Cherilyn's 19th birthday

Cherilyn celebrated her birthday as an adult: working like any another day.  Her coworkers decorated her desk, and each wrote on a card for her.  She was pleasantly surprised by that.  She is working at BYU in the Hinckley building.  She mostly updates addresses for the BYU alumni magazine.  Cherilyn recently decided to major in pre-nursing.  She is excited to be in a field where she will able to help people.

The family watching Cherilyn open presents.  (Joshua's balloons are in the corner.)

Joshua's 7th Birthday

We took two videos on Joshua's birthday.  And that's it.  Therefore we have some cute footage, but no pictures for the blog.  

Joshua had a great day.  He had some really cool balloons waiting for him when he woke up.  Dad picked them out.  We had to wait for everyone to get home before we could open presents.  That's what he waits for ALL day: opening presents.  "When will Cherilyn be home?", "When will Allison be home?", "When will Dad be home?", "When they get home can we open my presents?"
As he was opening gifts he said, "I'm getting so much fun stuff."

Baseball Season 2015

 All three boys played baseball this year.  The biggest night of the season was three games in three different cities.  Glad that's over...Phew!

Ethan batting

Eli was able to pitch occasionally;  he did well and really enjoyed it.

Joshua played coach pitch.

California: Disneyland and the Beach

We took our family vacation the last week of April.  Cherilyn had just finished her second semester at BYU, and we pulled the other kids out of 7 days of school.

We gratefully accepted Michael and Candy's hospitality again and stayed at their home.

We spent five days at the parks and two days at the beach.

Our favorite rides at Disneyland were Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain (though the boys closed their eyes the first few times), Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain (for Allison, Mom, and Dad..though we only got to ride it once), Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear.

At California Adventure the favorite ride was Grizzly River Run.  Next up was Radiator Springs, then Toy Story Mania, Tow Mater and California Screamin' (for Allison, Mom and Dad).

We have lots of favorites. :)

We brought backpacks full of snacks and water each day that made the heat and lines more bearable.

The first day at the beach, Joshua said "If I was writing in my journal, I would write "I love the beach!"  Everyone likes the beach -- the sand, the waves, the sun.

Grizzly River Run was our favorite ride at California Adventure. We rode it ten times.  It was great when it was 90 degrees outside. And slightly less so when it was not.

The rafts fit eight people so it was just our family each time.

The Tarzan Tree House.

The boys by The Tiki Room.

Payson Temple

We've all been excited as we've watched the Payson Temple be built.  And it's just ten minutes from our house!

Our first experience with the new temple was a tour of the bride's room for young women and their mothers.  We walked up to the bride's room and then through a sealing room.  We were then invited to sit down and listen to one of the temple matron's assistants talk to us about the sealing room.  She told us how marriage in the temple was the most important decision we ever make and shared many other wise words.

We went to the open house with Grandpa and Grandma Elder.  We walked through the baptistry, ordinance rooms, celestial room and sealing rooms.  It is a beautiful temple, full of stained glass windows, apple blossoms, and leaves.  What a great experience to go with the family and talk of how we worship at the temple.

All three girls were able to participate in the Payson Temple Cultural Celebration.  Our stake did the maypole dance in addition to the songs sung (and signed) by everyone. Our stake had practices every Wednesday through April and May and several Saturday practices as well.

Erica and Cherilyn are in blue skirts standing together at the bottom left of the picture.  Cherilyn was a steady presence beside Erica throughout the practices and dance.  Allison is in the green skirt behind them.

It was very uniform: black pants and white shirts for everyone.  They also all had colored t-shirts underneath (each stake a different color)  for the rainbow that they revealed during the last song.

The young women and some leaders in our ward at the dress rehearsal.

The cultural celebration started over an hour late because of a thunderstorm around the field.  Grandma Elder, the boys, and I were soaked before the rain stopped.  Charles parked the car and avoided the worst of the storm.  The girls, along with all the other youth, went under the stadium soon after it started raining.  They sang and prayed while waiting for the storm to pass.

It was good to be there and watch the Celebration.  The enthusiasm of the youth was great.  The final song was the theme of the celebration -- Fill the World With Love.  In the final verse the youth removed their white shirts, revealing the rainbow in a wave of color.  The yellow bunches on the field by the model of the temple are balloons that were released at the end of the song.  It was very cool.

School Days

Here are some fun things the kids did in the last half of the school year.

As a fifth grader, Ethan participated in the Wax Museum.  Each student chose a famous person, then they researched, made a poster and a button, and wrote a speech.  As people visited their wax museum exhibit, the visitor would push the button and the student would deliver their speech.

Ethan was Harry Houdini.  His hands were handcuffed behind his back as part of the costume, and he freed them in the middle of his speech.

Allison went with her choir to Anaheim, California.  They performed in a festival and spent two days at Disneyland.

This is her with two of her goofy friends. :)

Eli's third grade class made a city out of shoeboxes.  Eli was elected mayor and made the town hall.

Ethan participated in Hope of America, a patriotic musical performance by elementary students in Utah.  He didn't enjoy the practices much, but after performing he said he would definitely do it again next year.  Here are all the students in their colored T-shirts.

Ethan also did a state float this year.  He made his "float" about Washington.

Joshua was a pirate in his first grade performance.  Mom and Dad missed it while they were in Hawaii.  All three girls went and oohed over how adorable he was.