Pinocchio Play

Amara with her congratulations flowers.  Instead of purchasing a cut bouquet, we used the same amount of money and bought flowers she could plant and that would last a longer time.

This year, the Missoula Children's Theater came to Roosevelt for their annual performance.  Tryouts for Pinocchio were held on Monday, and then practices were held all week, with 2 performances of the show on Saturday.  Amara and Lily both tried out, and Amara got a part as a magical toy soldier in the workshop Pinocchio was created in.  They didn't have a part for Lily this year, but that was okay because she got to watch the performance with us this time and enjoy the show from the audience.  She had such a good attitude and maturity about not making the play, something I wasn't expecting, but something I was very proud of her for. 

We had fun watching the performance, and Steve's parents both came up to watch it, as well as my mom.  We have the best family and are blessed to feel such great love and support from them.

After the play, they had a photo call and let parent snap photos of their kids.

Good job, Amara!  You marched out on stage like a perfect toy soldier and sang,

"Now, ropes and twine and strings are fine
for puppets made of knotty pine (or naughty pie).
They're not special, no sir-ee,
for in this show the star, the star is ME!"  

Making Money

 "Mom, I'm going to sell cake at my yard sale."

That's how I found out she was having a yard sale.  I normally would let her make a cake with my supervision so she gets experience, but not this time.  I volunteered to make the cake, the main reason being that I just cleaned the kitchen and I could make a cake with minimal mess.  So, she got the rest of her yard sale ready and I baked her a cake.  She put various things for sale, asking me first if it would be okay, but in the end she didn't make as much money as she had hoped she would.  I think she made 2 or 3 dollars.  But, that's more than she started out with, so I count it as a win.

 The cake was the best seller, but we still had plenty left over for us- chocolate cake with whip cream and crumbled homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Yummy yum.  Her friends bought some cake, but she gave them a deal, which ate into her profits.

I just love that she tried to earn money when she wanted it.  Go Amara!

One Last Day In Payson, A Hike To Grotto Falls

 April watched our kids in Payson while we were on our anniversary, and we spent one more day with her before we headed back to our home.  April took us on the coolest hike- tall shady trees, crossing lots of mini bridges, and quite possibly the shortest hike with the biggest pay off- Grotto Falls up Payson Canyon.  I love this hike!  It's so pretty.

Another thing I got pics of was my adorable nephew going to his t-ball practice.

 They held the practices on the tennis courts with the parents as helpers.  I've never seen it done like that before.  Kinda cool.  I just wish we could've stayed a little longer to actually see one of Devon's games.

Our 13th Anniversary - Day 6 (and my Dad's birthday gift)

 The Anniversary Inn in Logan is a fun stay.  Our breakfast was yummy.  We had berry yogurt parfaits, 2 drinks each, and an entree- Steve got the ham and cheese stuffed crossaint and I got the omelette with toast and jam.  Mine was good, but next time I'm getting the crossaint like Steve.  That looked GOOD!

Our room was a tree house with a bed on the platform, and the shower was a waterfall and there was a jetted tub, and the mini fridge in the wall had sparkling cider and 2 slices of cheesecake!  It was a cool room- plus there was a light switch that would turn on a bunch of fiber optic lights in the ceiling around the bed at night that made it twinkle like sleeping beneath the stars.  I got in on the deal of the month, so we got to stay here for $99!  Score!

I'm not sure how well the video below will work, but I tried to give a tour around our room before we left the place for good.

It was a perfect stay for a perfect 13th anniversary!  Many thanks goes to my sister and her family for caring for our children so we could take such a fun and exciting anniversary adventure.  It was blissful and we loved spending that time together!

This last day of our anniversary vacay also happened to be my dad's birthday, and I had purchased a hand-carved walking stick for him, since it spoke to me at the Farmer's Market in Logan, literally calling out my dad's name.  Well, almost literally.  It even has a hidden spike at the bottom, you know, in case you need a spike when you're hiking.  April thought he should pose with it as if he were climbing a mountain- which he did a fabulous job as you can see below.

Then, I just wanted a normal photo of him, which he also posed for very nicely.

Our 13th Anniversary - Day 5

It was Sunday, and after church, we took a scenic drive into Idaho, passing the hometown of Ezra Taft Benson (quaint and extraordinarily beautiful), and stopping off at a state park of some sort to go on a nature hike together.  We decided to take pictures of flowers and butterflies.  Nature never ceases to make me feel closer to God!

 Steve gave me one of his fancy cameras and taught me how to use it, and we went shooting together.  I tried to take a picture of each new wildflower I came across.

I love this flower.  I'm not sure if Steve or I took this photo, but who cares?  Look at those gorgeous colors!  

Here's Steve in his safari-like-keep-the-sun-off-my-mullet hat.  He wears it anytime he's out in the sun.  And in case you are wondering, no, he doesn't have a mullet, he just needs protection from the sun on his translucent skin or it would burn him as quick as a spark on dry grass.

Next, we went to Blackfoot, Idaho to look for gravestones of some of my ancestors, the Fackrells.  Even though we didn't find the ones I was looking for, we found many other relations there!  I used familysearch app called Family Tree to be sure they were my relations, and sure enough, they were!

We drove back down to Logan via I-15, and that drive was VERY PRETTY!  I thought we were driving through the green hills of Scotland!  We checked into our last over-night stay, the Anniversary Inn's Swiss Family Robinson room.  I'll show you around the place in the next blog post.