Fun at the pool, a special day with Nathan and a hedgehog playing basketball

Lauren and Kurt got the pool at Arrowhead all to themselves today. 

Nathan received his patriarchal blessing. So special. I love this boy of mine!

Kurt was chosen to bring home Henry the hedgehog from school for the weekend to have an adventure. They played basketball together.

Senior pictures

Here's our girl...

Cannot believe she'll be 18 soon.  I love the person she has become!

Happy lucky 11th birthday Lauren!

Our sweet lauren turned 11 last week! What a beautiful special sweetheart she is. It's been so fun to watch her grow up and discover new talents and interests. Here are a few things you may not know about lauren. She loves....
babies. chips and salsa. studio C. working with clay. running. green smoothies. collecting tiny things. fresh baked chocolate chip cookies after a shower. lip gloss. hairbrush. her best friend molly. bunnies.

Lauren wants a teacup dog.  Sorry honey no dogs right now!:)

Lauren and her sweet friends.  Emma, Lauren, Molly and Olivia

Lauren holding cousin Molly. 

Lauren giving some love to cousin Brita

Some of Lauren's tiny things collection.

Lauren and Molly in Portland just being cute!

School starts, a new driver, and the basketball court done

Derek 8th grade. Lauren 6th grade. Kurt 2nd grade.

Nathan 10th grade...check out that smolder.  Nicole 12th grade.  Notice it's still dark outside when they leave in the morning to seminary.  540am!  Yikes.

Nathan got his permit :)

The court finally got painted and striped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We are loving this!

This picture cracked me up that Nicole was just laying out there and her glasses are on the court by her.  Also the neighbors dog totally came up and pounced on her shortly after this picture was taken.  Good feeling gone!

The court is done just in time for the rain to come.

Cutest person on the planet! Dancing violinist Lindsey Stirling.

Dave and I took Nicole and Lauren and their best friends Brooke and Molly to the Lindsey Stirling concert in Portland on Friday.  It was so fun!!! What an adorable and entertaining person she is!!! 

She gets my vote for cutest person on the planet.

                                       

An unexpected meeting with Peter Hollens and his wife Evynne!  The girls were so giggly and excited that he was there in the audience.  If you don't know who he is, he has some pretty awesome youtube videos.  Such beautiful voices!  
Meeting him made the night extra fun!

Nicole's Ecuador trip video

Nicole had an awesome experience in Ecuador with HEFY (humanitarian experience for youth- hefy.org) and made an equally awesome video to share about it! They were not allowed to film or take any pictures of the orphans that they worked with, many who had disabilities,  but she gained a sincere love for them through service and had a blast while doing it! 

She gave some of Kurt's old ties to the little boys there.

Missing Nicole

Nicole has been in Ecuador for almost 2 weeks with a humanitarian group helping build an orphanage and spending time with the children there. We are really starting to miss her around here! She'll be home Saturday!!

Nicole with my sister Tess when she came to visit just before Nicole left.  Love these girls!!!

The oldest and youngest grandchildren together.
Nicole with Tess's baby Hazel. 

I put some highlights in Laurens hair.

Kurt bonding with his spirit animal.

Niagara Falls, the home of little MJ, and way too much fast food!

Niagara falls.  Do you remember in Superman 2 when Superman saves that boy when he's messing around on the railing and the mom is oblivious? And then Lois jumps over the edge thinking Clark will turn into Superman and save her?
Such a great movie.

Dave and the kids went down to the Hurricane deck.  Crazy windy!!! Nicole lost her favorite pair of flip flops over the edge.  But Superman was no where in sight to save them.

This is Michael Jacksons childhood home in Gary Indiana.  It's a tiny 2 bedroom home that they lived in with their 10 children.  When we were planning out our route for the church history tour I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop by and pay my respects to the King.

Bucket list. Check.

His house is kept up super well but the rest of the neighborhood is really run down.  Along with Blame it on the Boogie, I also found myself singing Gary Indiana from the Music Man once or twice.

 

There was this awesome women selling stuff outside the Michael Jackson house.  Kurt wanted this hat so bad!!! Grandpa bought the girls some scarves and mj pictures.  Kurt got the hat.

A basketball themed KFC.  Can't really pass that up right??

Kurt wore his MJ hat pretty much the whole trip.  

Too bad I didn't get a picture of the huge pizza that we ate here!!! The whole pizza fed all 8 of us.

Too much fast food. And waaaaaay too many onion rings.  Lauren can eat onion rings all day long.

Yes I admit it.  I worked at Chick-fil-A in high school.  

We kept bumping into the Harris family throughout our journey.  This is Ken and Alice Harris's oldest son Todd and family.  So fun to get to know them!!!!

The Goodson family from Molalla was in Nauvoo Illinois the same night as us for the pageant!!! Very random that we have our picture taken with them in front of the water station.  So fun to see them so far from home!!!!!

I didn't know signs like this existed in the United States!!!  Some seriously beautiful countryside.