Matt was in Wyoming working, so he had to miss her recital, but I loved being able to be there and see her getting better and better!

Her recital reminded me of all the dance recitals that I was in as a little girl, and all the recitals I went to for my sisters. I had to hunt down some of our old pictures (even though it isn't flashback Friday) and post them...

I have hours of home videos of dance recitals... It's hard to believe we spent so much time dancing and yet none of us have any coordination!

Spike and Burt

Spike and Burt have finally made it to their respective homes. Tim put the two elk in the back of his truck and brought them up north. Matt wanted to ride with Tim in the truck rather than with me in the car because he wanted to see people's reactions to seeing the two elk in the truck. He said it was a fun ride home, getting honked at and thumbs up from everyone they passed.

You can definitely tell that Burt is bigger than Spike! Look how huge those horns are!

Matt is pretty happy to have his elk at home. He is thinking about undertaking a huge construction project so he can hang it in the place he wants. If that doesn't work out, anyone sleeping in our spare bedroom will have Spike staring at them all night! Sorry! (But not really that sorry, because you don't have to have a huge elk in your house!)

Jack

Tim and Kamie got a puppy this spring. Matt loves him so much! I think Matt loves the puppy just as much as he loves his nieces and nephews! I have to admit that he is a pretty darn cute puppy.

One weekend we were in Salt Lake and Tim had brought Jack down with them. We were sitting outside watching Reagan and she tripped and fell over. She immediately turns around, finds the dog, and whacks him on the nose, and says, "No, Gack!" That poor dog had nothing to do with her falling over, but she is obviously used to getting tripped up by the puppy. I wish I had recorded it!

Mother's Day

Happy mother's day to my mother, grandmothers, step-mother, mother-in-law, and all my second mothers who played a role in my life over the years. I love you all. Thank you for your example.

Flashback Friday: Graduation and Senior Trip 2006

So I was going to try and post my old pictures in order, but they are not in order on my computer and I wanted to post these pictures, so that is why they are not in order! Cassie is going to graduate from high school in THREE WEEKS and it has got me thinking about when I was a senior and graduated from high school. My mom took Cassie's senior pictures this weekend and they turned out amazing! I'll post them as soon as I get one! Here are a couple of my senior pictures:

This was probably the best picture I have ever had taken in my life. I have no idea how to replicate the way I did my hair or how natural this looks. I guess that's why you pay the photographer the big bucks.

These pictures were taken on the day of my graduation, June 1, 2006 (holy crap, it has been 7 years!)

Garrett, Trevor and Conrad

Grandma and Grandpa Norton

Grandma and Papa Decker and my aunt Sue and uncle John

I didn't take a lot of pictures with my cap and gown. I turned it in before I even saw my family after the ceremony because I wanted to leave!

For senior trip we went to Disney World in Florida! It was so much fun with 11 of my closest friends. We had three hotel rooms in a hotel on Disney property, and basically just ran around doing whatever we wanted for a whole week!

Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom on our first day

Animal Kingdom

Jungle Cruise in Magic Kingdom

Topiary at Epcot

Norway at Epcot

The Miss Piggy water feature at MGM

In front of Mickey's sorcerer hat at MGM

Lunch at Magic Kingdom

Extra magic hours! Because we were staying on Disney property, we got to stay in the parks for like two or three extra hours after they closed. It was amazing! There was no one there! We would run through the lines and get on rides with no wait! It even led to taking some pictures with characters that you never get to take pictures with!

We are all soaked from riding Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom

Famous Mickey and Walt Disney statue at Magic Kingdom

From left: me, Lauren, Natalie, Amie, Erika, Emeri, Taylor, Rachel
Below: Sarah, Lindsay
Not pictured: Kasi and Jenn

I was going to wait to post these pictures, but in the spirit of graduation, I had to post some of Matt! This year will be his 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of his high school graduation! (And I thought I was getting old!)

Fun fact: When Matt was graduating from high school, I was finishing my freshman year in middle school!