Family Vacation Part 1

Thursday June18-20, 2015
Mike had to go to Chicago for work for a couple days, so we decided to make a whole vacation out of it.  I was pretty nervous to take the kids on such a long road trip. I went and bought several things to give them along the way.  Mostly dollar store goodies.  We also told them we would give them a quarter for every hour we were driving and they were good with no complaining. I also made each of them a book with coloring pages, maps, tracing pages and journal pages.  Mike mapped everything out. We left on the 18 of June around 5:00 pm.  We stopped a couple of hours later in Rock Springs Wyoming for some dinner.  Bensen was so ready to get out of the car. We made three more stops for potty and gas.  We drove through the night (about 14 hours!) and went straight to the Winter Quarters Temple in Nebraska.  

 We all got out and stretched our legs.

After the temple we went to breakfast at McDonald's.

 Then it was on to the visitors center.

 At the visitors center we watched a movie and took a tour.  The kids got to pull a handcart.

 Dress up like pioneers.

 And try out a bed that was like the ones on the ships.

 After the tour we went over to the cemetery and looked around. Then we drove to Council Bluffs. We went through the visitor center, it was right next to the Kaneville Tabernacle. That is where Brigham Young was sustained the prophet. Something I learned while there, was that it wasn't until 2 years after Joseph Smith died that they called a new Prophet. 

Jaycee was able to play the organ they had there, it was over 100 years old.  She loved it! 

After Council Bluffs we drove for a couple hours to Adam-Ondi-Ahman.

 We had a little picnic lunch when we first got there. The bugs were so loud! We hiked around a bit.

 Bensen fell down and cut his knee.

 The kids found Preacher Rock, and a bunny.

Mike saw the place where Adams alter is believed to be.  He didn't realize it until we were reading the book in the car the next day.

Then we headed to Cameron, where our hotel was. We stopped at Godfathers Pizza and had a Taco Pizza, it was delicious!

Then Mike went to bed at 7:30 and slept all night long! He deserved a good nights rest.  I let Wesley sleep with him, and me and Bensen slept with Jaycee.

It's Great To Be Eight!

It's great to be eight!

Jaycee is getting baptized on July 11th.  What makes it even more special is that she gets to share her day with one of her favorite people, Paige. 

These girls...

 They don't come much cuter!

 My sister in-law Katie has a friend that does her pictures. She thought it would be fun to do a double shoot.

 It was a lot of fun.

 She was able to take some really good pictures.  Jaycee is always so goofy when I try to take her pictures.

 Jaycee hasn't had her picture professionally taken since she was 6 months old.  So this was a fun treat.

 We even got a picture of the girls with their blessing dresses. Which Paige's grandma made for them.

We are so proud of Jaycee and her decision to get baptised.  She had her interview with the bishop a couple weeks ago, and she is very excited. She really is a blessing in our lives. I'm so glad she's mine.

Happy Birthday Jaycee!

Jaycee turned 8 today! Honestly, where does the time go?

 For her birthday this year we celebrated on Sunday, the day before her birthday.

 We also celebrated Whitley birthday and Branson's blessing. I made Whitley a doll, she was the only Bailey girl cousin without one.

 After the Bailey party we headed over to the Borgstroms for party number 2.

 We love to see what Grandma LuLu makes every year.  She is so talented. Jaycee loves her dress!

 I was making the cake and realized I didn't really have anything to put on it, so I sent Mike to the store to grab something.  She had been talking about Shopkins so I told Mike just to grab some of those...weirdest toys ever! But she loved them.

 On her actual birthday we headed to the zoo! 

 We haven't been since they have redone things.

 We got there pretty early and they were cleaning a lot of the cages. So their were several animals we didn't get to see, but we loved it anyway.

 Bensen thought everything was a doggie. He did roar at the bears tho.

 I love when Jaycee gets all posie.

 We were kind of in a rush because I accidentally made my visiting teaching appointment for today.  My bad.

 It worked out though because it was super hot and we were ready to go by 12.

 Jaycee wanted Chick-fil-a for lunch.  Yummy. 

When we got home we hurried and opened presents.

Her sewing machine is nicer then mine.  Now we need to get sewing.  I figure we can learn together.

 After my appointments we went to Classic Water slides.  We decided to get season passes this year. 

 It was a little stormy today, by the time we got there, there were only a couple of families still there. The kids had a blast!

 We debated getting Bensen a pass.  I'm glad we did, he loved it.

We love Jaycee so much.  She is loving learning the piano. Some of her favorites are playing with her friends and cousins, riding her bike, jumping rope, and skip it. She is so good to help me with Bensen, she loves taking care of him.

Last Day of School.

Wesley had his last day of school on May 21st. A couple of days after his graduation.  He has been going crazy at home with no one to play with.  He is so glad that today is Jaycee's last day.  Now he will have someone to play with.Jaycee did so good this year at school.  She struggles a bit with reading comprehension and math.  I'm pretty sure she gets that from me! She did awesome her teacher said she always raised her hand to read out loud to the class and to do the math count for lunch.  She must get that from Mike, I was way to shy for that. We sure are proud of her. Here she is with her cousins on the first day of second grade.

And here they are on the last day.

 I love watching her grow. Its fun that she gets to do it with her cousins around. :)

Ukulele Program

Jaycee had her ukulele/talent show program.  She did great. Her class this year has been super cute. They were all very talented. For Jaycee's talent she decided to do jump roping.  She even learned how to criss cross for it.  She did great.

 We are her number one fans! I think Wesley enjoyed it, Bensen, not so much. 

 We loved Mrs Gold.  She was an amazing teacher.

 We got to bring Jaycee home with us after the program.

 Her and Bensen were Chex Mix buddies.

 They are so cute!

It is amazing how much both Jaycee and Wesley love their little brother.  He is one lucky baby!