May - Katelyn's Big Month

Katelyn's turned 11 on May 31. Instead of having a big birthday party she chose to go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly called Marine World) with her close friend Brianna. They went the week before Katelyn's birthday on Saturday, May 23. Lloyd got to go too as their chaperon.

They loved riding lots of rides - even the scary ones! They got wet on the Rapids!
They even met some cool guys!
The Monday after Katelyn's birthday we had a barbecue and she invited a couple friends over to swim - Angelica, Caslynn, Brianna, and Claire.

On her actual birthday - a Sunday. She got her presents - her own MP3 player and a Hannah Montana game for the Wii.

Also this month, Katelyn performed in her annual ballroom showcase. She did an awesome job performing three dances.

"Jackie Chan" (Cha Cha)

"Get Munked" (Merengue)

The Finale: "Disturbia" (Latin)

Uncle Bryce and Chareen came to watch Katelyn's dance performance and gave her birthday gifts.

Grandpa and Grandma came too. They gave her a credit card gift card she can go shopping with. Katelyn loves fashion and shopping!

She's growing up too fast!

Flowers and a trophy - Congratulations Katelyn. Great Job!

Last Day of Work

My last day of teaching kindergarten was May 28. I only worked part time in the afternoon three to four days a week. It ended up being the perfect job for me! I am nowhere near being ready to go back to work full time, but we could use the extra income. I love teaching and feel like this job was truly a blessing for me. I grew to love all of the kids I worked with. I loved seeing their progress from September to May. They really grow and develop so much in kindergarten! I loved seeing their smiles and enthusiasm for life each afternoon when I came in. They each had unique personalities and habits. It was so fun to get to know all of them.They made me feel loved!

What cuties! Another great thing about this job was the teachers I got to work with. Mrs. Rydquist is in the middle. She is an amazing teacher. She's so organized and pushes her students to do their best. Her classroom management skills are fabulous. I have learned so much from watching her! Mrs. Smith is on the left. She's my idol! She is a loving and enthusiastic teacher. I admire her so much because of her attitude about life. I can honestly say she is the most happy and positive person I have ever met. Her positive nature was like medicine to me. When I wasn't around her I missed it so much. She will always be an example to me and someone I will try to be more like. Neither of these women go to the same church as me, but they are both Christian. What a blessing it has been to work with them. This third teacher's name is Mrs. Peterson. She taught kindergarten next door. She ended up being a very close and dear friend to me. She was always willing to listen and offer any support I needed. I have so much admiration and respect for her. She is a breast cancer survivor. She wrote a book about her cancer experience and it will be published in the next year. She's moving on to sixth grade next year, but I know we'll be in touch.

In June I got to work eight full days for this adorable third grade class. I loved it! I did enjoy teaching in the kindergarten, but third grade is really my niche. I had so much fun with this

class. I don't know what my work schedule will be like next year. I hope I can sub in the kindergarten again on a part-time basis and I'll probably sub in other classes too. Several teachers have been laid off so I get worried about my chances of getting a full time job some day. Luckily, I won't be looking for a full time job for at least four to five years. I'm so grateful the Lord is blessing me with part time work now.

Last Day of Preschool

This was Cameron's first year of preschool at St. Paul's. He loved it! He loved riding the bikes, making friends, doing projects, and learning his letters and numbers. He was sad when preschool ended for the year on May 27, but he will continue next year in their junior kindergarten program (5 days a week) and then he'll go onto kindergarten when he's almost six. I got these pictures from his preschool water day and graduation. We are so proud of Cameron. He had good behavior at preschool and is learning so much.Cameron loved his teacher, Miss Terri. Cameron and all his preschool friends loved water day. Collin is his best preschool bud. I love carpooling with his family!
Cameron was so proud when he received his diploma at graduation. He colored his white sun visor graduation hat.
Our little boy is growing up!

Father and Son Camp Out

This was Cameron's fourth Father and Son Camp Out with Lloyd. He actually went when he was only 18 months old in 2006. This year Lloyd had to organize the entire camp out for the stake as part of his calling in the Stake YM presidency. He choose a site that was close to home - Woodward Reservoir in Oakdale. Lloyd was pretty busy making sure the event ran smoothly, but he still had time to spend with Cameron.

Here Cameron is with a s'more mouth, his nigh night blanket, and his Tomas the train pillow. These are his favorite things!

Cameron loved playing in the water!

He's such a boy!

Lloyd won't be in charge of the camp out next year so he's promised to take Conner for the first time. I can hardly wait!

Onboard The Star Princess

As I mentioned in a previous post, this was the second cruise Lloyd and I went on. The first was for our five year anniversary in 1999. This one was to celebrate our 15 year anniversary. We would have gone on one for our 10th anniversary, but I was pregnant with Cameron. And yes, we are planning to go on one for our 20 year anniversary - maybe we'll take the kids on that one. Well, needless to say, Lloyd and I just love cruises. We love that everything is included with the price of the cruise - FOOD, entertainment, travel, swimming pools, dancing, etc. Yes, we really like the food part since we love to eat. I'll just mention it now, I ate a lot on this cruise/vacation. I loved every bit of it and I think I even shocked Lloyd with how much I could eat. I wasn't happy when I got home and realized I had gained around 7 pounds, but I have no regrets. I would do it all over again! Originally, we were planning to go on a five-day cruise to Mexico, but when we found this cruise we changed our minds. We went to Mexico on our first cruise and were excited about doing something different. Also, this cruise was right when the swine flu was coming out so we were glad to avoid Mexico. This cruise was perfect because it left from San Francisco so we didn't have to travel a long way to get onboard. We even parked at Lloyd's work! We were also excited about cruising with Princess Cruises, we went on Royal Caribbean for our first cruise and wanted to compare . We were so blessed that my mom and Jay were able to watch the kids while we went on the cruise. They did a fantastic job and the kids loved being with Grandma and Grandpa.
We left on Thursday afternoon, May 7. After we got onboard, we went to our room to check it out. We were really excited to have a balcony outside of our room. Here we are standing on the balcony with the San Francisco bay in the background.
Here's what our room looked like. It wasn't huge, but we had plenty of room. They played reruns of The Love Boat on the TV. It was fun to watch and reminded me of when I watched that show when I was a little girl.
We checked out the rest of the ship. It has four swimming pools. Here's one with a movie screen above it. They show movies under the stars at night! Our only regret was not swimming before the ship took off. Once we were out to sea, it was way too cold and windy to swim in this pool. We did swim in the indoor one for a little while on Friday.

Lloyd checked out the basketball court and a huge chess game.
This was the area was called The Piazza. It was beautiful and had two glass elevators.

This was our first stop. Of course it had to do with food! We both ordered huge sundaes from Scoops Ice Cream.

We enjoyed our sundaes as we sailed beneath The Golden Gate Bridge. There was

lots of music, dancing, and fun as the ship pulled out to sea. It was such a festive atmosphere! We went back to our room and took a nap before dinner. Here we are in the dining room. The dinner was good. I had pasta and Lloyd had a seafood dish.
I was mostly excited about the four desserts we ordered. I love desserts! Can you tell?

After dinner we enjoyed a show called "Words and Music." The cruise singers and dancers performed numbers from different Broadway composers. I love musicals so I really enjoyed the show. Our first day on the ship was fabulous! We went to bed, dreaming about what we would do the next day.

Out to Sea

The next day we slept in and ate breakfast in our room. We were both tired so the sleeping in part was terrific! Then we decided to try out the hot tub and pool. We had to go to the indoor pool because it was so cold and windy out on the deck.

We really didn't last long in the pool. I didn't even get in, but Lloyd swam for a few minutes. Then I had another idea. I thought we should try going to a more private hot tub at the back of the ship. It was extremely windy back there! We could barely walk without getting blown over, but I visioned the air blowing through our hair while we sat in a nice warm hot tub. Boy was I wrong! I guess they don't heat those hot tubs at the back of the ship because nobody uses them when it's that windy. While wearing our swimsuits, we tried getting into an ice cold hot tub and strong winds were blowing all around us. It was probably the coldest moment of my life, but we were laughing like crazy! Then we were going to go for afternoon tea (herbal, of course), but the line for that was very long. Instead we got hot chocolate and I got to eat my favorite snack of all - warm peanut butter cookies. They were fantastic! We also explored more of the ship.

This was the back of the ship where that cold hot tub was. You can see how windy it was!

We decided to get a little work out in with all the food that we were eating. Lloyd ran on the treadmill while I did this exercise class with some other women. The class was really very challenging. It was led by a guy with an English accent and he wasn't even doing the exercises. He just kept saying, "Good Job, Ladies!" and "Keep It up, Ladies!" He had no idea how difficult the exercises were. I finally asked him, "When are you going to try some of these exercises?" I was so hot after the exercise class, I chose to run around the ship instead of running on the treadmill. I think I ran around the ship like 12 times to make three miles. The wind felt nice while I was running!

We dressed a little more formal for Friday's dinner. Lloyd had a steak and I had a steak and shrimp. It was very delicious! Of course, we tried more desserts too.

After dinner we enjoyed a comedy/juggling act. This guy was pretty talented. For his final act, he got out of a straight jacket while riding a unicycle. It was amazing to watch! Then we saw another show by the cruise dancers and singers. This one was called "Destination Anywhere." It included songs and dances from places all around the world like Las Vegas, London, Africa, and even the moon.

We stayed up late on Friday since it was our last night onboard. We ordered drinks and danced a bit. We couldn't remember the last time we had gone dancing. I guess we're getting old. It was fun to let loose again!