Garth's birthday and Father's Day

Garth's bithday coincides with hot weather and good deals at resorts in Arizona, so this year I decided to take him for a night at the Scottsdale Princess Resort. Friday night we went to dinner at Tommy Bahama's (we would highly recommend it) but I didn't bring enough money for dinner, so Garth ended up having to pay for his own birthday dinner - not the first time that has happened.
When we checked in I was told we had a view of the lagoon, but we actually had a view of trees and a roof. Oh well, the room was great.

Saturday morning we walked around the 75 acre resort -no we didn't do the whole 75 arcess, but we did take a nice walk. This is the lagoon our room was supposed to look down on. The Princess is where the Phoenix Open is played and unfortunately I didn't get Garth a tee time. I figured he would much rather spend the day with ME right? Besides if I didn't have enough money for dinner the night before, do you think I had money for golf?

We spent the rest of the day swimming and laying by the pool and just being lazy. We decided that we don't need to buy each other gifts any more - a night a way is the best gift.

Sunday was Father's Day so the kids had gifts for Garth to open. He had to sit on our offical family gift opening spot (the fireplace) to do so.

Here is the gift opening audience - look at the excitement in their faces.

Since Dave will be a father this year, he got to open a gift, too. See Raquel's cute little pregnant tummy? Tuesday was Garth actual birthday so we had dinner and he had more gifts to open. He didn't make it to our offical family gift opening spot and just stayed in 'his chair,' is that a sign of old age?

Here is the gift opening audience with the addition of Paul who moved Jason to the floor. The rest are in the exact same places. Did they ever move?

We then sang "Happy Birthday" to Garth while his candles dripped wax onto his lemon supreme pie. He then blew extra hard to blow out those two candles and blew wax all over my granite counter tops, but since it was his birthday I didn't say anything (I thought I'd wait for my blog). If you want to see how old he is just look at the candle numbers. He doesn't look that old does he?

I think this is the 31st birthday that I've celebrated with Garth and I hope we have another 31 to celebrate together. I know there isn't a better husband, friend and partner than Garth to share my life with! Love you!!

What can a 5# block of ice do?

Ever wondered what would happen if you were standing on cement, holding a 5# block of ice waist high and dropped it on your foot? I know you are all shuddering at the thought right now and I don't blame you - I still do the same although I know what will happen and how it will feel now.

A couple of weeks ago Garth and I were preparing to go on a trek with our stake and we had forgotten to fill our coolers with ice. We quickly stopped and bought some ice and proceeded to fill the coolers. Well, my block slipped and landed on my toes! I did a little dance off the porch we were on and I'm still feeling the consequences of that accident.

I was lucky to only break the top of my one toe (when it happened it felt like I'd broken all of them). Below is the nasty picture of it four days later, so don't scroll down if you don't want to see it. We still went on the trek and so I know that you can walk 16 miles on a broken toe. I plan on hiking down and out of Havasupi this week and I'm hoping you can do that on a broken toe as well. I'll let you know.

The Last High School Graduation

May 27, 2010 was quite a memorable day at our house. We started the day with shocking news that Garth's Aunt Judy died and spent most of the day with his Uncle Paul. Judy was a huge part of our lives and we were all stunned. We will miss her terribly

Later in the afternoon we got things ready to have a family dinner for Preston's graduation. Both my parents had come into town for the celebration and luckily it was the nicest weather we'd had at any of our kids graduation.
After dinner Preston quickly opened his graduation gifts before he had to head off to school. He was thrilled with all the cards, money and gifts he received and wanted to check things out especially his new Zune HD, but he didn't have time.

My mom came to her first graduation in Arizona and as I mentioned we had beautiful weather which she was glad of. Lonica and Jason's graduation nights were stifling hot and during Raquel's we had a dust storm roll through, so we happy to end on a pleasant note.

Preston had a graduating class of 775 and 40% of the graduates had a grade point average of 3.5 or higher. It was the highest the school had ever had. Lots of competition in scholarships.

A view of the whole class.

Here is our graduate. He received a scholastic diploma and a seal for having done over 150 volunteer hours throughout high school. He also has the stole for being in NHS.

Raquel armed herself, Dave and Jason with cans of silly string and when we finally found Preston (it took us about 20 minutes) they plastered him!

Over and over again.

Here is the whole proud family.

And the proud parents.

Preston's 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Dillon, found him and gave him a hug.

One last picture of our last high school graduate. We are so proud of him and his hard work. But we are most proud of the young man he has become.

I have had such mixed emotions having my youngest graduate. I'm excited for Preston yet so sad to have this part of my life over with. Preston will be staying here next year and going to the community college before he leaves on his mission next summer, but after having children in school for over 20 years it is so strange to think that it is all over. I will be doing my student teaching in the fall and now I'm the one that will be tied to the school schedule!