Happy birthday Ellie!

Today our baby turns NINE!!
Yep people, it is true!

This morning she woke us up asking if she could have her birthday present (a scrapbook making craftie), so she got started on that. Then there was oatmeal (or German pancakes) for breakfast. We (by which I mean the kiddos) played Legos, we went to church. For lunch there was spaghetti. Then mom and dad took a nap! More Legos. More Legos. A small water balloon fight. Dinner of homemade mac and cheese with ham and peas. Birthday cake. More Legos - by now it is almost 9 p.m.! And I said we can watch a movie next - happy summer vacation.
Josh works nights next week so we are going to play with Aunt Heather!
Just as a note, mom's organ playing ability has stayed about the same since her calling into the organ-life in June of 2006. But my foot still shakes from being nervous!

Also, please note these following items are out of sequence on the blog - but here is the correct order.
1) Ellie's 9th birthday-  May 31
2) Mom and Sara arrive - June 3
3) Aunt Sue come and delivers Dad to Utah - June 6
4) Four days at the Big Event Scouting Party - June 10-14
5) Grandpa Ken dies June 16
6) Funeral June 20.

Day 5

We were thinking (with our new fancy National Park Pass) about going to Bryce Canyon National Park, but we decided just to go home. There comes a time when you are ready to be home, and we were there.
This is totally fun, a dream of more than a decade - to go see the big tree. And my sweetie took me there. And our wonderful family. It was also nice to go on a road trip, I don't think we have been on one in a long time.
Josh doesn't have to work so much overtime this summer so we think we can go on more 3 day weekend trips. Yah summer!

Day 4

The next day we got up and cleaned up our cabin (we should have gotten a refund!) and headed back to Las Vegas. The kiddos wanted to stay in the castle hotel, but we ended up at the pyramid - the Luxor. We wandered around a bit, ate dinner and were glad to be in beds and have a TV to watch!

Day 3 - The cave and the end of the trees

After a relaxing evening in the hotel (watching TV) we headed off the next day for a tour of Crystal Cave! And then we saw the trees once again as we left. Bye trees! (some of these are cave pictures and some are tree pictures - sorry for the confusion - I am trying to combine pictures from two cameras!) Then we spent the night at a cabin, which sounded cooler than it turned out to be. But yah for beds!