Cousins, Cousins, EVERYWHERE!

We got to see lots of cousins while in Utah:) and had a blast. We did so much stuff, it's crazy to think that it was barely a month ago. We love our family!

Wiggle Bikes:)

Emma and Chloe

Clari, Creed and Chloe!

Barton's and Gregson's in Aunt Joan's backyard

Pretty girls!

Megan, Emma and Chloe

Wonder what these to are up to!

Chloe and Mollie

Fireworks and Erin!

I think we heard fireworks every night leading up to the fourth! And that's probably not a big deal in Utah but we're not even allowed to shoot them off in Auburn on the fourth! But we did some at Sydney's house on Saturday and it was lots of fun:) Erin got to escape and come and see us and we had an awesome time! Some of us stayed up til midnight to sing happy birthday to Chana and then Erin and Emma slept on the porch! It was a blast, you could tell some off us were getting tired though when songs from Tangled started being sung!

Waiting for the show!

Sleeping beauties on the porch..

Lily with some sparklers:)

Slip 'n' Slide FOR ChanaDays!

One of the most fun things we did was a GIANT slip'n'slide in the Taylor's backyard!

It was all in honor of ChanaDays and everybody had a blast. And everybody joined in the fun and went down the slide. Babies and old people alike;)

Chana: Soaping up the slide!

Mollie!

L to R: Emma, Chana, Grace, Megan, Lily and Liz(the awesome babysitter!)

Emma was getting REALLY good at doing the slide!

Getting ready to slide! Waiting in line!

It was a lot of fun, and we got tons of AWESOME pictures and videos.

Oh how I LOVE my FAMILY!

Antelope Island...Home of the Buffalo(Nothing Else!)

Antelope Island...

Of course, they found the HORSES!

One day we decided to venture out to Antelope Island... Dad took a van full of kids to go see what was out there! Turns out there's not much to see and no where good to picnic either! And it was hot... They did get to see buffalo though, and thats what they wanted. I was one of the party poopers who didn't go...but sounds like I didn't miss all that much! This video was good though and the little voices in the background are reaaly funny:)

Temples, Temples Everywhere!

We were blessed and amazed by all the temples, big and small, that we saw on our trip. Some we just stumbled upon as we were driving and others were impossible to miss. Emma, Lily and I were able to do baptisms in the Oquirrh Mountain temple which was soo beautiful. We went up on a mountain over looking the valley and could see at least four temples, standing tall. They are pretty amazing and bear a strong testimony of our Savior.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Monticello Temple

Provo Utah Temple

Salt Lake City Temple

Are we there yet??

Sights to see along the way:

Flooding in Missouri

To sum up the drive...It was REALLY LONG and occasionally boring. But the drive up was way better than the way back. We decided that Wyoming was our favorite state sign, also counted EVERY single pronghorn antelope-even we were passed the hundred mark! Really excited about the snow capped mountains(i wanted to go skiing just didn't get around to it!)

MOUNTAINS!

SOO Much to Share:)

We just recently got back from a quite long and FUN trek to Utah! I'll try to cover all the stuff with lots of pictures. But be forewarned-there is gonna be LOTS of stuff! And lots of AwEsOmE. You may be jealous:)

School is OUT!

School is out...but I need to catch up on all the doings from school before it finished. Sorry I'm just a bit behind:)

Luke was in 5th grade this year (now he is technically a 6th grader!!) Not only did he graduate from elementary school(no pictures from that) he also got a certificate for going through the DARE program:)

Clari and Mollie had a career kinda day at school- Mollie went as a ballerina/dancing girl, Clari went as a forester-hard hat in tow

For the 3rd graders they all go on the "Oregon Trail" and trekked through the woods around the school. Clari was the mom in her family-of course. Not quite sure what she's doing in the second picture...

Dancing for the Prophet

Recently the Atlanta temple was rededicated. And what a joyous thing it was. We were able to go to the open house as a family and most of us were able to go to the actual dedication. AND we were able to participate (or watch) the HUGE production of youth singing and dancing in the Southern Lights Youth Cultural Celebration. I was skeptical that it would all come together-especially after i realized how many youth were actually doing it and how chaotic the first night of rehearsal was- but it for sure came together! It was amazing and made me feel stronger-especially when I saw how many other youth there are who have the same beliefs and standards I do. It was pretty amazing- just being able to be in a district with a newly renovated temple and being able to participate in all the blessings that offers.

Our stake was able to participate in the CHEER and FOOTBALL dances in the celebration (a big part of the SOUTHERN culture:P)

YM: Tanner, Hayden, and Hunter

YW: Mika, Grace, Meredith, Esmeralda, Becca, Maren, Emma, Emily, Lily and Lexie

Waiting to go in and perform! This was part of the not so fun, very chaotic rehearsal...
Buddies Becca and Lily:)

There was a very nice guy who had a guitar and sang to me and Mika...Aww how sweet;)

How we love little Mormon boys

Some of our friends from our stake.

Matt, Mika, Taylor, Grace and Dan

P.S. they are all ReAlLy nice! Another down time picture(we had lots of that)
Go Cheerleaders! Go President Monson:)

Prom(s) 2011 :D

I must say that I am very thankful to my cousin Cheryl for letting me use her dresses-it made prom less stressful and I felt pretty and it was just fun to pick from all the dresses she gave me:)
I had a lot of fun at both proms even though each one was rather different. For Aubun's prom I went with my date, Charlie and with my (other)best friend, Brooke and her date. I was kind of stressed that day but the dance and dinner(and yogart afterwards) was really fun. For my second prom I went to the Lds prom they did in Atlanta, with most of my laurel class. We had LoTs of fun as well(lots of fun before as well getting made up and eathing at Chick-fil-a...)

This was our modeling MODEST prom dress shot-looks pretty good

~Sumin, Meredith, Mika and Grace~
This was my one of my favorite pictures(notice the heals...they didn't stay on very long!)

Me and date Charlie:) He's a sweetie.

Graace shot..

Me and best friend Mika

Chickens!

Ohh how we love our Papa Barnes. He got us chicks! I must admit they were super cute when the were little tiny. We started out with ten little week old chickys. We knew were going to have to get rid of all roosters so we were hoping for lots of hens!

A couple weeks later Dad got five more chicks-all dominique. They are super pretty...but it seems there are four little roosters in that batch and only one hen. And the little tiny roosters are already trying to crow!

Bye Bye Birdie!

For our spring musical we did Bye Bye Birdie, a play set in the 5o's with lots of fun (some very obnoxious music) I played the small part of a cheerleader and an adult. Costumes were lots of fun and makeup was no where near as crazy as Midsummer!

We love you Conrad, oh yes we do.

We love you Conrad and we'll be true...

When your not near us, we're blue!

Oh Conrad we LOVE YOU!

Band Trip 2011-Washington D.C.!

This year for our annual band trip we were invited to play in Washington DC's Saint Patrick's Day parade. Since i've never done marching band learning to march for a parade was a new thing- and so much fun! There were so many people watching and we got voted best visiting band:) We also did lots of sightseeing! I could spend weeks in DC and never get bored-I love it there...

P.S the pictures with Johnny Depp (!) and Abe Lincoln were at a wax museum in DC... not my favorite place but I got some awesome pictures there.