Cosmo!

Since Lucky didn't have school during Spring Break, he was able to help Jeremy build a giant Cosmo Cougar balloon for BYU Grad Bash again this year. Way to go, guys. Jeremy took Lucky out for ice cream afterward.

A couple days later, Lucky and I went back with Jeremy to set Cosmo up for the celebration. I helped last year and wanted to do it again this year. This is how Jeremy put it:

Lucky, the short one, built the legs, Jeremy, the big one, built the torso, and Kristin, the cute one, did repairs.

Yay! I'm a helper. I love that Lucky is learning the "family business."

 

When we got home, we had more ice cream, in the forms of... root beer floats and/or on top of apple pie.

It's Graduation Day!

May 23 was World Turtle Day. This is what Nichole drew for the holiday. That's my girl.

It was also the last day of school and the day of Jr.'s high school graduation. When I woke Jr., I acted like Frozen.

"It's graduation day? It's graduation day! The window is open, so's that door. I didn't know they did that anymore..." 

This was Jr.'s third and last time playing with the orchestra for graduation. The first time was for Nichole's graduation, the last was for his. That's my boy.

I also made sure to get pictures of the other boys before school because we were not around when they got out. 

We all enjoyed wishing Jr. well and watching him open graduation presents. Then he and Jet played music together. So cute.

My sweet husband stayed up late to take Jr. to grad night and pick him up because I was too tired to do so and slept that night.

Once Jr. got home in the middle of the night, he helped Jeremy with a combined anniversary, Mother's Day, and birthday surprise for me. 

I woke up the next morning to go for a quick walk at Bridal Veil Falls. And I had one of my morning musings: Are the colors in your dreams muted or are they vibrant?

As I was headed out, I noticed my surprise and felt loved. My husband had started a garden for me. He knew I wanted one. Earlier in May, Jr. had been volunteering at the high school's greenhouse for their greenhouse sale. He helped Jeremy pick out some plant starts for me. Since he couldn't find everything he wanted, he did go to a store to get some others.

 

Later the day of my surprise, Jeremy and Jet and I went shopping for some more potting soil and some more plants as well as picking up some starts from someone in our ward. He also gave us pickles that he had canned himself. Mmmm, pickles. 

Jet has become a big helper with the plants with watering them and he even got to pick a tomato one day. That's my boy. 

It's been a while since May. This is what our garden looked like toward the end of June. It's grown even more since then.

Jeremy and I went out to eat to celebrate my birthday then the next day we had cake and ice cream. Jet helped with the cake and the candles.

Another day a friend and I, who both have May birthdays, went out for lunch and a little walk around Bridal Veil Falls to celebrate our birthdays. 

 

May 25 was Towel Day. I did take a towel in my bag to church. 

 

And because this post was supposed to be about Jr.'s graduation...

I am proud of Jr. He worked plenty hard through high school and did some pretty cool things. Way to go, Jr. I think you are terrific.

Dancing and Graduating

On May 20, Eliza Doolittle Day, besides eating chocolate, Lucky had his end of the year dance festival.

Great job, Lucky. Can you guess what song his grade danced to?

 

That evening, we went to Jr.'s seminary graduation. 

Great job, Jr. 

During the graduation, they showed pictures of the seniors as babies and as they are now. These are the pictures of Jr. We got the little boy picture of him from this blog from 16 years ago (August 27, 2009). He's still a cutie.

Later that night, since it was also Pick Strawberries Day, some of us ate strawberries. Some people in our family love strawberries, some hate strawberries. I am one who loves strawberries.

Graduation

My beautiful, amazing, talented, (not so) little girl graduated from high school. I'm so proud of her and for all she accomplished. She worked really hard and did amazing things her high school career. She kept her grades up including with advanced classes. I already mentioned that she composed two pieces of music that the orchestras played and she conducted. She and Jr. both played in the orchestra at graduation.

When we got home that night, she got to open up presents. Art stuff, of course, and gummi bears. Then she went off like such a big kid to her senior grad night with all the other big kids.*Sniff.*

 

She has also kept up with her scripture study and gospel learning. She is such a good example to us. This is basically what I shared with her Young Women class about Nichole:

We've always said she is the best oldest child for our family. From the time she was little, when she helped, she would tell us, "I'm a heper."

She continues to help (with four younger brothers including one rambunctious three year old, we definitely need the help) and has always been a good example to her brothers and us.

One time when she was little, I was frustrated with her and didn't know what to do and told her so. "I just don't know what to do." She told me, "Then pray, Mom." You can imagine she got a big hug for that.

She continues to be a good example to us with her daily scripture study, has a strong testimony, and really is an asset in our gospel discussions at home.

I will miss her when she does off to college but am grateful she will always be a part of our family.

She graduated from seminary as well as high school and I'm happy to see her testimony grow.