Last Prom for Jonah

Jonah had a great time at his senior prom.  They went to the Midway Crater Friday night for their day date.  

We bought Jonah a suit for his mission early enough so he could wear it to prom too.  They hemmed the pants, but he didn't try them on until it was time to pick up Sawyer.  They had hemmed the pants so short.  He was not happy!  Sawyer and her mom told him they looked fine and that helped cheer him up.

I finally realized after he left that maybe I could rush his other pair of pants (the suit came with two) over to Mr. Mac and see if they could fix them really quick.  I raced over there and they did it quick, but there wasn't time to get them to him before dinner and pictures.

His group went to James's cabin in Sundance for pictures and dinner. His mom made them a nice dinner and they had a great time.  

Jonah has been blessed with such a great group of friends.  They are all getting sad about High School ending and them all going their separate ways.  

Jonah has had a great High School experience. 

Jonah and Sawyer sure make a cute couple. 

Jonah and Sawyer came home real quick before promenade so Jonah could switch pants.  We followed them over to the library to watch them.

Jonah said it was a great night.  

20-years-old!!

It's official, Caitlyn survived her teenage years and so did we! We were excited that we were able to have our family trip over Caitlyn's birthday weekend! 

 

On Sunday evening we had cheesecake and Caitlyn opened her presents. 

Caitlyn has really been into reading lately so she asked for books for her birthday.  Ever since she switched out of her nursing major she has had more time to do things she enjoys instead of just study all of the time. 

Caitlyn is so fun. She loves to laugh and have fun.  She says the funniest things and she laughs at everyone's jokes.  She talks with so much animation and expression. 

Caitlyn is so kind and genuinely loves people. She is the person people go to when they are upset because she will always be so loving and understanding. Caitlyn takes an interest in all of us and checks in with us often to see how we are doing. 

Caitlyn has to fight hard to be positive.  Depression and anxiety are always present for her, but she continues to fight through them. She is so brave and willing to try new things.  She took a horse back riding class this semester and loves it.  She has had some scary experiences with horses, but she doesn't let that stop her, she just gets back on the horse, literally!

Caitlyn is motivated. She works so hard at whatever she is doing.  She gives everything her all. 

Caitlyn is really struggling with losing grandma to Alzheimer's.  She has always been so close to grandma and this is breaking her heart. 

Caitlyn asked for pictures of her and grandma for her birthday.  I went through old pictures and put together a book of pictures for her.

It was an amazing trip down memory lane.  I filled almost fifty pages with multiple pictures of Caitlyn and grandma on each page.  My mom is the best grandma and has been so involved in her grandkids lives.  She was at every performance and celebration. There were so many activities that mom did for the kids and she took them all on grandma dates.  We are so blessed to have Peggy Ham as our mom and grandma!

Caitlyn and I both wish she could have more time with grandma, but we are so grateful that she made the most out of the time she had.  Caitlyn loved the book and I loved making it for her.

 

Monday was Caitlyn's birthday.  She had classes that day so we were planning on taking her to lunch in-between classes before we headed back home.  One of her classes got canceled so I went and picked her up from school and brought her to our place.  We got all packed up and took Caitlyn to Cafe Rio for an early lunch.

I'm so glad we got to spend a little time with Caitlyn on her birthday. After lunch we dropped her back off at campus and we went home.  It was a short trip, but it was so great.  I'm so glad we were able to squeeze that in!

Her roommates took her to dinner that night.

They also had a party for her the next day.

Caitlyn said it was a lot of fun.

That weekend they went to an escape room.  Caitlyn loves escape rooms! 

I'm so glad that Caitlyn has so many great people in her life and had such a great birthday. 

I don't deserve a drink after that

Planning a trip that the whole family will enjoy is hard.   I had asked Jonah and Wyatt a few times about doing a harder hike in Zions, but neither of them seemed very interested.  So we all did the Riverwalk and that was all I had planned.  When we got back in the car I asked Jonah if he wanted his drink and he said he didn't deserve it after that walk. Oh Jonah! 

On Sunday morning we got up early so we could go to Zions. We were worried about crowds and being able to find a parking spot.  It was very crowded, but we were able to find a spot at the second shuttle stop.  We hopped on the shuttle and took it up to the last stop.

Hallee and Wyatt enjoyed the Riverwalk last time, so we did that one again. 

It was not as pretty as it was in the Fall, but it's still beautiful.

Jonah was not impressed with this "hike."  The rest of us loved it.

Wyatt was excited to climb on all the rocks.

The kids were good sports about letting me take pictures.

There are lots of places where you can go down by the water. I love just listening to the rushing water.

Jonah finally joined in and climbed the rocks with Wyatt.

I love that the boys are in the rocks in the background of this picture.

Everyone tells me that my girls look just like me.

It was a little chilly that day, but again pretty good hiking weather.

I love this family of mine!

After Zions we decided to go to St. George.  Wyatt wanted to go back to Pioneer Park.  Wyatt and Jonah took off and climbed and hiked around.  I couldn't keep up with them so I didn't get any pictures of them.

Halle and I hiked around for a bit. 

Caitlyn and Keith went over to the garden next door and walked around.  The boys hiked through the narrows a few times.  It was hot in St. George and after a while we were all ready to get going and get out of the heat.  We drove back to our place and relaxed until dinner.  That night we celebrated Caitlyn's birthday and played games again.  It was another great day!

One last family trip!

Time is speeding by and we are getting closer and closer to Jonah leaving for his mission.  We are short on time and short on money, (getting a missionary ready is expensive!) so I had to get creative to fit in one more family trip. 

Caitlyn had a different Spring Break than the kids did, so we decided to go to Caitlyn on the kids Spring Break so we could all be together.  We drove down Saturday and picked up Caitlyn and then went to Bryce Canyon.

The kids had never been here so I was excited to show them.

We were able to find a parking spot about a mile away from the hike I wanted to do.  We all hiked along the rim together.

The weather cooperated. It was a little chilly and it lightly snowed some, but overall it was great hiking weather.

Keith and I worked hard to make sure we planned and prepared well. We had backpacks ready for hiking and lunches prepared for Saturday and Sunday. 

We took our time and ate some lunch and looked around before we started our hike.

Keith went back and forth, but decided not to do the hike. We were worried it would hurt his knee since it is so steep.  Caitlyn was happy because she didn't want to do the hike.

Keith and Caitlyn hiked around the rim and stopped and had lunch and talked. Keith said it was great to have that time with Caitlyn.

Hallee surprised me and said she wanted to go on the hike. I figured I would just do it with the boys, but she thought the hike sounded better than waiting for the hikers.  

We started out by hiking down into the canyon.  

There are a few tunnels that you get to walk through. 

Hallee was enjoying the hike until she slipped on the way down.  I laughed a little while I asked if she was okay and she was not amused.  We had finally started to cheer her up when she slipped again. I knew it was bad at that point and Hallee gave me the death glare. Hallee had just told me a few days before that she wanted to get new shoes and on the hike we discovered that she had no traction on the bottom of her shoe.  Jonah was very helpful and kept commenting on how terrible her shoes were (that did not help Hallee's mood). I think the most frustrating thing for her was she had dirt all over her and we couldn't brush it off.  After a while she cheered up a bit and I was grateful for that.

It was lightly snowing while we were hiking. Keith said it was snowing a lot harder along the rim.

The trail was pretty crowded.  I think everyone is so excited for Spring!

I enjoyed this hike more than I did last time. I think it helps to know what to expect.

I loved hiking with my kids.

The last part of the hike is climbing back out of the canyon, so it is steep. I knew I would be stopping a lot so I told the boys to go ahead so they could go at their own pace.

They took off and we could see them for a minute, but they went fast and were out of sight pretty quickly.

Hallee decided she wanted to stay with me instead of go with the boys. 

The hike up is no joke.  It is so steep and has a lot of switchbacks.  Last time I thought I was done and there was still a big climb left, so it was better knowing that this time.

Hallee and I took lots of breaks so I could catch my breath.  The view is amazing!

When we were on the last stretch we could see the boys at the top.  Hallee went ahead of me and got up there. I'm slow, but I made it! 

It's a great feeling to look down and see how far you have come!

After that Keith and Caitlyn picked us up and we went up to Bryce Point to take in that view.

By now it was snowy, windy and freezing.  We quickly enjoyed the view and then we were ready to go.  It was snowing pretty bad on our drive back to Cedar City. I'm grateful the weather cooperated for our day in Bryce.

My favorite part of the trip was when we got in the car and Jonah told everyone they should play a game.  They had to see how many things they could name in a certain amount of time.

I loved hearing them laugh and have fun together.  I just sat there and listened and soaked it in.

They all got a nap in the car. 

I don't know how Wyatt sleeps like this.

We drove to Cedar City and went to Subway for dinner. Jonah laughed at me for taking a picture, but I just wanted to capture everything. It's so hard to know this stage of our family is coming to an end.

After that we all went to Walmart and picked out food and drinks. Then we picked up Papa Murphy's pizzas for Sunday evening.

After that we went to our Airbnb.  It was a nice house with three bedrooms and a big living room and kitchen.  Hallee was thrilled that she got her own room and didn't have to sleep on our floor like she has most of her life. I asked Hallee to recreate the death glare she gave me on the hike and yep, there it is!

We had fun playing Spy Fall that night.  Everyone was in a good mood and it was the perfect end to a great day!