nearing the end!

Once upon a time, I approached the end of a school year with 50% excitement and 50% jitters over how in the world my children and I would keep busy, happy and sane for three months with no school. My, how things have changed.

Now, around the time my kids go back to school after Christmas break, I start dreaming about summer vacation with 100% excitement and 0% jitters. Staying in bed past 5:00 a.m. tops the chart for me. You'll notice I said 'staying in bed' rather than 'sleeping in' because I love the luxury of the former even though I am generally unable to do the latter. I am very dutiful and completely reliable in my morning routine, and I even annoy the kids at times with my cheeriness, but I do not enjoy it. And by the end of the school year I am almost cursing it.

Because I work for the school district, I look forward to my own vacation - not just that of the kids. I enjoy my job, but I have found that the children are far more delightful in the beginning of the year than at the end. I love that summer means we all get enough sleep, we don't eat breakfast 'til 9:00, we stay up late watching movies, and generally try to be as lazy as we can stand. My kids would probably say I can't stand as much laziness as they can, but right now in May when things are still in full swing, I covet laziness and try to plan my summer around it as much as possible. It's nice to dream, right?

We spoke with Brennan on Mother's Day and it was wonderful! He sounded older and a bit more serious than we remember, but I guess that comes with the territory. He is doing great and working hard, and trying to stay solely focused on the work. He admitted that he was a little hesitant to talk to us because of that focus, but hopefully we didn't do too much damage! It was bittersweet by the time we had to say goodbye -- Austin and Dallin were particularly sad, and I had that feeling in the pit of my stomach again that I felt when he left in November. All of a sudden, instead of feeling amazed because he's already been out six months, I felt sad because he's only been out six months. Two years is a long time. But he is happy and healthy and doesn't want to be anywhere else.

On the fun side of life, Austin turned 15 recently, and for his "party" he wanted to take two close friends on the Ultimate Rush ride in Reno. They did it twice and had some good, scary fun.

And this weekend was Prom, and with Kristi being the VP of her senior class, she has had major responsibilities for it all year long. Budget constraints forced the prom to be held in the gym this year, which meant transforming the gym and the entrance foyer into their "midnight sky" theme. So. much. work. This past week we were all up at the school helping to lay flooring, hang lights, decorate tables, put bows on chairs, etc. etc. It turned out amazing. A cute boy from our ward who she has known most of her life (and who will be leaving on his mission in the fall) asked her to go with him. She was thrilled because she knew she would have fun with no stress whatsoever. She simply has no time in her life for boy stress. Anyway, they had a GREAT time.

That's Kristi in the middle on the floor, and Logan is the boy next to her on the left. This was somebody's birthday party probably about twelve years ago.

And here they are all grown up:



Hard to believe!!!!