Ben's Head and Family Home Evening

Our church leaders have suggested that every family do a Family Home Evening once a week. On Mondays, we try and do a special night- have a spiritual lesson, sing songs, say prayers, and do an activity- then have a nice treat.

I decided to do something totally fun and original this Monday- much to Ben's surprise. He had no idea.

I talked about baptism and the sacrament and how they both help make us clean to forgive us of our sins so we can come closer to Christ.

Then, for the activity, we shaved Ben's head. I said his hair was sin, the razor baptism, and his clean head the cleanliness we can have once we are baptized, and that we can renew each Sunday with the sacrament.

Ben had been talking about shaving his head, so he was game after a little convincing. The girls thought it was wonderful.

Before- so full of "sin"

Audra helping

Camille's turn

Free of sin. Well, kind-of. We learned to get it totally clean shaven we need an actual blade, which I am NOT going to use on him as I value his life. But it was still fun.

Driving Home

I was able to convince my mom to drive home with me. It was A LOT to ask! 23 hours in a car with three small children and a bad back was not easy for my mom. But, it was awesome to have the help. The girls did incredibly awesome considering all we asked of them on this trip: Various hotels, a different bed almost every night, hours upon hours in the car, tons of new people and places- but they did great. However, by the end of our trip they were all tired and a little grumpy. I am proud of them, but we were all ready to finally head home!

We stopped at a hotel in Boise for the night. The girls LOVED swimming in the pool- definitely a hit!

Shari's for dinner

We had them sleep sideways on the bed so they could all fit. It worked!

 We ended up going through Pocatello on the way to Bear Lake, so we stopped and had lunch with my mom's brothers and their wives. It was a nice added bonus that we didn't expect!

Claire, Keith, Camille, Brent, Phullis, Reva, Audra, Mom

Visiting my Grandma High's headstone

And Grandma and Grandpa Clark's headstone

Our last stop was Bear Lake for a couple of nights. My mom had never been there, so it was fun for her to see it. We even saw a moose, which was fun.

And then HOME! Ben was very excited for us to return home- he claims to have missed us. I think he enjoyed having a clean and quiet home, though.

Family Pictures

WipeOut Run!

The weather was absolutely perfect for our run. It technically was a run- we did run (I think) 3.1 miles for the 5K, with a lot of stops along the way.

It was so much fun!They had about 7 obstacles, none of them too difficult except the Big Balls, which apparently only 10% of people get over- but I think even that is a high estimate.

It was fun to run with Stephanie- just like the high school years (man, I don't miss those days).

Checking out the course before the race

The foam pit

Getting ready for the race

Steph had the selfie stick and GoPro with her the whole way- luckily she never poked her, or anybody else's, eye out

Seriously, it was so much fun! We had a great time- perhaps I will do another WipeOut Run again some day!

Princess Party!

Melissa invited my girls over for a Princess Party. They had a blast dressing up and dancing to various princess songs. Thank you, Melissa, for making their day! With my girls, you simply can't lose with dress up clothes and anything related to princesses!

WipeOut!

 Tomorrow Steph and I are running the WipeOut Run, so today we went and picked up our running packets. They had a few things set up. Oh my goodness!!! I am so excited!!!!!

All of the kids begged to go on the slides. We said, "No- they are for mommies!" They were so disappointed, but I think we have earned this!

Paradise!

I realized two days before our departure that we had not yet been to the beach. How could that be!

Last time we were in Seattle we spent several days at the beach and the girls loved it, so I knew we had to go. Thankfully, my sisters agreed that it would be a blast. We were right! The kids had so much fun playing together. It was a little piece of Heaven.

I love watching the cousins all play together! We are so blessed to have kids roughly the same age who enjoy getting together. I am hoping that we are creating memories that will last a lifetime. What a blessing it is to have such wonderful family!!!

The kids worked hard to make a seaweed castle

Freya and Camille burying each other

Oh, no! Claire lost her legs!