Eureka Springs, AR (Saturday)

After the museum we drove on in to Eureka Springs. The main reason for this trip was to share with my husband and girls The Great Passion Play. I remember seeing it A LONG time ago when I was 12 with my Grammy and two Great Aunts. It is a play that tells the story of the the last week in Christ's life.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was cool and breezy. This statue of Christ (Christ of the Ozarks) was built in 1966. It is 65.5 feet tall and can be seen for miles. In comparison The Great Sphinx of Giza is 66 feet. The ampitheatre seats 4100 people for this annual play. A piece of the original Berlin Wall has also been donated to the area.

Bentonville, AR (Friday)

Later that evening we arrived for an overnight stay in Bentonville, AR. I have always wanted to see the WalMart Museum there. I bought a cute little tree ornament that is the Walton's 5-10 building. Within the museum they had reconstructed his office as it was the day he passed away. Across the street was an awesome town square. A water fountain graced the center and their weekly Farmers Market was going on. People were wandering around, walking their dogs, buying produce and other items. It was great! If I didn't have two girls to keep entertained by zoos, neighborhood pools, amusement parks, etc I would not mind living in a small town.

Bentonville is very close to Rogers, AR where we had dinner at some restaurant I can't remember the name of. But you can understand why we absolutely HAD to get our picture taken in front of the city sign.

Joplin #1

We were headed down for Arkansas for the Memorial Day weekend and decided to drive through Joplin, MO to see the damage the EF5 tornado caused on May 22. It was surreal. We were only able to drive north on Hwy 71 Business (also known as Ridgeview). And these were the pictures we were able to capture. Notice how the Sutherlands sign is wrapped around the pole?

KC Zoo and Tornado

Well, these are the only pictures we got of the zoo on Wednesday May 25th. We got to the zoo about 10:00a and were only there a good hour or so and then the tornado sirens went off. Now usually we don't go to our basement unless I actually see something out our window (which I never have in the 8 years we've lived here). Knock on wood. But as we were at the zoo; all the employees are sent around gathering everyone up to the basements and thats where we spent a good hour with all the people. Not fun. When the warning was lifted it was blue skies and gorgeous but we decided to head for lunch and home. We'll try it again this summer.

 

Savannah's Awards Assembly

Savannah had her awards ceremony yesterday. She got 7!

Prinicpals' Honor Roll

The Ever After Play

Hollywood Hillbillies Play

Excellence in Science

Excellence in Language Arts

Excellence in Social Studies

Solo/Enemble Competition

Way to go Savannah!

Worlds of Fun

Had an awesome day here. It is a Cedar Fair park that owns the likes of Knotts Berry Farm. The day was gorgeous and very crowd free. Savannah and Haylie love Spinning Dragons roller coaster. Planet Snoopy is under a $8 million dollar expansion this year. And for the "big kid" rides. We LOVE The Prowler roller coaster, girls ride Boomerang several times over. Us; not so much. And the piece de' resistance: The Mamba. At 205 feet tall and 75 mph it is da bomb!

Awards Ceremony

Haylie's end of year awards ceremony. She received pins this year for 5 different venues to put on her lanyard. Maybe by the time of her last year as a 5th grader both sides will be full!

 

Spring Orchestra Concert

Last orchestra concert of the school year. Savannah has come a long way. I hope she keeps this up!

First Annual Temple 5K Run

Glorious day today for a run. About 1600 people signed up to do this 5K near the Kansas City Temple. Saw several people from our ward. Mike did his in 25 minutes. Stopped at The Legends at Panera for lunch outside with Lacie. Fun day!

Drill Team Spring Show

First performance for Savannah as a member of the 2011-12 Drill Team. Show included kids picked from the talent show, the 2010-11 Cheerleaders and Drill Team. Look forward to having more pics as we go along throughout this experience of hers.

 

Easter Eve

12 colors: 10 eggs: 2 baskets. Getting ready for the Easter Bunny. Not doing the "fake plastic grass" this year in the baskets. It takes up too much space and is just a big mess and gets thrown out every year anyway. Hope the bunny is ok with that.

 

Easter Egg Hunt

A little bit chilly earlier this afternoon but went to a local egg hunt. This was at the Stone Pillar Vineyard & Winery. Most of the rows were filled with eggs on the ground AND in the grape bushes. The girls had their row all to themselves and came back with a haul! The Easter Bunny was a little twisted so needless to say we didn't go see him. They had face painting and a catered lunch.

 

Science Project

Savannah's Science class project. We decided to go the Diet Coke/Mentos route for her volcano. We had a lot of fun putting it together complete with camping scene. If I had thought about it earlier we could have done a whole LOST diorama complete with plane and DHARMA community!

First Recital

Savannah performed at her first violin recital with a solo and a duet with her teacher Miss Sheri. She did a great job. Two days later she participated in her first ONW High School Solo Ensemble. What a great opportunity for her!

Phoenix

Was able to get away for a short "Sisters Weekend" to my favorite city. The weather was absolutely perfect. Ranged anywhere from 81* to 92*. We did a lot of retail therapy, eating out (but I counted my calories of course), and soaking in the hot tub. Met my roommate from BYU Julie for lunch at Cafe Rio and chatted for a couple of hours. We did an endowment session in the Mesa Temple and it was packed. Spent a great deal of time in Old Town Scottsdale and ate at the Sugar Bowl (which is similar to Leatherbys for you UT folks). Was great to get away and was glad to come home to some nice sunny spring weather too!

 

We Have LOTS To Do!

Pimpin' My Ride

I've waited 10 years for this......

 

Christmas Day 2010

Unfortunately I did not get a lot of pictures in this year. After going to bed at 2am and being woke up at 5am I was just too dang tired. The girls had a great haul and are busily playing with their new things today. My dad drove out from Utah to join us and we had our traditional Honeybaked Ham for dinner. Quite the mess to clean up. Our decorations have been up since before our Disneyland trip at Thanksgiving so I am anxious to take them down New Years Day and get back to normal.

 

Kansas Fall

Though I think all huge fully grown trees in Kansas are really neat and offer a lot of shade. I am sure glad that this is all the leaves our two little trees in the front yard shed that need to be raked up.

 

Thanksgiving Week Vacation Day 1

I have wanted to see Disneyland all dolled up for the holidays. So we decided to use Thanksgiving week to do that so the girls would only miss 2 days of school instead of 4 during Labor Day when we usually go. We picked up the rental car and headed down to San Diego. I could live out the rest of my life in that city. We of course had to drive by the San Diego temple. I think it is the prettiest the church has ever built. Then it was on to Coronado Island. Man I love that place. This place is my favorite to roam around. A bit rainy today so it was pretty quiet and not a lot going on. Our hotel was cute. It was a resort type place with a couple of pools, fitness area, and a really good restaurant. Rooms weren't that luxurious but it was a fun place all the same. And oh all the palm trees! Wish they would grow in Kansas. Ate downtown at Old Spaghetti Factory and it did not disappoint. Looking forward to a fun week.

 

Day 2

Sea World. It was rainy and cold! I'm certainly glad we didn't bring shorts on this trip. I've been in California (high desert) in the fall/winter and that gets cold, but I didn't think San Diego would be this way. Needless to say there were not a lot of people there that day. I made the mistake of going on Atlantis and just couldn't get warm after that.

 

Day 3

First day at Disneyland! It was busy. Come to find out that all of California schools are out for the entire week. Guess we should have checked on this before planning the trip. The park was decorated to the nines. It was spectacular. Our family block had been cleaned up and looked better than it did last year. The parade was really neat and the castle lights at night were amazing.

 

Day 4

Knotts Berry Farm. Since we didn't want to hassle with a car we used the awesome OCTA transportation system. Just one bus change and we were there. Pretty slick. Even took the bus up to Fullerton to eat at Old Spaghetti Factory. Today was pretty crowded too. It was a bit chilly so we didn't even attempt the water rides. Had a great dinner at Mrs Knotts Chicken then went back to our hotel.

 

Day 6

Today we spent most of the day in California Adventure. I thought Worlds of Color was pretty cool but it would be nice if they had everyone sit down. Us shorter adults couldn't even see the whole thing so I can't imagine was a kick in the pants it is for the kids.

 

Day 7

Today we finished up what we wanted to do again. It is also the day after Thanksgiving. The freaking place was PACKED! We will never go to Disneyland on a holiday again. By this time I was pretty much pictured out so we got some of the Christmas Parade in the evening.

Hollywood Hillbillies

The middle school did their first ever theatre production of this play. Cute Savannah is Marcello the dog. Her costume was darling and she did a fabulous job. They have another showing Thursday night. She was a little disappointed that she did not get a speaking part, but I just encouraged her to be the best dog that you could possible be. Everyone has to start somewhere. Good job Savannah!

Halloween 2010

Ward Trunk-or-Treat. We had a Corpse Bride and Cutie Kitty. Weather was spectacular!