It was a rewarding week to be a mom in this family!

On Monday night we went to the high school for the Senior Awards Night.  Sarah applied to five local scholarships and found out at this event that she won two!  What a great validation for all her hard work!  She won $500 for the school's Family and Consumer Science Award and she won $1000 for the Intermountain Power Award.  She also got honored for taking hard classes (a scholar medal to wear at graduation) and for being a sterling scholar (a nice trophy).  We are super proud of her!

On Tuesday night, we went to the junior high for the 4.0 banquet!  Mariah has earned a 4.0 all three years of junior high and so got to be recognized at this banquet.  What a nice way to congratulate her on her hard work!  She does work hard and we are super proud of her!

On Wednesday, I went to the Elementary school to see Ben perform in his kindergarten play.  He was a hunter being out-witted by penguins.  He said that it was so great because he got to be a hunter with his two best friends from school, Walker and Eduard.  They sure were cute hunters!

He sang songs, too!

On Thursday, I went with Ben on the Kindergarten Forest Day field trip.  It was tons of fun.  We walked to the park and had a snack.  BUT!  My last kindergartener on his last field trip and I got to be there?  I felt pretty blessed.  Cute kid!

On Thursday night, Cali and Chey (and coach Dad) had their first softball game!  Kevin has taught them well and they all did really great!  Mariah and I went and watched under the lights with the beginnings of a summer wind blowing through the trees back by the creek.  Oh!  How lucky we are to have small-town softball games as part of our summers!  I felt so nostalgic!

This is Calianne at bat!

Friday was Ben's last day of Kindergarten!  He always gives me amazing hugs before he leaves for school.  Mariah was home having ditched Lagoon Day at the junior high so she took this picture for us.  I'm glad that even though Kindergarten is ending, the great hugs are not!

Friday night was Bethany's dance recital!  Her class did a tap number and a jazz number.  She remembers all the choreography herself now and only has to look around to her classmates now and then.  I am impressed!  Oh, and that smile while she dances!  It's the best!

She asked us to get her flowers after her performance this time!
How could I say no??

Saturday morning was Cali and Chey's piano recital!  They are both doing really well and even learned new songs in just two weeks because they were bored of their old ones!  The both passed AIM tests with a 96%.  We love hearing them play the piano and are so glad they are including this in their lives!

Megan worked Friday evening and again Saturday morning.  Her friend works a couple of shops down at SOS Drug at the soda counter (yes!  We still have one of those!  How cool is that??), so during Meg's breaks, she walks over there and sits at the counter to chat for a bit.  Saturday after they were both off work, they went out for some food and shopping and then went to play tennis.  Fun day!  We love that Meg girl!  After my early-morning church meeting today, I came home to find just Megan and Ben awake.  They were curled on the couch together.  Love that love!  Meg is so good at giving it.

Remember that Run for Funds I told you that my kids at Brookside did last week?  Well, it turns out Ben ran more than any other kindergarten boy in the whole school!  He got a "Winner" certificate and . . . a brand new scooter!  Wow!  How cool is that?! We were all pretty excited for him.  He is one tough cookie.  I took him hiking with me up Y mountain this week on Thursday morning before school.  We had a great time together.

Bethany came home with a note this week that her artwork was chosen for the school art show and will be on display in her gym for a week.  I can't wait to see it!  She continues to practice piano and go to dance, but my favorite thing she did this week was when she and her friends cleaned her entire room including the closet!  Boy does it look good!

Cali and Chey had their 6th Grade Play this week where they reviewed "Music Through the Ages" by traveling by time machine to different musical greats in the last ten decades.  Cheyenne was one of the two scientists who operated the time machine and Calianne appeared in 2010 as Carly Rae Jepsen singing and dancing to "Call Me Maybe."  They both did FANTASTIC and they had a great time doing it.  They came home telling me stories of their rehearsals everyday.  They will miss it!

Mariah endured her second week of early-morning driver's Ed!  Yay!  No basketball this week, but district finals in track had her racing Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon.  She ran the 3200 for the first time Wednesday and (since they put her in the slower heat) lapped eight people and finished first!  Whoa!  She might run that one more next year!  She also ran in the 1600 the next day and missed her PR by one second and PRed in the 800.  Directly after her track meet we drove her over to the junior high for a choir concert with the orchestra!  I love those.  They're always so beautiful.  They finished by singing, "Amazing Grace."  Beautiful.

Megan also ran in the district finals for track this week.  She ran in the 1600 and the 800 and did great, too!  She worked this week and took the AP Exam in World History.  She felt pretty good about it, too!  She and Mariah went out late Friday night to play Frisbee with some of the cross country team.  Good times!

Mariah and Megan.  What do you mean you don't see Mariah?!

Sarah worked this week and took her last math test and went on two bike rides with Jakob and watched Parent Trap in stages.  She gave me lots of tight hugs and said, "Mom! What am I doing with my life?!"  Senior crisis in full swing!

Saturday was tons of fun as it was the day that Miranda Grigg, one of Savannah's dear friends, got married!  We went to the reception and stayed the whole time!  It was up the canyon at a pavilion by the creek and the kids ran and played with friends from the ward and we visited with ward members who had moved away but came back for the event and there was dancing and hilarity and bubbles to blow as the couple took their leave.  It was a great event and we gave Miranda lots of hugs for Savannah!  Happy, happy day.

To Eternity and Beyond!  We love that Miranda girl!

Monday was a beautiful day!  Good thing, too, because Bethany's school had a fund-raising carnival at the Arts Park.  Sarah had to work and Kevin and Mariah were off playing basketball.  Megan was playing in her first games for Powder-Puff Football (no, really!).  So, Cali, Chey, Beth, and Ben (and even Jakob for a while) went to see Meg playing football and then spent our money for Sage Creek's new playground.  We ate food.  Entered some of the drawings (we won some Legos!).  Beth got her face painted.  Ben got a balloon sword.  Cali got her fingernails painted.  They all watched the magician!  It was a fun night.

Mariah started Driver's Ed this week!  It is always miserable.  Always.  We just plow through and count the days until its over.  Mariah had an especially hard week of it having to be at driver's ed at 5:45 each morning.  Monday she was up late from playing in a basketball game and then homework.  Tuesday through Thursday she had driving training at the driving course from right after school until 6:30.  Kevin had to pick her up from the driving course on Thursday and take her to another basketball game.  She also had to perform a vocal duet in her choir class this week and somehow found time to get with her partner and practice for that as well as all her other homework.  Saturday she ran in the BYU invitational with the fastest people in the state and PRed at 5:42 for the mile!  She is one driven young woman!  She is also a very worn-out.

Megan enjoyed her stint as a football player.  Their team only played two games but she did score a touchdown!  Woot!  Woot!  She worked Friday and Saturday nights at Funfinity, too.  Love that girl!

Sarah worked Monday and Saturday at Funfinity and did some scorekeeping for baseball games on Thursday night.  She's enjoyed not being as busy this week but perhaps because of it, has realized that high school is really coming to an end and her life is changing substantially at the end of the month.  It's a little freaky!

Cali, Chey, and Benjamin participated in a Run for Funds at their school on Friday.  Cheyenne ran 50 laps, Calianne ran 48 laps, and Benjamin ran 38!  They were told that 8 laps equaled a mile.  Holy smokes!  Those kids ran far!  They were all sore the next day.  Poor Ben was even hobbling about!

Kevin gave me a little outdoor reading spot in the backyard for Mother's Day with green outdoor carpet and a couple of Adirondack-style chairs.  Yay!  I would've taken a picture today but it has rained and rained!

The very BEST part of Mother's Day was that Savannah called us on Skype!  Oh!  It was so fun to see her face and hear her voice and listen to her laugh!  Love that dear girl!  We all crowded around the computer just to watch her as long as we could.  She told us some great stories and as the time drew to an end she bore testimony to us and told us she knew she was where she needed to be and how much she believed in the work.  It was so wonderful!  Happy, happy Mother's Day to me!

This week I worked on my accounting job.  I'm being trained on a new client.  I also started reading the book for bookclub which is next week!  Not sure I'm going to finish.  I tried to walk for an hour everyday but only made it Monday thru Wednesday.  For my relief society calling, I worked on the visiting teaching assignments for probably way too long, had a presidency meeting, and went on visits.  The new fabric for refinishing the couches came in the mail and I cut out exactly one square!  Friday night, though, Kevin and I met my Aunt Connie and Uncle Scott and my cousins Heather and Mark and their spouses  and went out to eat and then to the temple to seal family names.  That was really neat!  I even got to do an Elton name!

Selfie at the computer where I spent way too much time this week!

Sarah got her Senior pictures taken for her graduation announcements this week.  I love all of them and she loves none of them!  Such is life, eh?  She worked twice this week and also went to her new internship twice this week where she helps in a preschool/daycare.  She loves that!  She also went to a practice exam for the AP Calculus test she will be taking soon!  Last night, she and Jakob and Megan and Mariah went to see Zootopia in the theatre!  Fun times!

One of the senior pics.

Megan got called into work early yesterday and ended up working a 7 hour shift!  That was hard on her!  Good experience for young people to have, though and she is tough!  She ran the 800 in the track meet on Friday and then ran in a fundraising 5K for our neighbors on Saturday.  She and Mariah ran the whole race together and then sprinted in over the finish line together.  Sister solidarity right there.

Mariah played in basketball games Monday and Thursday nights and had a track meet Friday where she ran the mile and the 800.  On Wednesday she started her first day ever of employment--as a soccer referee!  She said she felt pretty timid on her whistle for awhile and was grateful for her partner ref who made a lot of calls.  Also, the last game was almost entirely in rain.  Brrr!  Saturday morning (after the 5K!) she reffed a couple more games, this time as a solitary ref for the 1st and 2nd graders.  She said they were adorable. 

Calianne and Cheyenne ran in the 5K on Saturday, too.  They stayed together and crossed the finish line together, too.  Without training, they finished under 33 minutes.  They're good runners.  Their friend since forever, Melanie, is moving soon so they are trying to spend a lot of time playing with her.  Their friend Karlee will be moving this summer, too, so they walked home from school with her on Friday and stayed until 10pm!  Late night party!

Bethany and Benjamin ran on Saturday, too!  Unfortunately, we thought their was a Kids Run starting an hour later so I didn't take them in the main race.  When we found out that the flyers had been printed wrong, I had them run the long loop around the fields and playground and timed them myself.  They ran it in 3:41!  Ben only tried to claw Bethany once to get her to slow down and walk with him and Bethany only screamed hysterically for two minutes or so that Ben had clawed her and then had the temerity to get ahead of her at the finish line.  It was a great race.  Too bad you missed it!

Kevin is still struggling with loss of hearing in his ear.  He's also crazy busy with every minute of his life scheduled.  After work on Mondays and Thursdays he goes to Mariah's basketball games.  On Tuesdays and Wednesdays he has softball practice with the twins.  When he gets home he has to make sure he's gotten his 11,000 steps and sometimes goes out at 10 o'clock to get it done.  Saturday he ran the 5K with the girls (placing 4th!) then took Mariah to soccer, checked on Sarah's car which needed new tires, took Mariah to basketball coaching, mowed the lawn, cleaned the carport, practiced pitching with the twins and then grilled us all some burgers for dinner.  What a guy!

And lastly, here are some photos I took on our family walk we took last Sunday.  It was warm then.  *sigh*

practicing for senior pics!

Mid-air shot!