A Million Pictures of Spring Break

Tyce had a bunch of obligations at home, Bryce had a ton of work to, and Mary utterly refused to ride in the car for 7 hours--so only the twins and I went to Utah for spring break. All in all, it was a lot easier only having the boys because there was no competition for the cousins' attention. The worst thing is that I ended up without their medication and Bryce had to FedEx it to me. We had a rough day waiting for it to arrive. And then guess what....after I gave the boys their pills the next day I LOST THE BAG. Seriously, I have no idea where it went. I even checked the trash. That was the worst $35 Bryce ever spent. Ugh. They were very busy the other days and so we were able to stave off some of the difficult behaviors.

Highlights of the trip included: me working out with Judy at Curves(!), the boys and I seeing the movie Rio 2 and getting smoothies from Jamba Juice, the whole family going to the super awesome Natural History Museum on the U of U campus, playing at Liberty Park, and having our annual Easter Egg Hunt.

One thing I really enjoyed was talking to my mother-in-law. Now that she's retired she's as busy as ever, just with household things. She is organizing her family history and has scanned over 10,000 photos of her kids and their growing up years. Next she's making books for each of them. That is the most overwhelming task I can imagine and I admire her taking it on. In looking at the pictures she told me stories that were so cool, just of regular family events but they were fascinating to me. The twins saw Bryce's school pictures from preschool till high school and Harrison exclaimed, "Can you believe that you ended up marrying this cute little boy?"

We came back on Saturday night, the day before Easter. It was a great little trip.

Senior Prom

Tyce asked his friend Kayley to Prom and they went with a great group of friends, seniors and juniors. Kayley is such a sweet girl. She's in choir and she's also in band (a percussionist). She's even trying out for drum major next year. She and the other kids have been Tyce's BFFs this year and it has been wonderful--they are great people. And take a look at all those beautiful girls--how refreshing is it to see confident young women dressed so modestly?

Will it surprise you to hear that Tyce forbade us to take any pictures of him, or to have anything to do with Prom? Luckily I'm friends with Kayley's mom and asked her to tag me in in the pics she took.

Poor Kayley was super sick on the big night. But she'd planned on going for so long that nothing was going to stop her from having a great time.

Giving Kayley her corsage.

Outside Kayley's house.

It was a masquerade ball!

Paper faces on parade. Masquerade.

How cute is this?

The girls: Autumn D., Kayley M., Emily D., Keara H., Tayler H.
The guys: Zee Z., Tyce, Josh B., Dane S., Chris V.

When you're too tired to go on, it's nice to have someone give you a lift.

Face it guys, those girls will always be a little out of your reach!

They went to the dance, which was held in the Westin ballroom at Lake Las Vegas. After that they went to Dane's house, played games, and watched the movie Frozen. A fun night, it would seem.

Milestone Birthday!

I turned the big 4-0 on Saturday. It sounds so old but I feel so young. On Friday night Bryce planned a very expensive outing for us, which he kept secret because he knows how I hate to spend money. He arranged to go to dinner with the Shapiros beforehand, with Jim driving. So I got dressed up and because they were running late, we walked over there. And then when I rang the doorbell . . .

SURPRISE!!!!

A whole entryway full of friends sang Happy Birthday to me!

So he hadn't spend a lot of money but this was how he kept me from asking questions. There were a surprising amount of fibs told that week. About 20 of my friends showed up to help me ring in my new decade. The party was organized by my good friend Jennifer F. and she had lots of helpers to help make a great night.

Regular me and giant me. Thank you, Lauren for the poster and Holly for the balloons!

With Bryce.

8 dozen cupcakes and a fruit castle!!!! Thank you, Jennifer F., Verlynn, and Lori!

Another view of the treat table. There was a soft-serve ice cream maker outside too.

The check-in table where people wrote me super-nice cards. I loved reading them the next day. I have great friends.

The next day, Saturday, was my actual birthday. We had Tyce's friends Nick and Arturo spend the weekend with us so it was nice to have them over for General Conference. Their friend Austin also came for part of Saturday and part of Sunday. They are great boys. Nick reports to the MTC (missionary training center) on April 16th before going to Paris, France(!) and Arturo just put his mission papers in.

Me, on the morning of my 40th birthday.

My favorite present--a bowl of lollipops from my friend Jennifer C. that says "40 Sucks". Hahahaha!

Nick with his ukelele, and Arturo.

Later that night we actually went out to dinner, which I'd been looking forward to the night before. Tyce and his friends had Prom that night! I will post more about that later.

Mary took this picture of me.

Loves.

The bad thing was that we both got food poisoning from eating our favorite foods and have not even finished recovering today. Ugh. That was the worst gift ever.

But all in all it was an amazing weekend and I am really excited to be another year older. Life isn't easy but I am healthy and happy and I have wonderful family and friends--pretty much all I could ever ask for.

What Goes Up...

I hate that when people are happy and things look up, it's always short-lived. The highs are euphoric and the lows are miserable. I wonder if certain people even realize that. Living with that kind of drama is exhausting.

Mr. Basic

Some of the Senior guys at Basic High School sign up up compete in a pageant called . . . you guessed it, Mr. Basic. Before the big night they did school activities such as cake decorating and finishing song lyrics. The guys each chose a coach (a girl) to help learn dance moves, plan their talent, and generally get them ready for the rigors of pageantry. Tyce's coach was his good friend Maddy.

Practicing for their group dance.

Tyce's stage name was Mr. Batman. He wore a cape and purple tights. All the guys had pretty outrageous outfits. There were about 20 boys who competed.

His silhouette.

Some of the other silhouettes.

Cam and Bryce before the show started.

Part of the program.

Harrison studied the program.

When the lights dimmed and it was time to start, Nick Wheatley, last year's winner, MC'd with one of my former seminary students, Azia. They did great. I didn't take any pictures of the performances because it was so dark but this is how it went down:

The whole group did a very girly and slightly inappropriate dance.

The first activity was a pick-up line contest. Some of them were incredibly dumb, to be honest. They had weeks to choose the best lines they could think of, you know? I loved Tyce's though:  Tyce sang part of Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" to Maddy:

The way you make me feel
You really turn me on
You knock me off of my feet
My lonely days are gone

Then he said, "Since you knocked me off my feet, let me sweep you off yours." Then he picked her up and walked across the stage. The crowd cheered a ton for that!

Tyce and Maddy

For the talent portion Tyce sang a mash-up of two songs, a duet with Maddy. They are both great singers. Tyce played the piano while they sang. It was very classy and I was really proud of them for choosing the high ground when some of the guys did not (for example, there was more than one "exotic dancer". I told The boys to shield their eyes and Cameron wrapped his fingers around his sock monkey's face and whispered, alarmed, "This is not appropriate for Bobby!")

At the end of Tyce's performance he said that he had one more thing he wanted to do. He asked his friend Kayley to prom right there in front of a standing-room only auditorium! Luckily for him she said yes!

Tyce and Kayley

Other pageant activities were a spirit round where the kids pumped up the crowd and threw candy (I got hit in the head with a Laffy Taffy; I learned to duck after that) and Basic High School trivia. Tyce's was easy: the first line of the alma mater. Some were hard (the size of the first graduating class, which was 90 years ago) and some were super easy (the first and last name of the principal, hello!). Some boys were eliminated at certain points but Tyce hung on until the the final round. He didn't make it into the top 3 but his friend Ziggy did--and he won the whole thing!!!

(Ziggy was Mr. Mrs. He was literally left half man, right half woman. He sang the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" where the line "turn around" repeats frequently. Every time he sang that he turned around and went from man to woman, using a bass voice or a falsetto, and back again. It was well-done and hilarious.)

Ziggy, Kayley, Tyce

The guys after the show!

We were really proud of Tyce and I think he had a blast. We loved watching him.