May Randomnesss

May randomness

The end of the school year brought concerts and fun performances.  Cloudburst had a solo on the grand finale  song that involved singing and dancing.  She sang on pitch (great at this age) and had a great time in front of the crowd.

Sunshine looked so nice doing his math that I had to snatch a few shots.

Cloudburst and Sunshine both had their piano recital.  They have both done so well.  Cloudburst especially loves it and plays an hour a day with no prodding.  Sunshine still needs a little more help.  :-)

The three older kids had a gymnastics meet and did great.  I got them all matching outfits, but in the end Cloudburst needed a splash of pink.

Sunshine had a kindergarten graduation party.... man, 2023 seems far away.  I hope it goes slowly!  All of our kids are at fun ages.

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday

May is such a fun month, since we have two family birthdays.  And because one of those is mine.

See that girl haulin' it up the side of a mountain?  Thunder said it was a runner, like me!

So now I am the ripe old age of 21, give or take 10 years.

For little Sunrise's birthday, we took the family to see Seusical down at BYU.  It was the week before he turned two, but he didn't let that stop him from having a Terrible-Twos tantrum half way through.

On his actual birthday we had Mickey Mouse pancakes and some fun decorations left over from the Disney cruise.

By far, his favorite toy was the Mickey lawn mower.

We ended the day with cake and some fun times at Kangaroo Zoo.  Sunrise is so fun these days.  He's speaking a ton of words and nods his head in answer to most questions.  He is still a pill about sleeping all night long and is addicted to his binky but he is a fun little ball of energy that we love.

Easter weekend

We started off Easter weekend by earning our treats!  Well at least the kids did.  Cloudburst and Sunshine ran a 1 mile race for school.

Sunshine found a buddy from class...

...and Cloudburst found some friends too.

And they're off!

Here we have a couple cute clappers.

Here comes Cloudburst, with a time of 9:26, which was fourth place for women overall.

Our friend T. came in at 13:02...

...and Sunshine came in at 13:50

Of course the best part is the fun stuff afterwards.

Then we came home in time for the neighborhood easter egg hunt!  T's mom was in charge and did a great job.  The kids came home extremely happy, and we started looking for candy to pilfer.  Parent tax.

Easter morning!  We saved Easter baskets until after church.  We actually got a decent family picture...

...after a try...

...or two.

Once again we are reminded of all the blessings we have through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  As our kids say, "He was dead, but then was alive again!"  It is a miracle and we are so grateful to remember it at this time of year.

Part of that world

A few weeks ago we took a vacation we had been looking forward to for a long time- a Disney Cruise!  We were doubly excited because Thunder's side of the family could all come- Nana and Papa, and Uncle K, Aunt V and R1 and R2 (cousins).  We flew to the Orlando airport on a red eye (which was actually great with kids) and then hopped on a Goofy shuttle to the boarding area.

Here is a miniaturized version of our boat, called the Disney Magic.  And oh, it was magical.

Here we are crossing over onto the ship!  There was an entire crew waiting on the other side and our names were announced over the loud speaker while people clapped.

Our first meal was lunch, and we were still docked.  The food tasted delicious after being on a plane all night long and the kids were so excited to explore.  I loved that they had people to help your kids carry their trays to the table.

We played shuffleboard while we waited for the rest of the family to arrive.

I dressed up the kids in their Disney shirts and tried to get a pic, but Sunrise was not happy to be away from the porthole.

Ahh, that's better.

Here is the slide that goes into the Mickey pool.  There was also a Goofy pool with a giant movie screen, and the Adults-Only pool.

Coming from a snowstorm, we really appreciated the sun!  We spent many hours just relaxing out on deck 10...

... and enjoying the free access to the ice cream machine.

Did I mention you could get room service at any time and it's included??

Coming down the Mickey slide.

Just chillaxin'.

Here is a bad picture of an awesome place.  We rotated dining rooms for dinner and this place was called The Animator's Palate (we also went to Parrot Cay and Lumiere's).  Also you can finally see Uncle K and R2!  When we arrived, all the walls were white and covered in drawings from Disney movies.

You can clearly see how much Sunshine loved it there.

Then as dinner progressed, everything came to life.  It was mesmerizing.

Cloudburst got her hair braided and it stayed in for over a week.

The glass elevators were always easy entertainment.

Our first port of call was in St. Maarten.  Half is owned by the Netherlands and half is French.

Finally a group shot!  Well, minus Thunder who took the picture.  Along the back there is me, Aunt V, Nana, Papa, and Uncle K with R2.  Along the front is Tornado, Cloudburst, Sunrise, R1 and Sunshine.

We toured the island and ended at a Butterfly Farm.

As soon as we entered, Fate spoke and declared Papa to be "Butterfly Man" aka "The Butterfly Whisperer." Butterflies flocked to him and covered his arms.  Why, you ask?  He was wearing a cologne called "Wings."

Here's Nana enjoying the butterflies.

And here I am in front of a giant moth (moths keep their wings open while resting, while butterflies close them).  See, this trip was purely for educational purposes.

Papa was a celebrity.  Even back on the boat he would hear whispers "hey there's the Butterfly Man!"

Sunshine got to show everyone the Monarch caterpillar (he made sure to tell everyone it is poisonous if eaten).

We checked out the beach on St. Maarten for a while, but it was actually pretty windy and cold.  Of course, the kids didn't mind. They were busy finding sea shells with Aunt V.

That night was a big Pirate Party, complete with Buccaneer Mickey zip lining across the boat.  There were fireworks too.

The kids were taken care of in some activities, so we headed down to do some karaoke.  Uncle K did "Tainted Love," complete with every necessary dance move.  Definitely a crowd pleaser.

And then I took to the stage to sing "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, of course.  I could hear people in the audience saying "dude, she can actually sing!"

The next day we docked in St. Thomas, a US Virgin Island.  We had earlier decided to go Scuba diving, but due to Thunder's injury he had to stick to snorkeling.  He ended up staying out longer than anyone.

Here is a side view of the ship.

On deck, there was always a live concert or movie going on.  Sunrise loved the action.  Maybe that's why he hated sitting still at dinner every single night.

The older boys also clearly love the action.

On Thursday morning, we got to have our Character Breakfast.  The kids loved seeing all their favorites.

Sunrise fell in love with Goofy on the trip, as you can see.

He's still looking at Goofy.  He called out "Goo Goo!" every time we saw him.

And here is Cyprian!  He was our server at every dinner (and yes, cut the kids' food!).  He is just a wonderful person.  We really enjoyed getting to know him.  He is from India and has a young family.  He works on the ship for months at a time and is also a professional chef.

The kids enjoyed all the little extra touches at dinner.

Man, this hat is almost as orange as Thunder's real hair after a week in the sun.

Every night, we were treated to a live broadway-style show.  The kids even sat through them.

Towards the end, the kids got to join with other children from the cruise in a show called "Friendship Rocks."
It was fun for them to be up on that big stage.

There are a few kid-free zones on board.  One is the adults-only pool and another is a fine-dining restaurant called Palo.  All of the food on board was fine-dining (not just Vegas style buffet, but true cuisine), but this was truly 5 star.  It was lovely.

Our last port was in Castaway Cay, which is a Disney owned island.  The weather was a little windy and cool, but we didn't let that stop us.  The men sprinted off the boat to find the best spots and we had a marvelous time sifting the sand through our toes, shrieking down the water slide and scarfing down excellent BBQ.

The next morning (Saturday) we had arrived back in Florida.

The weather was dreary and we all felt the same way!  It was a truly magical week and it was so nice to be able to share it with family.  It was a bit of "happily ever after," at least for a week.